Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Americalex 11-12-06, 02:21 PM	Hi, Me and my players enacted a custom rule for hit points, based on the LOTR CODA system. A medium sized creature has 6 wound levels. Total hit points are calculated not with Hit Die, but with Constitution and Strength scores. In this system, a characters total hit points do not vary according to level, but are still affected by attributes changes due to magic items or other types of modifications (including attribute penalties or attribute loss. CHARACTER HEALTH Health: Constitution Score + Strength Modifier + Hit Die Average Modifier Average Hit Die Modifier D4 = -2 D6 = -1 D8 = no modifier D10 = +1 D12 = +2 Hence Fogface is a L6 barbarian. He has an average hit die of D12, so he gets +2 to his health. If his strength score is 18 and his constitution score is 14, he gets a total health of 20. The health is applied to each wound level 120 Healthy 100 Dazed -1 80 Injured -3 60 Wounded -5 40 Incapacitated -7 20 Near Death -9 0 Dying -20 Death When Fogface's hit points reach 40 or less, he must apply a -7 ajustment to all attack and skill rolls (but not to initiative, saving throws, or damage rolls). This system makes the paladin lay on hand much more useful, and I can garantee you that your players will be stressed out with each fight. This system makes stronger creatures and high level casters much more dangerous, but it also grants an excellent dose of entertaining realism to any campaign. Undeath & Constructs Creatures with no constitution are considered to have '10' in constitution for purposes of determining health. Creatures with no Strength are considered to have 10 as well, or 0 modifier. Hence all undead have 12 + STR modifier as their health (the extra 2 comes from the fact they use D12). Challenge Rating Creatures with 1/2 or 1/4 challenge rating must mutiply their base health by this factor when determining hit points. They will still have a lot more hit points then normal, but it works out nicely this way. Rage, Rage-like abilities & Temporary Hit Points Increases to constitution and strength gained from rage or similar abilities add a number of temporary hit points that are stacked as part of an extra 'healthy' wound level. They do not cause the basic penalty thresholds to change. Size & Health Levels For each size category beyond medium, the creature gains an extra 'Healthy' wound level, and for small characters, remove the 'Near Death' level. Small characters go directly from -7 to dying. Fortitude Checks and Health Wounded Wounded characters must roll a fortitude check DC5 every time they take damage. Failure results in the character falling unconscious. Incapacitated Incapacitated characters must roll a fortitude check DC10 every time they take damage or fall unconscious. Near Death Near Death characters must roll a fortitude check DC15 every time they take damage or fall unconscious.
LCD2YOU 11-12-06, 02:30 PM	This should really be under "House Rules".
Escef 11-12-06, 02:32 PM	And have you tested this with D&D rules and creatures? It strikes me that this will make low level encounters very difficult and long, and high level encounters will be very easy and quick. Edit: On further thought, high level encounters under this system will be dicided by initiative, and low level fights will just be long slugging matches. Also, how does this system deal with magical healing?
Americalex 11-12-06, 02:39 PM	Oups I didn't know about the house rules section :D
Americalex 11-12-06, 02:42 PM	Well its surprising. If you test this with a colossal dragon, and you stack all the extra healthy levels with the amazing health you get, you will find that the total hit points are almost the same in all cases!! There is evidently a challenge for arcane casters who might run out of spells before killing normally easily dispatched monsters. However, a well-placed fireball can now give penalty checks to those it injures and that may play as much of a role in helping the group as anything else. Try to pit the players against a Giant and you will see that creatures with high Strength & Constitution are much more dangerous than in previous encounters. We've tried it, and it's a lot of fun. Of course your players will probably want to give a higher priority to their STR & CON stats then normally, so you will still get warrior classes with higher health then most. Low level combat is certainly more difficult, but initial testing reveals that high-level fights are also more difficult. Defeating a CR4 will be harder than usual, and probably more along the lines of the DMG: A group of four level 4 individuals can take down a CR4 encounter. We play with a starting level 6 for characters, and we grant 6d6 (keep the 3 highest results) when rolling initial attributes, so that the players are high-powered ala Drizzt style. Give it a shot and let me know!