Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darkthorne" data-source="post: 4084541" data-attributes="member: 60783">So far I have seen the arguments for HP/healing as 3.5 more realistic (being actual physical damage in some cases) while 4 is more abstract (being bruises, tended on the fly wounds and mental fatigue). I would say look at what both are setting out to be (from certain people's veiwpoints). 3.5 I believe is much less accurate in the goal of being a "realistic" measure of damage taken. A fully healed level 1 wizard no con bonus has 4 hp takes 5 hp of damage is dying with his spleen on the floor exposed for all the world to see. However to save our wizard and lack of modesty regarding his spleen 5 level 0 orisons will bring him back to full fighting trim and vigor (damn that's a powerful spell). Now a 16th level fighter with at this point a 17 con say 152 hp takes 16 hp (that's 4 dead wizards!!!) has a scratch ("It's only a flesh wound!!") will not heal fully from that scratch with 5 of the same exact spell that brought our original spleenless wizard back to full fighting form does not seem "realistic" to me. Mind you I think 3.5 is pretty damn cool and is number crunchy and I like number crunchy (I play with excel for fun, I know I'm sick like that).4th ed however is stating from the get go that hp is more abstract and not actually physical wounds, that it's a combo from above. And wouldn't a spell cast 5 times at level 1 to bring someone back to full health should be able to do the same when cast by someone that is 19 more levels more experienced be able to do the same thing? They also state they have done this so you don't HAVE to have a cleric in the group (Big freaking plus here IMHO, as I don't feel that someone is forced to play something they don't want in order for the group to survive)As for the ticking clock scenarios, they give the game a sense of urgency when required. But if the group has to leave because they have been chewed into under 20 hps at higher levels, they are not going to camp right outside the dungeon and only spend a day there. They will move considerably farther away (more time spent traveling and not as far due to being wounded or PCs at 0) because Leeroy the bugbear has a friend you didn't kill and Leeroy has lots of friends and family that would be more than happy to scout about the surrounding area and then some to go after the extremely wounded PC's as that is easier to deal with than if they are at full health. Even with only using the one day amount of delay (not enough time for the pc's to fully heal) I would believe that is sufficient time to bring alot of the enemy's strength to bear (think of what the PC's can accomplish in this time). I would expect at that point the dungeon being tougher than the 1st time around. Also if your cleric gets dropped this time is substantially longer, let alone if there is no cleric (The dm doesn't have to make things easier because you have no cleric). 3.5 partially forces your hand in what you HAVE to be good in for skills, as you are the one that fills THIS niche (The gods help the group if your dead) and all those years before becoming an adventurer you didn't learn anything? I also honestly think it partially forces your group's hand who play what as you REALLY should a healer type and a trapsmith type. *I* know our group should have a cleric or a rogue but everyone is playing what they like, however that by no means the bad guys should become stupid or less optimal than normal because the PC group design wasn't optimal. I seriously like the fact that about 4th ed you don't have to have either in order for the mission to succeed (or more accurately having a decent chance to succeed).I think the designers looked at it and went "The POV of hp = physical damage at at 40%/60% doesn't work". I think this (the definition of hp) is just a sacred cow they brought out back and shot for something more accurate. But this is my POV  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

Verification