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The PHB's description of hit points (p. 196) says:

Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer hit points are more fragile.

Also, the "Describing the Effects of Damage" sidebar (p. 197) says:

Dungeon Masters describe hit point loss in different ways. When your current hit point total is half or more of your hit point maximum. you typically show no signs of injury. When you drop below half your hit point maximum, you show signs
of wear, such as cuts and bruises.

My interpretation is that the first few hits don't cause wounds or bleeding, and saying things like "your blade pierces his ribs" is inaccurate. However, I struggle to actually describe blows in combat without saying things like "The blow strikes the armour" for a miss, and "Your blade slices through his leg" for a hit.

I am looking for a alternate method which doesn't reference wounds, bleeding, etc., but still has narrative value - and the players will be able to tell the difference between a miss and a hit (Or a crit).

What methods have people used to describe damage which meet the criteria above, and how did this impact the experience for the players and DM? Please back up answers with experience, per "Good Subjective, Bad Subjective".

I have tagged this as D&D 5e because I don't know if the hit point rules are the same in the older versions or other games, but any experience from systems with similar rules will qualify as a good answer.

Describe the effects of the impact, not necessarily the results of the impact. Just because an attack is a miss, doesn't mean it won't have some later impact in the fight, and on the flip side, a successful attack doesn't mean that they have automatically gaping wounds. The few times that I have been a DM, that was how I described it. I basically drew on fantasy novels that I have read as well as how I felt in sparring matches, competing in martial arts.

Some of the ways you can describe misses are

• Major miss: You feinted to the side just as he was swinging and it was a clean miss


• Near miss: He came close, but you managed to get your shield up. Rattled you a little bit, but no damage


• Miss due to previous attack damage: That blow you landed on him earlier took a toll. He got his attack through, but there just wasn't anything on it.

Same with successful attacks, describe the effects rather than the actual damage, up to describing damage as the fight progresses. Some of the ways I've described it are:

• Minor blow/damage: He slipped one past your guard. Really thumped against your armor and winded you just a bit, but not a lot of damage.


• Moderate or cumulative: You really went for that parry, but he got in before you were able to deflect much. You really felt the impact, and your ribs will be sore for a week


• Major/cumulative: You just didn't even see that coming. He opened up a good gash on your [insert body part here], that's definitely going to leave a mark


• Major (non cut): That hit on your leg really staggered you. Not sure what damage it caused, but your leg is really hobbled now.

The last is one example of what is termed a "deep bruise", which is a fairly serious bruise that can take a week or more to heal to the point where it won't compromise muscle function. Many times a deep bruise won't even show for a few days.

It really all comes down to expanding the variety of ways to describe the same thing, and applying that to the actual fight. If it is difficult for you to come up with it on the fly, sit down with some fantasy books and read through the battle/fight scenes and create a crib sheet of phrases to use. Some of David Eddings' book series (Elenium, Tamuli) that have a paladin as their central character have really good descriptions.

The other thing to remember is that the actions are not happening in a vacuum. You don't take your swing and then stand there waiting for the counter. You're attacking, but at the same time that shield is ready to defend, or you're popping back behind that pillar after firing your arrow, but got hung up on the rubble and their archer popped you one, etc. Think of a fight as a fluid, shifting entity of give and take rather than a "you whack at them, they whack at you" situation.

Why describe the damage?

I've played and GM'd in a few editions of D&D and while it certainly seems to be a table preference, I've never seen the value in breaking the flow of combat to narrate every single to-hit die roll on a spell or attack based on how much it met or failed the DC and how much damage the player happened to roll. The damage is already described numerically by the player. My personal experience as both GM and Player has been that this feels like it might add more narrative to a fight but there's a finite number of ways each person can describe most of the standard situations. Its inevitable that certain speech patterns will be repeated.

Only narrate major changes

It's been my experience as GM and player in D&D that only signaling bloodied (half hp threshold passed) and death in a narrative flourish is worthwhile. On tough enemies signifying to players that they are halfway there can be a relief and a good moment to spice up the combat with a bold description. Examples like "the dragon's scales are cracked" or " the knight sways on his feet" can be simple, characterizing ways to signal the half HP threshold has been passed and if you are only telling players hit/miss normally the very fact you narrated to begin with signals the import. (4e treated this as an actual mechanical condition "bloodied" and 5e treats it more of a descriptive threshold but there are some class features or monster features that function off of the half hp threshold).

Likewise enemy deaths are a perfect momement to narrate and the length and granduer of the narration should scale with the enemy. Did they just manage to kill a vampire within their lair? Ham it up, make it as dramatic as possible. Was it a monster they've fought before as a danger in a dungeon room, not part of a greater storyline? Keep it prefunctory and short to keep the adventure flowing.

I've attempted to describe in this way once or twice - reflavoring hits to be "close calls".

I made a cheatsheet of attack / armor / currenthealthiness to assist in the general descriptors I would use.

The descriptions made judicious use of parrying for dex-based hits (misses were dodged) and denting for armor-based hits (misses just glanced off).

For some variety, dex-based hits could also result in a character diving to avoid it rather than just stepping aside, and armor-based hits might glance off the head, causing momentary dizziness.

My players... mostly didn't notice, and when they did they were generally dissatisfied - feeling like their hits weren't actually hitting.

As such, I don't attempt to describe hit points in that way anymore unless I want to evoke that particular feeling.

And especially since magical healing is a thing, a debilitating leg gash isn't nearly the problem that it would be in the real world. Adrenaline keeps the adventurer up during combat, and there's plenty of ways they can staunch the wound with a minor amount of non-combat time that would last until their next rest.