Spells in dnd 5e that reduce max hp

This article is about reduce 5e Max Hp. Let us dep dive. According to the mummy’s Rotting Fist attack description, a remove curse spell is sufficient to undo the curse inflicted by Rotting Fist. That includes the 5e reduction to maximum HP. However, other monsters, such as the clay golem with its Slam attack 5e, can reduce a character’s maximum HP.

Necrotic Damages in 5e that reduce max hit points

You apply the Damage before the max HP is reduced. If you start with 10 HP and take five Damage, then you are at 5 HP remaining. If you fail, the maximum HP possible is reduced to 5. You still have 5 HP remaining, and you can’t heal above 5 HP as that is your new maximum. Life Drain 5e ability says you take the Damage, regardless of the CON, and save the result. The CON saves a secondary effect that may also reduce your max HPs. The wording on the ability in FG at first led me to believe that the ONLY Damage MAY be to the character’s max HPs, but that is not the case. Damage is taken, and then max HP reduced, pending the CON save (in my examples, I assume the CON save failed).

FG adding up wounds instead of subtracting Damage seems to cause an issue where you are prematurely knocked unconscious.

The issue is how FG treats hit points and Damage. If I’m playing pencil & paper D&D, hit points are a pool, and as you take Damage it’s subtracted from that pool until you reach zero and fall unconscious.

In FG, hps are represented as a maximum. As Damage accumulates from zero to that maximum, you fall unconscious when your accumulated Damage reaches the max. It causes issues like life drain, where you take Damage AND reduce your max hit points.

In my pencil/paper example, you are fine, but you fall unconscious in the same situation using FG damage tracking.

If FG treated your hit points as a pool, and Damage was subtracted from that pool until you reached zero (not added from zero until your max is reached), this becomes a non-issue.

Maximum HP reduction and Stats Reduction

Particular creatures have abilities that can reduce a character’s maximum HP. Usually, if it gets reduced to 0, the character dies outright.

Suppose an HP 30 PC is wild-shaped/polymorphed to a creature with 50HP. They get into a fight with a Wraith and take a few hits, dealing a total of 30HP. The PC’s maximum-HP will be reduced by 30 if they fail to make con saves. However, it is still at 20.

When you Wild Shape/Polymorph, you “assume the beast’s hit points,” thus essentially creating a new, separate pool of HP from your own, original form similar to how Temporary Hit Points work, as Alexis Wilke has stated.

You don’t lose HP from Damage done in animal form unless your HP drops to zero in animal form or sustains excessive Damage. It is not suggested anywhere that max-HP reduction would work differently. Only the pool affected by the reduction is Wild Shape/Polymorph.

Let’s say that a PC with 30 HP is transformed into a beast with 50 HP. That effectively gives the PC 50 HP. The PC’s max HP is reduced by 30 during transformation. However, they don’t die because they are still using their HP.

Is it possible to reduce a PC’s hit point by an attack? Does it inflict Damage if the creature is already wounded (D&D 5E)?

Imagine that a spell or attack in 5e does not deal the Damage. Damage is dealt with first, and then your max health is decreased. You have already lost the hp that you cannot regain, and you are now losing a part of your health pool, in the case of f.e. A greater restoration that doesn’t also heal would not be argued that you would regain your maximum health. It is based on the fact that you technically never lost that health. It is up to the DM to decide if you heal. The easiest way to get rid of this effect is long rest. It heals you during the same eighth event that takes out the HP max.

Your max hp will reduce in 5e dnd by the amount of hp you have drained. You cannot heal yourself if you are 50/50 hp or lose ten hp in Damage or max hp. These rules do not apply to temp hp. It does not heal or return max HP. It is just an added feature. It’s almost impossible to have 0 HP and still have temp HP. You can recover to full strength if you have 40 hp.

What happens if someone is already hurt?

The second part of this question is: What happens if someone is already hurt? They take the Damage and take the HP reduction in 5e dnd. You can fully heal yourself up to 40/40 if you’re at 20/50. You’ll be able to heal 10 HP again after the hp drain is removed. If the PC was at 10/50 HP and took ten draining damage, it will be 0/40 HP and become unconscious. They aren’t instantly dead, though, because their HP total is still 0.

You can. Chasme is a demonic PC killer. It can deal with both regular and hp draining damage and can one-shot any PCs it encounters. One of my late level 4 priests can tell you that it can instantly kill those players. You could get instantly killed or downed if you have 25/25 HP and are hit by their proboscis, dealing 4d6+2 Damage through piercing and 7d6 draining Damage.

Your hp pool will drop to 0/0 if they deal 25 necrotic damage. They could also deal 24 necrotic injury, which knocks you unconscious and deals only 4 points of piercing harm to your hp. It will put you at 0/1 hp but not kill you. It would. The extra 3 points of Damage that you take is more than your max health and will instantly kill you if you don’t use regular death save rules. It would only do Damage if they had less HP than the maximum. If they had max HP, this could reduce their total HP.

Life Drain 5e

Life Drain. Melee Spell Attack: +4 to hit. One creature can reach 5 feet. Hit: 10 (3d6) Necrotic damage. Either the target succeeds on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw, or its hit point maximum is reduced by the amount of damage taken. This reduction lasts until the creature ends a long rest. If this effect lowers the target’s hit point maximum to 0, it will die.

It is an attack that causes Damage. Hitpoint reduction in 5e dnd is an especially nasty effect.

The druid can have his maximum hit points reduced in any form.

JC says otherwise in his rulings. However, this relies on a new concept of “changing hp pools,”–which is not part of the existing rules. This answer might help you if you prefer to play raw and make your own decisions when necessary.

5e uses “hit points,” hit point maximum, and “Hit Dice” concepts. Below is a brief description of each.

Hit Points

The current hit points (often just called hit points) can range from their maximum hit point to 0.

Hit Point Maximum

Your character starts at 1st level with 1 Hit Die. Your class determines the type of die. Hit points are equal to the highest roll for that die. It is indicated in your class description. (In step 3, you will also need to add your Constitution modifier. That is your maximum hit point.

Hit Dice

Hit points are a measure of how strong your character is in combat or other dangerous situations. Your Hit Dice (short form for Hit Point Dice) determines your hit points.

Wild Shape changes only your Hit Points and Hit Dice.

In Wild Shape 5e, You can transform into the beast to gain its hit points and Hit Dice.

We can assume that your hit point maximum has not been changed.

You should note that changing your hit die, constitution, or hit point limit can affect your maximum hit points. It is not possible to remove Draining Kiss by changing your hit die or con.

Example

A druid of 30 HP transforms into a cow of 50 HP, then suffers a 30 maximum hit points reduction due to a phantom.

Druid before Transformation: 30/30 Hit Points
Druid after transformation: hit die and con changes result in 50/50 hit points
Druid is struck by Life Drains, causing a total of 30 damage. Max HP adjusts to 50 – 30, = 20. Druid now has 20/20 HP

Druid reverses transformation: hit die, con change, which results in max HP 30 – 30 = 0. The druid has now reached 0/0 HP and is considered dead.
Druid turns back into a cow (somehow). Their hit die and con changes, returning to 20/20 HP.