In Pool of Mana I'm considering using no HUD accept for Blood effects for the health. As for mana I was planning on using voices (I'm using an ABS). I don't plan on using a health bar, but I'm considering using a bar for mana. I don't want to use a bar though, mostly because I hate HUDs (other than blood effects). What's your opinion?

You shouldn't need a HUD for blood effects anyway.

You could have initialised blood splatter sprites that can be displayed depending on your health percentage, don't need a hud for that.

That's what I meant (and what I'm doing). I considered it part of the HUD since it provides the player information on the main screen (which is exactly what a HUD is). So technically it is part of the HUD.