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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FalcWP" data-source="post: 4455012" data-attributes="member: 16858">A second wind is 'spontaneous regeneration' if your hit points are 'the orc stabs you in the arm and you take six damage'.  If everything causes serious physical harm, then yes, being able to take a deep breath and be all better is a difficult concept.  If hit points are more about getting the wind knocked out of you, being knocked to the ground, and being thrown off balance in addition to nicks and cuts, I think it works a bit better.  It isn't that you took six seconds and your cuts healed.  Its the fact that you just took a hard right to the jaw that would have dropped a normal human, went down to a knee... and got back up.  Its the 'badass' moment - the point where, even though the bad guy thinks you're on the ropes, you're about to come back strong.  You don't have as much in reserve as you did at the start of the fight - by the time you use a second wind you might be out of encounters and/or dailies - but you have enough to go a couple more rounds.  Its what separates a hero from everyone else.  What is a second wind, from a 'real' standpoint - as in, how would someone in game describe it?  Its adrenaline.  Its determination.  Its utter faith in one's deity or cause.  Onlookers don't see a person sit down for six seconds and then stand up, all their cuts and bruises gone.  They see a hero poised at the edge of defeat take one last breath, raise their sword, and charge their foe - knowing that the next few seconds determine if they live or die.And sometimes, that's not appropriate, either.  Sometimes, its that you took a breath, readjusted your armor, and then cautiously moved back into the main fray.  You spent a moment muttering a minor prayer to a god, to at least staunch the flow of your blood, even though full healing would have to wait.  You pop your shoulder back into its socket.  If it isn't a life or death struggle, it might not be as dramatic a scene - but a second wind can be as 'mundane' as anything in the D&D world.  As with anything when the imagination is involved, a second wind can range from spectacular to ordinary.I'll be honest - the tiers are something that I find a bit difficult to grasp, as written, from in-game.  They've always existed, to an extent - 20th level adventurers in 3E could do things that were utterly outside the realm of belief for 1st level adventurers.A number of possibilities exist, to transition from one tier to another.  Contact with a divine or infernal agent.  Magical rituals.  Learning secret martial techniques.  A personal quest that allows you to better understand your destiny.  These are all possibilities, but I don't know if they all explain how a character can jump from slightly beyond mortal (heroic tier) to, in essence, a super hero (paragon) and to a state approaching the divine (epic).</blockquote>

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