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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4101826" data-attributes="member: 32164">Emphasis mine.Fine. Since you don't want to go back and look in 1e, I'll deal with the 3e quotes. As a matter of fact, let's deal primarily with that first quote of yours - the one I bolded.First off, the quote isn't actually "turning actual damage into lesser damage." That's your paraphrase based on your understanding. The actual two things mentioned in the quote are:A) "the ability to take physical punishment and keep going" and:B) "turning a serious blow into a less serious one." What, exactly, does this quote mean in an "actual damage" sense? To be blunt, it means jack. Yes, clearly it implies there is a certain amount of "taking physical punishment" involved. But does it actually say "damage?" Nope. What about damage implies the ability to "keep going?" Sorry, that's strength of will, or resilience, or something."Turning a serious blow into a less serious one" is even more nebulous. It hardly seems related to toughness so much as it is to luck or combat prowess.Yes, there's some "actual damage" involved. On the other hand, if I get a bruise from the sword that my mail prevented from spilling my guts on the ground, I've sustained "actual damage." Similarly, if an arrow grazes my arm and inflicts a minor cut, that's "actual damage" (and by the way, enough to administer poison). But are either of those things, by themselves, life-threatening? Hardly.I'll give my personal example again. I have been hit in the face with a sword. Despite circumstances that literally should have given me a concussion and serious injury, I managed to not get hit hard, and ended up with nothing more than a black eye and a minor nick. Oh yeah, it also knocked me to the ground and rattled me pretty good. Did I sustain "actual damage?" Sure, I suppose, but not much. I was fine 10 minutes later. Did I somehow turn a serious blow into a minor one? Well, if you don't think so, go stand in front of a swinging sword. Let me know how it goes.That's me. Not Aragorn, or Indiana Jones, or John McClane, just nonheroic, non-fantasy world ME.I have no problem regarding hit points as the systematization of what, for me, was the result of nothing so much as total blind luck, combined with the small amount of combat skill I possess.</blockquote>

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