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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 4155297" data-attributes="member: 5143">But you aren't regenerating.  Hitpoints are a lot like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.  You can't know what they are unless you look at them and looking at them changes them so the result is no longer correct.So, you need to deal with them in theory without ever defining them.  This is the best way to use them and the ONLY way they make sense in all cases.  Knowing that someone with 1 hitpoint left is EITHER beaten to a pulp and is bleeding profusely and can barely stand OR their winded and couldn't possibly dodge another blow is all that's important.However, the way that healing surges tend to work "in practicality" is that they are a way to trade off longer lasting injuries for temporary vitality.  I.e. you can survive the next attack against you that would have killed you, but in exchange you are actually hurt.Hitpoints tend to represent your ability to take no damage at all.  You fall off a cliff and it doesn't reduce your hitpoints to 0 then you simply rolled, got a couple minor scrapes and got up.Healing Surges let you say "I want to be tough enough to take a blow from an ogre after getting up.  I'll say that I'm a bit more tired and that I have a nasty cut in exchange for more hitpoints."But even that analogy doesn't work perfectly.  What hitpoints are is a metagame concept designed for providing the optimal play experience in terms of how much pressure players feel they are under, how much danger they are in and how often people should die.</blockquote>

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