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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4011310" data-attributes="member: 58197">First of all, because it's a crappy definition.  It's a vague handwavey thing.  You can't sum it up in one quick sentence the way you can with virtually any other key statistic (except Armor Class, but that has its own problems); which means that when people are first learning D&D, they're apt to boil hit points down to their most obvious meaning, which is, "Hit points are how tough you are."Second, they fluff it as representing all these abstract things, but then they go ahead and treat it like pure physical injury in the actual rules.  Examples:"Rider" effects on attacks, that only trigger if the attack inflicts damage (e.g., poison, energy drain).  This implies that any attack which inflicts damage has actually connected and caused a wound--none of this "near-miss" business.Environmental hazards which do a given amount of damage per round.  This implies that damage is independent of character; that is, 10 points of damage to Joe Commoner and 10 points of damage to Thorzod Tarrasquebane means they're taking the same amount of "punishment."  Thorzod may soak it better, but he's getting hit just as hard.Healing magic which heals a given amount of damage.  This implies that 10 points of damage represents the same degree of injury regardless of whether Joe or Thorzod suffered it.  Plus, of course, it's called "heal," not "restore your mystical defense abstraction."Natural healing is on a daily basis.  This implies that hit points represent real injury, since you don't recover any hit points by taking a five-minute rest break.Hit points do not change regardless of character status.  If you're paralyzed or unconscious, you keep all your hit points.  This implies that the ability to consciously dodge and defend is not a factor in your hit point total.Constitution affects your hit points, but Wisdom and Dexterity do not.  This implies that being physically durable is important to determining your hit point total, but willpower, perception, and quick reflexes are irrelevant.Some of these are "corner cases," but many of them are not.  True, you don't encounter poison in every fight, or even in most fights.  How many fights do you encounter healing magic in or after?  Oh, yes--all of them (at least for a typical 3E game).  How often do you apply your Constitution modifier when calculating hit points?  Every time you calculate your hit points.  If you don't want to think about what hit points mean, that's fine, but as soon as you start taking a serious look at them, you'll run into huge problems.Ultimately, it is far, far simpler to explain hit points as "your character is crazy tough" and ignore all the half-assed efforts to cram other stuff in there.  Everything in the rules, from 1E through 3.5E, has supported that view.  (In fact, as far as I know, 3E has never even tried to claim that hit points mean anything other than raw toughness.)I just hope the mechanics are consistent with whatever definition they settle on.  If they want hit points to represent all this other stuff, then that needs to be factored into the rules.</blockquote>

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