What's the relation between HP and defenses?

What do Health Points represent?

For example, Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon all have the same Defense. This means that they have the same means of protection against physical injury. They have the same bone toughness, muscle density and skin thickness to protect from blows. But still Vappy can endure a lot more than its relatives. It's much tougher but whats making it tougher? I could understand how Skarmory can endure more hits than Chansey because he has a very hard, metallic body which is hardly damaged, but vaporoen has the same defense so why?

Be as logical and realistic as possible and explain please :) I know HP is how much total damage a Pkmn can endure before it can't fight anymore but what is it dependent upon?

I've thought of defence as what you said, kind of, and of HP as something more... Willpower related, perhaps? Size also matters - tiny pokemon often (but not always, as seen with Vaporeon) have less HP than huge pokemon.

The defence stat is based first on the Pokemon's type and body structure and then on any EVs added to that stat. HP is the same way; Pokemon like Graveler and Shuckle don't have much HP but have high defence because they're part Rock type, and rocks are hard and are difficult to damage, but once they are damaged can't really recover well. Chansey on the other hand is Normal type, and while its defences are rock bottom, its high HP helps it absorb the damage, I guess like a plush toy or something made of plastic. Type has a lot to do with it; fire is powerful but easily extinguished, while water just pools around anything submerged in it, absorbing the force applied to it. Ice meanwhile easily shatters, while steel is difficult to damage normally but melts under enough heat. Just how much HP a Pokemon has actually makes sense once you think about what its type is and what it's based on.

Basically with pokemon of same defense but different HP boils down to the 2 pokemon being able to take the same amount of force but the one with higher HP can take more hits. So let's say one pokemon can take 2 critical hits while the the other pokemon can only take 1. That's my perspective.

Physical fitness or stamina? I know one could argue that defense and special defense represent stamina, but I've always associated those two with body type/resilience, and they're not necessarily linked together. As levels represent a Pokemon's experience, hit points could represent the increased stamina that they have gained as a result of that experience, whilst defense and special defense would be their resilience to damage.

@ mew_nani : Then why does Wobbuffet have high health? HP may have something to do with stamina and pain tolerance though cause pain can stop you from fighting and fatigue too thus you would be 'unable to battle'. Also getting body punched leaves you sore and breathless and exhausted. An electrocution takes the same toll on your body. So it has to do with energy kinda and pain.

I thought Hp was pretty much stamina. This is made really apparent in HG/SS for the pokeathlon as most Pokemon with high hp had high stamina.

It seems that no matter how much HP a Pokemon has, if it has veeeeeeeryyy low defense then it still dies in one hit(look Blissey) Likewise, no matter how big defenses if it has veryyy low hp it still dies easily(look shedinja). So what is HP? I mean defense is how much resistance the pokemon has to damage. HP? Whats that? Why does it affect the survivability of pokemon?

Imagine this;

A pokemon is a sack of marbles. When all the marbles fall out of the bag (as in every one, leaving it empty), the pokemon faints. The HP is the number of marbles in the sack - but the defenses are how thick that sack is. One marble in a thick sack, isn't very good. Then again, a million marbles in a plastic bag won't hold very well either.

The best survivability comes from a balance of the two, or a massive amount of one, without a crippling deficiency in the other.

Udders said:

It seems that no matter how much HP a Pokemon has, if it has veeeeeeeryyy low defense then it still dies in one hit(look Blissey) Likewise, no matter how big defenses if it has veryyy low hp it still dies easily(look shedinja). So what is HP? I mean defense is how much resistance the pokemon has to damage. HP? Whats that? Why does it affect the survivability of pokemon?

Click to expand...

Forgive me, but this is so similar to your other thread that I think it's just best to merge the two.

Polar Spectrum said:

Imagine this;

A pokemon is a sack of marbles. When all the marbles fall out of the bag (as in every one, leaving it empty), the pokemon faints. The HP is the number of marbles in the sack - but the defenses are how thick that sack is. One marble in a thick sack, isn't very good. Then again, a million marbles in a plastic bag won't hold very well either.

The best survivability comes from a balance of the two, or a massive amount of one, without a crippling deficiency in the other.

Click to expand...

Brilliant answer though. Suddenly I see this query in a new light.

Thats exactly how I thought it but with bags of sand instead ;p However in real life what do the marbles represent?

Because each of eevees forms specialize in different stats, so one of them has to be defense.