Dragonblade
Adventurer
A number of healing threads have popped up recently, and I got to thinking about how hitpoints in 4e works as opposed to prior editions. Hitpoints have always been abstract. They represent a combination of real wounds, fatigue, and morale. Blood, sweat, and tears.
However, in 4e, exactly defining that damage in a narrative or simulationist sense, has to occur after the effects of hit damage (or recovery) have been determined. In other words, if you fully heal after an extended rest, well then all that hitpoint damage you took was just fatigue and loss of morale. Anything else just doesn't make sense. You couldn't completely recover from a serious sword wound after 6 hours. Likewise, loss of morale can't kill you.
This concept exists in quantum physics. See Schroedinger's cat for an example.
In essence, prior to recovery or death, the physical condition of a D&D character exists in an indeterminate quantum state!
For example, if an enemy stabs you and does X damage, is that damage real wounds? Or just bruises, fatigue, and loss of morale? You don't know! You can't know until those wounds are recovered from, or the character dies!
The only logical explanation is that damage exists in an indeterminate quantum state until you take an extended rest, or die. At that point, the quantum wave function collapses and you can definitively determine whether that wound was actually real all along, or just fatigue. But until you recover (or die) from the hitpoint damage you take, the actual effect of that damage cannot be determined.
However, in 4e, exactly defining that damage in a narrative or simulationist sense, has to occur after the effects of hit damage (or recovery) have been determined. In other words, if you fully heal after an extended rest, well then all that hitpoint damage you took was just fatigue and loss of morale. Anything else just doesn't make sense. You couldn't completely recover from a serious sword wound after 6 hours. Likewise, loss of morale can't kill you.
This concept exists in quantum physics. See Schroedinger's cat for an example.
In essence, prior to recovery or death, the physical condition of a D&D character exists in an indeterminate quantum state!
For example, if an enemy stabs you and does X damage, is that damage real wounds? Or just bruises, fatigue, and loss of morale? You don't know! You can't know until those wounds are recovered from, or the character dies!
The only logical explanation is that damage exists in an indeterminate quantum state until you take an extended rest, or die. At that point, the quantum wave function collapses and you can definitively determine whether that wound was actually real all along, or just fatigue. But until you recover (or die) from the hitpoint damage you take, the actual effect of that damage cannot be determined.
