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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 4793112" data-attributes="member: 2011">Ditto. It's purely a game mechanic that does not truly represent any element from any fantasy books or films I've ever encountered.I find it to be an oxymoron that it is called healing, but hit points are not really considered damage, even though the book calls it "skill, luck, resolve, and damage". There is no damage component in the game mechanics because a player can mysteriously heal this "damage" with a short rest.I understand this POV, it just does not work for me.John McClean got the snot kicked out of him. He was physically damaged. Limping, bloody, etc.A PC that goes to zero hit points can get it all back with a short rest. He's not damaged at all.John McClean still has the snot beat out of him, regardless of how many rests he takes.Different strokes for different folks. I've implemented a wound point house rule that allows for damage that is not mystically washed away with a wave of the PCs hand and it works great. Even though a single PC has not yet once taken enough wound points for it to mechanically matter at all in our game, the players still dread taking wound points. They make some decisions based on which PCs are the most wounded. It's scary and fun and tense and the players are not laxidasical like they are with the almost never ending font of hit points. That way, I can consider hit points to be luck, inner strength, exhaustion, scraps, and bruises, etc. and not consider them significant life threatening damage.Mentally, this works better for me. It bugs me that a PC that goes unconscious is either dead or totally fine a few moments later without magic, just based on the whims of the dice. The schroeder's cat of DND. In our game, a PC takes a wound point for going unconscious (due to hit points, i.e. damaged enough to get knocked out), for missing the D20 roll while unconscious (i.e. bleeding to death), and for getting hit with a critical (i.e. taking a serious shot that does do real damage). Even if he survives going unconscious, he's actually damaged and it takes a while to heal up.Wound points = real damageHit points = skill, luck, resolve, and minor scrapesGranted, earlier editions of DND did not need this level of segregation, but then again, earlier editions of DND did not have hit points totally restored after a short rest. No fantasy media I have ever encountered does that except for DND and computer games. One does not really see this in fantasy books or film without using magic. So, it kind of bugs me that the premiere RPG for fantasy has yanked this nonsense in. IMO. YMWOV.</blockquote>

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