"Another solution is to use something like the Mutants and Masterminds damage save, which seems to work well enough for super hero d20 games, but might require a lot more initial design changes to make balanced and workable."
Played damage save systems (and many others) in cyber and supers and fantasy. It works fine but its just as prone to not-quite-right and issues as others. Still its likely my favorite overall for ease and flexibility.
But, dont kid yourself. Any significant change to the HP dynamic has major ripples thru 5e. Anything is gonna be a ton of work.
But to get started and move forward with direction and purpose, you need to know what you want, not just malaise.
So, can you identify six cases of attack hits and this happens - very specific very straight outta box - that you absolutely want to see happen in your new wonder-system **and** six that absolutely cannotvl be in it?
Of these two sets of six, three should be "as seen in DnD now" and three should be "not gonna happen in dnd now"
That dirty dozen use cases should - if robust - give you a set of boundaries to design in.
Played damage save systems (and many others) in cyber and supers and fantasy. It works fine but its just as prone to not-quite-right and issues as others. Still its likely my favorite overall for ease and flexibility.
But, dont kid yourself. Any significant change to the HP dynamic has major ripples thru 5e. Anything is gonna be a ton of work.
But to get started and move forward with direction and purpose, you need to know what you want, not just malaise.
So, can you identify six cases of attack hits and this happens - very specific very straight outta box - that you absolutely want to see happen in your new wonder-system **and** six that absolutely cannotvl be in it?
Of these two sets of six, three should be "as seen in DnD now" and three should be "not gonna happen in dnd now"
That dirty dozen use cases should - if robust - give you a set of boundaries to design in.