The perpetual hit point (or vitality reserve)

[starslayer]

Ghostdancer recently posted an article/post in his ongoing thread about the concept of 'Injury resistance'- basically taking a vitality reserve and removing the implied ablative from it. (1)

I have some concerns (2) about the impact of doing it the way that he has described, which I am sure he will clear up, but it has left me with a question;

What would a 'never depleting' hit point or vitality reserve point look like- something that always came first when calculating injury, but was never truly depleted.

My first build concept:
Perpetual VR (64):

1. Vitality reserve 1 (2)
2. Healing (Self only, only 1 point, only this point of vitality reserve, cosmic: does not suffer -3/use, cosmic: no die roll required, reflexive, reduced fatigue cost 10 (62)

Every time the character is injured, uses HP, etc, the vitality reserve is depleted first, and the reflexive healing will automatically replace that 1 point of vitality reserve (in theory reflexive means that it is used as a power block after every source of injury- but with no die roll required the activation is automatic).

Something similar could be built for a 'perpetual fatigue point' with similar effect.

(1) http://www.ravensnpennies.com/2016/0...l#.V60Uq5grKM8
(2) http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...postcount=1536

[Nereidalbel]

Could also use Regeneration to restore that point of VR, without having to bring in Cosmic modifiers.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Yeah, i'd build it as Regeneration.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by starslayer

What would a 'never depleting' hit point or vitality reserve point look like- something that always came first when calculating injury, but was never truly depleted.

Like a point of DR plus a trait that counts as a hit point, but only for the purposes of calculating whether you're conscious or need to make survival checks or dead.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Could also use Regeneration to restore that point of VR, without having to bring in Cosmic modifiers.

The problem with Regen is that it only heals so many per time unit, whereas a "Never Depleting Vitality Reserve" should be there no matter how many hits one takes in a round.

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Like a point of DR plus a trait that counts as a hit point, but only for the purposes of calculating whether you're conscious or need to make survival checks or dead.

That's how I'm reading it... and the direction I'd prefer to come at this 'problem' from.

Although I like the idea of the Vit Res being undepletable... it neatly wraps up all the "When taking damage" effects wthout having to reach for some nebulously pointed Limitation to DR.

[GodBeastX]

I don't know what an HP you can never lose is. I really don't. Does this mean you will never take that 1 point of injury? Does this mean you always have at least 1 HP after injury? These questions matter. For example.

You get shot in the arm. 5 Damage would cripple it, I roll 6. Neat, Crippled... wait you have this HP defense power. If it always heals 1 HP, I only lost 4 because 5 is maximum damage I can take to that limb. If it always subtracts one, I lost 6.

If it always subtracts 1, this seems like it'd amount to essentially a point of "COSMICALLY CHEATING" DR in rough power. But if it always heals one, that's regeneration and it can break a lot of things.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Like a point of DR plus a trait that counts as a hit point, but only for the purposes of calculating whether you're conscious or need to make survival checks or dead.

Actually I'd just count it as a hit point for all purposes plus a point of DR.

Suppose you have 10 HP, 1 point of this and take a hit for 20 points of damage. Your hit points start at 11, 20 points takes you to -9, and of course you didn't lose that one hit point, so you're at -8. That's where you'd be if you had DR 1 and 11 HP. Get hit again for 2 more points and you'd go to -10, but you don't lose that one point, so at -9. Again 1 DR, but no extra HP, you already "used" that. Seems simplest just to call it the combination.