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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tequila Sunrise" data-source="post: 6505102" data-attributes="member: 40398">As it happens, I too prize verisimilitude and rules with direct ties to the game world. Since I started gaming in the 90’s, D&D’s amorphous hit points have driven me bonkers! What do they represent in the game world, if anything? Well characters have no other stat to represent dodge/parry skill, so hit points obviously have to represent that in part. (Nevermind why characters have a finite supply of dodginess!) But Con modifies hit points and healing spells…well, heal, so clearly some portion of hit points are ‘meat points.’I could go on, but I’m sure you’re familiar with the controversy. Point is, rules with ambiguous ties to the fiction bug me too!…However, 4e presents a unique opportunity for gamers like us. Whatever other amorphous rules 4e has*, 4e is unique in granting everyone a level-based AC bonus. Which means that hit points can have a concrete direct-to-fiction meaning! All it takes is throwing out the book’s idea of hit points. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> *Prone oozes, 5-foot charge-bubbles, and whatever else peeves your pet.Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to preach the 4e gospel to you. I just like to point out that 4e does have one big verisimilitude advantage over other editions. In fact this advantage is so big that I’d rather refluff or house rule 4e’s minor quirks than do the same with any other edition, plus bang my head against traditional hit points.</blockquote>

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