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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3977215" data-attributes="member: 32164">I think you can avoid the complication of wound and vitality points by just deciding that hit points are reflective of your overall health.To steal the Saga Example, it makes more sense to think of every hit as a grazing blow until the one that plummets you below zero hit points. Basically, until the character hits 0 hp, he might be battered and bleeding, but he's not really hurt. Your "wound points," so to speak, are the points below 0 hp.A Condition Track similar to Saga's could model this really well with one small change. If exceeding the character's "damage threshold" caused a persistent "wounded" condition until properly treated, you combine the benefits of hit points and wound points. In other words, those serious wounds (like the solid hit that exceeds your damage threshold) represent the rare blow that temporarily renders the hero's arm useless...or the like.If hit points recovered faster, people might accept that they don't represent serious physical injury. They're an abstract combination of minor wounds and fatigue. A character who's been nickel-and-dimed from 60 hp to 1 isn't "uninjured." He's a mess of scratches, bruises, and the like, but unless he's taken some solid hits (ones that exceeded his "threshold"), his wounds are not, separately, serious. But by the time he's down to a few hit points, he's vulnerable, and the hit that pushes him to 0 makes him "wounded" enough that he falls.If you institute that notion, a high-level character might be able to take a few solid hits. But like Boromir in the film version of Fellowship of the Ring, he's mostly been slowly worn down. Those last few arrows, and especially the very last one, are what killed him. Up until that last shot, a good healer could have patched him up (maybe with some penalties from the persistent conditions from his wounds). But it was that over-the-damage-threshold hit into his chest that actually did him in.Using a combination of known 4e rules and inferences based on SAGA, if you model Boromir as a 10th-level fighter, he would have a damage threshold of 25 (Base 10, +2 for fighter class, +3 for Con, +5 for level, +5 for his mail). That would mean a shot that did over 25 hp in damage would be enough to kill him, if it also dropped him below 0 hit points. That's probably a number that's achievable by a dedicated archer, if not all the time. Which means a good hit "wounds" him, and a solid hit that also drops him below 0 hp (or the 5th level down on the Track) kills him. Now normally, a PC won't be overwhelmed like that, but it could happen.I have no idea if 4e is going to have a damage threshold rule, but if it doesn't, something like this might be my first houserule.</blockquote>

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