Hit or Miss

Since at least the late 1970s and the publication of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide, there have been those (including E. Gary Gygax himself) who assert that hit points are not merely physical damage capacity (at least where player characters are concerned), but are a combination of luck, divine will, and "plot armor." If this is truly the case, then why not call it what it is? In pursuit of this line of reasoning, I propose a new rule. Make the hit point maximum static, and let player characters gain "miss points" as they level up.

In the case of Dungeons & Dragons and others of its ilk, make hit points equal to a character's Constitution (or its equivalent stat in other games). When characters level up, they gain miss points instead of hit points. When a character sustains damage, it is deducted from the character's miss points first. When those are depleted, the damage is deducted from the character's hit points. Until the damage starts to reduce hit points, no actual physical injury occurs. Healing occurs in reverse order: first hit points, then miss points. All of the usual healing methods are effective to restore hit points, but time alone restores miss points. Or maybe new rules could address additional miss point recovery along the lines of luck or karma acquisition.

Hit points as hit points are silly, but if you're going to keep them, you might as well run with it, hit or miss.