Overview
Hit Points (appreviated HP), one of two types of points in Final Fantasy Zero, are the measure of any creature's staying power in combat. They are an abstract way to measure endurance — they do not literally reflect health, life, luck, or anything else, though all of these things may be rolled into them.
HP, like MP, are always short term — because you heal after every encounter (or group of encounters), HP do not measure how well you hold up to repeated attrition except in each individual combat. This is also why running out of HP is not necessarily fatal, though it does result in possibly fatal consequences.
Losing and Recovering HP
Any time you take damage, it subtracts from your current HP total. More often than not, combats are decided based on which team gets to 0 hp first —that team looses. There are, of course, many ways to prevent HP loss, including increasing your Defenses and Resistances, and moving to the back row.
Occasionally, there are abilities that consume HP from the user in order to activate them. Damage from these abilities cannot be lessened or negated in any way — the only way to prevent HP loss from those abilities is to not use those abilities.
Recovering HP is a kind of healing. Many items, abilities, and commands recover HP.
Maximum and Minimum HP
Your Maximum Hit Points value is a total that your HP cannot exceed. Your job grants you a maximum HP value when you take it, and the value increases with level. Anything (typically healing) that would increase your HP over and above this value is ignored once it reaches this value.
The minimum HP that any creature can reach is 0. Anything (typically damage) that would decrease your HP below 0 is ignored once your HP reach 0. There is no such thing as "negative hit points" in FFZ. If your HP total reaches 0, you are KO'd — rendered unconcious. This usually doesn't mean you are dead, but you are close enough to death that you cannot come back from the brink without help.
Hit Point Values
At first level, you are assigned a HP value of either 10, 15, or 20. To this, you add your Constitution score. Every character gains 5 HP per level. Stronger, tougher jobs tend to have higher HP than cloistered, magick-using jobs.
