The problem of low hit points on humans

[Hullu]

How much variety in hp is there really in real life? If your head is cut off you die. If you take an arrow in the lung then in real life you're not fighting any more, no matter how big and tough you are.

Depends a lot.

I know a guy in rl who feels almost no pain, I don't know how you could really model this into an mmorpg but a guy like that would certainly be combat-capable a _LOT_ longer than the average guy.

Then come blunt weapons, physical size helps a LOT against blunt weapons. Whereas a small guy fractures a bone a really big guy is hardly even hurt.

Piercing weapons? You need to pierce a LOT further on a 110kg Conan compared to a 45kg geek - again more durability.

Sharp cutting edges, even on those you need considerably more force to cut 'all the way to the bone' if there's triple the amount of flesh in the way.

The smaller it is, the easier it is to kill. I'd BET there's differences of hundreds of percentages when it comes to survibability from trauma when it comes to humans. Actually no need to bet on that, everyone knows that.

So back to your questions:

If your head is cut off you die.

It is actually considerably harder to cut the head off a big man, than from a small man. If you 'only' cut to the bone, surviving is possible, with modern medicine, and certainly with healing spells.

If you take an arrow in the lung then in real life you're not fighting any more, no matter how big and tough you are.

On the big man the arrow might not penetrate all the way to the lung, thus creating a 1-3hp damage instead of 100% hp damage.