This is something consistent across every edition, that regardless of empty throwaway text claiming they represent a broad spectrum of stuff, the reality is they are physical condition and nothing else. Not luck, not skill, not desire to fight on, nor anything else.

We can see this in the way hit points interact with other parts of the game.

1) How do you lose them? Being hit with weapons, monster attacks, poison, falling, physically-damaging spells and so on. All impacts on health.

2) How do you get them back? Magical healing and/or natural healing through rest. All relating solely to health.

You might argue a small exception to this with 4th edition, where hit points possibly represent fatigue rather than health, since with a 10 minute rest you can restore them all via Healing Surges, and you get all your Surges back with a eight hour's rest. Furthermore, there are means besides being attacked to lose those Surges (such as being exposed to extreme climates) and "inspiration" as a way of getting them back (Warlord "shouting wounds closed" as some people like to disparage it), which again reinforces the fatigue, rather than health notion.

Otherwise, though, straight up health. Throughout the editions.

That's my position on the thing, I've yet to have anyone offer any evidence to the contrary. So if you have such things, from actual books rather than your own house rules, please regale me with ways of losing hit points and more importantly ways of regaining hit points that aren't physical*.


*Hint: subdual doesn't count, since that's merely non-lethal physical.

Hit Points as purely physical - this doesn't explain why HP increases so greatly - or are all Level 10+ characters He-Men.

Hits Points are simply a measure of combat advantage.

I'm afraid you are wrong.  Even way back in the 1e PHB, when HP are very clearly more than health when they talk about a fighter with 55 hp.  The fact that a 55 hp fighter can withstand multiple hits that would kill lower hp fighters is proof that experience plays at least a factor.  I.e., the experience of that higher level fighter allows him to effectively turn those severe blows into glancing blows.

If you want more proof, the fact that the natural healing rate in D&D is extremely accelerated over "real" healing, which is reflective of how some hp loss is tied to fatigue and exhaustion.

*Edit*  here's the passage:

QuoteA certain amount of these hit
points represent the actual physical punishment which can be sustained.
The remainder, a significant portion of hit points at higher levels, stands
for skill, luck, and/or magical factors. A typical man-at-arms can take
about 5 hit points of damage before being Killed. Let us suppose that a 10th
level fighter has 55 hit points, plus a bonus of 30 hit points for his
constitution, for a total of 85 hit points. This IS the equivalent of about 18 hit
dice for creatures, about what it would take to kill four huge warhorses. It
is ridiculous to assume that even a fantastic flghter can take that much
punishment.

OK. Lets run with this HP as physical health only idea for a moment.

Why can a fighter with a max HP total of 50, fight without penalty with 5 hp remaining?

At only a tenth of his vitality, he certainly should by all accounts be ready to collapse? Per RAW he can go out and continue to chop through orcs all day like that.

It may take him awhile to recover all the luck and stamina needed to go the distance in a tough battle but if he is able to hack through the remainder of the day without penalty, then he can hardly be all THAT physically wounded.

I agree with the others.  Underscore - the leveling is the fly in this ointment.  No amount of killing rats can make you twice as healthy physically.  But that's the effect of going to level two.

HP were originally abstract.

One could argue that only about 6 of your hp are 'real wounds' and the rest are the various ways your character can avoid damage.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;673282OK. Lets run with this HP as physical health only idea for a moment.

Why can a fighter with a max HP total of 50, fight without penalty with 5 hp remaining?

At only a tenth of his vitality, he certainly should by all accounts be ready to collapse? Per RAW he can go out and continue to chop through orcs all day like that.

It may take him awhile to recover all the luck and stamina needed to go the distance in a tough battle but if he is able to hack through the remainder of the day without penalty, then he can hardly be all THAT physically wounded.

Fighting at full power while crippled is not realistic, but may be better than tracking wound penalties.

Quote from: Bill;673289HP were originally abstract.

One could argue that only about 6 of your hp are 'real wounds' and the rest are the various ways your character can avoid damage.

They were defined as abstract but then only had "physical means" of getting rid of them.

They didn't have Luck Absorbing creatures.
Constitution is the determining stat.

Quote from: Bill;673292Fighting at full power while crippled is not realistic, but may be better than tracking wound penalties.

The entire point is that the 5 hp fighter is not crippled. He is just out of luck/mojo and a significant hit against him now WILL be physical.

Quote from: Bill;673292Fighting at full power while crippled is not realistic, but may be better than tracking wound penalties.

An article in the early Dragon magazine covered this.  Rules for pain and wounds and all that.

End result?  People didn't like tracking one more thing, and to that level.

So HP are abstract and everyone moved on.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;673300The entire point is that the 5 hp fighter is not crippled. He is just out of luck/mojo and a significant hit against him now WILL be physical.

Depends how you choose to visuualize it. Abstract.

Many will find visualizing a fighter full of arrows appealing, others will visualize it as nicks.

Quote from: Bill;673307Depends how you choose to visuualize it. Abstract.

Many will find visualizing a fighter full of arrows appealing, others will visualize it as nicks.

After all, Boramir was still killing orcs with a half dozen arrows in him

Quote from: Sommerjon;673296They were defined as abstract but then only had "physical means" of getting rid of them.

They didn't have Luck Absorbing creatures.
Constitution is the determining stat.

Your points are valid but its also a very old game, and has logic flaws built in.

Quote from: Bill;673307Depends how you choose to visuualize it. Abstract.

Many will find visualizing a fighter full of arrows appealing, others will visualize it as nicks.

Either vision works within the abstraction.

I think Kiero's position holds up - if you view the physics of the fantasy world as very abstract. Fighters bristling with impaling arrows, slashed and hacked with dozens of injuries, scorched by dragon breath weapons, lightning bolted by a wizard. If the interchange of combat, and degree of injury is abstracted to all hell, what does it matter if HP = Health?

If you're trying to model any element of realism when it comes to Health, then I think the position goes out the window. And there are plenty of better systems to model realistic injury than D&D (of course).

P.S. Though, I won't agree that this is consistently the case across editions. Or any rubbish about "empty throwaway text".