Bloodied means down

[Sadrik]

Stream of consciousness-

What if Bloodied condition means down and 0 hp means dead?

This would help with grind are there any unforeseen problems?

Ah, just thought of one, bloodied would have to become surge value (1/4 hp so that you have abilities to take effect.

It might make more sense to go with 1/3 down, 1/3 bloodied and 1/3 just fine and 0 dead and 1/4 surge value.

It might also be neat to have the 1/3 down value recover at a slower rate. Rather than all together at once with healing surges.

Comments, suggestions?

 

[Omnifarious Grey]

Stream of consciousness-

What if Bloodied condition means down and 0 hp means dead?

This would help with grind are there any unforeseen problems?

Ah, just thought of one, bloodied would have to become surge value (1/4 hp so that you have abilities to take effect.

It might make more sense to go with 1/3 down, 1/3 bloodied and 1/3 just fine and 0 dead and 1/4 surge value.

It might also be neat to have the 1/3 down value recover at a slower rate. Rather than all together at once with healing surges.

Comments, suggestions?

This just seems to be shortening the totally HP of the game. 0 HP means down as it stands, while -bloodied is dead (in terms of damage). It seems like you are just shortening the time that things go down or become bloodied, which may not be a bad thing. I just think it seems a bit tedious now that you are dividing HP into thirds is all.

 

[Sadrik]

This just seems to be shortening the totally HP of the game. 0 HP means down as it stands, while -bloodied is dead (in terms of damage). It seems like you are just shortening the time that things go down or become bloodied, which may not be a bad thing. I just think it seems a bit tedious now that you are dividing HP into thirds is all.

Well, I was just sort of shotgunning my idea out there and hoping that they would be honed through this thread. Ease of use is the most important concern so the 1/3 thing is out. You should be able to look at the MM and without any paper or need to determine anything just run with it.

So with that design restraint the way it has to be is this:
0 HP is dead - getting rid of the whole 3 death saves thing (100%)
Bloodied is down (50%)
Surge value is bloodied (25%)

Everything else works exactly the same.

 

[Omnifarious Grey]

Well, I was just sort of shotgunning my idea out there and hoping that they would be honed through this thread. Ease of use is the most important concern so the 1/3 thing is out. You should be able to look at the MM and without any paper or need to determine anything just run with it.

So with that design restraint the way it has to be is this:
0 HP is dead - getting rid of the whole 3 death saves thing (100%)
Bloodied is down (50%)
Surge value is bloodied (25%)

Everything else works exactly the same.

So by the time someone is bloodied they hit the ground, similar to going to 0 as it stands now?

If that is the case it seems like a lot of powers and abilities could be disrupted as they rely on either you or a foe being bloodied. You may want to change the surge and bloodied values around so that your surge value is down and your bloodied value stays the same. This leaves a bigger buffer "in comparison" between full -> bloodied than from bloodied -> down. Surge values could stay the same as they still can accomplish bringing you from down back to bloodied or even over.

This is a thought.

 

[Sadrik]

So by the time someone is bloodied they hit the ground, similar to going to 0 as it stands now?

If that is the case it seems like a lot of powers and abilities could be disrupted as they rely on either you or a foe being bloodied. You may want to change the surge and bloodied values around so that your surge value is down and your bloodied value stays the same. This leaves a bigger buffer "in comparison" between full -> bloodied than from bloodied -> down. Surge values could stay the same as they still can accomplish bringing you from down back to bloodied or even over.

This is a thought.

Lol, I didn't mean it like that. I was not very clear.

So, here it is again:
A creature is Dead when they lose all of their HPs (getting rid of the whole 3 death saves thing)
A creature is Down when they reach their old Bloodied value (50% of their HP)
A creature is Bloodied when they reach their old Surge value (25% of their HP)

 

[Omnifarious Grey]

Lol, I didn't mean it like that. I was not very clear.

So, here it is again:
A creature is Dead when they lose all of their HPs (getting rid of the whole 3 death saves thing)
A creature is Down when they reach their old Bloodied value (50% of their HP)
A creature is Bloodied when they reach their old Surge value (25% of their HP)

So you are telling me that a creature becomes down before they become bloodied and after getting hit some more when they are down, they become bloodied?

Still seems unclear, unless you mean that a creature becomes down at 50% health and is bloodied at 75% health left.

 

[Sadrik]

So you are telling me that a creature becomes down before they become bloodied and after getting hit some more when they are down, they become bloodied?

Still seems unclear, unless you mean that a creature becomes down at 50% health and is bloodied at 75% health left.

An example should clear things up.

Imagine a character with 40 HPs
When he loses 10 HP he is bloodied
When he loses 20 HP he is down
When he loses 40 HP he dies

On a monster listing these are easy numbers to discern because they are right there - total HP is its "dead" value and its "down" value is its bloodied value and its bloodied value is half that.

So why, why go to the hassle of essentially having everyone's HPs? Well it is a way to deal with combat grind. It will definitely work, combats will be shorter and sweeter. Will you gain anything? It depends on how you feel about grind. So, use it if you will. I think I will try it when I eventually run a 4e game.

 

[the Jester]

Hmm, halving the hit points is a good approach to reducing grind- but if I were you, I'd run the game for a while without house rules before starting to tweak it. You might find that it actually hangs together pretty well.

 

[Sadrik]

Hmm, halving the hit points is a good approach to reducing grind- but if I were you, I'd run the game for a while without house rules before starting to tweak it. You might find that it actually hangs together pretty well.

I have played 4e. Combats drag on and on. I am not interested in running a game with those types of concerns. I am much more interested in getting to the heart of the game the action around the fight. The fights will be even more heart pumping as characters and monsters will go down much quicker.

 

[themilkman]

I have played 4e. Combats drag on and on. I am not interested in running a game with those types of concerns. I am much more interested in getting to the heart of the game the action around the fight. The fights will be even more heart pumping as characters and monsters will go down much quicker.

Keep an eye on how balanced your players are with one another in combat. Because people will be dropping so quickly in fights, some classes may be much more useful in combat than others. Strikers, for example, might be more useful than other classes, because they have the potential to drop a badguy in only a few rounds. Defenders might be less useful because being sticky and locking down baddies is no longer as useful as just spanking them to death. Also, a defender's extra HP might not be as important, since the difference between their HP and the HP of other roles will be halved, while attacks still do the same amount of damage.

It's not very much fun for four players to sit there and watch the rogue kill every single monster on the board.