NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4198492" data-attributes="member: 32164">Ah, but D&D has also never had a system for modeling fatigue. Which is just as dependent (probably moreso) on one's general health and well being (Constitution, that is) as one's resistance to physical injury.See, hit points have never been intended to be your ability to suck up gaping wounds. They've always been (primarily) about your ability to avoid taking a gaping wound. There are a few "corner case" examples that have been brought up (swimming in lava, falling off a sheer cliff face) that stretch credibility. However, in normal combat, the notion that a blow might glance off your armor, winding you, or that you might twist out of the way at the last minute, turning a gut-spilling blow into a surface scratch is perfectly plausible, and even realistic.It basically means that hit points are your ability to avoid taking serious injury. As they deplete, the chance of you taking a life-threatening injury rises. Basically, they're a heroic buffer between the character and death.What I like about Fourth Edition is that the new concept of hit points lets the players observe what happens without knowing for sure what the outcome will be. It's like in an action movie, when a character gets a showy wound across his chest and slumps to the ground. Now, you don't know whether he's going to live or die, and you get to enjoy that uncertainty. The new treatment of hit points brings that same element of excitement to D&D combat. As your hit points get low, there's a chance that every fight could be your last. Stay tuned.But if it's not, you recover and get to keep adventuring, because, like Indiana Jones, you just weren't that hurt, as beat-up as you might look. Basically, Fourth Edition is an Indiana Jones movie. That's edge-of-your-seat thrills, right there. And, IMO, the game will be better for it.</blockquote>

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