I wasn't sure where to place this, but as I see it as being related somewhat to the theme of the server I thought I'd put it here.

One of my biggest peeves about vanilla d20 (and its implementation in NWN) is the HP system. Or rather what it reflects. As it currently stands, HP is most often interpreted and roleplayed as being representative of the literal health of a creature. As the creature takes damage, it will naturally become increasingly unhealthy. This makes sense. Where it stops making sense is that sufficiently high-level characters can dismiss a wound that would have been fatal to a lower level character as a mere flesh wound. Something like that might be appropriate for an anime-themed server (where heroes simply get so comically powerful they can generally shrug off getting a mountain dropped on top of them, as a matter of speaking) or a Monty Python-esque parody server. But in anything but...

It gets even worse due to the availability of "healing". As it's set up, if someone got beaten to a pulp by a giant you can rub some ointment on them, and six seconds later this character is up and running again. No matter how you choose to roleplay it, I can only suspend my disbelief so much.

Rather than overhauling the entire system, I would like to suggest implementing a "house rule" (for lack of better term) that only a small portion of HP represents actual physical health, and the rest is a combination of morale and fatigue. For the sake of discussion, let's say for example that a character's actual health would equal something like:
Highest HD + (natural CON bonus * level). So for example a level 20 wizard/level 10 fighter with a natural con bonus of 16 would have 10 + (3 * 30) = 100 ACTUAL HP, with the rest being Morale/Fatigue Points. ... Actually, 100 HP is still a ridiculous amount, but you get the gist of it. So a character would only start taking genuine damage as they get more worn down and enemies are able to get trough their defenses.

It would be great if this could be implemented by devs (as in having more variety of floating status above creatures), but I'm not sure if it's possible.

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Aernoud Van Brabant: Heir of the House. Proprietor of the Beer Wagon.
"Go to the Mayfields, have a pint, and wait for this to blow over."
Aurelius: Sunmaster of Amaunator. Contemplative. Aspirant to Transcendance.
"Sol Invictus"

Fatigue, grazes, and "hero shots" is the only rational way to go about HP, IMO. You're not taking deep axe bites every time you get hit, you're taking the impact on your armor, or being knocked around or having to tumble about and tire yourself out to avoid taking anything more than a glancing blow. The occasional direct connect on a Critical or the like. Otherwise it's just really insane to consider, RPly.

Quite. Though this doesn't explain in itself why a level 1 character with 20 AC is so much easier to kill than a level 10 character with 20 AC. And the ability for armor to absorb damage is reflected in its AC and potentially its DR.

AC is another one of those abstractions, but at least it has a few "components" like Dodge AC, Natural AC, etc. that make it more descriptive.

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Aernoud Van Brabant: Heir of the House. Proprietor of the Beer Wagon.
"Go to the Mayfields, have a pint, and wait for this to blow over."
Aurelius: Sunmaster of Amaunator. Contemplative. Aspirant to Transcendance.
"Sol Invictus"

Always best left in the realm of free thought and personal interpretation rather than house rule. But don't forget to consider that actual contact must happen in order for contact poisons to work. Or for debilitating touch attacks like those from certain firearms and spells, for example.

This ones easy.

A level 1 character with 20AC is easier to kill due to that lack of experience.
While a level 10 character with 20AC has that extra experience backing him. The way he moves, the way he dodges, how he carries himself, his endurance has increased so he can last in combat much longer than he could 9 levels earlier.

Example:
Level 1 Fighter has 10 HP. He goes out into the bright world, all bushy tailed, shiny new sword, undented armour. And he fights goblins. Almost dies several times from some lucky shots, or simply because of the shear amount of goblins that this ONE fighter has been fighting. Getting pretty tired out, almost allowing him to slip and for the goblins to get him. (Finishing off that last 1-3 hp)

A Level 10 Fighter has 100 HP. He has been out in the world fighting Goblins for a while now, and has realized that the world isn't such a bright place. His armour has many scratches on it, dents, maybe even some gore still. Despite this he has learned how to roll with some blows to have them bounce off his full plate, his footing has become more sure so that now he can side-step easier in his heavy armour to avoid the blows, he now anticipates where the attacks are coming from and is able to bring his shield or his sword in to deflect the blows easier. And to top it off, because he has been fighting for so long in his armour, his endurance has increased, giving him a longer time he can spend moving around in the heat of combat with it on and without tiring himself out as quickly, where as moving and swinging his sword earlier, would tire him out much faster.

Hope that helped a bit.

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You may clip our wings, but we will never forget what it was like to fly.

This is something I have encountered and discussed with several different gaming groups and overall it is always best just to leave it up to personal interpretation. The soldier of battle who digs his scars can interpret a lot of HP damage as actual cuts and bruises and stuff that heal over but never perfectly. The dexy dude who dodges everything can dodge every hit but that last hit that drops him below 0, which floors him. The GM or player who pops a thousand boners when watching Ninja Scroll can have his or her characters or NPCs explode in fountains of blood and gore when they take 2d6 + 6 damage just for the fucking fun of it. It's a matter of individual taste and players sorta have to acknowledge that some people like it one way, others like it another way, and the way one person likes it doesn't have to throw off your immersion.

While only something I've more done in earnest lately when running my 5th ed campaign, I've preferred the Cuts, Bruises, grazes until 50% or lower HP approach myself , pulled from the method used by 5th edition.

Then again I'm also of an opinion that doesn't lend well to the D20 systems or at least I haven't to date, in that direct accuracy of the blow enhances the effectiveness , translation: How well you land your hit adds to the amount of damage you do. (I have toyed with the idea of coming up with my own houserules for Pathfinder to apply this notion but that's neither here nor there at present, the point above about my preference for the interpretation that until you're down to half of your HP in most combat circumstances, what you actually have is near misses, or minor cuts and bruises compared to the real serious stuff.

What about debilitating blows? A level 30 PC and a level 2 PC, neither of them would be capable of shrugging off having their arteries slashed. A warhammer to the spine is going to leave someone disabled, no matter how 'experienced' you might be. Not even mentioning blunt force trauma from being hit over the skull. There's no muscles there you're able to exercise to take a hit.

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Elwyn Sabel - Laura Jarshall - Mordoc Ebonhand

Discord: Bhaalorian#5715

That Level Thirty might be more likely to be able to get out of the way at the last possible moment, or otherwise roll with the blow or shift it to a less lethal location.

As originally conceived by Gygax, only the first 8hp or so counts as actual health. It is no coincidence that the average Hit Die and the average damage of longswords and battle axes were the same.

Take the scenario of the villain holding a hostage with a dagger to the throat. As only d8hp are represented as heath, it is then conceivable that strike with a dagger in a vital area will kill the victim no mater the total amount of actual hit points involved.

The other fallacy is to directly compare a level 2 character and a level 30 character. A hit with a weapon is an abstract of combat not an actual single swing. It is a series of swings, feints, parries, dodges, deflections, and thrusts culminating in eventually wearing down an opponent until a lethal strike can be delivered. A level 2 character simply does not have the knowledge and skill to take very many "hits" in combat, but a level 30 character may be able to last several minutes before he's worn out enough to finally miss a step and be killed. In both cases however, until each character is down to the last few HP, very little real injury has been suffered.

As a result, the system itself does very little to lend itself to being in any way "realistic", but it does maintain enough vague assumptions to where an individual player can role play just how injured his character may or may not be however he or she may wish. I don't see this as a detriment, but rather an opportunity to RP something interesting without being constrained by mechanical limitations that not everyone will want to have to deal with.

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Thine taste in horrid footwear not withstanding, I did not say that thou were in fact an idiot, I merely implied that such things were self evident.

-Krrja

You could look at HP also as stamina. I have legs, a trained runner has legs. Well, he can run longer harder faster because he has.. Experience!

The loss of HP can be translated as near misses even, like.. epic dodge, but with a limited pool of 'dodge'. I mean a stab to the face is a stab to the face. But it only does 50 damage and i have 300 hp.. so my more experienced adventurer is able to roll with it, maybe get grazed, or lose an ear or perhaps it deflects off a thick dwarven skull. Could even look at it as a luck pool. Stab to the face, expend 50 luck to avoid death.

Some things are best left to RP though. For example, if i have some high AC fellow bound, gagged, and/or knocked out, why can't i just slip a knife into his neck killing him? Well, there is no logical reason. It would be up to the players involved. I mean even a Hold Person spell leaves the target helpless and unable to react. Both parties willing, i should be able to instant kill said helpless person.

AC is another one i thought of before and discussed with someone. To me AC seems like it should be your ability to evade an attack, well.. Plate Armor is not about avoidance, but more about dissipation of force (DR). So giving Plate 8 AC is odd, when it should have 0 or even -1 AC (by my logic) and Cloth should have 8 or whatever. Just that Plate would have some high DR. After the discussion on concede that AC is open to interpretation. Yes, that Cloth dex guy is avoiding with his AC, whereas that Plate armor fellow is actually getting hit, just to no effect, or perhaps turned the blow via parry or block.

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House Auvrea'Kan Crafts and Services is now open and prepared to discuss orders.

There isn't really anything to change here. This is more of a Lore discussion, a matter of interpretation of the mechanics. Moving accordingly.