Originally Posted by Stabbey

Well, the damage resistance numbers could be changed, but the visible constant tick of the health bar going down discourages exploration and roleplaying, which is not at all a desirable outcome for this kind of game.

Plus, since the only bonus is +20% to Max HP, and playing normally, talking to NPC's and exploring will drain the bonus back down to where it was before the +20%, that effectively means that the bonus doesn't exist at all (especially at the worst possible time, the start of a combat encounter).

Sure, there may be "ways" to replenish it, but I can pretty much guarantee you that a constant maintenance required to keep HP up is busywork that'll be more likely to produce a sense of annoyance in players, not a sense of roleplaying.

EDIT: And the +1 Bonus is a CONSTANT effect as long as you have a Source Point. It doesn't degrade until you spend the Source Point.

I thought about it and compared it to several other games with similar mechanics which I really enjoyed. Perhaps, indeed, it may be not the HP, but something else that would keep diminishing if you don't consume Source energy. The two main problems I see here is time and Source points availability in general. First, the debuffs should take considerable time to kick in, an hour or so at the very least, so you're not pressed into constantly seeking a way to replenish your SP. Second, I'm not sure how easy it will be to acquire Source points. "Having only one at a time" and "being able to restore your SP by consuming corpses and ghosts" don't really fit together. The idea of Source dependency further suggests that it should be relatively easy to acquire at least some Source on a regular basis. So, which one is it?