Question about Temp Hit points

[DeathBecomesus]

I know a few spells give Temp Hit points (Greater Heroism is one)

How do you handle this situation that could occur

Prior to combat Wizard cast Greater Heroism on Fighter
Fighter hit points go from 70 to 85

Combat begins
Fighter takes a good amount of damage, lets say 75 points of damage.

Combat end and everyone is resting/recovering

Fighter has 10 hit points left (but they are temp)

Spell ends and Fighter loses Temp hit points, but this places him at Neg hit points. Does he just fall over and die?

Does he go unconsious?

How do you handle this?

[Varthanna]

Temporary hit points always get taken off first. The fighter would still have 10 HP.

[Thazar]

Correct. Temp HP go away first. So in your example the first 15HP of damage would come off of that. Additionally, after those temp points went away they could not be healed back by a cleric as they are gone for good.

[DeathBecomesus]

O

That makes sense

Silly me did not think (or read) that
Temp points get taken off FIRST

Thanks

[ProfPotts]

On a slight tangent: note that extra Hit Points gained from an increase in Con (like when a Barbarian rages) aren't temporary Hit Points, don't get taken off first, and can easily end up with a dead character if the extra Con goes away when they're low on Hit Points (Barbarians can die like this if KO'd when raging...). Temporary hit points are much better for you!

[BigNorseWolf]

Think of temporary hit points like a wearable hit point meat shield. When the the fighter gets hit, it comes off of the temporary hit points until they're gone. After that he's on his own.

And yeah, the thing with the con increases really hurts the barbarian. At some levels/con scores they can positively explode into a pile of red goo and go from combat to dead before you can heal them.

[Some call me Tim]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Think of temporary hit points like a wearable hit point meat shield.

So, that's the deal with Lady Gaga's meat dress.

[lastblacknight]

So what happens when someone is given a temporary HP, say by casting Virtue when they are at say;

-5 and dying (not stablised).

Do they go to -4 and are stabilised

or are they still -5 and dying whilst for the next ten rounds they have 1 temporary HP (i.e. and effective HP total of 1 for minute)

the reason I ask is Delay poison removes an effect for hours, Does virtue (aid etc..) use a similar mechanic? and if not why not?

[BigNorseWolf]

lastblacknight wrote:

So what happens when someone is given a temporary HP, say by casting Virtue when they are at say;

-5 and dying (not stablised).

Do they go to -4 and are stabilised

or are they still -5 and dying whilst for the next ten rounds they have 1 temporary HP (i.e. and effective HP total of 1 for minute)

the reason I ask is Delay poison removes an effect for hours, Does virtue (aid etc..) use a similar mechanic? and if not why not?

They would loose one hit point. They would loose the temporary hit point and go from -5, dying, with 1 temporary hit point to -5, dying, with 0 temporary hitpoints.

[ryric]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

[They would loose one hit point. They would loose the temporary hit point and go from -5, dying, with 1 temporary hit point to -5, dying, with 0 temporary hitpoints.

I'm fairly certain that they would count as being at -4 for the Con check to stabilize that round. Effectively, virtue would give them an extra round of bleeding and a +1 on their stabilize check. I suppose you could keep casting virtue over and over on a dying comrade to keep them from bleeding out indefinitely, if no one had any healing or stabilize.