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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercutio01" data-source="post: 5917333" data-attributes="member: 37277">That's not clear the way Mearls made it clear. There's no delineation, and it's left up to a mushy glop to determine what THIS particular "hit" means in terms of HP. Is THIS hit just a lucky turn avoiding a cut, or is THAT hit actually a puncture wound?He says "a certain portion" and then leaves it completely muddy. The hit points in D&D have until now been a bowl of mashed potatoes. (The metaphor also works with gruel or other comestibles made into a mush.) You scoop some out, and it's up to the narrator to describe whether a hit is actually a hit or not, which leads to "If it's a miss, then how did I get poisoned?" or "If it's a wound, you can't shout it closed." And then you fill up the mashed potatoes and did you close a wound, or just catch a quick breath?Mearls actually defines that portion. The top half of your hit points are luck, exhaustion, etc. The bottom half are physical damage. This is more like a shepherd's pie. To get to the meat, you have to get through the mashed potato crust. If you're hit in the mashed potato layer, it's a near-miss. If you're hit in the meat layer, you got cut. If you're healed in the mashed potato layer, you catch a breath. If you're healed in the meat layer, your wound stops bleeding.Gygax's hit points definition is as clear as a bowl of mashed potatoes. Every hit could be narrated in any way possible, which leads to one person on the internet narrating a hit as actual damage, and someone else on the internet telling him he's wrong and that it's not damage, just exhaustion. Mearls' hit points definition says that any hit before first blood is near-misses, and any hit after the first blood is actual damage.[sblock]Gygax - <img src="http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/images/mashed_potatoes.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock][sblock]Mearls - <img src="http://www.kraftrecipes.com/assets/recipe_images/Easy_Shepherd_s_Pie.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />[/sblock]</blockquote>

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