PathosZero's page

I simply can't parse your argument here. Let's take temporary hit points (e.g. while raging) as an example. What flesh and blood wounds does the character associate those damage points to? And how to they dissappear?

In the particular case of Rage added HP, the don't represent actual health, but rather the ability to ignore damage due to fury. Which also explains why they disappear when the rage ends.

Why, also are 3 hps of damage a lot more serious at 1st level than at 20th? If they are clearly associated with damage the character has first hand knowledge of, then the system is clearly broken.

This is an abstraction. 1 HP =/= 1 pint of blood lost, but rather 10% of your HP = 1 pint of blood loss (Or nervous system damage or percentage of body burnt, etc, etc) You can make the argument that the abstraction is poor (and I'd likely agree with you) but there still is a direct association with what percent of hit points are lost to how damaged my character is supposed to be. The gain is supposed to represent how much my character has learned to roll with blows, fend off spells, etc.

If, on the other hand the character suffers no measurable damage whatsoever except for the last point (as is the way the core rules treat hps) then it makes sense again. But as a disassociated mechanic. "Damage that might have been done." If it represents real damage, where's the in game effect?

That's not a problem with HP being dissociated, but rather a rule that likely should be present not being so. I'll buy that the trinary nature of Able To Fight - Unconscious/Dying - Dead is dissociated, and certainly agree there should be incremental penalties to actions as one becomes more injured, but it does not then follow that the HP themselves are dissociated as a result.

Rant warning...

In truth athletes have a strong tendency to believe in luck and many believe that this luck has a budget (Google it). It is in no way unreasonable for an athlete to avoid using one-handed catches except where he has no choice.

You've missed the actual complaint here. The problem isn't that the athlete would avoid one handed catches unless he has no choice, it's that the athlete can't make that choice a second time. If it indeed is supposed to represent luck, how well it works should be built into the die rolls. Otherwise the character is make a choice to affect when their luck kicks in. (If I could do that I'd save it for playing the lottery :P) There's no need for a daily limit on them, because then the character is supposed to make a choice based on information there's no way he could have, ie: "I can't make that kind of catch again today because I used that ability once, but I can tomorrow"

Justin tends to speak in absolutes, like "When you are using dissociated mechanics you are not roleplaying."

Which is meant to be read as "In the MOMENT you are using a dissociated mechanic you are not roleplaying"

Of course this means that every D&D player is not roleplaying, because what could possibly be more disassociated than hit points? And which version of D&D has hit points? All of them...

Hit points aren't dissociated at all. They're abstracted, sure, and one might say badly at that, but they are associated. Character gets hurt, the amount is recorded as hit point damage. The character know he's injured. The numbers are so we, the players, can make decisions for our character based on how injured they are the same way the character would. How hurt a character is IS information they should have.

The problem there is when you take into account the Weapon Finesse and Agile Manuvers feats. If the disarm attempt, or any other combat manuver, is an attack roll then a fighter with Weapon Finesse could apply his Dex, instead of Str, to the roll (Provided he used an appropriate weapon) and completly avoid taking Agile Manuvers. However if it is ONLY defined as a combat manuver roll, then that fighter would require the Agile Manuvers feat in order to use his Dex but, would avoid taking the -5 penalty. These both seem like poor options to me.

It seems to me the best solution to this would be to re-define Combat Manuvers to require a full round action to execute, and re-classify Trip, Disarm, and Sunder as standard attacks.