That One Guy
First Post
First, I gotta' say that was awesome.{Excellent}
So, now for my actual response. How do I deal with it? I ignore the flavour text as written. Continue on.
HP/HS/2W? I had accepted the idea of HP being a combination of adrenaline, blood, will power, etc. A hit to the armor might bruise, but on some characters that might bruise their ego enough that they'll just give up. I accepted this idea, then I read a couple pages from a random library book - Women in Battle. There are several women who have lived through cuts and bullet holes (the parts I read were more Renaissancey/18th century) and gathered their resolve to succeed in battles. Second wind. I've never been a fan of the historically accurate D&D arguments, but... it was very convincing to me that it is well within reason that a person could recover. Also, when a person gets a relatively big damage number or crit I always add, "The wound is bleeding and if you don't tend to it, you will probably die." Thus, the 5 minutes breather is (like others have said) patching up wounds etc.
Encounter/Daily mechanic? As others have said, encounter is a gambit or slightly difficult spell/technique to pull off that probably won't work again - especially if the enemies can see it coming. Dailies IMO take an amount of energy out of a person. But, I want to put in a house rule where a person can burn health/Healing surges (akin to the warlock's feat... but more damaging to make the feat worthwhile) to pull more out of oneself.
Action points are a risk as well or a surge of adrenaline etc. It's situational.
That is 4e. It has rules that have not so great fluff. The fluff for combat is... fake. It's an invite to make something that works for you and your group. I feel so daft for not realizing that before.
The ones I have trouble with are magic items. I say that they have a reserve of magical energy that flows back through lack of use. It's weak... but it works. Also thinking of houseruling a way for some characters to pull an artificer and force energy into such items. Can't be as powerful as theirs... but yeah.
That's how I do it.