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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jester47" data-source="post: 1231428" data-attributes="member: 2238">[PLAIN][Long][/PLAIN]Hey guys, don't waste your time trying to make it more realistic by adding rules.  Here's what I did.  First, I restated what hitponts represent.  In my campaign they represent luck and divine favor, the ability to defend yourself and roll with the minor hits that actually land, and to some degree physical toughness (but only if you have a con bonus).Don't worry armor comes into this, keep reading.As a fight goes on, people get tired, their luck runs out, they take a few scrapes.  When it all runs out, they recieve a mortal wound (drop to 0 or below).  For a while I was working on my EMT I.  The thing is, I noticed (and monte wrote about this) that when people get hurt beyond a small broken bone or a heavily bleeding-but not deadly cut (simple injuries), they are ussually in danger of dying.  If you have trouble moving after getting hurt you are probably on death's door.  (the reference is intentional)  Looking at hit points this way also helps to answer another question- why do incorporeal creatures have hit points?  If hit points represent physical damage capacity then incorporeal creatures should not have hit points!  (granted, players have to be able to defeat them somehow, but looking at the HP/AC mechanic the way I do above answers this question.  But what about cure X wounds spells? What about them?  They are positive energy.  They heal the minor/major cuts and bruises, restore luck and devine favor, and get rid of the effects of fatigue from battle.  As for undead, charging a negative energy creature with positive energy puts the forces that drive the creature back in alignment and thus hurt it.  AC represents some other factors.  It represents that armor can be hard to get by because its metal.  It represents how fast someone can move (notice this is not "rolling with the punches" but rather staying clear of them.). It represents thick skin and scales.  It represents energy shields.  It represents the log you are hiding behind.DR is based on the idea (one that is in the SRD and PH) that when an enemy makes a sucessful attack it is assumed they landed a blow.  If you change what hit points mean (basicly luck, stamina, and skill in self defence -- on a side note, the skill in harming others is the BAB...) then you are assumeing that any loss of hit points that does not cross the 0 line is not an actual connection with the body, but rather the enemy wearing down his opponent.  The "touche" is when the hps hit 0.  This means that the attacker has found the chink in the armor, the flaw in the targets technique, swung a mighty blow that penetrates the armor etc etc.  This makes DR a moot point.  Furthermore, archeological and trauma room evidence supports this way of dealing with fantasy damage.  Soldiers ussually only recieve one wound.  Many Medieval battlefields indicate that most of the dead were severly wounded only once.  Court TV supports this also.  The guy trying to shoot the lawyer.  Using this outlook on the mechanic, you can see the lawyers hps dropping with every shot.  He takes some fleshwounds, but he never crosses 0.  Cinema is another argument.  Indigo Montoya and the fight with the man in black and the fight with six fingered man (granted in that last one both characters he take 5 injuries- but Montoya has the die hard feat!).  Any lightsaber duel.   And the killing blow almost always happens when someones luck runs out (guy with the helmet at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan) they get worn out (Montoya vs. MIB) or someone figures out your style (Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul) or someone is vastly more experienced (vader vs. Luke).Dropping below 0 means a character is unconscious.  But what does that mean?  In my game it means that while the character may still be awake and aware they are in no condition to do anything, mentally or physically.  They are in shock if they are not actually unconscious.  This all also works well with the subdual damage system and is more similar to it.  I think looking at the HP/AC system this way restores the realism without changing anything.  And it is how I am running my game from now on. YMMVAaron.</blockquote>

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