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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6676125" data-attributes="member: 42582">It seems to me that someone who was on death's door, but then goes on, has recovered. S/he is no longer on death's door - as demonstrated by his/her going on.S/he may still be injured, in the sense that s/he may still have a wound of some sort. But his/her ability to go on has been restored. In D&D, this is modelled by hp recovery. (I'm bracketing, here, [MENTION=59506]El Mahdi[/MENTION]'s interesting comments about bio-physical processes. I'm in the camp that [MENTION=996]Tony Vargas[/MENTION] described, of focusing on basic genre tropes plus some basic features of the real world that I've encountered and/or heard about.)My disdain for temp hp is pretty thoroughgoing. I first encountered them when Unearthed Arcana introduced the Aid spell back in the mid-80s. I found them wonky and prone to create corner-cases then, and I still do (eg rules for stacking, rules for being at zero hp, etc). That's not to say I don't use them - I am currently GMing a 4e campaign and temp hp are part of that system. But just because I use them doesn't mean I have to like them!My own view is that bracketing off "restore from zero hp" from the rest of a healing character's healing abilities is a good way to significantly impact mechanical flexibility. The design really has no appeal for me. When it comes to details, a reaction is probably preferable to an aura - auras are very abstract and encourage a nebulous rather than detailed handle of the fiction, which I think makes them OK for monsters/NPCs but generally less appealing for PCs.I think using the word "rationalise" is somewhat question-begging!If you ask, what is happening in the fiction when a warlord rouses an unconscious ally by restoring his/her hit points, I can think of at least two answers. One is the process-sim answer already suggested by others - the unconscious ally hears the warlord and responds. (As per [MENTION=996]Tony Vargas[/MENTION]'s example of the alarm clock.)Another narration I have some fondness for is that, as the swooning PC drifts towards the beckoning light, s/he is struck by a memory of his/her ally, and that thought restores him/her to consciousness.Speaking for my own part only - that appeal really has zero appeal. Especially the idea that a "healer's kit" should make the difference! For me, the 5e "healer's kit" is in the same category of game design as 3E's "natural armour" - it's a pseudo-simulationist label slapped on a mechanic that has no actual connection to the fiction. (Natural armour: what the hell is the actual physical property that a dragon has which gives it +30 natural armour, when the best possible magical plate armour gives a bonus to AC of around only half that; healing kit: what is a healer with an ostensibly non-magical "healing kit" actually doing to a person who is ostensibly near-death that allows him/her to carry on as if no serious harm had been suffered at all?)To me, this just seems to beg all the questions - why can Aragorn or King Arthur or Joan of Arc not stand in the middle of the battlefield, among his/her allies, and replenish their spirits? What is magical about being an inspiring battle captain?Of course restoration of hit points is a "heal" in the technical (indeed, tautological) sense - but as I posted upthread, that doesn't meant that it is healing injuries. Rather, it is restoring the capacity to go on. The ally recovers, although his/her injury does not.To the best of my knowledge, the only published instance of this in 4e is in the module Cairn of the Winter King, although there is something close to it in the earlier Dungeon adventure Heathen.I can't remember whether Cairn of the Winter King expressly calls it out as psychic damage, but that is how I have run it when it has come up in my 4e game.I'm not so bothered by the lack of real life examples - I'm happy for my non-magical heroes to be capable of things that are impossible in real life, much as fighters in all editions of D&D are. I agree with you that there are issues of genre/niche-protection.</blockquote>

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