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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7350135" data-attributes="member: 7006">The easiest way to make hits actual hits and damage actual damage (and take &quot;energy&quot; out of the equation) is for you to just never have any character gain more hit points than what they get at 1st level.&nbsp; If you do that... then a single successful and strong hit with a greataxe might very well drop you to 0 hit points as it well should.Does this mean PCs can't stand up as a group one-on-one against a dragon?&nbsp; Yup.&nbsp; A single breath weapon attack will mostly likely set every PC on fire and potentially kill them outright (with the &quot;go to negative HP and you're immediately dead&quot; rule.)&nbsp; But if you want to be concerned about representing a physical reality of combat and that hit points are meant to represent that reality... no one should have 20s, 50s, 100s of hit points.&nbsp; Because when you do, it suggests that someone can stand there completely unarmored in front of someone with a greataxe and take three, five, ten blows from that greataxe and still not reach 0 HP and fall unconscious.&nbsp; Which we all know is stupid.Why are our hit points so high?&nbsp; Because it's the way the game emulates &quot;heroic fantasy&quot; and not &quot;the physical realities of combat&quot;.&nbsp; And it's the same reason why Hollywood fight scenes can go on for more than five minutes with people taking massive punches and blows to the face and head, whereas a UFC fighter can knock someone senseless in three seconds with a single punch or kick.&nbsp; &quot;The physical realities of combat&quot; are less interesting to experience and less fun to play as a game in the world of Dungeons &amp; Dragons.D&amp;D is a game first and foremost that is trying to represent a hyper-reality, not true-to-life.&nbsp; And the game presents game rules and game mechanics trying to make the game itself fun while presenting that hyper-reality.&nbsp; And thus the game sometimes has to supersede the &quot;realities&quot; of the narrative because it's not trying to &quot;be real&quot;.&nbsp; It's trying to be &quot;fun&quot; and &quot;cool&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7350135, member: 7006"] The easiest way to make hits actual hits and damage actual damage (and take "energy" out of the equation) is for you to just never have any character gain more hit points than what they get at 1st level. If you do that... then a single successful and strong hit with a greataxe might very well drop you to 0 hit points [I]as it well should[/I]. Does this mean PCs can't stand up as a group one-on-one against a dragon? Yup. A single breath weapon attack will mostly likely set every PC on fire and potentially kill them outright (with the "go to negative HP and you're immediately dead" rule.) But if you want to be concerned about representing a physical reality of combat and that hit points are meant to represent that reality... no one should have 20s, 50s, 100s of hit points. Because when you do, it suggests that someone can stand there completely unarmored in front of someone with a greataxe and take three, five, ten blows [I]from[/I] that greataxe and still not reach 0 HP and fall unconscious. Which we all know is stupid. Why are our hit points so high? Because it's the way the game emulates "heroic fantasy" and not "the physical realities of combat". And it's the same reason why Hollywood fight scenes can go on for more than five minutes with people taking massive punches and blows to the face and head, whereas a UFC fighter can knock someone senseless in three seconds with a single punch or kick. "The physical realities of combat" are less interesting to experience and less fun to [B][I]play as a game[/I][/B] in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. D&D is a game first and foremost that is trying to represent a hyper-reality, not true-to-life. And the game presents game rules and game mechanics trying to make the game itself fun while presenting that hyper-reality. And thus the game sometimes has to supersede the "realities" of the narrative because it's not trying to "be real". It's trying to be "fun" and "cool". [/QUOTE]

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