4th Edition Homebrew: Monster HP

What? Me doing another article on 4th Edition!? The Mayans were right; it's the end of the world!

"We predict that a blogger will write a stupid Mayan joke.
Thousands will die."

My mind is the strangest thing. In the middle of a shower, I suddenly thought of a way to speed up combat in 4th Edition. Well, maybe by only a little.

Instead of monsters having hit points, perhaps they have a total number of hits that they can take before dying. The total number of hits a monster can take depends on their type:

• Minions have one hit (and take no hit on a miss as is the usual)
• Standards have three hits
• Elites have five hits
• Solos have ten hits

If a character is built on doing additional damage, allow them to make two hits on a monster with a successful attack. On a critical hit, add an additional hit to the damage dealt.

If a creature is vulnerable to a certain type of damage, add another hit. If a creature is resistant to a certain type of damage, then split the number of hits dealt in half.

I can do 12 hits in a single attack. U mad?

I'm not sure if this would help out at all, or if it is even close to balanced. Frankly, I'm busy running Next so I won't be able to try this out myself. But, it was an idea that ran through my head. If you try it, let me know how it works out for your group.