NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6457724" data-attributes="member: 42582">In this respect, accuracy in 4e was just as bounded - because attack bonuses escalated at the same rate (per level) as defences. The function of "ridiculous" target numbers in 4e isn't to cause the expected rate of success to change (it is a fairly constant 60%) but to interact with the Monster Manuals, and thereby step up the opposition over the course of play (from goblins to demon lords).As  [MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION] indicated, perhaps you clocked it on the skull with your pommel.Furthermore, I put this in the same category as "What happens if I roll my d6 and it lands perfectly balanced on its corner?" The outcome you describe is unlikely ever to come up in play, certainly not on a regular basis, and so can be narrated as seems appropriate at the time.This was answered by  [MENTION=336]D'karr[/MENTION], and also by  [MENTION=6680772]Iosue[/MENTION] in this thread's first go around: the words "hit" and "miss" refer to hitting or missing a target number. They describe the events of gameplay, not the events in the fictional gameworld.Balesir has also explained the sensible reason for this - in a fight between skilled combatants, they do not literally miss. Rather, they block, parry, deflect etc.The "to hit" roll has been renamed the "attack roll" for at least two editions (4e and 5e). I don't know what 3E called it.Damage is an odd one. In the real world, speaking ordinary image, living organisms don't suffer damage. They suffer wounds and injuries. Inanimate objects suffer damage. So the use of damage to describe harm inflicted to living things is already slightly unusual. (And has obvious wargame roots - as referring to damage dealt to a unit rather than to a living thing.)Hit points also have their origins in wargaming terminology. They reflect, in some loose way, the capability of the play piece to suffer hits (ie successful attacks) and survive. Obviously in D&D there have always been many ways to ablate hit points other than via successful attacks, though (eg falling damage, traps, spells, etc).**************************************What do hit points represent?In my view, nothing. The event of adding or subtracting hit points does represent something. When something happens in the fiction that pushes a character closer to death, deduct hp (this is called "damage"). When something happens in the fiction that restores or revitalises a character, or otherwise makes death less likely, add hp (this is called "healing").But the hit point total itself doesn't represent anything. It is just an outcome of applying the addition and subtraction rules.(This is my answer to [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]'s "1 hp challenge".)</blockquote>

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