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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 3842881" data-attributes="member: 2011">The amount of plausibility in a game system is dependent on the rules. Being at one hit point and fighting at full effectiveness every single time is just as plausible as flying without magic or wings.The game designers add in rules like flank and poison and hit points and a lot of other rules that penalize creatures to model reality to some extent so that people can relate to and comprehend what is going on.But, these are just the set of rules a given set of designers add.A spell caster cannot cast a spell if he is distracted and fails a Concentration check, but a Fighter bleeding out of a dozen orifices from a dozen arrows and not being distracted or hindered in any way is nonsensical. It just happens to be the rules the designers picked to allow players to suspend disbelief and get into the game. It doesn't mean these rules do a good job of it.Attacks of Opportunity are nonsensical. The ability to attack someone "behind you" with a longspear instantaneously when he drops his guard for a split second, even though you are surrounded by foes and are concentrating on the guy in front of you (and pointing your spear that way) does not make real logical sense. But, it is the game mechanic chosen by the designers to handle a different scenario: the King's guards cannot stop the Assassins from getting past them and attacking the King without Readied actions in a circular initiative system without AoOs. AoOs are there solely to support the flow of the initiative system, they are not there because they make real sense. In fact, they are totally game mechanic driven.The point is that rules are rules. They are not any more or any less DND because the rules never existed in the past. Designers come up with new DND rules all of the time. The important thing is whether the rules work together, not whether any given rule exists or not.If the designers come up with a nice comprehensive set of rules for 4E that includes one as a penalty for hit point damage, that's ok. As long as the rules work well together.</blockquote>

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