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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TeeSeeJay" data-source="post: 641583" data-attributes="member: 9969">This is pretty much dead-on. D&D combat is an abstraction, in that when you roll to hit, you're not rolling to see the outcome of a specific swing of the sword, you're rolling to the see the outcome of several seconds-worth of stabs, slashes, parrys, dodges, etc. When you "miss" in D&D, you don't literally miss the target with your attack, you just fail to make significant contact in a way to deal damage. That's why the target's AC and DEX bonus are factors in your chance to "hit".Hit points are pretty much what Mustrum said -- they're units that represent a character's ability to fight. They represent all the little combat details that aren't important enough to bog down in actual rules -- a second level fighter is better than a first level fighter. Why? Because he can somehow physically sustain more cuts and blows than the other guy? That makes no sense, but we are talking about "heroes" here. It only makes sense if you think of it in terms of improved ability. It also explains why different classes use different hit dice. A wizard with a d4 HD is never going to be as good in a fight as a similar-level fighter. Not because the wizard is frail and brittle (though that's a part of it, but reflected not through HP but through the STR and CON attributes). The more hit points you have, the better you are in a fight -- simple as that -- it might be the way you've learned to twist your torso to direct the blow to a less-vital place, a last-second flick of the shield to slow down the attacker's weapon. Of all the methods to reflect this improvement in ability, I think that HP is the simplest. You could create a sliding scale for the amount of damage done by a weapon against a creature of a certain level, or you could work level into an AC bonus, but are those really graceful solutions?Now, in a firearms-based game like Shadowrun, the implication is that combat is more literal, a one-attack equals one-bullet situation.  This isn't melee combat with feints and dodges, it's pointing a gun and pulling the trigger. The defender's stats and skills doesn't impact your chances of hitting him.Have I made sense of this?</blockquote>

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