Summary
- D&D's 2024 Player's Handbook brings back the concept of Bloodied, which was introduced in DnD 4e.
- The Bloodied descriptor in the 2024 Player's Handbook provides an easy way to communicate a creature's health status during combat.
- The 2025 Monster Manual could make monsters more interesting with abilities triggered once they're Bloodied.
The fourth edition of promising backward compatibility with the last ten years of content, and it looks to the past for some key points of inspiration.
DnD 4e had the unenviable task of following up DnD 3.5e, a compelling iteration of the game that had grown both impressively complex and potentially overwhelming with a surplus of supplements. Its tactical approach to combat still has loyal fans, but it could feel too homogeneous for those who like unique specialization or a focus on systems outside of combat. Although 5e's take on the formula simply makes more sense for a lot of game tables, it's been a shame that some effective 4e ideas didn't make a return.
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Bloodied Returns In D&D's 2024 Player's Handbook
A Useful 4e Term Is Finally Back
Although it's not a focus in DnD's 2024 Player's Handbook, the inclusion of the Bloodied descriptor is one that's likely to attract the attention of 4e loyalists. Bloodied applies to characters and creatures who are at half of their total hit point pool or less, providing an easy way to clarify when someone's starting to dip into dicey territory. The new Player's Handbook introduces the concept in the section on "Damage and Healing" in the first chapter, but anyone who skips over this bit can quickly clarify what it means by checking the "Rules Glossary" in the back.
Bloodied isn't officially a condition in DnD, unlike statuses like Blinded, Frightened, and Restrained, but it's a useful term to have on hand. Even ignoring any official implementation of Bloodied in the rules for DnD, it's a great way to communicate a sense of progress in combat without having to talk numbers that are better off staying behind the scenes. If a DM says that players have Bloodied a monster, they can get a good idea of how much work is left (and whether the situation is potentially deadly) in a way that balances immersion with reliable statistics.
The 2024 Player's Handbook Doesn't Fully Commit
Bloodied Doesn't Matter As Much As In 4e
DnD 4e was the first introduction of Bloodied, but the 4e Player's Handbook didn't shy away from committing to the concept. Many 4e features and abilities were based around characters and creatures being Bloodied, serving to intensify things and open up new options as battles stretched on. Considering how long 4e combat could sometimes take, having an extra way to freshen things up was certainly welcome, and centering things around one consistent trigger made it easier to keep track of the rules and communicate when things were shifting in the course of combat.
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Although DnD's 2024 Player's Handbook does restore the concept of Bloodied, it certainly doesn't do so with the same gusto that 4e showcased when bringing it onto the scene. The only character abilities that make use of the concept are Preserve Life, a feature of Life Domain Clerics that allows them to restore health to creatures below half their hit points, and Survivor, a Champion Fighter feature that triggers self-healing at the same point. Neither of these are new additions, as both of them worked in fundamentally the same way in the 2014 Player's Handbook without referencing Bloodied.
D&D's 2025 Monster Manual Could Make Bloodied Count
Bloodied Traits & Abilities Make Monsters More Interesting
Despite the lackluster showing so far, it's still possible that the revamped rules could end up making Bloodied matter again. The one other use of Bloodied in the 2024 Player's Handbook, found in the "Creature Stat Blocks" appendix, better showcases the potential for more opportunities. Boars have a new trait called Bloodied Fury, which gives them advantage on attack rolls once they're Bloodied, something that wasn't present in the 2014 Player's Handbook.
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The updated Monster Manual isn't set to arrive until February 18, 2025, so it's hard to say yet if reworks like this will be common. The new book is intended to maintain the current challenge rating of monsters while making them more interesting and varied, and tossing in new Bloodied abilities would be a good way to do so. There are already 5e monsters with abilities that trigger after health loss, but Bloodied offers a simple way to toss the concept onto even minor enemies like boars.
The glimpses that have been shown so far of the 2025 Monster Manual make no reference to Bloodied, but considering one of the sample spreads focuses on skeletons, it might be more surprising if they did.
In any case, it's nice to see DnD taking some inspiration from 4e's better ideas. The relative unpopularity of the edition (exacerbated by the rapid spread of Pathfinder as a successor that forked directly off of DnD 3.5e) resulted in 5e going back to the drawing board again, and it ultimately bears more resemblance to earlier editions in many ways than to its direct predecessor. With the age of a decade, the need for 5e to aggressively distinguish itself from 4e has faded, and being willing to incorporate good concepts shows off the game's stronger footing.
5e never completely abandoned the concept of Bloodied, briefly establishing that dropping beneath half of a character's health would start to show visible signs of wear. Without any codification, though, it was a lot harder to use that concept in a meaningful way, and plenty of DMs have continued to simply call creatures and characters at half-health Bloodied. With the 2024 Player's Handbook, Dungeons & Dragons finally opens the door to make that really mean something again, but whether the game follows up on the concept will depend on the 2025 Monster Manual.
- Franchise
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Original Release Date
- 1974
Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the '70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.
- Publisher
- TSR Inc., Wizards of the Coast
- Designer
- E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson
