D&D 5E Why are potions of healing so expensive?

[Ovinomancer]

And how does the character end up with poisoned condition? Or are you also arguing that poisoned condition doesn't represent being poisoned?

Good, we've stopped talking about hitpoints and are now asking questions about conditions. You can get Poisoned without ever losing a hitpoint. Is that weird?

 

[Democratus]

And how does the character end up with poisoned condition? Or are you also arguing that poisoned condition doesn't represent being poisoned?

All the Poisoned condition means is that you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

You can gain this condition in many ways, not all of them involve poison.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Good, we've stopped talking about hitpoints and are now asking questions about conditions. You can get Poisoned without ever losing a hitpoint. Is that weird?

Not weird if you for example drink poison. But there are many creatures that inflict poisoned condition along with doing HP damage. What do you think is going on there?

And also, if hits do not cause actual injury, why are healing spells and healing potions referred as such, instead of as luck potions and spells? The truth is that all the language in the game links the HP to being injured, as nebulous as the exact form of that injury might be.

 

[Mort]

Not weird if you for example drink poison. But there are many creatures that inflict poisoned condition along with doing HP damage. What do you think is going on there?

And also, if hits do not cause actual injury, why are healing spells and healing potions referred as such, instead of as luck potions and spells? The truth is that all the language in the game links the HP to being injured, as nebulous as the exact form of that injury might be.

HPs are so ambiguous that this is a nearly impossible argument.

For what it's worth here's how the 5e Player's Handbook defines HP (Chapter 9: Combat: Damage and Healing):

Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer hit points are more fragile.

 

[el-remmen]

All the Poisoned condition means is that you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

You can gain this condition in many ways, not all of them involve poison.

I use this condition for drunk characters, for example.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I use this condition for drunk characters, for example.

Being drunk is being (mildly) poisoned, so seems appropriate to me. By the same logic I would let spells and such that can neutralise poison remove intoxication.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

HPs are so ambiguous that this is a nearly impossible argument.

For what it's worth here's how the 5e Player's Handbook defines HP (Chapter 9: Combat: Damage and Healing):

Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer hit points are more fragile.

One of the big reasons for wanting the HP to at least somewhat correlate to injury, is that otherwise it becomes a pure meta concept and the characters are unable to make decisions based on it without the players metagaming. People do not generally sense how much luck they have 'spent,' and if character who has lost majority of HP is physically perfectly fine but out of luck it is not reasonable for that character to conclude that maybe they should avoid that next fight. Hell, it is not logical for them to even seek healing! At minimum the HP must correlate to something the characters are aware of.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Probably so players don't buy them in bulk early on and just drink 10 in a row after a fight. In-universe, they can bring a commoner who's seconds away from death to being perfectly fine, so you could justify it being pretty expensive, especially since anyone can use it.

Although it probably wouldn't break anything to make them way cheaper as long as there's always a limited supply that they can buy from.

 

[Democratus]

One of the big reasons for wanting the HP to at least somewhat correlate to injury, is that otherwise it becomes a pure meta concept and the characters are unable to make decisions based on it without the players metagaming. People do not generally sense how much luck they have 'spent,' and if character who has lost majority of HP is physically perfectly fine but out of luck it is not reasonable for that character to conclude that maybe they should avoid that next fight. Hell, it is not logical for them to even seek healing! At minimum the HP must correlate to something the characters are aware of.

It's not meta if it is something a character can determine in game. A fighter can have no injuries and be low on hp. The fighter knows of their depleted condition because that is how it works in the world. It's only metagaming if it is something the character could not know in-world.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

It's not meta if it is something a character can determine in game. A fighter can have no injuries and be low on hp. The fighter knows of their depleted condition because that is how it works in the world. It's only metagaming if it is something the character could not know in-world.

So how does it feel to be on low HP? Do the people in D&D land have some mysterious senses we real humans do not have? That of course is perfectly possible in fantasy, but it will have world building implications.