The 1 Hit Point D&D Thief Lives!

After a rumble with some wolves and an attack on a bandit group, our resident sneeze-and-he-dies character is still breathing.

It's added an entire new dimension to the game now that we have the added difficulty of watching out for the thief - his skills are turning out to be pretty valuable so it would be a shame to lose him. To this end we've hired a retainer to look after him.

This hasn't turned out as well as we expected. The NPC retainer is a bit of a young hothead so when the swords start swinging he gets over excited and breaks away from the thief and wades in to the battle, staff in hand. To be fair it was the best we could get from the village we were in, a bored young farmer's son who just wanted some action. It all adds to the game - he has to be taught to stay with the thief to protect him, so until he gets that in his head we have to be careful how he's positioned. It certainly makes for an interesting game and keeps us on our toes. Every few combat rounds you hear, 'Who's watching the thief?!?'

So, even though it is a bit of a pain that one of our party is on minimum hit points, it adds a whole new dynamic level to the group. We're not babysitting him, that's for sure, but we just want to get him past first level and pray that he doesn't roll another '1' on the next level. All that affects how we approach encounters as the safety of the thief is foremost on our minds.

After the last game Andy, the thief's player, was talking about just piling in and sharing the danger. I don't think so, mister!