Life Drain

[SirVladamir]

Last night we got hit by some Wights and the DM's rule on how the life drain worked differed from my view.

Question is lets say a character is at full health 50hp.
Wight hits for 10 points, character fails his save.

Do you subtract the damage 10 from current health then reduce the max hit points (so said character has 40hp out of a max of 40)

OR.

Does the character have 10 points of damage with a max of 40hp, (so 30 more damage and he is down?)

I have always just added up damage and when wounds > HP I'm down. Other players at the table track their HP by subtracting the damage from their current HP to get their new current)

my way seems like the wight does 20 damage and their way it only does 10. Whats the right way to do it?

[Dork_Forge]

I've always done it as damage then reduction which is I believe the order it reads in the MM.

[Aett_Thorn]

I've always done it as damage then reduction which is I believe the order it reads in the MM.

This. Damage is done first, then max is reduced.

[Dessunri]

Using your example of 50hp getting hit for 10 with a reduction of max hp equal to the damage done, I've always ruled it as you take the damage then your max hp decreases. So in your example the character would have 40hp and their max would be 40. Even if you are the type to add up damage/wounds received and if they exceed your max (i'm the oposit way, i always just subtract from my current hp pool) you'd just add the 10 and then reduce your max hp

[8wGremlin]

Example:

You have 50hp (max hp=50) and get hit for 10 damage and fail save
current HP = 40 (max hp=40)

You have 40hp (max hp=40) and get hit for 10 damage and fail save
current HP = 30 (max hp=30)

You have 30hp (max hp=30) and get hit for 10 damage and PASS the save
current HP = 20 (max hp=30)

You have 20hp (max hp=30) You get shot by a arrow and take 8hp
current HP = 12 (max hp=30)

You have 12hp (max hp=30) and get hit for 10 damage and fail save
current HP = 2 (max hp=20)

You have 2hp (max hp=20) and get healed 30 hp
current HP = 20 (max hp=20) <-- the rest is lost, as your max is only 20 now.

[darknite]

Damage done, max reduced. If at 50 max HP and gets hit for 10 hp, they go to 40hp with a max of 40 if they fail the save. Next turn they get hit for 10 more but make the save, now they're at 30hp with a max of 40hp.