Another idea for damagereducing armor...

[rankarrog]

I know that must be the 1000th approach to do such a thing but here's my idea of how to handle Armor a bit different:

0) Hp are no longer affected by Constitution

1) If the HP drop to 0 the character is staggerd, and further damage will be substracted from the constitution. If the Con drops to half the charater acts as if he's been lowered to 0 HP in the normal system and dies at Con 0 instead of of -10Hp

2) AC is no longer determited by 10+ArmorBonus+Dex+X, instead it's 10+BAB+ReflexSave+X (An experienced charakter learns to dodge better than a beginner).

3)Strength no longer grants a to-hit-bonus.

4) Damage is reduced by the amount of the armor-bonus, but every hit dels at least worth 1 point of damge

Could this work without disrupting the system to much?

 

[Asheron]

Interesting concept, but as I see it is gonna be hell to DM this game simply because you got a lot of work converting Monsters and stuff

 

[Jeph]

10+BAB+ReflexSave+X

I like this! it means that
a) characters with more combat experience dodge better,
b) characters with more natural reflexes dodge better, and
c) characters will get hit WAY less, so they don't need to rely on magic items and stuff.

This would be a good replacement for the Starwars defense system, and nice for a low and/or dark fantasy game. If you wanted to go even further into the Dark Fantasy realm, you could have *super finite* amounts of HP, as follows:

Characters have base HP equal to their Con scores (use Str for undead and stuff).
Characters with d4 and d6 HD have a Low Bonus HP Progression
Characters with d8 HD have a Medium Bonus HP Progression
Characters with d10 and d12 HD have a High Bonus HP Progression

Lv Low Med High
01 +00 +00 +01
02 +01 +01 +02
03 +01 +02 +03
04 +02 +03 +04
05 +02 +03 +05
06 +03 +04 +06
07 +03 +05 +07
08 +04 +06 +08
09 +04 +06 +09
10 +05 +07 +10
11 +05 +08 +11
12 +06 +09 +12
13 +06 +09 +13
14 +07 +10 +14
15 +07 +11 +15
16 +08 +12 +16
17 +08 +12 +17
18 +09 +13 +18
19 +09 +14 +19
20 +10 +15 +20

This is nice becuase it makes every hit count--good if you want your PCs to be paper in a steel world.

Natural Armor has 2 affects--Half of it goes to Damage Reduction, and the other half goes to Bonus HP. So, a monster with Natural Armor of 6 would have +3 HP, +3 AC. If the creature has an odd number for NatArm, the extra point goes to Damage Reduction.

After all of these modifeirs, modify for size. Creatures of Medium size to not get modifeid for size. For every step below medium, divide Base HP by 2. For every step above medium, multiply base HP by 2.

If something has *any* HP damage, they operate at -1 to all rolls and to Defense.

When they have only 50% of their HP remeaining, this increases to -2.

When they have only 10% this increases to -4.

For every 3 points of Subdual damage a creature takes, it operates at -1 to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. (this means that, while tough creatures can take more punishment, they can also take more penalties.)

Do you think that this type of thing would work well with your campaign world? I use something kinda like it in mine, but not exactly the same.

-Jeph

 

[CRGreathouse]

Characters have base HP equal to their Con scores (use Str for undead and stuff).

Str and Con increase at very different rates!

 

[Jeph]

The other option is to simply assign 10 or 20 base HP to stuff without Constitution scores. Instead, I prefer Str, as that is the next best measure of general body mass and toughness.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Jeph - look at the zomies under this system: Gargantuan zombies get 224 hit points! Yikes!

A gnome Ftr1 would get about 7.