Can I have a whack at the idea of Hit Points, Healing Surges, and how they effect role play?
First, I think people are forgetting a basic truth of both Hit Points and Healing Surges:
The CHARACTERS don't know they exist. Period.
That being said, they don't KNOW they're totally restored after a night's rest. They don't know they have 3.729 Healing surges left. They possibly know they feel better the next morning, but let's try an example with a single character we'll call Samule...
Samule wakes up, hearing an alarm from the town bell. Get jumps up, grabs his trusty sword, and slips on a hardened leather longshirt over this regular clothing, and hits the door outside fast.
[Samule has 30 Hit Points, and 10 Healing Surges.]
Turning to look down the road, he sees Mr. Crossbowman. The next thing he sees is Mr. Crossbow Bolt missing him by an inch and nearing spoiling his nice new pants.
[Samule was actually hit with this attack, but honestly, HP are a combo of luck, health, and being just to darn stubborn to DIE. He is now down to 25 HP]
Not being one to like having pointy-stick-thingies embedded in his body, he takes cover in an alley and listens. Mr. Crossbow man, not known as being the most complicated thinker, runs around the corner into the alley to give chase, and enjoys a sudden improvement in airflow around his neck as Samule's sword rushes to fill the ever-widening gap between Mr. CBM's head and shoulders.
[Scratch one minion with a successful attack roll]
Pity that Samule didn't know about the other THREE guys following Mr. CBM into the alley. Within seconds of Mr. CBM's head bouncing happily past his friends, they all three take swings at Samule, every one hitting!
[Samule is hit for 8, 10, and 4 damage, leaving him with a WONDERFUL 3 HP left to keep him from suffering disability. At this point, he's a little banged up, but not maimed.]
Samule, being an upwardly mobile kind of guy, runs like all get-out relying on the hope that the gold coin he donated to his local church bought him a favor. Oddly enough, they all miss his back as he runs, and give chase. Samule ducks in a doorway, and waits for them to pass, taking a breather and offering up some feverant prayers of thanks to the patron saint of cowards.
[Yup, they all missed. Get over it. At this point, the encounter is over, and Sammy boy uses 4 of his 10 healing surges to recover.]
Samule is getting a touch nervous now, and is considering holding out in the building until the whole thing blows over. That idea is ruined when he hears a crash from the next room, and the cry of a woman and child begging for mercy. With a heroic sigh of annoyance, he rushes to the next room and body tackles the Evil Soldier.
[New fight starting. He has 30 HP, 6 healing surges, and serious issues with bullies.]
Mr. Evil Soldier takes offense at Samule interrupting his 'happy time', and beats on him with his war axe with the interest of doing serious bodily harm. Samule wants the hurting to stop, and pokes the pointy end of the sword into his new friend with enthusiasm and vigor.
[By the time Sam has finished helping Mr. ES stop worrying about that little breathing problem he had, he's been hit 3 times for 18 points of damage. He has 12 HP.]
And then, he graciously accepts the thank you and reward from Mrs. Victimwithson, in the form of a cast iron skillet cracked up against his head.
[Whoops! Correction. He has 8 HP left. My fault.]
Hurried on his way out the back door again, he runs into his three old buddies. They're OVERJOYED to see him, and rush to greet him. He rushes to greet a door on the other side of the alley, and bars it from the inside. A few minutes later, he's hiding in a cellar.
[The encounter is over again, now, and he takes 3 more healing surges, giving him 8 + 21 HP (7 each), and ends up with 29 HP. He now has 3 Healing Surges left, and is starting to feel like a small horse walked over him.]
The three stooges, figuring if Samule was smart, he would have went out the front door and ran for it, immediately decide to explore the cellar. Samule decides to hold the doorway so he only has to face them one at a time.
The first one gets a hit on him, and he tries to pull himself together for the second one. He's able to kill the second with a lucky hit, and faces off with the third. After a pitched battle, he suddenly remembers which end of his sword is best embedded in the other guy's skull, and does so.
[The first one hit him for 7 points before he kills him and spends a action on a Second Wind, getting those points back. He gets hit twice more by the third one for a total of 13 HP damage, leaving him with 16 HP]
Taking a breather, again, and feeling like the gods are playing a joke on him, he rests and rubs his ribs. He feels tired, achy, and has several cuts and bruises all over his body. He's love nothing more than to just call it a day.
[Yup. He's got 30 HP now, but is out of healing surges.]
And he hears the woman scream again from next door...
With a tired sigh, he pulls himself up, and slowly walks up the stairs. an air of finality hangs about him as he knows his luck can't hold out. Win or lose, this next fight is his last.
[At this point, the wounds would still be superficial, but more dramatic, The crack of a rib, the dislocation of his shoulder for a moment, and finally, the possibility of nothing he does working to hold of the sheer exhaustion nibbling away at his resolve. Someone fighting to this point has pretty much not only ran out of luck, but also the ability to shrug off the attacks facing him.]
While any character can fall due to damage taking thier HP down during combat, Healing surges seem to better represent the old saying, "Shucks! It's only a flesh wound, Mam...". It looked bad, but it's not really fatal at all.
Thoughts?
