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Rukia
2013-03-17, 01:35 PM
I've been running an NPC warforged crusader for my current group, though I honestly haven't been using his full potential. I'm usually so focused on the encounters that I forget about his furious counterstrike ability and to take into account his temporary hit point pool. No one in the group has the repair spells required to heal him so he's been relying on his Crusader abilities as well as his repairing ability overnight. It's getting harder and harder to keep him healed so now I'm going to be paying more attention to his abilities and that has brought up a question.

Do temporary hit points actually heal real damage or only the damage from his temporary hit point pool? I'd like a true/false for each scenario just to ensure I'm understanding the system correctly.

The Crusader has taken the stone power feat at level 3, but for simplicity sake let's pretend he's now level 5 with 50 hps for the scenarios and let's take out the temporary damage pool just to make it simpler.

1. Crusader uses stone power at a full -5 therefore gaining 10 temp hp's that last until his next turn. He's now officially at 60/60 hps but during that time he takes exactly 10 damage. When it's his turn again he is back at full normal hps of 50. Seems simple enough.

2. Crusader is at full hps, then takes 10 damage before his turn. Now he is at 40/50 hps. He again uses stone power for -5 giving him 50/60 hps. Assuming he doesn't take anymore damage until his next turn, he loses the 10 extra hps above 50, but keeps the ones that essentially healed him?

3. Crusader is down to 10 hps out of his full 50. He begins his round using stone power at a -5 and so he then has 20/60 hps. During his turn he uses crusader strike while in his martial spirit stance and lands the blow which finishes the fight. He rolls a 1d6+5 and gets a 6 giving him 11 hit points, plus the 2 from martial spirit. He how has 33/50 hit points?

4. Same scenario as 3 except his attack didn't end the fight. He takes no damage for the next two rounds, but performs his attacks with stone power at a -5, thus gaining 20 temporary hps over two rounds. The fight is now over and he finishes with full 50/50 hps?


I'm trying to understand if the temporary hit points can only heal his temporary damage pool or if they can also heal regular hit points when he has no damage in the pool. I realize in the above scenarios he would have never dropped below 50 as long as he took no more than 10 damage in a round of combat as he'd be continually emptying the damage pool with stone power.

If the scenarios are correct then Crusaders are insanely resilient fighters, better than I had even realized.

t'zran
2013-03-17, 01:38 PM
temporary hit points don't heal, they wear off, so you will end up losing them, and will not heal

Renen
2013-03-17, 01:45 PM
it will count like this:

40/50 + 10/10

with the 10 being depleted before the 40.
They dont actually go in the same place. Leftover temp hp is lost.

Who What Now
2013-03-17, 01:47 PM
Temp HP does not change your maximum total hitpoints, and are tracked completely seperately from your current hitpoints.

Siosilvar
2013-03-17, 01:52 PM
1. Correct; the crusader has 50 hit points and 10 temporary. Taking 10 damage takes away the temporary hit points and leaves the 50 normal ones.

2. Not true; the crusader has 40 hit points and 10 temporary ones. Next round, he loses the temporary hit points and still has 40 hit points.

3. He's healed to 23 hit points and loses the 10 temporary HP.

4. He still only has 23 hit points. Temporary HP don't heal you, they just work like a "damage shield" until they go away. That's why they're temporary: they go away after their duration runs out if they haven't been taken out already.

Rukia
2013-03-17, 01:53 PM
Wait.. I seem to be getting different answers.

I get the 40/50 and 10+10(50/60), but what happens when they wear off assuming I don't take damage in that round? They go back to 40/50?

Where I'm getting confused is if they always disappear, then what part of the rules of temporary hit points allow them to actually heal your temporary damage pool. From the threads I've read it seems agreed upon that stone power is a way to constantly empty your temporary damage pool so that you effectively reduce your damage each round to whatever your temporary hit point pool is. Sort of like ghetto DR.

Rukia
2013-03-17, 01:55 PM
1. Correct; the crusader has 50 hit points and 10 temporary. Taking 10 damage takes away the temporary hit points and leaves the 50 normal ones.

2. Not true; the crusader has 40 hit points and 10 temporary ones. Next round, he loses the temporary hit points and still has 40 hit points.

3. He's healed to 23 hit points and loses the 10 temporary HP.

4. He still only has 23 hit points. Temporary HP don't heal you, they just work like a "damage shield" until they go away. That's why they're temporary: they go away after their duration runs out if they haven't been taken out already.

Thank you. That is what I had assumed from the start, but the ability to empty your temporary damage pool using stone power was getting me confused. I guess I'm still not certain how that actually works.

Renen
2013-03-17, 02:24 PM
Temporary HP is temporary. It never heals you. Think of it as extra armor appearing and absorbing a certain amount of damage.

Rukia
2013-03-17, 03:23 PM
Ok so I think I figured out the reasoning and it has to do with the order. The hit point pool granted by the steely resolve ability is resolved at the end of your turn. Stone power hit points are granted during your attack. Therefore when your delayed damage pool kicks in at the end of the turn, it comes out of the temporary hit points that you were just granted by stone power.