Hussar
Legend
Would this be in the sidebar that starts with "Dungeon Masters describe hit point loss in different ways."?
Yup. See, this is why reading the book and not pulling single lines out of context makes conversation so much more productive. I love the fact that someone actually posrep'd you for that when the actual quote from the book reads:
5e PHB page 197 said:Describing the Effects of Damage
Dungeon Masters describe hit point loss in different ways. When your current hit point total is half or more of your hit point maximum, you typically show no signs of injury. When you drop below half your hit point maximum, you show signs of wear, such as cuts and bruises. An attack that reduces you to 0 hit points strikes you directly, leaving a bleeding injury or other trauma or simply knocks you unconscious.
So, yup, right there, right in the sidebar, it tells you specifically, and fairly precisely, how hit point loss works in 5e. If you are describing cuts and bruises for the first half of HP loss, you are actually going against what the game tells you. Now, you can certainly do so. That's 100% groovy and up to you and if it works for your table, that's great. But, what you cannot do is argue that all hits MUST be physical injury. A hit can be physical injury, or it very well might not be.
Like I said, the HP=meat argument got lost in 5e. HP in 5e do not necessarily mean meat. It's right there in pretty clear English in the books. Someone with 100 HP who takes 10 points of damage does not necessarily show any signs of damage whatsoever. In fact, according to what's written here, that character could take 49 points of damage in a single hit and not show a single bruise.
Any other interpretation is simply projecting your own personal preferences onto the game.