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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fifth Element" data-source="post: 4542045" data-attributes="member: 48135">You want me to type from page 82 again, don't you? Very well, here's what Mr. Gygax wrote."Why then the increase in hit points [from levelling]? Because these reflect both the actual physical ability to withstand damage...and a commensurate increase in such areas as skill in combat and similar life-or-death situations, the "sixth sense" which warns the individual of some otherwise unforeseen events, sheer luck, and the fantastic provisions of magical protections and/or divine protection."Now, later in the passage is the implication that each "hit" does inflict some amount of physical damage, however it may only be a scratch.Given the number of intangible, non-physical sources of hit points enumerated by Mr. Gygax, I think the contention that morale cannot possibly make up part of hit points is indefensible.The hit point system is abstract. You may find it silly that a creature could be defeated by "morale damage" alone, but that is a consequence of an abstract system. Corner cases will seem strange. But the vast majority of the time, the damage caused to a creature will not come from a single source, and the abstract system works well.I think I see how you interpret the DMG passages to mean that hit points only represents physical damage. But I don't think that interpretation is obvious or a given, considering that the passage discusses the maximum capacity a person would have to withstand actual physical damage, and that "[t]he balance of accrued hit points are those which fall into the non-physical areas already detailed." This spells out in quite plain language that some of a character's hit points do not represent the physical capacity to withstand damage.</blockquote>

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