My HP and Damage system. Critique needed.

[Eldragon]

I wrote this up a couple weeks ago (Before the latest 4e hoopla), and in a month or so I'll be using the following system in a new campaign. However it could use a little critique from experienced eyes to see holes in the system.

Damage and HP
Starting HP: Every Character starts with Max HP x3. Subsequent HP are rolled or Avg Rounded Down.

Player Characters and Some creatures have two methods of tracking damage. Hit Points, and the Damage Track. The Damage Track represents the character's current state of health, and is independent from the character's current HP total. Conceptually, the Damage Track represents serious injuries, while hit points represent minor injuries and other bodily fatigue.

Every time a creature takes damage from a single source that exceeds their Damage Threshold, they move down the damage track. A character will only move one position down the damage track in this manner. For example, If Bob's Damage Threshold is 14, and he takes 30 points of damage, he still only moves down 1 position on the Damage Track despite the fact he received twice his Damage Threshold.

The Damage Threshold is a creature's Constitution Score + Hit Die**.

The Damage Track Has the following Progression: Normal -> Wounded -> Badly Wounded -> Near Death -> Unconscious/Dead.

A character can only die when their hit points are 0, and they have reached the "Unconscious/Dead" state of the Damage Track.

When reduced to 0 hit points, a character falls unconscious and cannot be revived until the combat ends. The damage track does not change when this occurs.

When a PC reaches "Unconscious/Dead" in the damage track, They are unconscious and bleeding to death. Each round they lose 1 HP from their remaining HP total. When they reach 0 HP, the PC is dead.

A character will never have negative hit points. Subsequent damage after being reduced to 0 hit points moves the character one step down the damage track for each source of damage.

Instant Death effects reduce the PC to the "Unconscious/Dead" position of the Damage Track and does not affect their current HP. The PC is then "bleeding to death" for the remainder of their HP.

The Toughness Feat grants a +2 bonus to the Damage Threshold. This bonus stacks with each time the feat is taken.

Subdual Damage deals HP damage normally, but will never move a character down the damage track.

Recovery: Magical Healing moves you up the damage track. Natural healing requires 1 full day (24 hours) of rest to improve 1 position on the damage track. Every time a character is healed his Damage Threshold in HP*, he moves up one position on the damage track. Taking any damage between successive healing effects resets the tally. Healing a character who is at maximum hitpoints still receives an improvement on the damage track, but his maximum hitpoints remains unchanged.

Metagame analysis of this system:
Low level characters are unlikly to die because they are more likely to be dropped to 0 HP before their damage track reaches "Dead". High level characters are more likely to be dropped from injuries inflicted via the damage track than from their hitpoints reaching 0.

Notes: *We may need a better system for Healing.
Should Damage Track injuries reduce effectivness of the character? So far I vote No because most people will forget to apply them anyway.

**Clarification Edit: Hit Die, Meaning Total Hit Dice, e.g. Character Level.

 

[Kisanji Arael]

Wait, why ever do subdual damage? Isn't the point of it to knock someone unconscious? I feel like you should put in something to balance this.

 

[Eldragon]

Subdual damage isn't removed really. Since a character is dropped to unconscious when his Hit Points reach 0, converting all subdual damage to hit-point damage generates the same effect.

Another way to look at this system would be: All damage is subdual damage, unless it exceeds the "Damage Threshold" then it moves you down the damage track.

Unless I am missing something?

 

[Bladesong]

This is a fairly good idea. The only changes I myself would make to it is to change the damage threshold to level + class dice or level + class dice + Con bonus and only allow the toughness feat one time, but allow die hard feat to stack for another +2.

 

[Eldragon]

This is a fairly good idea. The only changes I myself would make to it is to change the damage threshold to level + class dice or level + class dice + Con bonus and only allow the toughness feat one time, but allow die hard feat to stack for another +2.

I like the idea of Class Die + Level + Con bonus, and the change for Toughness/Die hard. I'm going to adopt those changes.

When I say "Hit Die" I meant their Level (or in the cast of monster, total Hit Dice).

However, for class Dice, I am assuming you mean the full value of their Starting HP die (e.g. Barbarians would get 12, Wizards would get 4). How would you work it for Multiclass characters? Hit die from their first level?

 

[Bladesong]

When I say "Hit Die" I meant their Level (or in the cast of monster, total Hit Dice).

However, for class Dice, I am assuming you mean the full value of their Starting HP die (e.g. Barbarians would get 12, Wizards would get 4). How would you work it for Multiclass characters? Hit die from their first level?

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you meant the die type d4, d6, d8 to reflect the relative "toughness" of say a fighter compared to a wizard, so yes 12 for Barbarian, 4 for Wizard, etc.

Multi-class is always tricky. Personally, I would "average" the dice unless they only took one level of something and then went back to the original class; so using the barbarian (12) and the wizrd (4), I would make it an 8, and only if there remained a relative balance between the two. I would also only recognize the two highest level classes (if there were 3 or more).

I also missed your final 2 questions. The healing is probably fine as is, for conditions you could do fatigued and exhausted for each step before unconscious, but you are right, I do not know if it is necessary. However, as DM I just keep track of the changes on my side, so subtracting 1 or 2 from their roll is relatively easy and I just tell them "you are fatigued" or "you are exhausted".