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*TTRPGs General
Hit Points & Healing Surges Finally Explained!
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<blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 4630034" data-attributes="member: 30001"><p>Modern?! We're talking the 1970s at the earliest. And does this really make any sense at all? So a fighter with 95 hitpoints lays in bed for 40 or 50 days because he's feeling unlucky? And apparently hitpoints 46-95 actually do represent some part of physical damage, which then strangely takes FAR longer for him to heal than an equivalent injury on a 1st level person. And the game isn't resetting (that's an unwarranted "video game" jab AFAICT - the exaggeration verges on baffling actually). </p><p> </p><p>So what DnD before 4E looks like, without healing magic? (which is really the only reason any of this was ever tolerable IMO) are heroes laying around in bed for months on end in order to heal superficial and/or completely invisible injuries? It's only a "modern philosophy" that finds this comical?</p><p> </p><p></p><p> </p><p>I find this a combination of objectively false and downright puzzling. And we're way beyond "I don't like coleslaw" here. Let's say my PC has 40 hp. I take 5 damage. I now have 35 hitpoints. If I take 35 damage the next round, I'm dying. Thus it *matters* that I took the 5 damage. Or say that I take 5 damage the following round as well. Now I'm at 30. Now I'm down the amount of a full healing surge. I really find it much like having hitpoints equal to = 4e hitpoints x healing surges. You never recover hp for free, so every point matters.</p><p> </p><p>"Preserving resources" matters in 4E. Short of some houserules or interesting interpretation of Endurance, I can swing a sword with impunity in earlier editions and never drop from exhaustion, so what it really seems to come down to is some feeling on your part that 3E has daily resource management and 4E does not. And that is objectively false. In fact, I would think it would be obvious to both of us that healing surges themselves are a daily resource that need to be managed across multiple encounters. Thus "use of a healing surge" is not a trivial expenditure.</p><p> </p><p></p><p> </p><p>If it were just a matter of the coleslaw analogy, I'd have nothing to say. AFAICT though it's not "feel or style" that you're strictly limiting yourself to when you are talking about things like granularity, which is far more objective of an issue than how you feel. </p><p> </p><p>"I don't like the 4E PHB because it weighs 8000 lbs and I don't like heavy things". The fact that the speaker doesn't like heavy things is a matter of opinion that I don't dispute - but the "facts" they use to support this I find capable of a more objective analysis.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gizmo33, post: 4630034, member: 30001"] Modern?! We're talking the 1970s at the earliest. And does this really make any sense at all? So a fighter with 95 hitpoints lays in bed for 40 or 50 days because he's feeling unlucky? And apparently hitpoints 46-95 actually do represent some part of physical damage, which then strangely takes FAR longer for him to heal than an equivalent injury on a 1st level person. And the game isn't resetting (that's an unwarranted "video game" jab AFAICT - the exaggeration verges on baffling actually). So what DnD before 4E looks like, without healing magic? (which is really the only reason any of this was ever tolerable IMO) are heroes laying around in bed for months on end in order to heal superficial and/or completely invisible injuries? It's only a "modern philosophy" that finds this comical? I find this a combination of objectively false and downright puzzling. And we're way beyond "I don't like coleslaw" here. Let's say my PC has 40 hp. I take 5 damage. I now have 35 hitpoints. If I take 35 damage the next round, I'm dying. Thus it *matters* that I took the 5 damage. Or say that I take 5 damage the following round as well. Now I'm at 30. Now I'm down the amount of a full healing surge. I really find it much like having hitpoints equal to = 4e hitpoints x healing surges. You never recover hp for free, so every point matters. "Preserving resources" matters in 4E. Short of some houserules or interesting interpretation of Endurance, I can swing a sword with impunity in earlier editions and never drop from exhaustion, so what it really seems to come down to is some feeling on your part that 3E has daily resource management and 4E does not. And that is objectively false. In fact, I would think it would be obvious to both of us that healing surges themselves are a daily resource that need to be managed across multiple encounters. Thus "use of a healing surge" is not a trivial expenditure. If it were just a matter of the coleslaw analogy, I'd have nothing to say. AFAICT though it's not "feel or style" that you're strictly limiting yourself to when you are talking about things like granularity, which is far more objective of an issue than how you feel. "I don't like the 4E PHB because it weighs 8000 lbs and I don't like heavy things". The fact that the speaker doesn't like heavy things is a matter of opinion that I don't dispute - but the "facts" they use to support this I find capable of a more objective analysis. [/QUOTE]
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