FAQ: Bloodied Creatures and Bad Rolls

Some more questions, some more answers.

How Can I Tell if a Creature is Bloodied?
More commonly known as, I've been pounding on this character for ten turns why isn't it dead?

Nothing is better than spectaculary descriptive DM/storytelling. However at higher levels monsters are tricky creatures, have more powers and with abilities like "second wind" everything can get hazy.

Also experience needs to count for SOMETHING. Or at list a little bit.

Anyway, this little bit will help for those times when a creature is new, the players have been hitting forever (and rolling crap hit points.)

I glommed this from http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/27715649/Are_players_not_supposed_to_know_how_many_hitpoints_monsters_have_left!?pg=3

1. Free Action: Succeed on a monster knowledge check against the average DC for the monster's level. (This can happen at any point in combat before step


2. Minor Action: Succeed on a Heal check against the hard DC for the monster's level (trained only).

Basically, if you have a general knowledge of the creature in question and have the knowledge required to identify severity of wounds, overall fatigue, and other physical ailments, you could likely assess how healthy this monster should be against how healthy they currently are.

What If I Fail the Above Check?

You can check once a round. You may have picked up additional knowledge.

How can I identify the Monsters AC?

More commonly known as, Can I hit this creature with a weapon that I am untrained with while leaping over a flowing pit of lava?

Same check as above. Though this time using a dungeoneering, or some type of other check. I will be more specific in the future on it.

Why Haven't I hit a creature in a month?

Also known as the Rick-accidentally-emailed-the-group-complaining-about-hitting-monsters rule.

Craptastic rolls are like speeding tickets. You remember the time you got caught but not the other 99 times nothing bad happened.

In any given week there are 2-3 posts where your character actually takes a swing at a monster. The average roll appears to be 10.5, which one would think that given the size of the dataset you will need 100 rolls before your average is 10.5.

Or to put it another way - you're rolling crappy this week and it is likely to get better over time.

Or you could always...try attacking a creature with a lower AC.

Or the DM screwed up and you should ask what the hell happened.

Either of the three probably has equal odds of success.

That is all.

Wayne