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<blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 5791280" data-attributes="member: 1645">I don't think it's misrepresenting hit points at all to say that they reduce mortal wounds to flesh wounds, and thus they are &quot;just a flesh wound&quot; points.&nbsp; They certainly aren't just physical toughness, they don't make much sense as skill, and they do explicitly include luck, divine favor, etc.Now, does it hurt your enjoyment of the game to dwell on that fact?&nbsp; I suspect so.&nbsp; But they're certainly a better model of plot protection than of toughness or fighting skill.I'm not going to argue for 4E's immediate interrupt actions -- I'm no expert on 4E -- but I think it's reasonable to see D&amp;D hit points as going back and changing a mortal wound to a flesh wound.&nbsp; I understand that you prefer not to see them that way.Let's imagine a new, different kind of hit point though, that represents skill, luck, and divine favor, just like traditional hit points, but it's applied to the to-hit roll, to represent how much extra effort it would take to dive out of the way or roll with the blow enough to turn a sword through the visor into a glancing blow off your armor.&nbsp; That is, your opponent needs a natural 16 to hit, rolls a 17, and you use 2 hit points (or whatever we want to call them) to get out of the way.Is that going back and changing what happened in a way you could not accept?&nbsp; Or is that more or less the same thing as traditional hit points, with a twist?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="mmadsen, post: 5791280, member: 1645"] I don't think it's misrepresenting hit points [i]at all[/i] to say that they reduce mortal wounds to flesh wounds, and thus they are "just a flesh wound" points. They certainly aren't just physical toughness, they don't make much sense as skill, and they do explicitly include luck, divine favor, etc. Now, does it hurt your enjoyment of the game to dwell on that fact? I suspect so. But they're certainly a better model of plot protection than of toughness or fighting skill. I'm not going to argue for 4E's immediate interrupt actions -- I'm no expert on 4E -- but I think it's reasonable to see D&D hit points as going back and changing a mortal wound to a flesh wound. I understand that you prefer not to see them that way. Let's imagine a new, different kind of hit point though, that represents skill, luck, and divine favor, just like traditional hit points, but it's applied to the to-hit roll, to represent how much extra effort it would take to dive out of the way or roll with the blow enough to turn a sword through the visor into a glancing blow off your armor. That is, your opponent needs a natural 16 to hit, rolls a 17, and you use 2 hit points (or whatever we want to call them) to get out of the way. Is that going back and changing what happened in a way you could not accept? Or is that more or less the same thing as traditional hit points, with a twist? [/QUOTE]

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