D&D General Hit Points—What the *Bleep* Are They?

[generic]

Hit points are the existential isolation of the Neoplatonist from the One, a measure of Human frailty and imperfection.

/ducks

 

[Shiroiken]

I generally view HP, from the PC side of things, as a form of stamina. You take some bumps and bruises, and maybe a wound or two after you're at half HP. A blow that drops you to 0 is a definitive wound, since you could die from it. After a long rest, you've recovered your stamina, but those bumps, bruises, and wounds are still there (and still hurt), but you're ready to go if needed. Magic can heal some of those wounds, as well as recovering stamina, but it's not actually necessary.

For NPCs and monsters I use them as physical wounds, since no one really cares about them after the combat is over. The exception would be for any major NPC or villain, as I would treat them like a PC.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

You know that old quote, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."?

Hit points are essentially the size of a specific creature's fight. In other words, they're a measure of how much you can take and keep fighting - of how long you can withstand adverse situations and remain able to effectively act or react to them.

A reasonable answer.

Follow-up question: What is HP damage?

 

[Aldarc]

A reasonable answer.

Follow-up question: What is HP damage?

Presumably then, if one were to follow that analogy, it represents how much of the fight you take out of the dog with a given action.

 

[jasper]

A reasonable answer.

Follow-up question: What is HP damage?

what happens when your pc hits the floor. Hopefully his hard drive is ok.

 

[CleverNickName]

I still have no idea what hit points are.
But thanks to the efforts of several vocal people on the Internet, I have a pretty good idea of what they aren't.

 

[Anoth]

Could we just provide links to the 10,000 other threads on this topic. Although I like the responses in this thread. I could tell most people thought this topic had been done to death. I almost think starting another thread on this topic is just being a troll.

 

[Anoth]

Is it from a lack of skill or a lack of divine protection?

In my case psychic damage from mental trauma from a failed sanity check.

 

[Azzy]

Could we just provide links to the 10,000 other threads on this topic. Although I like the responses in this thread. I could tell most people thought this topic had been done to death. I almost think starting another thread on this topic is just being a troll.

This thread was simply to compile what the game has had to say about hit points over every edition. This is to provide a baseline of what the official stance has been in each edition compared to everyone else's opinions on the matter (not to say that the different opinions have little or no merit, but that they are opinions after the fact). If anything, any further threads on hp should link back to this thread so that everyone can stop foisting their opinion as the One True Way(TM) and pretending that it's the official stance.

In my opinion, hit points shouldn't be analyzed closely (or at all) because they fall apart under any scrutiny, but the work just fine as is as a game mechanic. In the end, it's just a game of playing pretend, so stop trying to be pretentious about it go have fun.