Temp HP

Although I only play 4th edition, I understand this issue pertains somewhat to 3.5 and other systems too.

Problem: I see there's a temp HP option in d20pro, but it doesn't work for us.

Issue #1: Temp HP has a time limit: If I add an effect to a character using the Temp HP effect, but designate the effect as 'instant', what that seems to mean is that the hp are increased, then wear off, instantly. Not such a big deal, except that in our game system, temp hp are always applied with exactly the same time limit: encounter. There's no rounds/minutes/hours/days/years, just 'until the end of the encounter'. So for now I use 'infinite' and then cancel the effect at the end of the round. Again no big deal all by itself, but,

Issue #2: Temp HP effect remains when temp HP are spent: Grant someone 5 temp hp, then damage them for 5 or 6 points. The active effect is still in the effects tab. It's not actually doing anything, but it's hard to really tell if that's the case, at all. There's no real guaranteed way to check without some prior knowledge or tracking if the temp hp are 'doing' something (are still being applied or have been spent). If I, for example, send you a .zip of my current game state, with the effect temp hp applied to a character, you would not be able to tell if the temp hp are 'actively' doing something or not, in other words, you wouldn't know if cancelling the effect would reduce the characters health or have no effect because it was already 'spent'. This is because of issue #3

Issue #3: Temp HP apply to current HP pool (and stack): The 'temp HP' effect stacks with any other temp hp effect. I'm not currently aware of any game system where this should be the case, in 3.5 only temp hp from varied 'sources' (whatever that was supposed to mean) stack, and in 4th edition absolutely no temp hp ever stack. The bigger problem seems to be that temp hp simply increase the 'normal' hp pool, which causes difficulty with the above issue (this indistinguishable-hp makes the 'temp hp' effect inauditable). It also causes some problems for 4th edition: bloodied, dying, other situations where the temp hp pool is ignored can't be dealt with if the temp hp simply increases the 'actual' hp. (In 4th edition, only 'real' hp tell you if you're bloodied or not, and temp hp never 'heal' you, if you're at -1 hp and het 5 temp hp, you're still unconscious).

It seems that generally, having a temp hp pool like 4th edition is compatible in actual use with 3.5/other broken game systems*, just not the other way around, so possibly the easiest way to address these would be to implement a temp hp pool, or add temp hp as a modifier of hp (ie instead of hp reading '15' it would read '15+0' meaning 'hp+thp'). This way, there's an easy workaround for the above 2; you set a time limit and cancel the effect when it's used, as you can now actually verify if the effect is 'in use'.

Hope this is useful - please let me know if anything is confusing, or if you've any better ideas.

*(see http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/ ... niscificer and http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pun-Pun_%2 ... r_Build%29)