Injury and Death

[Green Knight]

Hi,

I'd like some feedback on my house rules for Injury and Death. The rules can be foud under "new stuff"/general info.

Bjørn

[Lawgiver]

It may work fine for low level characters, but as the levels progress I'd drop the system. I think characters already have to many hitpoints, these rules increase a characters total damage potential even farther!

[Green Knight]

Humm,

You're probably right. I rarely, if ever play with high level characters, so the system isn't properly tested for levels 11+. My campaigns usually focus on the early and middle levels from 2-8 level.

Still, with BR characters lacking gravely in the magic item department, I usually find that some extra staying power helps even the odds a little.

Bjørn

[Kerio]

One minor suggestion (if you are going to continue using the system) ...


... you have already penalized small creatures in the calculation of WP, thus why penalize them further when they take massive damage (i.e. 20 points rather than the 25 for meduim sized creatures). Imagine what could happen (especially if you use the critical hit rules), a moderately strong barbarian (i.e. STR 14-15) using a greataxe (d12, crit x3) would expect to do an average of 8.5 hp damage normally (min 3/max 14) and 25.5 hp damage on a critical hit (min 9/max 42)! Even with a battleaxe, the barbarian could be deadly 6.5 hp damage normally (min 3/max 10) and 19.5 hp damage on a critical hit (min 9/max 30).

Balancing survivability and challenge especially at lower levels is a difficult to achieve as a DM (and almost impossible if the players take stupid unnecessary risks or provoke powerful enemies). If you are using the encounter guidelines presented in the DMG, this should allow any party of four characters to survive almost intact. However, if modifications are required ... better to just give all the players additional hps than creating a complex set of rules to simulate wounds and their intensities -- in essence that is what hp are anyways. While it might not be stated in the 3ed rules as clearly as in the others, hp are a combination of skills -- dodging, parrying, deflecting, etc. and personal fortitude which represent the character's health; (to a 1st level mage a 1hp wound is a _serious_ wound -- to a 20th level fighter, the same 1hp wound is nothing but a _scratch_).

IF you want to alter the rules to make CON take a more important role ... you could allow characters to bleed at "death's door" until -CON is reached or have massive injuries from a single attack based on 5xCON.