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<blockquote data-quote="Jordan" data-source="post: 178618" data-attributes="member: 3362">Unless one of them rolls a critical hit. Then the epic hero who's slain dragons, demon lords, hideous beasts, etc., just got killed by a guy with a part-time job as a castle guard. That may be something that could &quot;realistically&quot; happen, but it's definitely not any fun for the player. Unless the system you're talking about doesn't have critical hits, then literally anyone under the sun has a chance to kill any character, no matter how powerful, just by virtue of a single lucky roll or two. How much fun is it for a character who's faced down dragons, giants, and devils (oh my!) to have to cower in fear whenever anyone points a crossbow at him?And this is the case in D&amp;D as well. Hit points are an abstract used to represent skill. A well placed blow from a greatsword will kill a skilled, healthy fighter just as easily as it will a sickly grandmother. But the fighter is a lot more skilled at avoiding that well placed blow than the grandmother is. Sure, the guy swinging the greatsword might make contact - but the fighter is going to be dodging, rolling away, blocking with his weapon at the last second, doing all sorts of things the grandmother isn't capable of. That's what hit points represent, not the fighter just standing there while his opponent chops away again and again.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jordan, post: 178618, member: 3362"] Unless one of them rolls a critical hit. Then the epic hero who's slain dragons, demon lords, hideous beasts, etc., just got killed by a guy with a part-time job as a castle guard. That may be something that could "realistically" happen, but it's definitely not any fun for the player. Unless the system you're talking about doesn't have critical hits, then literally anyone under the sun has a chance to kill any character, no matter how powerful, just by virtue of a single lucky roll or two. How much fun is it for a character who's faced down dragons, giants, and devils (oh my!) to have to cower in fear whenever anyone points a crossbow at him? And this is the case in D&D as well. Hit points are an [b]abstract[/b] used to represent skill. A well placed blow from a greatsword will kill a skilled, healthy fighter just as easily as it will a sickly grandmother. But the fighter is a lot more skilled at avoiding that well placed blow than the grandmother is. Sure, the guy swinging the greatsword might make contact - but the fighter is going to be dodging, rolling away, blocking with his weapon at the last second, doing all sorts of things the grandmother isn't capable of. That's what hit points represent, not the fighter just standing there while his opponent chops away again and again. [/QUOTE]

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