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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6157434" data-attributes="member: 42582">Yes - that is my point.The idea that I can dodge giants' clubs til kingdom come but can't dodge a 1 HD snake (ie if it hits then I have been poisoned and must make a save) is silly.The alternative idea that my dodging of giants' clubs is awesome (as modelled by my hp) but my dodging of snake bites is pretty ordinary(treating saving throws here as FitM adjudication of whether or not I dodged, which is one of the interpretations of saving throws flagged in Gygax's DMG) is also silly.And the yet further idea that hp are meat, and I don't doge giants' clubs but rather take them full in the face and shrug them off (think Superman or the Hulk), yet am vulnerable to a snake's poison, is perhaps the silliest of all. Bringing in talk of "chemical interactions with neurons" just emphasises the silliness - acid does hit point damage for its chemical interactions with skin and other tissue, but poison doesn't because it is interacting with a different sort of tissue? Does acid dripped in the ear - which is likely to interact with a neuron or two! - trigger a save vs poison?And saving throws for massive damage are just a kludge - a fighter who takes 40 hp out of 100 total has to save for massive damage, though if s/he saves s/he will be able to walk away, whereas a wizard who takes 4 hp out of 4, and so is guaranteed to be knocked out and dying, doesn't have to make any save at all despite taking what has the potential to be a fatal blow.My view is, if you want a wound system go for a serious wound system - and now poison, giants' axes, etc are all variants within your wound mechanics - or if you want a hit point system go for a hit point system. The occasional oddity is tolerable, I think - eg vorpal swords or swords of sharpness - but too much of that sort of stuff can really drive home the weak points in a system. Poison saves are in my view certainly guilty of being "too much".</blockquote>

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