Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Eltharon 04-24-06, 10:51 PM	Hi all I'm thinking of running a realistic, low magic campaign in DnD (basic 3.5) and was looking at some of the alternate combat rules in Unearthed Arcana. (i'm not a fan of hit points). But none (in my opinion) really capture the 'Feel" of combat like a system such as GURPS (gasp). I was wondering if anyone had any varient rules to deal with parrying, low hit points, and little healing magic. Thanks
Xeviat-DM 04-25-06, 03:15 AM	Well ... here's a few things: Wound/Vitality system: described in Unearthed Arcana. In this system, the dice for cure spells heal VP, and the caster level bonus heals WP. At first level, if a character takes 8 WP damage (and their con is 12, so they only have 12 wound points), a first level cleric's cure is only going to heal them one wound point, and thus they're going to be hurting still (wound point damage, even one point, causes the character to be fatigued, which well represents being hurt). Alternate Death and Dying rules: described in Unearthed Arcana (takes a little work to rewrite these rules for WP/VP rules, but it works very well). These rules allow characters to heroicly survive massive wounds, and place survival partially upon fortitude. Along with the VP/WP rules, just remember that Vitality Points (hit points) represent a character's energy. If they're hit for VP damage, even 50, that didn't "hit" them; the attack was violently parried, causing them to loose energy; the attack hit, but only bruised; or the character dodged, expending energy to do so. Parry's are difficult. The current system utilizes bonus AC for parrying in all situations except for the blasted Deflect Arrows feat. When you think on it, an opposed attack roll system, combined with attacks of opportunity, would make a good parry system. Dragon had a parry system if I remember correctly: you may, as an attack of opportunity, make an opposed attack roll to parry a melee attack. If you succeed, you block the attack, but your opponent gets an immediate disarm check against you. If you fail the innitial attack roll, you're hit (I'd say automatically, even if your AC was higher; this would discourage the ability from being used all the time). If you intend to do this, have armor provide DR, and change deflect arrows to allow you to make parries vs. ranged attacks. Good luck on making combat more realistic. It's taken me 4 years to get it to where I like it.
Nor'Morgwae 04-25-06, 03:51 AM	If you want a low magic d20 D&D set up I would suggest taking a look at Iron Heroes. It's designed to be just that. It even has suggestions for using it in concert with oteh D&D systems. It's Malhavok Press, I'd link it but I'm pretty sure that's disallowed (seeing as how it's a competitor of Wizards). The price tag is comperable to Wizards stuff but you can pick it up in PDF format for a heafty price cut. I don't have much to add other than that. Out of curiosity, if you want a Gurps feel why not, you know, play Gurps?
Eltharon 04-25-06, 07:46 AM	Because: 1) I dont have the money 2) My group, while open to changing the DnD rules, dont want to switch from D20 system. :rolleyes: Thanks for the replies so far
Millennium 04-25-06, 08:06 AM	You might consider the Grim-n-Gritty combat system. Although there are PDFs of it for sale, it's actually OGC, so it's also available for download legally. Alas, finding the latest (Revised and Simplified) rules can be somewhat difficult, as it seems to be maintained by nothing but a thread on the ENWorld forums. Parrying is still somewhat abstract, but it's a lot "closer to the metal". If you want low HP, you've got it: everyone has a flat 25 "life pips", and there is no way to get more. Armor reduces the amount of damage you take, though it has another interesting property: in this system it can protect from magic as well as weapons, which should shift the balance a bit further away from magic. Critical hits strike specific locations rather than dealing extra damage; alternatively, they can bypass armor. Damage goes up for better hits, bigger creatures are a lot scarier, and so on. http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82837
Oneiros 04-25-06, 11:12 AM	If you're going to go with little healing magic, I'd also recommend taking a look at the Reserve Points Variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/reservePoints.htm) from Unearthed Arcana. This substitutes for healing outside of combat, letting characters still have about the same number of encounters per game day, but it's a little more dangerous because it doesn't help with healing during combat. Iron Heroes uses this variant. Here's another vote for checking out that book for a all-around low magic game (but PCs are just as powerful as fully magic equipped characters in a regular game.) If healing magic is removed, and creatures still dish out the same damage, I don't know if you actually need to change hit points. In a recent encounter, my character (7th level, about 60 hp) lost one and a half times his hit points in just four rounds from a wyvern and his sneak-attacking rogue rider. Without the party cleric, I would have dropped much sooner (as it was, I only got down to single digits once during the combat, but didn't actually go unconscious.)
Eltharon 04-25-06, 06:55 PM	I'm checking out the Grim-n-Gritty rules now :)