Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Pseudopsyche" data-source="post: 4108580" data-attributes="member: 54600">I actually like the term suggest by That Other Thread: stamina points.&nbsp; My dictionary (the Mac OS X dictionary widget) defines stamina as &quot;the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort,&quot; and having positive hit points corresponds to having this ability.&nbsp; That said, I think &quot;hit points&quot; is acceptable, since the term is both established and accurate enough: they measure the number of hits a character can take before he or she lacks the stamina to act.The real problem is with the term &quot;heal,&quot; which strongly suggests that a character is regaining &quot;health points,&quot; not &quot;stamina points.&quot;&nbsp; If it were up to me, I would rename &quot;Cure Light Wounds&quot; to &quot;Lesser Reinvigorate&quot; (or something less clunky but with the same connotations).The word &quot;damage&quot; also tends to suggest the inflicting of significant injuries (more than just scratches and knocking the wind out of somebody), although its dictionary definition is actually relatively abstract (&quot;physical harm caused to something in such a way as to impair its value, usefulness, or normal function&quot;).&nbsp; Since a character with positive hit points can act unimpaired, it might be more accurate to say that a character is only damaged when he or she falls to 0 hit points.Unfortunately, I can't think of a more accurate word.&nbsp; I can't get behind &quot;threat,&quot; since I would argue that an attack &quot;threatens&quot; a character regardless of whether it hits or misses.&nbsp; If the attack roll doesn't beat the armor class, I want the target to still feel threatened, even though the monster's claw misses entirely or glances off of armor!All that said, I think the issues raised in other threads had less to do with terminology and more to do with whether the game mechanics believably model characters' adventuring abilities.&nbsp; Of course, I suspect that undiscussed disagreement over the meaning of terms certainly contributed to the confusion and argumentative tone of some threads.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Pseudopsyche, post: 4108580, member: 54600"] I actually like the term suggest by That Other Thread: stamina points. My dictionary (the Mac OS X dictionary widget) defines stamina as "the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort," and having positive hit points corresponds to having this ability. That said, I think "hit points" is acceptable, since the term is both established and accurate enough: they measure the number of hits a character can take before he or she lacks the stamina to act. The real problem is with the term "heal," which strongly suggests that a character is regaining "health points," not "stamina points." If it were up to me, I would rename "Cure Light Wounds" to "Lesser Reinvigorate" (or something less clunky but with the same connotations). The word "damage" also tends to suggest the inflicting of significant injuries (more than just scratches and knocking the wind out of somebody), although its dictionary definition is actually relatively abstract ("physical harm caused to something in such a way as to impair its value, usefulness, or normal function"). Since a character with positive hit points can act unimpaired, it might be more accurate to say that a character is only damaged when he or she falls to 0 hit points. Unfortunately, I can't think of a more accurate word. I can't get behind "threat," since I would argue that an attack "threatens" a character regardless of whether it hits or misses. If the attack roll doesn't beat the armor class, I want the target to still feel threatened, even though the monster's claw misses entirely or glances off of armor! All that said, I think the issues raised in other threads had less to do with terminology and more to do with whether the game mechanics believably model characters' adventuring abilities. Of course, I suspect that undiscussed disagreement over the meaning of terms certainly contributed to the confusion and argumentative tone of some threads. [/QUOTE]

Verification