Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ThreeofSwords Jan 02, 2015 12:47:04	I've been working on a module (House Rule) to reduce the abstraction of Hit Points.  I'm wondering if anyone could offer constructive criticism on it before I use it in my next campaign.   I'm not looking to start a debate on healing itself.  Mostly I'm looking for hit point related things I missed and need to to account for, or ways to streamline or improve the process.   Goals of the system:   Maintain a similar amount of encounter-based damage absorption to the current system.  (I don't care that PCs start with 2-3 times the 'health' at first level, since that is the most deadly.) Keep it somewhat simple (obviously just using the default rules is much simpler). No glaring holes or omissions that will break my campaign w/o further house ruling.   So thank you for any input and without further ado, here is the module:   Hit Points & Hit Dice   Hit Points Hit Points (HP) represent your physical well-being.  If you're not at full HP, you are physically hurt. You have a number of Hit Points equal to your Constitution score (e.g. 12 HP at 12 constitution). Hit points do not increase unless your Constitution score increases. A PC under 50% HP is moderately wounded and suffers 1 level of fatigue. A PC under 25% HP has taken a major wound or multiple lesser wounds and suffers 2 levels of fatigue. A PC at 1 HP is near death and suffers 3 levels of fatigue.   Hit Dice Hit Dice (HD) represent a PC's stamina, luck, vitality, ability to avoid damage, and propensity for turning killing blows into minor wounds. A fully rested PC has a number of hit dice equal to character level. The type of Hit Dice are determined by class levels, as normal. When a PC would normally take damage, they may roll any number of their remaining Hit Dice to reduce the damage.  The number of Hit Dice must be decided before the roll is made. Each HD spent reduces damage taken from an attack by the amount rolled + Constitution mod. If incoming damage is reduced to 0, then the attack is completely negated and any 'riders' (ghoul paralyze, poison on a weapon, mummy-rot disease, etc) do not occur.   Resting PCs may rest to recover their energy, and thus Hit Dice.  Long periods of rest also allow them to heal physical wounds. Breather:  A 5-min chance to catch your breath. Regain 1 HD (up to your max).  Regain one additional HD at lvls 5, 11, and 17.  Can only occur once between Short Rests. Short rest (1 hour):  Regain double the amount of HD that you would from a Breather (up to your max). Long rest (8 hours):  Regain all HD.  Heal a number of HP equal to 1 + 1/2 Con mod (min 1). Multiclass PCs alternate between HD types regained when applicable.   Magical Healing Magical Healing both heals and revitalizes a character, closing wounds and restoring their energy and ability to fight. Magical Healing is first applied to Hit Point damage. After all HP dmg is healed, for every 4 additional points of healing that remain, the healed PC regains 1 HD, up to their max. Any excess Healing is lost.   Martial Healing (for those that want it) Martial Healing revitalizes a character, restoring their energy and will to fight. Martial Healing is not applied to Hit Point damage. For every 5 points of Martial healing a PC receives, they regain 1 HD, up to their max. Any excess Healing is converted to Temporary Hit Points.   Associated rules The following modifications have been made to accommodate these rules. The Tough feat is changed to the following:  +1 Con.  Min amount rolled on a HD is the high average roll of that dice (e.g. 4 on a d6, 5 on a d8, 6 on a d10, etc). The Fighter's Second Wind feature restores a number of HD equal to what the fighter would receive for taking a Breather. Unavoidable damage like falling damage, swimming in acid, etc always results in a minimum of 1 point of Hit Point damage per damage dice.  Hit Dice can only be used to reduce the additional damage taken.  Thus a 200' fall would result in a minimum of 20 points of Hit Point dmg and reduce even the most robust adventurer to 0 hit points. Once the damage reduction is calculated, Inspiration can be used to roll additional HD, if desired. The average of the HD spent may be used rather than rolling.  So 1d6 is 3, 2d6 is 7, 3d6 is 10, 4d6 is 14, etc. When taking long rests, a Medicine check at DC 15 can be made.  A successful check increases the amount of Hit Points healed by 1.  Medicine checks on oneself are at Disadvantage.  Expending a use of a Healer's kit increased the gain to 2 Hit Points.
#2 CulveDaddy Jan 02, 2015 14:05:25	So can you stiil spend one or more hit dice at the end of a short or long rest? If so, does this coexist with your ability to spend one or more hit dice to lessen damage?
#3 ThreeofSwords Jan 02, 2015 16:25:19	No.  You don't spend hit dice to recover.  You only spend them to negate incoming damage.
(Reply to #3) CulveDaddy	ThreeofSwords wrote:
#5 ThreeofSwords Jan 02, 2015 20:41:58	CulveDaddy wrote:
#6 Noon Jan 02, 2015 21:18:49	The problem with basing things on constitution is that while it might scratch your simulationist itch, in terms of game balance any characters who benefit more from consitituion are well off while those who are not about constitiution get screwed.   You can see in the game design they try to reduce the effect con has on everything, to stop con being the uber stat. It has an effect, but not an uber effect.   I would suggest following in their steps - make HP based on class HP with a con bonus. Changes in con that change the con bonus will affect the HP. If multi classing, perhaps use an average of class HP.   Finally, being able to roll any number of hit dice just seems to be more 'it's an illusion PC's can die - we have rules for PC death, but mechanically it's rigged to never happen' stuff.
(Reply to #5) CulveDaddy	ThreeofSwords wrote:
#8 Cyber-Dave Jan 03, 2015 7:57:13	Con already has an uber effect in the raw. All in all, I like the set of House Rules. It is the sort of thing I would use. My only critique is that these rules will slow down the pace of play. Every attack that results in damage will now require one extra physical mechanic (rolling the dice) and 2 extra mental mechanics (deciding how many dice to roll / calculating the sum of the roll). That might not seem like a lot, but in my experience that will add up to a significant amount of time per turn. This could as much as double the length of combat. in fact, the extra time per turn is the exact reason I ended up deciding not to use something very similar.
(Reply to #7) Cyber-Dave	CulveDaddy wrote:
#10 mellored Jan 03, 2015 9:39:04	Overall seems fine, though I don't see why martial healing is 5, while magic is 4. If anything it should be reversed, since magic affects wounds as well. Also, what cyberdave said, you've got a lot more rolling.
#11 cowleymen Jan 03, 2015 13:07:49	This is interesting. IT can also be a kinda heavy with the extra dice rolling at higher levels. This makes a very gritty campaign though, which I think is something that is harder to do with dnd.
#12 Noon Jan 03, 2015 16:14:27	cowleymen wrote:
#13 cowleymen Jan 03, 2015 18:08:46	well most of the game is an illusion. HP is an abstractation anyways. I might decided to give a +1, or +2 per level depending on what your class is. Barbarians, fighters and paladins a +2 hp perlevel, Ranger, cleric, druid, rouge +1,  wizard, warlock and sorcerer no bonus
#14 sleypy Jan 04, 2015 8:46:27	I like this a lot actual.   The questions I have are does being attacked by surprise still allow you to spend HD or would that require one to not be flat footed; and how long do you see hp recovered as temperary hp last ing when gained from martial healing.