Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ShinoAburame 08-28-07, 05:49 PM	I've updated this system because I really like the idea, to try and make it less random, while mantaining the chance for any foe to be deadly at any level! Percentle Death System: Say a commoner sneaksup behind an evil wizard and whacks him in the head with a club. As you know the club deals 1d6 damage. That should be a 1 to 6% chance to die right-there right? Well... Con Modifier To d100 Check: Based on your con modifier, you add or subtract to your d100 check. If that wizard was particularly healthy (18 con?) d100+4, even if the commoner rolled a six the wizard would only have a 1% chance to die! But that's not all... Hit Die Type To d100 Check: You add half of your hit die type to the d100 check as well. This does not stack like HP, you simply get it when you start the game, more importantly if you multiclass, always consider the lowest hit die your dominant one, for balance reasons. Sense the wizard's hit die is d4, he gains a +2 to his d100 check. Now he has d100+6! The commoner's club snaps over his head and now the wizard is ******.. insulted that a commoner actually thought he could defeat him! Hit Die Amount To Normal Damage: I say hit-die and not levels because monsters generaly are viewed for thier amount of hit die/2 (rounded down), say that commoner was level 5. Well.. he'd get +2 on all damage rolls with normal attacks! Crippeling Blow: All weapons now have a set number of chance to cause "crippeling blow", this cannot be avoided because of a high constitution. It's solely on the attacker's end to roll lucky enough to get it. Crippeling blow will make your opponent fatigue, if they're already fatigue, it will make them exhausted, if already exhausted, it will make them unconsciouse! Massive Damage: If dealt damage equal to your constitution score or more, massive damage is triggerd. Massive damage only applies to normal attacks (IE: weapons, unarmed, or in monster's case natural.. bassicaly anything NOT magical!) The save is actually two fort saves, if you succeed in either one, you don't die. The edits were made so that spellcasters did not, as always, have the upperhand in every regard. This wizard does not have to be particularly skilled, he can just use a cheap level 1 magic missle. Sense levels still apply, magic missle could very well be the most broken spell, not becomes it has the highest X% chance to kill you, but because it forces a foe to make multiple rolls to avoid death! As such i'm going to have to house-rule a reasonably easy reflex save to avoid collission with a magic missle... Fighter Vs Wizard: This is what the system was designed for. So that people don't feel shafted simply because they can't cast spells, and it takes on a more Hyborian feel of you're just as afraid of a savage beast as you are the insane warlock! Generaly casters will have greater means to kill you on the d100 check, what their doing on third level spells, fighters are doing when they reach critical hits! However, a wizard will never know the luck of massive damage or crippeling blows. Though sense both of these are not garanteed. I don't know how much it really helps the warrior classes.. I'd say they'd never know the progress of levels with thier weapons, but they do it even better! House Rule on Weapon Specialization/Focus: The Fighter's main agenda is Weapon Specialization and Weapon Focus to pwn at a ceartain weapon. Now it's all one feat that only the fighter can take. Weapon Focus: Gain +1 to attack rolls, damage rolls, and crippeling blows with selected weapon. Greater Weapon Focus: Gain +2 to attack rolls, damage rolls, and crippeling blows with selected weapon. Improved Weapon Focus: Gain +3 to attack rolls, damage rolls, and crippeling blows with selected weapon. Take into consideration several things when judging the system. A: It was designed to make things gritty. Even a level 20 character should not provoke a kobold without reason. Fools don't live very long. B: It was designed to make non-casters more evenly matched with spellcasters.
Roog 08-29-07, 10:51 PM	Take into consideration several things when judging the system. A: It was designed to make things gritty. Even a level 20 character should not provoke a kobold without reason. Fools don't live very long. To clarify - is the Massive Damage save a save vs DC 15 or vs damage taken? If I played a D&D based system similar to this I would want - Firstly, some way to block/dodge; straight AC is fine for the current system, but when every blow can be deadly I care about avoiding every blow. Secondly, any attack that cannot reach the massive damage threshold only has a small random chance of killing people with the d100 check, and if the chance of a Crippling Blow does not depend on the attackers skill things can get silly. I would not like small 1-10% chances of killing the target with every blow, what I would like is 40-80% chance of killing the target with the right blow (even if that blow is very difficult to archive). Your massive damage rules give that effect for large damage hits, but do not take the quality of the blow into account, and make it easy for high damage attacks to make every blow a killing blow. As for the mechanics of your suggestion, I would like to see included... 1: Aiming / lining up the blow to increase the chances of a deadly blow. 2: A good (lucky/skilled) blow to be more deadly. I have +22 attack and you have AC 11 - you better be scared. offset by the defenders ability to avoid the killing blow 3: A stronger blow to be more deadly. offset by the defenders resilience B: It was designed to make non-casters more evenly matched with spellcasters. It will definitely help with that - the system you have will randomly kill PCs from low damage attacks, and that is a great way to keep the party at low level and thus make non-casters more evenly matched with spellcasters.
EpicEvokerElf 08-31-07, 01:39 PM	What's 'crippeling?' Crippling. Get the spelling right, please. And this system is just stupid, no offense meant. It doesn't make sense.
IceFractal 08-31-07, 02:12 PM	So if I'm reading this right ... At level 10, a fireball would be a 35% chance to die for everyone in the area? And a Barbarian could easily be generating two 40% chances to die each round? Expect combat to be very short. The most resistance anyone would have is 6+Con%. After one or two people have attacked someone for one round, they are most likely dead. I'm also not seeing how this helps fighters vs casters - if anything, it helps casters more, because the best way to survive a fight is not getting hit at all, and casters have an easier time doing that.