AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Yeah, I hated the name. I mean, I'm all for keeping names when there's some real equivalent meaning, but 5e's use of 'hit die' is just stupid.
D&D 4E List of Potential New Martial Practices
Yeah, I hated the name. I mean, I'm all for keeping names when there's some real equivalent meaning, but 5e's use of 'hit die' is just stupid.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Heroic Surge is a nice term, I might use it. I have used 'Vitality Point' in HoML, but it isn't really a great name for it, even though I've gotten used to it.
As for 'not varying by class'... Once you break them away from being purely a measure of 'toughness' (IE healing mostly) then you pretty much HAVE to make them class-independent. Given that all the classes should perform their niches roughly equally well, and a lot of things shouldn't be tied strictly to a specific class, it gets VERY hard to maintain different classes with radically different amounts of HS.
HoML pretty quickly evolved to a standard 8 vitality points per character per long rest. Since they're used for more than just healing you kinda need a few more of them (and or change the balance point of things like powers or practices/techniques which use them). 8 seems like a nice number. More and it starts to get to be a chore to track, less and they can all be gone in a flash.
Garthanos
Arcadian Knight
Arguably melee classes need more healing ... more turn around juice to support the damn he went down no wait he won the fight wooo hoooo!!!!! .
Heroic Surge is probably my favorite derived language.
Garthanos
Arcadian Knight
I am even a fan of traditions when they help (properly interpretted) ... I even now like hit points, single attribute attacks, classes and other things that I balked at years ago.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Well, there are a few things I did. One is I made armor into DR, which means that a fighter decked out in scale is likely to withstand a lot more punishment than a wizard in cloth! It doesn't even really take much. I think 'scale' in my system is DR4 (and you can get one more from a shield). That's a LOT, basically half damage from level 1 foes for at-will attacks. Fighters also have less outright need to use their VPs for stuff besides healing. Wizards OTOH power a lot of their more significant attacks with VP. The upshot of this is that your average wizard is going to be in trouble if he's getting chewed on. He takes full damage (DR 0) and he's either going to have to live with it and try to avoid hits, or else shut down using his most effective powers and stick with at-wills (which is OK, he can still get stuff done). You could, of course, play a 'staff wizard' type of build that sticks to short-range at-will attacks (which will do more damage, being short range blasts and such) and maybe get some DR, plus a high CON.
The other consequence of this is that there are only 3 defenses (no AC). They work just like in 4e, so its quite possible to make your character 'tough' by proper allocation of ability bonuses. It isn't going to make a GIANT difference, but there are of course boons that will help (particularly neck type items, though I am not so set on the rigid slot idea). Thus you could easily have a 3 or maybe even 4 point higher defenses than the other PCs (though each of them will probably have one 'hard' defense).
Now, by a more consistent approach to what types of attacks apply against which defenses, I can set things up so that the players will easily be able to decide which characters are more likely to work in which tactical situations. If you are trying to run and dodge missile fire, you need REF, and standing toe-to-toe with the big ogre, that's going to be a good job for a high FORT guy! Thus a 'melee wizard' can concentrate more on those defenses as well and there's actually not so much need for mixing in elements of other classes and whatnot. A wizard can be a decent 'gish'
Garthanos
Arcadian Knight
Oh I do not doubt one can scale damage so that over all durability is higher from the equipment instead of the wielder what I was referring to was the up and down surge in the flow of the battle ... ie the second wind style pacing which 4e has uniquely more so than other editions of D&D, and which I think connects better to fantasy fiction and a sense of fear that they might fail followed by an extraordinary turn around.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Well, I think we still have that. A VP in HoML is worth the same healing value as it is in 4e. There's some difference in the sense that the smaller low-damage 'chipping away' attacks don't bother a fighter so much, but when a monster unleashes a daily, or a singular (solo) or Uncommon (elite) burns a VP, then he'll feel it just like anyone! Someone is going to need to heal that fellow pretty soon!
Garthanos
Arcadian Knight
I have considered a Feat called "Physical Adept" which could allow one to replace the gold piece cost of a ritual with a healing surge.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Right, but oddly this makes the fighter the best ritual caster, weird eh?
Garthanos
Arcadian Knight
Anecdotally the fighter is the least likely to end the day with extra HS. If that is par for the course, he needs his HS more its a higher cost. I guess if low risk circumstances were in place, maybe.
Additionally if the DMG2 is right on the cost rate 1/10 of a magic item price == 1 healing surge , ie A bribe which actually grants auto successes in your skill challenges at level 1 will be 36 gp. This is higher than the cost of most level 1 rituals. Hence that healing surge is about twice or thrice as expensive as the normal price for most rituals and after you exceed the level of the ritual unless the ritual cost scale in most cases the price is even less.
It's basically why I can give a skill check to reduce the cost of a practice instead of just the raw hs cost.
The other consideration is how much daily funds would you grant for a feat Call it Family Wealth, when you can get 2 extra healing surges with a Durable feat. ...
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