Hmm. I understand what everyone is saying, but still nobody complains when the character THEY play becomes level 40 in basically a year or so game time (BG) or reaches level 20 in a few months (NWN).
Personally, I hate hitpoints. When we were playing D+D, we had critical hit rolls. By rolling a natural 20 you had a chance to instantly kill someone. I hated the fact that a high level fighter could be stabbed with a dagger about 30-40 times before he had to start worrying. Or maybe he'd run across the battlefield with 20 arrows sticking out of him.
We now play with our own rules, which has health levels for everyone. Non-human characters have up to 3 extra health levels, but basically, everyone is about the same. A high constitution allows damage to be resisted better, but nobody gets extra health. We had a character that had been developed for a very long period and was a real monster in combat until he got cocky and an assassin that he failed to see stabbed him once from behind, ending his life. The player was sad, but recognized it as more realistic and admitted that he'd lowered his guard and deserved what he got.