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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 5049733" data-attributes="member: 1645">In D&D -- OD&D through 3.5E, at least -- if you're kill-able in one shot -- with an ordinary sword, spear, or arrow, from an ordinary warrior -- then you only have one hit die, which is a weakness in itself, and you must be first-level -- or zero-level -- and thus weak and not powerful in other ways as well.In an alternative game, where characters did not have hit points and did not get one hit die per level, the greatest knight in the world could still be extremely tough but kill-able in one shot.  For instance, he could block 19 attacks in 20 -- equivalent to a high AC -- and only one of those successful attacks in 20 would be a telling blow -- equivalent in some ways to 20 hit dice, but not in others.  We'd expect such a warrior to endure 400 ordinary attacks -- he'd be ludicrously powerful -- but there would be no guarantee against that first arrow finding his eye slit, unless he also had fate on his side.A PC, of course, would have fate on his side, in the form of quasi-hit points, which he could use to modify rolls to hit or to hurt him.</blockquote>