In reality, most fights are one punch kinds of things, one stab (even though attacker may not give up) or one shot. The idea of health draining away until you collapse is what's decidedly unrealistic.
Even D&D itself counsels against thinking, for example, a high level character somehow has more "life force" than a low level one. Instead, you should think of hp as a generalized competency during a fight, until the one and only actual serious hit lands, taking the person down. Such a mess up would tend to happen earlier for the untrained and later for the highly trained.
Last edited by Shadowbart; 3 hours ago.
