Do you feel the same concern for the 1 hp kobold or orc or goblin in all those old modules?
No, because their hit point value tells me that in relation to pretty much anything else out there they're complete pushovers.
I mean, why can't those PCs just do 1/2 a point of damage and let those humanoids have one more chance at glory?
A good and valid question; in that the hit point system is nowhere near granular enough to properly handle tiny creatures that have 1 at most along with unfortunate creatures such as these one-hit-wonder orcs and kobolds. The problem, of course, is that to make it granular enough to distinguish between a kitten and a kobold the hit point numbers for creatures that are actually tough would be crazy big. Either that, or it'd have to be on a j-curve where the difference between 1 and 2 h.p. is far less than the difference between 36 and 37 h.p., but that introduces its own can o' worms
No system for combat resolution is infinitely granular. Boundries are drawn and limits on variability set. I mean, there's a chance that any outdoor combat will be disrupted by sudden torrential rain, but I don't know any RPG that expressly provides for this in its combat resolution system.
No, but it wouldn't be that difficult to add in to a lot of systems - every so-many rounds, say; or even once every so-many combats, the DM rolls d% and on 00 something odd happens - she then checks a table which could have entries including:
- a third "side" - a creature awoken by the noise, a passing troop, something flying by, or anything else appropriate - enters the fray, initially fighting equally against everyone already involved
- someone unknown to either side is noticed by both sides to be observing the combat from a distance without - thus far - taking part in any way
- a sudden and potentially disruptive environmental change occurs:
- - - some ground gives way from below (collapse) or above (landslide)
- - - the weather changes suddenly and unexpectedly e.g. a torrential downpour begins, a strong wind arises, etc.
- - - a tree or large branch (or some rock, if underground) falls onto the battlefield potentially hitting at least one random combatant and making some terrain hazardous thenceforth
- - - smoke or fog from a known or unknown source suddenly obscures the battlefield, or parts of it
and so forth.
Hmmm...on further review the more I look at this the more I think it has some potential - I might just add it in to my own game. Thanks for the inspiration!
The notion of "internal consistency" does no work here. By "mechanical consistency" I assume you mean something like unchanging mechanical framing of the resolution. In which case your example makes no sense. If your 4e D&D game involves a 17th level PC fighting a 1st level PC the system has nothing to offer you. You're on your own.
Without difficulty I can think of a few in-fiction situations where something like this might easily arise - dozens if one of the PCs in instead a levelled NPC - and I'd say that if the system can't handle it then that's down to the system, not me.
Much the same as you can't use the AD&D mechanics to resolve the difference between taking one or three slaps of a shoe to kill that spider you found in your bedroll.
The AD&D mechanics could legitimately produce the correct result in either case (first-time killhit or a miss-miss-killhit sequence) and are thus reflective enough of reality to - in this case - be useful.
The numbers are not a model. They're a resolution system.
Then where or what is the model? (and before you answer, note that an answer of "there isn't one" renders the setting as meaningless - we might as well be playing in Robert Jordan's Tel'aran'rhiod dreamworld where things change based on whatever a given dreamer happens to dream in the moment)
An 8th level Ogre Savage has AC 19 and 111 hp. A 16th level Ogre Bludgeoneer has AC 28 and 1 hp (and never takes damage on a miss, because a minion). Which is tougher?
It's a trick question - they're of the same toughness, each wearing hide armour and wielding a greatclub, but statted differently for different resolution contexs.
Which tells me how tough they are relative to the PCs they're facing right this minute; but tells me absolutely nothing about how tough they are relative to each other or to anything else in the setting or to how tough they were yesterday or last week, which makes those numbers utterly useless for anything else beyond here-and-now interaction. Waste of time - why even bother?
Put another way,
there's more to a setting than just the PCs. They're just a few of a great many inhabitants in it.
This is the same for the ogre savage and ogre bludgeoneer. There toughness relative to the rest of the world is what it is. It is a feature of the fiction. It doesn't need to be statted out. That's not what stats are for - they're not tools for zoologists and ecologists
No. They're tools for setting builders and-or encounter designers.
they're tools for players of a game wishing to resolve action declaratoins in that game.
How can they be tools for players doing anything? Hit points, AC, and so forth (usually) are not player-side information.