What are hit points to you?

[heimdall]

I went with #3 because it's not comparable to another system where despite your experience, you have more or less ability to resist damage. However, it is a reward for building a character up and also differentiating between threats. For instance, a 1st level party can handle orcs and kobolds but not the big bad troll. The 5th level party can handle the troll, can usually mop up orcs and kobolds, but would have difficulty with any sort of aged dragon. The 10th level party has a better chance against that dragon and can mop up trolls...

 

[genshou]

I went with #3 because it's not comparable to another system where despite your experience, you have more or less ability to resist damage. However, it is a reward for building a character up and also differentiating between threats. For instance, a 1st level party can handle orcs and kobolds but not the big bad troll. The 5th level party can handle the troll, can usually mop up orcs and kobolds, but would have difficulty with any sort of aged dragon. The 10th level party has a better chance against that dragon and can mop up trolls...

I can definitely agree with your line of thinking. And when the Tarrasque crits on a bite, only a 20th-level HP powerhouse has the "skill, luck, toughness, or abstract number applied to his life" to avoid being ripped apart in a very violent and spray-like manner. Because he's a tough cookie, manages to not get entirely bitten, or is a follower of the abstract nature of the universal law... oh wait, that would only be Red Mage (who would be my avatar if Sesshomaru wasn't so hot in this pic).

 

[Pants]

Damage capacity pure and simple.
Take, for example, a Horrid Wilting spell. There is no real way to 'dodge' it, but there is a way to resist it, ala the Fort save. If you're tough enough (enough HP, good enough Fort save), the spell may not kill you, but it might shock your system enough (Massive damage) that you still might die. In the end, it comes down to how much punishment you can take. It may not be even close to realistic, but watching the big Barbarian waltz up to the dragon and barely flinch when claw after claw slam into him, it works

 

[jeffh]

What HP represent

Hit points don't represent skill, luck etc so much as scale with these things.

Every hit deals at least some real damage (evidence: if a high-level fighter takes 100 seperate 1 hp bites from poisonous snakes, he has to make 100 seperate Fortitude saves, not some smaller number).

However, at higher levels you get better at avoiding damage; a 10 hp hit represents less damage when it happens to a character with 150 hp than it does to a character with 15 hp.

This doesn't mean the first character is physically tougher. (Actually, he probably is, but not by nearly enough to explain having ten times as many hit points).

It also doesn't mean that there are seperate hit points for luck, skill, divine favor, physical damage, willpower and so on. That model leads to silly results as soon as you look at it for too long, the fact that the first-edition DMG seems to support it notwithstanding. Luck, for example, does not ablate as it is used, on most understandings of what luck is.

It means the 150 hp character, by whatever means, manages to mitigate some of the damage the 15 hp character would have taken. The correct model is not "hit points = physical damage + louck, skill etc", it is more like "hit points = physical damage * luck, skill etc" - combat skill and so on act as a scaling factor.

I believe that this model has two advantages over every alternative model I have seen: it is (at least tied for) the most consistent with the rules as written, and it is the least weird in terms of what hit points correspond to from an in-character standpoint. The only thing in the game this fails to model is healing spells, which need serious work to make game-world sense no matter what model of hit points you use.

Regardless, I am of the opinion that as long as you have one or more hit points remaining, you aren't too seriously injured; it's only once you hit zero or negatives that you can be considered badly hurt.

(edit - minor corrections only)

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Hit points are like your health during combat. For instance, if you get hit and lost 8 hit points, that means you either got a slight wound, got slightly tired , etc. As you go down in hit points, that means you are closer to being fatally wounded.

 

[gamecat]

I voted luck...

Djeta... Why'd you can the redhead??? WHY??? WHY GOD WHY???

 

[WizarDru]

A combination of 1 and 2. It's a game mechanic, and it's simple enough that I consider it elegant, sacrificing complexity for enjoyment. I've played a detailed damage system through GURPS, and it's not any more enjoyable to me, either way.

To wit: no matter what system you use, D&D is not a realistic simulation of combat, nor is it meant to be. Analyzing h.p. too much only leads to confusion. Being more skilled in combat doesn't make you more resistant to the elements such as being burned with fire or falling in a pool of acid, and improved physical toughness doesn't make you able to laugh off what should be fatal injuries.

But D&D is a game of heroic combat, and the combat system is abstract for a reason. The system would require a massive redesign to little benefit, IMHO, to accomadate a more 'realistic' design. Of course, for those so inclined, more detailed and realistic (and gritty) combat systems exist. My purpose for playing is to have fun, and D&D does that exceedingly well, fr me. Others prefer different styles, and that's good, too. There is no wrong way to play, only a wrong way to play for me.

 

[Ferret]

I chose "Getting hurt". The first parts in the choices confused me and made me think of Armour class (Avoiding hits). But You get hurt your HP go down, pure and simple.