Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="GuardianLurker" data-source="post: 209996" data-attributes="member: 786">Bottom-up instead of Top-DownHeh.We've all tried analyzing "Hit Points" in DnD in terms of its own rules. I don't think anyone's ever succeeded. Hit Points are one of the Axioms of the DnD rule system - you can't explain them internally.So, let's step outside of DnD and look at a game system that represents combat "damage" more concretely and less abstractly. The two best models that I know of are Champions/Fantasy Hero and Rolemaster. Normally, I like Rolemaster a little better for these pure theory discussions (d20 Rolemaster - I WILL check that out), but I think Champions is a little clearer, so I'll use that instead.In Champions, you have three main characteristics that are drained by combat : Endurance, Stun, and Body. Endurance represents the body's "energy level"; doing anything reduces a character's Endurance, and vigorous actions (like swinging a sword, or dodgin a blow) reduce it faster than lazy ones (like laying on a couch). When a character is at Endurance 0 he is exhausted. The body recovers its Endurance fairly quickly, usually completely after a full night's sleep. Stun is the body's ability to resist shock. When a character reaches 0 STUN, he is unconscious. Again, Stun is healed fairly quickly, and even for a normal person, a few day's bed rest will completely restore them from 0. Body is the body's resistance to physical damage, to trauma. When a character reaches 0 BODY, he is dead. Body recovers the slowest of the three, and it can easily take weeks to heal a major wound.You can have attacks that reduce only one, or two of these characteristics, but those are rare. Typically, attacks in the Hero System are either Normal or Killing. Both kinds of attack reduce all three characteristics. Both Normal and Killing attacks only reduce the Endurance of the character using them, and "bigger" attacks require more END than smaller ones to use. (A character can swing a dagger more times than he can a greataxe.) Normal attacks inflict a specified amount of STUN damage, and a much smaller ratio of BODY damage. Killing attacks inflict a specified amount of BODY damage, and a larger ratio of STUN damage. A character can spend more END than he has by taking STUN damage.In the Heroic Fantasy settings, a Club would be a Normal Attack, and a Dagger a Killing Attack.Now, as characters advance in power, they find it almost laughably easy to increase their END, and easy enough to raise their STUN, but increasing their BODY is difficult.Now, let's take a character who has invested the same amount of XP (Character Points) in advancing all three. For simplicity, 20 Character Points in each. This will give him 40 END, 20 STUN, and 10 BODY.(Yes, I will get back to DnD, not to worry.)Now, pit this poor soul against his doppleganger, and arm them both with clubs. Early in the fight, they'll duck and weave, trying those exhausting attacks that do lots of damage. There might be a few lucky hits, but very little STUN or BODY will be done (relatively). Later in the fight, they'll start using the tried and true attacks, and start really hurting each other, with their blows getting weaker (cheaper) towards the very end. In Hero/Champions, you track each of these three characteristics individually.Now, imagine a single combined statistic. Let's make the END part the "top", the STUN the "middle" and the BODY the "bottom". For our example combatant, he'd have a combined statistic of 70, 0-10 from BODY, 11-30 from STUN and 31-70 from END. Also, instead of worrying about applying damage to each range individually, let's just work from the top down.Strangely enough, we've just about recreated the hit point system from the earliest days of DnD. So, anyway, that's how *I* think of DnD hit points. Hope it helped.</blockquote>

Verification