How to see other people's HP?

[qwertyu63]

I am making a Healer character, and I am looking for some way for them to see other people's HP (to know who needs my help more). Any way to get information on people's HP is helpful. Thank you in advance.

[Khatoblepas]

The only way I know of to know the hit points of a creature is Combat Awareness, a feat from Complete Champion, I believe. It's text is:


Benefit

While maintaining your combat focus, you learn the current hit point total of each adjacent opponent and ally. If you have three or more combat form feats, you gain blindsight out to 5 feet.

Deathwatch (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/deathwatch.htm) lets you know if someone is dying, and Status (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/status.htm) allows you to know what conditions they have.

Greater Status (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/spells/statusGreater.htm) will allow you to remotely cure conditions.

All in all not a very good array of abilities. The only one that you're asking for relies on you being a high level warrior. (a level in Martial Monk (DR310) notwithstanding, cough cough, but that loses you a caster level and you definitely don't want that*).

Best just ask the other players what their hit point total is.

*Though, saying that I'm sure someone can come up with a Shadow Sun Ninja healing build that takes advantage of this. It's only one level of Monk. You could take another level and still come out on top, ToB wise. Take Invisible Fist, and any other fighter feat that would serve an unarmed fighter well......

[JusticeZero]

A Vitalist can do that with anyone in their network, and is a healing /HP manipulation character. Source is Dreamscarred Press's PF psionic stuff which is on PF SRD.

[qwertyu63]

The only way I know of to know the hit points of a creature is Combat Awareness, a feat from Complete Champion, I believe. It's text is:



Deathwatch (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/deathwatch.htm) lets you know if someone is dying, and Status (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/status.htm) allows you to know what conditions they have.

Greater Status (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/spells/statusGreater.htm) will allow you to remotely cure conditions.

All in all not a very good array of abilities. The only one that you're asking for relies on you being a high level warrior. (a level in Martial Monk (DR310) notwithstanding, cough cough, but that loses you a caster level and you definitely don't want that*).

Best just ask the other players what their hit point total is.

*Though, saying that I'm sure someone can come up with a Shadow Sun Ninja healing build that takes advantage of this. It's only one level of Monk. You could take another level and still come out on top, ToB wise. Take Invisible Fist, and any other fighter feat that would serve an unarmed fighter well......

I was hoping to find a way to know these things in character. If I have to go with that it should work, but... (Edit: forgot to comment on the spells, those are decent ideas {except deathwatch due to [evil]}. As a healer I only have normal status {not the improved flavor}, but there you have it)


A Vitalist can do that with anyone in their network, and is a healing /HP manipulation character. Source is Dreamscarred Press's PF psionic stuff which is on PF SRD.

Two problems:
1: I'm in 3.5, not PF
2: Healer was uppercase for a reason... It's a class.
(Sadly, because that would work otherwise)

[Alex12]

We have a houserule that you can make a Heal check (DC equal to 10+targets HD) as a free action (once per person per round) to determine how many hp someone has left. Creatures with nonstandard anatomies increase the DC, depending on how different they are from your own type and those you work with most often.
With high enough checks, we have it that you can make some crazy diagnoses (with exploding 20s for skill checks, I determined that a bandit had a genetic predisposition to heart disease. He didn't live long enough to find out if that was accurate or not)

[Thespianus]

Not that it answers your question, but having an IC agreement to shout "Medic" (or similar) when you feel you need healing seems to work... Sure, in Silence, and certain other scenarios, that won't work, but...

[Chronos]

You should be able to get at least rough information just by looking at them. When one guy's got a couple of little scratches on his shoulder and another has intestines spilling out, it's not hard to figure out which one needs the HP more.

And Deathwatch being [evil] is almost universally houseruled away, including (apparently) by several of the game's authors. It's on the class spell list of the Healer, after all, despite the Healer being required to be good. Heck, it's even on the spell list of one of the Book of Exalted Deeds classes. It is, as you and many others have noticed, most useful for a healer-type character, and there's no justification whatsoever given for what's evil about it, beyond "because we say so".

[The Dark Fiddler]

I was hoping to find a way to know these things in character.

In-character you'd get clues from stuff like how much blood people are losing. Taking their HP into consideration is a decent way to represent it.


those are decent ideas {except deathwatch due to [evil]}.

The [evil] descriptor on Deathwatch is bovine excrement, and everybody knows it. Ask your GM to remove it if you want to use it.

[Humble Master]

As a DM I personally just let people use a DC 20 Heal check to find out someone's HP as a free action. +5 to the DC if they are of a different creature type. Also I rule that you can't use this technique on creature immune to critical hits because their anatomy is weird/nonexistent.

If you fail the check you think that their health is either 1-50% greater or lower than what it actually is.

And yah, the evil descriptor on Deathwatch is a load of post digested cow food.

[JusticeZero]

I doubt it would take more than five minutes to find and rewrite the tiny number of different things between the two. In general, there is a larger difference between 3.0 and 3.5 than between 3.5 and PF in my experience.
And general consensus is that the Healer class is pretty meh in part because healing is not a full time job;in a good group, it isn't even a part time job but rather a bonus for a character who does other things to have available. If you are doing it for RP reasons then go for it, but it is a bit of an over specialized role otherwise.

[qwertyu63]

I doubt it would take more than five minutes to find and rewrite the tiny number of different things between the two. In general, there is a larger difference between 3.0 and 3.5 than between 3.5 and PF in my experience.
And general consensus is that the Healer class is pretty meh in part because healing is not a full time job;in a good group, it isn't even a part time job but rather a bonus for a character who does other things to have available. If you are doing it for RP reasons then go for it, but it is a bit of an over specialized role otherwise.

I know the Healer (and full time healing over-all) is sub-optimal, I just don't care. My character idea is to be a healer, and I will be using the Healer.

[Sylthia]

Do you mean you're ally's HP? I've always played it where the DM would tell you what your HP was.

"The orc slashing at you with his axe, Celes takes 12 HP damage."

[JusticeZero]

The concept and role of 'a healer' does not need to be welded to the class 'Healer', as a number of classes make a good 'healer' other than the 'Healer'. Is there a specific feature you need for your concept?

[HunterOfJello]

The concept and role of 'a healer' does not need to be welded to the class 'Healer', as a number of classes make a good 'healer' other than the 'Healer'. Is there a specific feature you need for your concept?

plus the fact that the Healer is not the best healer in the game.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Do you mean you're ally's HP? I've always played it where the DM would tell you what your HP was.

"The orc slashing at you with his axe, Celes takes 12 HP damage."
I was gonna say--I usually just ask. "Hey, how much HP do you have left?" I didn't realize that obfuscating your allies' HP was a thing.

(I mean, I don't find it to be any stranger than knowing your own HP total.)

[qwertyu63]

The concept and role of 'a healer' does not need to be welded to the class 'Healer', as a number of classes make a good 'healer' other than the 'Healer'. Is there a specific feature you need for your concept?

Not really. I just want to be a healer, using divine spellcasting, that isn't a high tier class. The healer seems to be the best class for what I want.



I was gonna say--I usually just ask. "Hey, how much HP do you have left?" I didn't realize that obfuscating your allies' HP was a thing.

(I mean, I don't find it to be any stranger than knowing your own HP total.)

...


I was hoping to find a way to know these things in character.

I'm basically looking for IC triage.

[eggynack]

I can't help but think that even an adept would make a better low tier healing class. That, or maybe a bard. Adepts are cool, because they actually have a spell list. For example, they're stuck with 2nd level spells until level 8, but I'd probably prefer to cast web, invisibility, mirror image, or scorching ray, over most things on the 4th level healer list. They also obviously get the healing spells, though they're of a lower level. Still, being a dedicated healer isn't actually a role. It looks like a role, and it tastes like a role, but the game's nature means that it's not one. Sure, sometimes you might want to pull someone away from the ceaseless grasp of death, but most of the time, you'd be better off with a web. In conclusion, healers are pretty lame.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I'm basically looking for IC triage.
Okay...

Doesn't HP have a pretty obvious effect? You can use your OOC knowledge to determine "that ally looks the most hurt, then that ally, then that ally". It's like wondering which of your party members is the strongest; you can OOC look at their STR scores to realize that IC, the character with the highest STR score is the one that looks the strongest.

[JusticeZero]

What I am hearing is that you want to be
-a person whose interest and goals are to tend to the sick and wounded
..This can actually be any class, though obviously some are better than others..
-a person of strong religious faith
..Again, this isn't actually restricting at all..
-a person who gets their powers from the gods
..This bit I don't know if it is actually needed or not..
-who does not overshadow the rest of the group, or, is in a campaign that restricts based on tier
..obviously, this can affect things. Still, this set of guidelines leaves a few options, including the one I mentioned.

Am I understanding correctly?

[qwertyu63]

I can't help but think that even an adept would make a better low tier healing class. That, or maybe a bard. Adepts are cool, because they actually have a spell list. For example, they're stuck with 2nd level spells until level 8, but I'd probably prefer to cast web, invisibility, mirror image, or scorching ray, over most things on the 4th level healer list. They also obviously get the healing spells, though they're of a lower level. Still, being a dedicated healer isn't actually a role. It looks like a role, and it tastes like a role, but the game's nature means that it's not one. Sure, sometimes you might want to pull someone away from the ceaseless grasp of death, but most of the time, you'd be better off with a web. In conclusion, healers are pretty lame.

I know in-combat healing isn't a great move, but it is the point of the character I am making.

[Sylthia]

I'm basically looking for IC triage.

Since the actual HP's not a secret, for in character determination of who's the most hurt is pretty much just limited by your imagination.

"I run to my comrades, I see the Bob the dwarf is looking ruddy and has no problem swinging his axe into the nearby orcs, whereas Bill the elf looks a bit pale and is cringing as he draws his bow, and I can see his elven blood beginning to soak through his tunic. I make a quick prayer to my god and raise my holy symbol focusing on closing Bill's wounds." or something like that.

[eggynack]

I know in-combat healing isn't a great move, but it is the point of the character I am making.
I got that. I'm saying that you can make it a point, without making it the whole point. I mean, if all you want to do is cast healing spells all day, you'd still likely be better off as a cleric, going into radiant servant of Pelor. As I mentioned, both the adept and bard lists have a bunch of healing on their lists, except the rest of their list isn't craptacular. It's just nice to sometimes have a second thing you're capable of doing.

[qwertyu63]

Okay...

Doesn't HP have a pretty obvious effect? You can use your OOC knowledge to determine "that ally looks the most hurt, then that ally, then that ally". It's like wondering which of your party members is the strongest; you can OOC look at their STR scores to realize that IC, the character with the highest STR score is the one that looks the strongest.

...I do (EDIT: forgot to finish typing this before posting, will edit more soon)


What I am hearing is that you want to be
-a person whose interest and goals are to tend to the sick and wounded
..This can actually be any class, though obviously some are better than others..
-a person of strong religious faith
..Again, this isn't actually restricting at all..
-a person who gets their powers from the gods
..This bit I don't know if it is actually needed or not..
-who does not overshadow the rest of the group, or, is in a campaign that restricts based on tier
..obviously, this can affect things. Still, this set of guidelines leaves a few options, including the one I mentioned.

Am I understanding correctly?

Your understanding is correct.

[JusticeZero]

Additionally, not using divine magic does not preclude one from being so religious in character that the cleric and paladin are embarrassed.

[Invader]

The spell "status" should do it.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/status.htm

Although it doesn't specifically mention hit points I think it falls into the realm knowing their general condition.

[Lord Vukodlak]

For allies its not much of an issue they can tell you how badly they've been injured that side the person with 70% of his hit points is going to look better then the guy with 20%.

[magwaaf]

im glad we aren't uptight in m group. we just ask each other