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<blockquote data-quote="wedgeski" data-source="post: 5813455" data-attributes="member: 16212">I think negative hit points are a convenient way to represent the &quot;dying&quot; part of dying... that period where you're unconscious and potentially bleeding out, and something I see as essential to combat. It adds tension to the battlefield since it raises encounters into a &quot;things are getting really bad here guys&quot; state in a way that hit point ablation does not. It's also a recoverable state where heroics on the part of your companions, or sheer blind luck, can get you back on your feet and into the fight: a small victory over the bad guys in itself. These are all, IMO, vital parts of making RPG combat interesting and dynamic.4E, with its sub-zero death save and &quot;dead at negative bloodied&quot; mechanics pretty much nail all of these for me. The only thing I've never been comfortable with is the &quot;heal as if at zero&quot; rule; we play it by the book and even for me as a proponent of gamey rules, it's always seemed a bit too much. I can certainly see BRC's point in the blog post, that healing someone for one Hit Point when they're dying is a horrible disappointment, but since in 4E you normally heal by at least a Healing Surge, the chances of this being a problem are minimal.Having said that I expect healing in 5E to return to a dice-roll+bonus so the issue does rear its head once again.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="wedgeski, post: 5813455, member: 16212"] I think negative hit points are a convenient way to represent the "dying" part of dying... that period where you're unconscious and potentially bleeding out, and something I see as essential to combat. It adds tension to the battlefield since it raises encounters into a "things are getting really bad here guys" state in a way that hit point ablation does not. It's also a recoverable state where heroics on the part of your companions, or sheer blind luck, can get you back on your feet and into the fight: a small victory over the bad guys in itself. These are all, IMO, vital parts of making RPG combat interesting and dynamic. 4E, with its sub-zero death save and "dead at negative bloodied" mechanics pretty much nail all of these for me. The only thing I've never been comfortable with is the "heal as if at zero" rule; we play it by the book and even for me as a proponent of gamey rules, it's always seemed a bit too much. I can certainly see BRC's point in the blog post, that healing someone for one Hit Point when they're dying is a horrible disappointment, but since in 4E you normally heal by at least a Healing Surge, the chances of this being a problem are minimal. Having said that I expect healing in 5E to return to a dice-roll+bonus so the issue does rear its head once again. [/QUOTE]

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