Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Black Mantha 01-08-07, 11:25 AM	I have found the PHB explanation of the hitpoints system ("he just that tough") to be sorely lacking. So I tried to figure out what it could represent. "Welcome to the first class of Principles of Magic. This course will teach you just what magic is and what it isn't. All students who are required to pass here before being allowed to advance to their second year. What you'll learn here is essential to the magecraft, and will also benefit your understanding of the world around you. That is the reason that the school has allowed people from outside to follow this coarse. There will be six weekly lectures, followed by a written test. How you study is your business and I take no attendance, but skip a lecture and you'll likely fail." *prestidigitation* "This first lecture, I won't talk about magic specifically, but more about the way.." "Please remain silent, Mr. Duras. I wouldn't try to teach you this if it wasn't important." "As I was saying, I'll explain how all creatures on the planes improve themselves. Of course, training is important, the more you've done something the better you know how to do it. However, that fails to explain many things. I've seen fighters on the battlefield get slashed by a greatsword and only receive a minor wound. I've seen rogues get hit by a dragon's fiery breath, and there was not a burn or them or their clothes. Let me show you. " *major image* "None of this was because of any magical protection. They could do this because of their aura." "All creatures have an aura, from insects to celestials. This aura is completely non-magical, and does not register on detect magic spells. It's effect, however, might as well be magical from a layman's point of view. It allows someone to survive attacks and resist spells that mere flesh couldn't. I will now demonstrate. If I cast a spell on an object like my staff:" *shrink item* "...it just works. The magic does its job, and it's not like the staff has anything to say about it. I can do this as many times as I want, but I will always succeed." "Now, normally I would require a volunteer at this point, but since I only give one warning..." *baleful polymorph* "Mr. Duras is now a small snake, a creature with much less potential of talking during class. Note that although he wasn't able to resist the change in form, he did resist getting the mind of a serpent. There is a reason why he could stop one but not the other, and I'll explain later." "Mr. Duras could resist the mind change because of his aura. This defensive use of aura is almost universal; practically anything can be survived if your aura is strong enough. If any of you take to the profession of a soldier this will be very important, and even more so for anyone who becomes an adventurer. There is a limit to how strong you can get it, though." "But defense isn't the only use of an aura. In fact, we use our aura for nearly anything we do. Even with something as mundane as woodcarving, you get better with training, but how good you can get is limited by the strength of your aura." "The strength of someone's aura grows as it ages, but the rate of growth varies a lot. Children grow faster, which is why it's easier to learn at a young age. Long-lived species like the elves don't have nearly the same amount of advantage in their young years, which is why an elven apprenticeship takes decades, while a young human can learn magic within ten years. Afterwards, it's much more important how you live your life. Adventurers are well known for growing the fastest. They can advance in a month the same amount a commoner does in a lifetime." "Just as important as how strong your aura is, is how you use it. Depending on what skill you focus on, you can shape your growing aura to best fit your needs. This shaping is what all the wizards in this collage must do to improve their spellcasting. We shape our aura's to maximize our use of magic, while our minds train to understand the spells." "Shaping one's aura is not a conscious process, nor is it very hard. You just have to focus your life on learning a specific set of skills and your aura will grow as you need it. For us wizards, that means that we can handle and store more magical energy, while for a professional swordfighter, it would mean his martial prowess increases. The uses of aura are much too varied to cover here. One of my future lectures will talk about this, but it will only cover it in general terms." "Not all creatures can shape their aura like this. Monsters cannot shape their aura to their will. Their aura will grow, but always in more or less the same way; they cannot specialize, or learn to use magic. Who ever heard of an owlbear wizard? This is part of what makes them monsters. The best known species that can shape their aura are the humans, the elves, the halflings, the dwarfs, the gnomes, and the orcs. It is no coincidence that all these species have formed kingdoms and rule most of the material plane. There is a similar situation in the underground." "Yes, miss Longstep?" "Well, the dragons are a bit of an exception. You'll learn about them in future classes." "Most druids tend to think of aura as lifeforce, but not just the living have an aura. Undead have an aura too, and even magical constructs. It is correct, tough, that the aura isn't part of your body. Sure, it covers all of it and your equipment, but if you die, the aura will travel with your soul, and your body will be just an object." "So in conclusion, all creatures have an aura, which they use to improve and protect themselves. As they age and live their life, this aura grows stronger and some of them, like us, can shape it as to enable all sorts of feats, including spellcasting. Any questions?" "Size does matter, yes. Large creatures generally have more aura to begin with and can also strengthen it further. However, everyone here has the same limits. Anyone else?" "Right. Now, before I forget:" *dispel magic*. "Mr. Duras, since you couldn't hold a quill for most of the class, be sure to copy notes from one of your many friends. As for the rest, thank you all for being so very attendant. Next week we'll discuss the limits in spellcasting as they apply to all practitioners."
Seeker95 01-08-07, 12:12 PM	Nice story. But the final game mechanic is still "hit points". How you explain or describe hit points is fine, but in the end adds nothing to "the game" regardless of how much it might add to any given played game. A wizard with 100 hit points. A fighter with 100 hit points. A monk with 100 hit points. A Table with 100 hit points. Each of these can be described in very different ways with regard to how they have 100 hit points. But each still requires 100 points of damage to reach 0.
Tempest Stormwind 01-08-07, 12:31 PM	I have found the PHB explanation of the hitpoints system ("he just that tough") to be sorely lacking. Except they do not represent "he's just that tough". Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one.There was an excellent quote by Esponer on this deal; I'm looking for that one now.
Black Mantha 01-08-07, 04:02 PM	Nice story. But the final game mechanic is still "hit points". How you explain or describe hit points is fine, but in the end adds nothing to "the game" regardless of how much it might add to any given played game. I wasn't trying to add any game mechanics. Or are you complaining that wizards should have a different reason for gaining hitpoints?
TheChilliGod 01-08-07, 04:37 PM	That's a nice way of putting it. I would have used the 'aura' story to cover how one gains experience, rather than hit points. It makes a little bit more sense in that everyone has the same potential for gaining aura, whether they are a mage or fighter. If you use aura to describe hit points, it gets difficult to explain how fighters get so much aura/hp and wizards so little. But if aura describes xp instead of hp, then you can say that the wizard distributes his aura to learning magic (with little going to combat & skills), while the fighter distributes aura to his combat prowess and physical stamina (leaving little for skills and none for magic); and the farmer distributes his aura to his farming skills (little for combat, none for magic). You can also say that, when you kill a creature, you get to take its aura and add a small portion of it to your own. Hence the gain in xp. Fair?
Seeker95 01-08-07, 08:29 PM	I wasn't trying to add any game mechanics. Or are you complaining that wizards should have a different reason for gaining hitpoints?Neither. I am simply saying that your story is nice. But in the end, hit points are hit points, regardless of the flavor text behind what they represent.
Black Mantha 01-09-07, 09:15 AM	But if aura describes xp instead of hp, then you can say that the wizard distributes his aura to learning magic (with little going to combat & skills), while the fighter distributes aura to his combat prowess and physical stamina (leaving little for skills and none for magic); and the farmer distributes his aura to his farming skills (little for combat, none for magic). That's kind of what I was going for. A wizard shapes his aura to increase his magical potency, and also gains defensive benefits (hitpoints, saves). A fighter shapes his aura for more martial purposes, and as a result gains weapon skill (bonus feats) and more defense (more hitpoints, stronger saves). I don't use aura here as representing HP. I see it as what makes the difference between an object and a creature. The overal strength of the aura corresponds to its level (and HD), and HP would be how effective it is as protection against injury. Maybe I should have been clearer on that point.
drakkonflye 01-09-07, 07:18 PM	Don't sweat it. After all, your story was just the first lesson; if you were to continue the lessons, then you would be able to get into the specifics as to why one class has a greater hit point gain (better HD) than another class. :)
JoAT 01-09-07, 10:36 PM	I've been thinking something similar, to deal with how hit points work (and how a 20th level Barbarian could, potentially strip naked, jump off a 100 tall cliff, land at the bottom, then swim across a 20 foot wide river of lava, get out at the other side and still be relatively undamaged enough to kill a camel with a couple punches, and roast it for dinner). My version consists primarily of the idea that most beings house both positive and negative energy (which determines life span, health, etc - it'd be what the monks call ki), and that this energy grows when both cultivated and faced with adversity, allowing one to live through things that you'd think would kill them, though, when in combat, it generally just gives small boosts energy that result in avoidances and near misses. It's also partially driven by attention, which is why people are easily killed by sneak rogues and the like - without the protection of their ki, their vitals are exposed in very painful ways.
a_psh 01-09-07, 11:18 PM	Honestly, when I have to start pulling out magical hoodoo to justify some kind of basic mechanic is usually when I just stop playing a game.
Black Mantha 01-10-07, 12:06 PM	Don't sweat it. After all, your story was just the first lesson; if you were to continue the lessons, then you would be able to get into the specifics as to why one class has a greater hit point gain (better HD) than another class. :) Well, I wasn't planning on making more lessons. In my mind those would be about things already known, like spells/day, the types of creatures, ect. I'd rather just refine this one and submit it on the Repository. It won't be a 5-star piece, but acceptable, I think.