When the party encounters a solitary and strong monster, should the GM state the monster's HP and armor? Or are all the calculations made by the GM secretly and represented only in the fiction ("He starts to tumble, maybe due to blood loss?" etc.).
In other words: Do the player know how many HP a monster has left or are they guessing until the monster drops dead?
This is for typical monsters found anywhere, not named monsters with an outstanding story.
Best Answer
Short Answer
The characters don't know, so there's no need to tell their players.
But why's that?
Your GM principles should give you your answer here:
Remember, your principles and agendas are rules just like HP and armor.
If you're telling the players the HP and armor of their enemies then you're breaking all three of these principles. The characters don't and shouldn't know that the Goblin over there has 3HP and 1-armor, because those aren't a part of the fiction, they're just numbers to help us interact with it. Likewise to give your monster life you need to describe it. What's more interesting?
Or
I know which one would have me reconsidering how much I wanted that treasure.
It's important to note here that the 16HP and 5-armor aren't what make a dragon a terrifying opponent, with a bit of luck a pair of level 1 characters could bring him down quite quickly if they just kept making Hack&Slash rolls until he dropped. No, the dragon is powerful because it's a goddamn dragon. A typical sword would need to find a weak spot (perhaps the belly) to even have a chance of piercing its hide at all and to make that attack the character would have to get close enough: avoiding the fiery breath, slashing claws and biting maw on the way.
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