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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7850768" data-attributes="member: 58172">For the sake of brainstorming ...I feel the name ‘hit’ points works well enough. It abstracts the number of ‘hits’ that are necessary before finally bypassing the defenses of the target.Which makes me think, there can four defenses. Each one can be bypassed separately.Here ‘toughness’ is understood as ‘natural armor’, the ability to shake off a solid hit. Artificial armor, in this sense, like chain armor, is actually a bonus to toughness. Size matters. Big beefy targets are inherently tougher than little fragile targets. While it is possible for a small target to punch above their weightclass, they are the special exception that proves the rule of how much the weightclass matters in a real fight. Normally, Size and toughness correlate. For nonmagical creatures, size is in itself a kind of natural armor, that is its own resilience to impact.Then ‘gymnastics’ is the ability to evade the hit entirely − the reflexes, speed, and mobility, to get out of the way. (The encumbrance of artificial armor might add a bonus to toughness, but limit the effectiveness of gymnastics.)‘Perceptiveness’ is the ability to anticipate the attack ahead of time − whether by analysis and experience, or intuition and gut instincts, or miraculous fateful luck. Perceptiveness relates to initiative and avoiding surprises, and planning an effective defense accordingly. Perceptiveness is all about tactics.The last category is the social factor. It includes sheer willpower, and the ability to intimidate and psyche out an opponent. We see this in nature, for example, when a fiercely brave, individual, hyena stares down and scares away a lion.These four combat factors correspond to the four D&D defenses: fortitude, reflex, perception, and will.These four defenses correlate to the foursome arrangement of ability scores.Strength-Constitution (fortitude)Dexterity-Athletics (reflex)Intelligence-Perception (perception)Charisma-Wisdom (will)What is novel here in this post is ...Strength-Constitution (fortitude) is the actual ‘natural armor’, in other words, the AC. The ability to make hits less significant. So punching a Tiny animal is very different from punching a Huge elephant. Effectively − and relatively − the elephant has a higher natural armor than the tiny animal.So, there are four kinds of defenses.• The ‘fortitude defense’ − essentially serving as the armor class.• The ‘reflex defense’ − dodge, leap out of the way• The ‘perception defense’ − negating a surprise and gaining initiative to respond ahead of time• The ‘will defense’ − the psychological factor of any combat − morale and intimidationWith an eye on 4e, it is better to treat all four defenses in the same way, mathematically and mechanically. In other words, all four are a DC target number that the attack must roll higher than to hit, or oppositely all four are saves, being a bonus that the defender rolls to avoid being hit. Either way, the defenses are a bonus number. If active, the defender adds a d20, and if passive, the defender adds a base +10.Finally, there are four defenses. And there only needs to be one abstract hit point pool. The hit point pool is the sum of all hit point factors: endurance, dodging, anticipation, morale.Bypassing any of the four defenses can deplete the hit points.The reason is, in a real fight, the defenses cant really be separate from each other. If the target has formidable morale, then it might keep on dodging out of the way, a second wind from inner strength. This is the proverbial ‘300’ Spartans. And so on. A physically tough target can still press on, even if the will to survive runs out. So the hit points is a fungible and indivisible abstraction of hit points.But the methods of attack, very much have a specific defense to bypass.</blockquote>

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