S
Sunseeker
Guest
There's a lot of discussion regarding HP and the HP system, but for the most part many of the proposals cater to a "gritty" system, and are often punishing to the player. The problem is with these systems that players respond better to the carrot than the stick. That's why Bloodied was so awesome.
Some people aren't familiar with 4e's Bloodied system, for those that are, skip this explanation. In short, when a character fell below 1/2 their hit-points they became "bloodied". While in a bloodied state, they often lost something, -1 to AC was common, Deva's lost resistance to something. Bloodied was different for every race, and while the character lost something, they almost always gained something as well. +1 to hit, -1AC, they were in a violent rage and that made them hit more often, hit harder, but at the expense of their defense. Some classes had abilities that played off of these, almost every race had at least one racial feat that worked to make Bloodied a more interesting state.
In short: Being Bloodied didn't mean the players were going to die, in fact it added new mechanical, fluff and RP elements to play. Some players enjoyed being bloodied and liked to play it up as part of their character. Some players tried to not be Bloodied as much as possible.
Bloodied namely wasn't a death spiral.
After reading through many posts, I came up with an idea. What if we had more states like Bloodied? Not too many mind you, perhaps one at 3/4ths, 1/2, 1/4 and maybe 1HP. Each one would vary depending on race and ideally class as well, but they would all represent different "states" of damage without only seeking to punish a character for taking damage. EX:
Bloodied would occur at 3/4ths HP, it would be like normal bloodied, small bonus, small penalty.
Wounded would occur at one half, slightly larger penalty, slightly larger bonus.
Crippled could occur at 1/4, at this point the penalties would outweigh the bonuses, but not so far as to make it a death spiral. Perhaps +3 damage, -4 AC
At 1 HP a player could then enter the "near death" state, at which point we'd get a whole new set of modifiers. They might get a +5 to hit and +8 to damage but take a -5 to AC and be slowed to a speed of 10ft.
At the same time, at each bloodied level, the conditions would open up a player to new vulnerabilities. A Crippled Dragonborn Barbarian could be considered to be in a "suggestive" state, allowing mind-affecting powers that previously did not affect him to affect him. Players and NPCs would gain a variety of options that could only be used on players/NPCs that were in one of the above states.
EX: say a warlock gains "dominate mind" at level 1. But at level 1 the spell can only affect targets that are of a "weak mind", say, int lower than 6 or those who gain the "weak mind" state through HP loss. As the warlock levels, the spell would be able to affect a greater Int number, and a a higher damage level. Perhaps by 15th level, "dominate mind" could affect even a full-health, 20 Int character/NPC.
OR: a fighter gains "Execute" at level 1. Similar to above, at lower levels they could only use it on targets with a very low amount of HP or with a specific level of "bloodied" condition. As they level, they would be able to improve it, through feats, through just leveling, ect...
Along this lines, this allows a player to pick up relatively powerful, fun, and useful abilities/spells/powers at low levels and enjoy them throughout the game. No need to replace the ability with an entirely new one, just a better version. New powers would be gained along the same lines, the more you level and improve the power, the more powerful it becomes. Since both NPCs and players would have access to these types of spells and be covered by the "bloodied" conditionals, both sides would get equal access and coverage.
I differentiate these from "Wound States" because they operate differently. Wound states punish, that's all they do, they can also be targeted by certain powers. These states could not be, you or an enemy may have a power that allows you to consider someone bloodied, consider yourself bloodied, but they couldn't actually MAKE you bloodied without actual HP loss. That was my biggest gripe about Star Wars Saga and a few others with Wound Systems, it was easier to use special abilities that gave you wounds rather than actually fight. That's all fine when kept to a MINIMUM, one or two particularly powerful spells, but when it's on a regular basis it's just too powerful.
Thoughts?
Some people aren't familiar with 4e's Bloodied system, for those that are, skip this explanation. In short, when a character fell below 1/2 their hit-points they became "bloodied". While in a bloodied state, they often lost something, -1 to AC was common, Deva's lost resistance to something. Bloodied was different for every race, and while the character lost something, they almost always gained something as well. +1 to hit, -1AC, they were in a violent rage and that made them hit more often, hit harder, but at the expense of their defense. Some classes had abilities that played off of these, almost every race had at least one racial feat that worked to make Bloodied a more interesting state.
In short: Being Bloodied didn't mean the players were going to die, in fact it added new mechanical, fluff and RP elements to play. Some players enjoyed being bloodied and liked to play it up as part of their character. Some players tried to not be Bloodied as much as possible.
Bloodied namely wasn't a death spiral.
After reading through many posts, I came up with an idea. What if we had more states like Bloodied? Not too many mind you, perhaps one at 3/4ths, 1/2, 1/4 and maybe 1HP. Each one would vary depending on race and ideally class as well, but they would all represent different "states" of damage without only seeking to punish a character for taking damage. EX:
Bloodied would occur at 3/4ths HP, it would be like normal bloodied, small bonus, small penalty.
Wounded would occur at one half, slightly larger penalty, slightly larger bonus.
Crippled could occur at 1/4, at this point the penalties would outweigh the bonuses, but not so far as to make it a death spiral. Perhaps +3 damage, -4 AC
At 1 HP a player could then enter the "near death" state, at which point we'd get a whole new set of modifiers. They might get a +5 to hit and +8 to damage but take a -5 to AC and be slowed to a speed of 10ft.
At the same time, at each bloodied level, the conditions would open up a player to new vulnerabilities. A Crippled Dragonborn Barbarian could be considered to be in a "suggestive" state, allowing mind-affecting powers that previously did not affect him to affect him. Players and NPCs would gain a variety of options that could only be used on players/NPCs that were in one of the above states.
EX: say a warlock gains "dominate mind" at level 1. But at level 1 the spell can only affect targets that are of a "weak mind", say, int lower than 6 or those who gain the "weak mind" state through HP loss. As the warlock levels, the spell would be able to affect a greater Int number, and a a higher damage level. Perhaps by 15th level, "dominate mind" could affect even a full-health, 20 Int character/NPC.
OR: a fighter gains "Execute" at level 1. Similar to above, at lower levels they could only use it on targets with a very low amount of HP or with a specific level of "bloodied" condition. As they level, they would be able to improve it, through feats, through just leveling, ect...
Along this lines, this allows a player to pick up relatively powerful, fun, and useful abilities/spells/powers at low levels and enjoy them throughout the game. No need to replace the ability with an entirely new one, just a better version. New powers would be gained along the same lines, the more you level and improve the power, the more powerful it becomes. Since both NPCs and players would have access to these types of spells and be covered by the "bloodied" conditionals, both sides would get equal access and coverage.
I differentiate these from "Wound States" because they operate differently. Wound states punish, that's all they do, they can also be targeted by certain powers. These states could not be, you or an enemy may have a power that allows you to consider someone bloodied, consider yourself bloodied, but they couldn't actually MAKE you bloodied without actual HP loss. That was my biggest gripe about Star Wars Saga and a few others with Wound Systems, it was easier to use special abilities that gave you wounds rather than actually fight. That's all fine when kept to a MINIMUM, one or two particularly powerful spells, but when it's on a regular basis it's just too powerful.
Thoughts?
