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The "everyone at full fighting ability at 1 hp" conundrum
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<blockquote data-quote="Bawylie" data-source="post: 7830734" data-attributes="member: 6776133"><p>I think you can a) change what hit points are in the rules, b) change what you think hit points are, or c) some combo of both. </p><p></p><p>When you watch boxing or MMA, a KO occurs when a fighter can no longer effectively defend themselves from an opponent’s attacks. The refs (and the supports on the sides) watch closely to ensure the fights stop the instant one combatant can’t stay upright, block, dodge, or otherwise defend themselves. Those fights stop right then because to continue would/could cause substantial harm or permanent injury. So we fight until the fighting part is over, but we don’t deliberately injure someone who can’t defend themselves - that wouldn’t be sport. </p><p></p><p>If we keep that sort of threshold in mind, the idea that a combatant is “KO-ed” once they can’t effectively defend themselves, then we can understand that even 1 hit point is enough to be on your feet and defending yourself. 1 hit point is also a dramatic reduction in combat effectiveness - you won’t be defending yourself effectively for very long. </p><p></p><p>Zero HP would represent a state at which you can’t defend yourself. Hand in hand with that, you’re making death saves, and automatically fail death saves when you take damage. It’s like those failed death saves could be fatal damage. We could think of them that way. </p><p></p><p>The only real issues we run into are speed of recovery. We might think an overnight sleep isn’t good enough to heal all our wounds. But it could be enough to restore our ability to defend ourselves. Certainly boxers and MMA fighters can go back to training or even another fight shortly after a match. Maybe it’s not the next morning, maybe it’s a couple days. Fortunately a “long rest” can mean longer than 1-sleep. </p><p></p><p>So I think if I were to modify the rules at all, I’d have the failed death saves linger for longer because they seem to represent substantial damage, something more than mere fatigue. So maybe just erase 1 failed death save after a week “extended” rest with regular treatment (or perhaps remove one failed death save once per day with use of a Cure Wounds spell). And I’d let a long rest continue to restore full HP with the understanding that HP measures only your ability to effectively defend yourself from lethal attacks. </p><p></p><p>Those slight changes in our thinking and the rules might be enough to remove some of the roadblocks to suspending disbelief. It works for me. But if it’s not 100% there for you, maybe it’s at least on the right track.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bawylie, post: 7830734, member: 6776133"] I think you can a) change what hit points are in the rules, b) change what you think hit points are, or c) some combo of both. When you watch boxing or MMA, a KO occurs when a fighter can no longer effectively defend themselves from an opponent’s attacks. The refs (and the supports on the sides) watch closely to ensure the fights stop the instant one combatant can’t stay upright, block, dodge, or otherwise defend themselves. Those fights stop right then because to continue would/could cause substantial harm or permanent injury. So we fight until the fighting part is over, but we don’t deliberately injure someone who can’t defend themselves - that wouldn’t be sport. If we keep that sort of threshold in mind, the idea that a combatant is “KO-ed” once they can’t effectively defend themselves, then we can understand that even 1 hit point is enough to be on your feet and defending yourself. 1 hit point is also a dramatic reduction in combat effectiveness - you won’t be defending yourself effectively for very long. Zero HP would represent a state at which you can’t defend yourself. Hand in hand with that, you’re making death saves, and automatically fail death saves when you take damage. It’s like those failed death saves could be fatal damage. We could think of them that way. The only real issues we run into are speed of recovery. We might think an overnight sleep isn’t good enough to heal all our wounds. But it could be enough to restore our ability to defend ourselves. Certainly boxers and MMA fighters can go back to training or even another fight shortly after a match. Maybe it’s not the next morning, maybe it’s a couple days. Fortunately a “long rest” can mean longer than 1-sleep. So I think if I were to modify the rules at all, I’d have the failed death saves linger for longer because they seem to represent substantial damage, something more than mere fatigue. So maybe just erase 1 failed death save after a week “extended” rest with regular treatment (or perhaps remove one failed death save once per day with use of a Cure Wounds spell). And I’d let a long rest continue to restore full HP with the understanding that HP measures only your ability to effectively defend yourself from lethal attacks. Those slight changes in our thinking and the rules might be enough to remove some of the roadblocks to suspending disbelief. It works for me. But if it’s not 100% there for you, maybe it’s at least on the right track. [/QUOTE]
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