nnms
First Post
If 3 hit points off of 10 is a "near miss" then what is 3 hit points off of 60? The fighter has to make a saving throw.
Poinonous creatures don't necessarily have to mangle your flesh to inject their poison. The best ones barely do any damage at all.
It's also probably best to remember than a fighter with that many more HP is probably also going to have a way, way higher save.
How about an arrow attack? An arrow hits the Fighter for 3 damage. Realistically, you get hit with an arrow, you're as good as dead.
I'd recommend a documentary series called Weapons That Made Britain. Lots of cool info about armour and arrows and shields and stuff. You can get hit by an arrow and have it jam through your shield and into your arm, or bounce off your armour, or give you a hideous bruise.
But what if the arrow is poisoned? Now you have to make a save. So if the arrow missed you, it didn't really miss you.
This goes back to OD&D. Hit points are an abstraction. You could simply add on another line. You made your save, so it didn't really hit you.
What about falling 100 feet? Using current D&D math, thats 10d6 damage or 30 damage on average. The 10 hit point fighter goes splat (reasonable) but the 60 hit point fighter somehow 'bouces' off the ground with maybe a few bruises?
Yes, HP that go up with level have never been an accurate method of tracking damage to the human body. But they are going to stick around anyway because they're part of D&D tradition and are meat as an abstraction.
Its just one of those things I try not to think about too much.
Good plan. Though there are alternatives in other systems that go back decades that work just as well that don't create these issues. But not in D&D.