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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 5620572" data-attributes="member: 12037">I don't think hit points are dissociated because of this. That some people are harder to kill, no matter the circumstances, is something that can be interacted with in game. It isn't something that the PCs have no control over, and in fact it is something that the PCs will have to take into consideration. A PC knows that a fireball spell can never kill them, for example, or that they can jump off that proverbial 200' cliff without dying. These are in game circumstances that can be measured, examined, and known.For a more dissociated "hit point" mechanic, take FATE. In FATE, you have stress boxes that fill up individually and you have consequences you take to lower damage. These consequences last for varying amount of time based on the severity. A player can, at any point, choose not to take the damage that was inflicted and be "taken out." At that point, the attacker gets to choose the character's fate. In a low stakes combat, the player can say his PC was taken out before taking any consequences. In a high stakes combat, the player can choose to take full consequences before being taken out.The reason it is dissociated is because the character isn't exercising control over his own fate. The character isn't letting himself be knocked unconscious or thrown off a bridge or whatever fate the attacker chooses. It's the player stepping forward and saying that that's enough, and the character now loses.I'm not  him, but I'll give an example and see if it makes any sense.The reason that encounter powers and daily powers are seen as dissociated, IMHO, is that the explanation of why they work involves some kind of setup that only happens every once in a while in combat. This series of events that leaves the enemy open to the attack or however you describe it, isn't something that can be explained in full as PC action. He or she is taking advantage of an opportunity. How did the opportunity arise? The player used the power, which made the opportunity arise! That's where we get the disconnect for some people. The player is stepping beyond the bounds of the PC and taking narrative control of the other combatants, the flow of battle, maybe the terrain around them, and so forth, and saying "Now I can do this" because of that narrative control.</blockquote>

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