Length of combat in D&D

The level 1 wizard in the D&D Next playtest has a constitution of 14, resulting in him having 16 hit points. In 1st edition AD&D a level 1 wizard with a constitution of 14 would have had between 1 and 4 hit points (rolled randomly, although we used house rules that gave him 4 points at level 1). A level 1 wizard in 4th edition D&D would have 24 hit points. Compared to these big differences in hit points, the damage numbers that for example an arrow does aren't all that much dif

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