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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jodyjohnson" data-source="post: 7265454" data-attributes="member: 5590">According to the Monk flavor-text, Ki is magical life energy flowing through living creatures.  Life force.Thus living creatures have Ki around them and a part of them that certain Monk powers can disrupt.  What if that Ki or life force energy actually acted as a Force Field?Here's are some game effects by raw that make more sense for me with Hit Points being a protective force field generated by a creature's Ki.1.  Getting hit while paralyzed (held) or sleeping.  Sure it is a Crit but with sufficient HP you can still short or long rest that off.  So you're not really that injured.2.  Effectively your gear is protected while held or worn.  Sounds like a personal force field to me.3.  Magic Missile and Eldritch blast do force damage and don't effect objects (the living force of creatures can be damaged but not the physical lifeless objects).4.  Your force field can regenerate quickly with a short rest and HD, second wind, or long rest.5.  It helps you survive unearthly falls.6.  It is determined by your power level.  The more powerful you are, the more potent the HP shield.  It also increases with size (droideca shields, versus starship shields, versus Death Star or Planetary based shields).7.  A huge or gargantuan creature can hit and knock a character back dozens of feet, step on them, or fall on them but not crush them into lifelessness.  They are superheros.  (Go ahead and shoot me in the eye with that 20mm cannon)Other side effects of Hit Points as a Life Force Field.1.  It could be sensed by the creature itself - a creature might be aware of it's own strength of shield without needing to feel like it's meta-gaming.2.  It might be observable with a certain skill or practice as levels of vividness or vibrancy (Vivid: lively and vigorous; Vibrant: 1.  quivering; pulsating, 2.  (of color) bright and striking).  Maybe like observing Video Chroma or Contrast and changes in level.    Not quite like a green floating Hit Point bar but it could be analogous.3.  Skin deep allowing for slight cuts, scrapes, and bruising but nothing a few hit dice can't recover.  Flexible enough to extend outward to gear, clothing, and certainly your long flowing tresses.  Something acid could try to dissolve without actually maiming the character.  Fire to flame around and leave blackened smudges without months in the burn unit.  Poison to wear down.  Lightning to arc across.  Etc.4.  Proof against Disintegration but once it is out - poof into dust.Within the Death save mechanics the character might still be drawing on unreliable reserves of life force shielding.  Sometimes they recover without effect almost instantly and other times they might wither and die with the slightest of injures (falling 10' with low HP and then failing enough Death saves.)P.S.  House rule: when Dying from Death Saves or massive damage a character might choose to instead roll on the Lingering Injury Chart (up to your gluttony for loss of limb and appetite for battle scars) and then become Incapacitated until the next Short or Long rest.  An attacker delivering a fatal blow (critical in melee with the creature at 0 hp) can choose the result.  Both superheroic HP force shields and the potential for Lingering injuries.  Because it's all fun and games until a Jedi loses an appendage, possibly multiple times over several movies.</blockquote>

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