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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hypersmurf" data-source="post: 4467241" data-attributes="member: 1656">What's absurd, though?I don't understand why it's absurd that if someone has just been described as having a rapier open up a wicked gash along their ribs, they can recover a quarter of their hit points with a healing surge while still having an open gash along their ribs.I watch a Van Damme movie.  In the final fight, he's getting beaten down, his eyes are blackened, his nose is bloodied, he's on the floor... and then the bad guy picks the wrong thing to say.  Van Damme's head snaps up, his eyes flash, and he leaps up and pummels the guy to a pulp.  Does his bloodied nose miraculously clean up?  Do his eyes unblacken?  No - he's still showing those effects, but he's back in the fight.I watch Desperado.  Cristos is annihilating Right-Hand's cousin, including breaking his shin.  The cousin is down... and then he jumps up and breaks Cristos' neck with a spinning kick.  He gets a cast put on the leg, and the next day he's fine - walking with a limp and a 'clink', but otherwise unimpeded.  Same movie, the mariachi gets shot, get stuck with assorted knives, he's bleeding... he gets the bullet holes sewn up, he ties rags around the stab wounds, he's good to go.Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy gets shot in the arm.  Blood splashes; the German sergeant punches him in the arm, he screams.  He gets dragged behind a truck for a bit... climbs back up, knocks the guy out of the truck, carries on driving.  That night, he's complaining that everything hurts... but it didn't slow him down, and it doesn't slow him down for the rest of the film.Van Damme is still cut and bruised.  The mariachi has stab wounds.  Indy has a bullet hole.  But that doesn't mean they can't be back up to full hit points after a rest - even though those wounds can still be seen.  Recovering the hit points doesn't have to mean the evidence of the wounds disappears.  It's just that they don't have a mechanical effect on the subsequent action.So in 4E, I get hit with an axe, and I lose 15 hit points, taking me down to 5.  "The blade bites deep into your leg," the DM states.  On my turn, I spend a healing surge to recover 10 hit points, and then an action point to take a standard action of my own.  "Regdar screams as the axe strikes home," I say.  "But he blocks out the pain through force of will, and smashes the orc backwards with his shield, limping relentlessly after him."After the combat, during the short rest, I spend another two healing surges to bring Regdar back up to full hit points.  "Regdar pulls the bandage tight, and gingerly sets his weight onto his injured leg.  He hisses - the pain of the fresh wound is still sharp.  But his companions will need him in the upcoming assault; there's no time for self-pity.  Clenching his teeth, he tries again... it hurts, but it's manageable.  'I'll be fine,' he bites out.  'Let's keep moving.'"Regdar's at full hit points, but he's three healing surges down.  Why should "At full hit points" invalidate the description of him toughing his way through an injured leg?I've got no problem with hit point damage corresponding to in-game events.  In the above example, the in-game event (Regdar's leg is cut) occurred at the same time as he took 15 damage.The mechanical event "Regdar regains 10 hit points", however, doesn't have to be accompanied by the in-game event "The wound in Regdar's leg magically heals itself".  What it tells us is that if he gets hit for 6 damage, he isn't going to fall unconscious, whereas before the healing surge, he would have.-Hyp.</blockquote>

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