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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 4464517" data-attributes="member: 3586">One of the unusual - and paradigm breaking - parts of 1e is then how healing interacts with such wounds. It's one thing which I believe 4e does far better with its healing surges (no matter how such are acquired).Consider a 1st level fighter with 8 hp. He takes a fairly major blow for 7 hp, reducing him to within sight of death at 1 hp. Then the cleric casts a cure light wounds spell on him and restores him to full hit point. By the implied flavour of the spell, then it was surely a minor wound.However, a 10th level fighter with maximum of 75 hp and then reduced to 1 hp has that self-same spell cast on him, and isn't even close to being fully healed. Indeed, given the monsters he is fighting, he's very, very close to death.Bizarrely, if those two fighters, both reduced to 1 hp, then require bed rest to heal, the first requires only 7 days to be restored to full health, whilst the other requires 38 days! I'm tougher, more beloved of the gods... but I take longer to heal?####Returning to 4e, may I suggest the following way of looking at 4e damage, using a comparison with 3e Star Wars - Hit points in 4e are Vitality Points. Healing Surges are Wound Points.A character who is out of healing surges is very close to death. Wounds are real wounds. I've seen it several times in my campaigns, and the behaviour of the players changes significantly when they're down to 2 or fewer surges. At that stage, they've taken several possibly life-threatening hits, and only the grace of the gods and/or their own skill and training have allowed them to continue.A character with healing surges who has been reduced to 0 hp has been hurt - enough to render them unconscious - but the players and DM don't know exactly how hurt until they recover or die. The blow looked significant, certainly, but was it fatal? Perhaps it was just a glancing blow, or maybe not.In ASL, there's a similar mechanic: tanks may end up under "shock", which basically stuns them for a couple of rounds. However, a random die roll at the beginning of each extra round may have them recover or be eliminated. Why is this mechanic in there? It's because it actually simulates real warfare: in WW2, soldiers couldn't tell if they'd actually "killed" the tank or not and so kept firing at it long after everyone aboard was dead.Cheers!</blockquote>

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