Wild thought about Hit Points

[LostSoul]

This just came to me...

Damage: An opposed roll. Causing damage is Str based; resisting damage is a Fort save. Weapons and armour modify the rolls. The difference between rolls is the amount damage. The character loses 1 point of an Ability Score (Con for actual wounds, Str & Dex for crippling or subdual stuff) for each point of damage.

No idea how this would work out...

 

[hong]

The only solution to hit points is not to think about them.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

I kinda like the idea of correlating normal damage with Ability score damage. It makes sense that if a character loses 90% of his HP, he might also lose some strength and/or dexterity.

Maybe something like ... for every 10 HP lost, subtract one ability point from STR, DEX or CON randomly.

I'm not sure about the opposed rolls though ... That sounds a bit too cumbersome. Even the idea I proposed would add some bulk to the process.

 

[WSmith]

"The only solution to hit points is not to think about them. "

That is the only way I am going to be able to cope.

Hong, mind if I borrow that for my sig?

 

[Plane Sailing]

Do you remember early Traveller? In that game damage came off your attributes (effectively str, dex, con), and when one was at 0 you were KO'ed, two at 0 you were crippled, all three at 0 was dead.

Pretty lethal, and although you got to choose where you took the damage, it was applied in "whole dice" (like backgammon) which meant that sometimes you just couldn't avoid getting KO'ed.

(some of the latter might have been houserules - I know that we houseruled away the rule that when first struck in combat ALL damage had to come off one attribute! too many one-hit-fights!)

Cheers

 

[LostSoul]

The only solution to hit points is not to think about them.

Very true! Hit points are really fun and they work well. I'm just throwing out ideas to see what happens.

Hmm... opposed checks; if the attacker beats the defender, the defender loses 1 ability point. For every 10 (or 5?) points the attacker beats the DC by, he causes another point of ability damage. The max amount of ability damage caused in a single attack should be = to the amount the attacker rolled higher than the defender's AC (or whatever in this system).

 

[Margaiaman]

Well, it breaks down here.

This system looks interesting to be sure. Less numbers to deal with and what not. However, it does have disadvantages. For instance, in your typical D&D game one fights monsters. These monsters can be rather difficult...especially the larger ones.

This system would work great in a political intrigue based game. Or possibly a city rogue campaign. When the opponents have attribute ratings that are much closer to the PC's own.

Thats at least the perception I have...as a player in a system like this I would not want to face off against creatures with 30's or 40's in some of their physical attributes.

Of course, that's just the perception. Playtesting will prove whether it still works well against such high stat monsters.

And with the group I game with on D&D night...they'd likely never give this idea a passing glance so playtesting for me will have to be vicarious. In other words, play test it out and tell me how it worked...especially against higher end monsters!

The more I look at it the more I like it...I guess its time to find a group of willing players to test this thing.