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Related to my previous post on hit points healing needs to be discussed. I like the 4th edition idea of surges. It gives the party more staying power without the reliance on a combat medic i.e. cleric. I'm going to use them in my 3.9 game (heavily modified 3.5).
This obviously has the effect of freeing up the cleric to a certain extent to be free to smite evil or whatever his religion feels is a worthy pursuit for a devout follower.
I'm going to try the 4th edition mechanic to start off with see how it works. If it doesn't then I'll modify as needed. My thoughts are to call it taking a breather - a full round action which does provoke an attack of oppoortunity - my reasoning behind this is that to truly rest you need to be unthreatened and able to relax (well sort of!). If this attack succeeds the surge is lost.
This obviously has the effect of freeing up the cleric to a certain extent to be free to smite evil or whatever his religion feels is a worthy pursuit for a devout follower.
I'm going to try the 4th edition mechanic to start off with see how it works. If it doesn't then I'll modify as needed. My thoughts are to call it taking a breather - a full round action which does provoke an attack of oppoortunity - my reasoning behind this is that to truly rest you need to be unthreatened and able to relax (well sort of!). If this attack succeeds the surge is lost.
Posted in Uncategorized
Starting Hit Points
One of the big problems I’ve found playing D&D in all its forms is surviving the lower levels. Partly this is to do with low hit points and partly to do with playing styles and how they’ve evolved over the years. The low hit points at 1st level thing is easy, like many house rules and the Pathfinder system (and for that matter DDO) simply add the characters constitution score to their starting total.
But why do we need these extra hit points. Well first of all back in the beginning (1979 for my group), you developed a character and became attached to it - you cared if your character was killed part of the way through 1st level, yeah it was easy to roll up another character but “You killed Kenny goddammit” could be the response to character death. This wasn’t just the response of a child as we started at 15 or 16 and still felt this way about character deathuntil our late teens, not mature perhaps but not children either.
So you protected your character, you ran away, characters supported each other, the mule holder (sorry cleric) cured you (a 1st edition cleric could do little else useful), so if you died it was usually after a struggle to stay alive.
Was this fun (the 4th edition mantra). Well yes actually. You got a sense of achievment after a long struggle.
Then came computer games with its save points and ease of play. Failed the encounter - nevermind - just load the last saved game and try again. So you fight to the bitter end - knowing that it doesn’t really matter.
And back to pen and paper - we’ve forgotten how to retreat, plan, co-operate even - us gamers with 30 years experience. And its hard to go back - so give em more hit points at lower levels and help them survive. Otherwise it definitely isn’t fun any more.
So all characters add their constitution score to their starting hit points - simples!
One of the big problems I’ve found playing D&D in all its forms is surviving the lower levels. Partly this is to do with low hit points and partly to do with playing styles and how they’ve evolved over the years. The low hit points at 1st level thing is easy, like many house rules and the Pathfinder system (and for that matter DDO) simply add the characters constitution score to their starting total.
But why do we need these extra hit points. Well first of all back in the beginning (1979 for my group), you developed a character and became attached to it - you cared if your character was killed part of the way through 1st level, yeah it was easy to roll up another character but “You killed Kenny goddammit” could be the response to character death. This wasn’t just the response of a child as we started at 15 or 16 and still felt this way about character deathuntil our late teens, not mature perhaps but not children either.
So you protected your character, you ran away, characters supported each other, the mule holder (sorry cleric) cured you (a 1st edition cleric could do little else useful), so if you died it was usually after a struggle to stay alive.
Was this fun (the 4th edition mantra). Well yes actually. You got a sense of achievment after a long struggle.
Then came computer games with its save points and ease of play. Failed the encounter - nevermind - just load the last saved game and try again. So you fight to the bitter end - knowing that it doesn’t really matter.
And back to pen and paper - we’ve forgotten how to retreat, plan, co-operate even - us gamers with 30 years experience. And its hard to go back - so give em more hit points at lower levels and help them survive. Otherwise it definitely isn’t fun any more.
So all characters add their constitution score to their starting hit points - simples!