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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SiderisAnon" data-source="post: 3733760" data-attributes="member: 44949">Before reading this thread, I would not have thought of hit points as an encounter-based resources. Now, though, I can see the point that the really could be considered such.At low levels, I find hit points to be a resources that determines when the day is over. Once the party can't heal anymore and some of the PCs are getting low, it's time to go home. This could be after one fight or seven. Once you run out, you're dead, so it's a good thing to know when to fall back and rest.Once you get a little higher, maybe 4th-5th level, this model stops applying. Hit points do become an encounter-based resource. It's a question of whether the big fighter(s) can last out the combat better than the monsters. What starts determining the day is the level of magic. Once the casters are out of magic, they want to fall back, unless they're sure the adventure is almost over and/or that they can take out any remaining opposition without magic. The only way I have found to avoid this latter model is to set up situations where the party has to complete a certain task right away to accomplish a goal or where they know that if they don't finish off the opponents now, they will either be more prepared, have called in reinforcements, or will have left for parts unknown by the time the party returns. (I tend to run half-way intelligent bad guys.) When a party knows they have to push on through, they're willing to ration their magic more and so continue through the whole thing. They're also willing to expend more magic items, either potions or wand charges, in order to accomplish their goals. In general, however, my players prefer to see wands and potions as a resource to be used only when you don't have another choice, so that you have them when you really do need them. They would rather fall back, rest, and come back when they are more capable.So, as to the original question: I think that after a few levels, hit points do become an encounter-based resource. In a lot of ways, I think the game would be more like heroic fantasy movies if more abilities were this way. You have a few really big bangs that you save for the right occasion and everything else you can keep using as you go along. After all, in the movies, the hero can work his way through numerous groups of mooks and still seem fresh every time, but he really has to use up everything he has for the big bad.</blockquote>

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