I've been bandying about ideas for tweaking the hit points / healing / unconsciousness / death saves concepts for a potential new 4E campaign and I was wondering if perhaps anyone has done any of the following ideas and if so, how did they work? I'm thinking about these rules in order to make the game deadlier... to make falling Unconscious actually somewhat onerous... and to change the "resource" of actual injury from the Total Healing Surges back to HP.
Please bear in mind that these are just house-rules I'm thinking about. I've played the standard 4E rules for this stuff plenty of times and they've worked well for me. So these ideas are not because I think the actual rules don't work... but merely because I want to try something a bit different for the new game (along with all the adjustments I'd need to make towards encounter-design and the like).
PCs have 4 Wound Levels of hit points/injury. When they are Unhurt, they are at their max total number of hit points. One level down from that is Bruised, which is 75% of their total HP. Next level down is Bloodied, which is 50% of a PC hit points like normal. Third level down is Injured, 25% of total HP. Final level is Dead. So for example, a PC with a max hit point total of 40 HP (Unhurt), has a Bruised value of 30 HP, Bloodied value of 20 HP, Injured value of 10 HP, Dead value of 0 HP (like everyone has).
Each time a PC falls Unconscious (0 HP or less), their Wound Level immediately drops by 1. Thus, their new Max HP level is whatever their Bruised value is. Any healing the PC might now get after this point can only take them up to their Bruised value, rather than their Total (Unhurt) HP value. So should combat end, the PC can spend Healing Surges as normal to regain HP... but he can only recover up to his Bruised wound level (in our example, 30 HP).
Now, in addition, while the PC is Unconscious (below 0 HP), he still has to make Death Saves. And on each failed Death Save, the PC's Wound Level drops again. So the first failed save would drop him to his Bloodied wound level (meaning that his Max HP he can be healed to is 50% his normal total amount), his second failed save would drop him to his Injured wound level (so now he can only be healed to 25% total), and the third failed save would drop him to Dead.
Pretty self-explanatory. Three failed Death Saves and you're dead... but now the reason is that your Max HP has dropped to 0 as well. But not only that... falling Unconscious three times also makes you Dead, since each time going below 0 can drop your Wound Level too. This makes combat very deadly, and it makes falling Unconscious truly onerous. You now have a definite reason to NOT want to fall Unconscious, since you won't able able to be healed to full following the end of combat. Yes, I realize this is a classic example of the "Death Spiral"... but I've played enough higher level games with huge hit point and healing pools and constant hit point attrition that a bit of a death spiral might not be such a bad thing.
Here are a couple adds/changes/clarifications I'd make to help facilitate these rules:
- The mechanics of spending Healing Surges does not change at all. You can still be triggered to spend a surge via Healing Word and the like, and can still spend as many as you want during Short Rests. It's just that your Max HP level you can heal up to has dropped the more times you've fallen Unconscious or failed Death Saves.
- Your failed Death Saves (and as an extension, your Max HP level) do not clear following a Short Rest, but rather an Extended Rest. You've been hurt. You aren't clearing that up with just a 5 minute break. Whatever the duration or requirements are that I feel like using to determine what an Extended Rest means (whether that's just 8 hours of downtime, or an overnight sleep, or a full rest in a comfortable environment)... that's the only way to clear your Wound Levels back to Unhurt.
- Because the drop of Wound Level would take the place of showing us how injured the PC has become over time, I'd no longer ask players to track how many Healing Surges they spend, or what their Total Healing Surges count is. If the party fights extremely smart, and can keep each other on their feet during subsequent combats (never dropping below 0 HP or failing Death Saves), they theoretically can thus continue on their adventure indefinitely (because they'll never "run out" of Healing Surges, since that's not a resource I'd bother counting anymore). I figure Wound Level attrition will more than make up for that.
- Traps would now use as an additional damaging mechanism "Automatic Death Saves", where the PC wouldn't necessarily need to be below 0 HP to be forced to make one. The trap might not only cause damage, but would also force the PC to make a Death Save, which if failed... would drop their Wound Level as usual. To me, this makes traps have much more of an impact on a PC than just causing him to lose Healing Surges (as is normally the case).
- Environmental concerns (like starvation, drowning, getting lost) could also trigger Endurance checks that would result in a loss of Wound Level rather than just losing Healing Surges.
So that's that. I'm still playing around with the ideas and do not know just how deadly this might become... but it does solve a dilemma that our group has always found, which is that it was more economical for PCs to wait until they fell Unconscious before getting healed... because the "start counting from 0" rule meant the PCs would get a whole bunch of "free HP" out of it. But of cours,e that can counter to the Story aspect that you were popping up and down, in and out on consciousness with little to no effect. So I wanted to make going to 0 HP a big deal.
Anyone who has played around with concepts along these lines, please let me know what your experiences were. I'd love to hear them.
Please bear in mind that these are just house-rules I'm thinking about. I've played the standard 4E rules for this stuff plenty of times and they've worked well for me. So these ideas are not because I think the actual rules don't work... but merely because I want to try something a bit different for the new game (along with all the adjustments I'd need to make towards encounter-design and the like).
PCs have 4 Wound Levels of hit points/injury. When they are Unhurt, they are at their max total number of hit points. One level down from that is Bruised, which is 75% of their total HP. Next level down is Bloodied, which is 50% of a PC hit points like normal. Third level down is Injured, 25% of total HP. Final level is Dead. So for example, a PC with a max hit point total of 40 HP (Unhurt), has a Bruised value of 30 HP, Bloodied value of 20 HP, Injured value of 10 HP, Dead value of 0 HP (like everyone has).
Each time a PC falls Unconscious (0 HP or less), their Wound Level immediately drops by 1. Thus, their new Max HP level is whatever their Bruised value is. Any healing the PC might now get after this point can only take them up to their Bruised value, rather than their Total (Unhurt) HP value. So should combat end, the PC can spend Healing Surges as normal to regain HP... but he can only recover up to his Bruised wound level (in our example, 30 HP).
Now, in addition, while the PC is Unconscious (below 0 HP), he still has to make Death Saves. And on each failed Death Save, the PC's Wound Level drops again. So the first failed save would drop him to his Bloodied wound level (meaning that his Max HP he can be healed to is 50% his normal total amount), his second failed save would drop him to his Injured wound level (so now he can only be healed to 25% total), and the third failed save would drop him to Dead.
Pretty self-explanatory. Three failed Death Saves and you're dead... but now the reason is that your Max HP has dropped to 0 as well. But not only that... falling Unconscious three times also makes you Dead, since each time going below 0 can drop your Wound Level too. This makes combat very deadly, and it makes falling Unconscious truly onerous. You now have a definite reason to NOT want to fall Unconscious, since you won't able able to be healed to full following the end of combat. Yes, I realize this is a classic example of the "Death Spiral"... but I've played enough higher level games with huge hit point and healing pools and constant hit point attrition that a bit of a death spiral might not be such a bad thing.
Here are a couple adds/changes/clarifications I'd make to help facilitate these rules:
- The mechanics of spending Healing Surges does not change at all. You can still be triggered to spend a surge via Healing Word and the like, and can still spend as many as you want during Short Rests. It's just that your Max HP level you can heal up to has dropped the more times you've fallen Unconscious or failed Death Saves.
- Your failed Death Saves (and as an extension, your Max HP level) do not clear following a Short Rest, but rather an Extended Rest. You've been hurt. You aren't clearing that up with just a 5 minute break. Whatever the duration or requirements are that I feel like using to determine what an Extended Rest means (whether that's just 8 hours of downtime, or an overnight sleep, or a full rest in a comfortable environment)... that's the only way to clear your Wound Levels back to Unhurt.
- Because the drop of Wound Level would take the place of showing us how injured the PC has become over time, I'd no longer ask players to track how many Healing Surges they spend, or what their Total Healing Surges count is. If the party fights extremely smart, and can keep each other on their feet during subsequent combats (never dropping below 0 HP or failing Death Saves), they theoretically can thus continue on their adventure indefinitely (because they'll never "run out" of Healing Surges, since that's not a resource I'd bother counting anymore). I figure Wound Level attrition will more than make up for that.
- Traps would now use as an additional damaging mechanism "Automatic Death Saves", where the PC wouldn't necessarily need to be below 0 HP to be forced to make one. The trap might not only cause damage, but would also force the PC to make a Death Save, which if failed... would drop their Wound Level as usual. To me, this makes traps have much more of an impact on a PC than just causing him to lose Healing Surges (as is normally the case).
- Environmental concerns (like starvation, drowning, getting lost) could also trigger Endurance checks that would result in a loss of Wound Level rather than just losing Healing Surges.
So that's that. I'm still playing around with the ideas and do not know just how deadly this might become... but it does solve a dilemma that our group has always found, which is that it was more economical for PCs to wait until they fell Unconscious before getting healed... because the "start counting from 0" rule meant the PCs would get a whole bunch of "free HP" out of it. But of cours,e that can counter to the Story aspect that you were popping up and down, in and out on consciousness with little to no effect. So I wanted to make going to 0 HP a big deal.
Anyone who has played around with concepts along these lines, please let me know what your experiences were. I'd love to hear them.
