Teataine
Explorer
Here's the thing about HP: for me the suspension of disbelief in relation to HP gets punched in the face the moment the party's fighter can take more physical trauma than an elephant after gaining a few levels.
There is no way hit points can be justified as simply "harm" or "wounds" beyond first level.
In a martial art where you fight with weapons, one hit almost always means "game over". Up to there it's all about stamina, jockeying for position, having the upper ground, pressing an attack vs. falling back, reaction time, reflexes, being able to parry etc. etc. That's the only thing that HP can sensibly represent in my eyes. So I never had a problem with healing surges (and Warlords "shouting your wounds closed") conceptually, even if I don't play 4E. Their mechanical implementation is a different matter, but everyone who dismisses healing surges on the grounds of being "unrealistic" is imo missing how HP work in all editions so far. Gygax himself wrote in the 1st Ed DMG that HP were more than physical health, as quoted way above in this thread.
As for the classes, they clearly said they want to launch the game with "everything that has been in every first PHB ever" so all the stuff from Dragonborn to Assassins to whatever is probably in. "Core" in this context means the basic mechanical framework, not what will be in the game at release.
I think reactions like TwinBahamut's are really insubstantial fears, coupled with a very uncharitable reading of WotC's intentions and articles.
Anyway, the first playtest will probably be out after PAX, so let's just wait a little longer, yeah?
There is no way hit points can be justified as simply "harm" or "wounds" beyond first level.
In a martial art where you fight with weapons, one hit almost always means "game over". Up to there it's all about stamina, jockeying for position, having the upper ground, pressing an attack vs. falling back, reaction time, reflexes, being able to parry etc. etc. That's the only thing that HP can sensibly represent in my eyes. So I never had a problem with healing surges (and Warlords "shouting your wounds closed") conceptually, even if I don't play 4E. Their mechanical implementation is a different matter, but everyone who dismisses healing surges on the grounds of being "unrealistic" is imo missing how HP work in all editions so far. Gygax himself wrote in the 1st Ed DMG that HP were more than physical health, as quoted way above in this thread.
As for the classes, they clearly said they want to launch the game with "everything that has been in every first PHB ever" so all the stuff from Dragonborn to Assassins to whatever is probably in. "Core" in this context means the basic mechanical framework, not what will be in the game at release.
I think reactions like TwinBahamut's are really insubstantial fears, coupled with a very uncharitable reading of WotC's intentions and articles.
Anyway, the first playtest will probably be out after PAX, so let's just wait a little longer, yeah?