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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5102829" data-attributes="member: 4937">Hit points aren't necessary, but they do have advantages.  Hit points make it very easy to craft balanced challenges and they greatly reduce the effect of lucky or unlucky dice on combat especially at high levels.  This is the reason that no major computer RPG has ever gotten away from the hit point mechanic.   When you got to some other sort of mechanic, you get much more unpredictable combat and it really mechanically steers you away from making lethal combat a centerpeice of what you are doing to challenge and entertain the players.It is absolutely untrue that the reason hit points persist is that they are 'sacred cow' that people keep using because they haven't considered the alternatives.  Having hit points in a game creates a particular kind of experience.  Having a condition track creates a different kind of experience.  Hit points are popular because they create an experience people on the whole prefer.  That doesn't mean that they are right in every situation, but that does mean that they may be right for 'Dungeons and Dragons'. There are plenty of D20 games that don't use hitpoints.  Mutants and Masterminds for example uses a condition track similar in concept to the sort WEG Star Wars used.  My suspicion is that your lack of appreciation for what hit points bring to the table is based on a lack of familiarity with the alternatives.  My recommendation would be to broaden out and play a bunch of systems.  Once you've experienced alot of systems you'll begin to see the advantages and disadvantages to different sorts of designs.  Class based character systems and hit points have there place.  They aren't inherently inferior to other sorts of designs.</blockquote>

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