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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BobTheNob" data-source="post: 5828265" data-attributes="member: 82425">Wow, I havent heard this question asked for years.Really, does it matter? Who cares if you cant in your mind imagine that HP is "stamina or luck when dodging" or its "actual wounds"?Its an abstract model. It does exactly what its meant to do : represent damage in an abstract way.I remember Long ago (Long Long Long ago, back 2e long ago) assuming in our arrogance that we could do better, so we came up with models for broken limbs and cuts this and bleeding that. We stood back and stared with pride at the charts we created and thought we were titans of game design. Then we started playing......and threw them out one month later. They complicated everything, slowed combat down, raised odd questions like "How can I break a bone when attacking an ooze?" and created imbalances that you wouldnt believe.Is HP the best way to do it? Probably not. Does that matter? Hell no.Coming into 5e one of the key concerns I have is that combat is faster. I want it to be a far lesser portion of play time and frankly, taking one of the simplist aspects of D&D design and assuming it can be done better and adding levels of complication to it is just completely the wrong direction to go. Been there, done that, and the grass is NOT greener on the other side.</blockquote>