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<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 8435931" data-attributes="member: 1465">I think the discussion should not forget the main practical point at the gaming table, which is about having tactical choice points between the start of a battle and the possible end in defeat. In all editions of D&amp;D your HP increase by level and so does the average amount of damage you expect to take each round. What matters most is how many rounds you have to change your plan or make a choice that can steer the battle in your favor before you lose.Arneson probably had in mind that the probability of being hit at all was sufficient to create a proper combat length and choice points, without the need for HP to also scale. The difference between the 2 approaches is in the fact that with Arneson rules your relative losses of health would be more sudden and conspicuous at higher levels: you would be hit less frequently but probably your higher-level opponents would take a bigger chunk of your health each time they hit, making higher level combat more dramatic (but not necessarily faster at all).Whether this would be a good idea or not is itself debatable: on one hand it makes sense for characters that fighting gets easier because they get better, but from a gaming perspective it also makes sense that the game difficulty increases...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 8435931, member: 1465"] I think the discussion should not forget the main practical point at the gaming table, which is about having tactical choice points between the start of a battle and the possible end in defeat. In all editions of D&D your HP increase by level and so does the average amount of damage you expect to take each round. What matters most is how many rounds you have to change your plan or make a choice that can steer the battle in your favor before you lose. Arneson probably had in mind that the probability of being hit at all was sufficient to create a proper combat length and choice points, without the need for HP to also scale. The difference between the 2 approaches is in the fact that with Arneson rules your relative losses of health would be more sudden and conspicuous at higher levels: you would be hit less frequently but probably your higher-level opponents would take a bigger chunk of your health each time they hit, making higher level combat more dramatic (but not necessarily faster at all). Whether this would be a good idea or not is itself debatable: on one hand it makes sense for characters that fighting gets easier because they get better, but from a gaming perspective it also makes sense that the game difficulty increases... [/QUOTE]

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