Infamous Supplementary: Hit Points

 Likely the most fundamental mechanic in the character's hit points. When you suffer damage, your hit points are reduced. If your hit points drop below 1, you'll lose consciousness, and if they drop below 0, you begin to bleed out and die. It's as simple as that. Once you start bleeding out after 0, you'll lose one additional hit point every round until someone attempts to patch up your wounds. There is technically no limit on how much you can bleed out, however since only one attempt can be made to patch your wounds, if that fails, you die. Healing magic is often a good alternative if no character is present with the First Aid skill, however it is highly recommended that First Aid be used wherever possible. By default, characters can attempt to patch up a dying creature for 1-3 points. As such, at -4 it is assumed that the character has died unless there is an available character who can use a First Aid skill to heal you for more than that. Healing magic is not considered in this instance, as actual medicinal proficiencies are often truly required to patch a creature who is so far wounded to the point where Surgery might be necessary.

Outside of game mechanics, Hit Points represent two major things. Firstly, Hit Points represent the character's tolerance for pain and how strong the character's toughness is in the heat of battle. Characters with high constitution have increased hit points for this reason. Secondly, Hit Points represent the character's ability to successfully defend against attacks in combat. Of course, dexterity plays a large role in this as it factors into the character's ability to parry and dodge attacks, however Hit Points are the primary factor in determining the characters ability to defend in combat. This is why Fighters gain more hit points than any other class, as they have much more experience and training when it comes to defense. Likewise, Magic-Users have fairly few hit points due to having little experience in defending against attacks. Granted, the character will surely gain at least some ability to defend, as even Magic-Users will have gathered at least some experience in defending in combat.

As for healing magic, it is capable of mending wounds, however this is mostly done by giving the recipient a huge burst of energy, which the body uses to rapidly mend itself. As such, this burst of energy also allows the character to rapidly recover from the pains of battle. As levels of healing magic vary, the character may be capable of healing more severe wounds with something like perhaps, Cure Critical Wounds or a Heal spell.