WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Remathilis]

Serious talk, but as much as Star Wars D20 was derided, and rightfully so, VP/WP and Class Defense vs Armor DR was a far more satisfying system than traditional D&D has ever done with HP/AC. But sacred cows and slaying thereof, etc. etc.

Until critical hits bypass vitality and the game becomes Russian Roulette on who can roll the first crit and win.

 

[Azzy]

Until critical hits bypass vitality and the game becomes Russian Roulette on who can roll the first crit and win.

Yep, that was my major issue with it.

 

[cbwjm]

Until critical hits bypass vitality and the game becomes Russian Roulette on who can roll the first crit and win.

Which was harder to do in 3e since you needed to confirm that critical hit with a second attack roll. Though I guess that would have been fairly easy in the star wars game, maybe not so much in 3e if people were using it.

 

[FallenRX]

It is almost impressive, how this thread title exponentially because more of a joke each day with the actions of this man.
Truly, I wish my characters could level up as quick as this.

 

[Bohandas]

Meaning, we don't narrate them being thrown through a wall and landing on a bunch of jagged rocks until they get to a blow that takes them down.

What if the fight terrain includes jagged rocks and one of the combatants has access to telekinesis or some kind of knockback ability?

 

[Bohandas]

Serious talk, but as much as Star Wars D20 was derided, and rightfully so, VP/WP and Class Defense vs Armor DR was a far more satisfying system than traditional D&D has ever done with HP/AC. But sacred cows and slaying thereof, etc. etc.

Armor DR does indeed make a hell of a lot more sense

 

[humble minion]

Which was harder to do in 3e since you needed to confirm that critical hit with a second attack roll. Though I guess that would have been fairly easy in the star wars game, maybe not so much in 3e if people were using it.

Unfortunately, due to lack of the protective magic items that were assumed by the base d20 system that SWd20 ran off, and due to armour providing damage resistance rather than AC, as soon as you got to an even moderate level, attack bonuses way outstripped AC and everyone was hitting (and confirming criticals) functionally all the time (on their initial iterative attacks, of course). And this only got worse because there were several ways for Jedi to provide themselves with attack bonuses. Oh, and of course this is 3e so many weapons (like heavy blaster pistols, and lightsabers, so not even rare stuff) crit on 19-20, and the Improved Critical feat increased that to 17-20. I at least saw that one coming, and banned it flat out before the first session. It didn't help much.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

WotC needs a Phineas Gage.

 

[Lanefan]

Why would that be? Death's door doesn't mean you've been physically injured. What does death's door mean to you?

Well, in most D&D situations one usually gets to death's door through being repeatedly hit by some sort of weapon (or weaponized body part), or by being repeatedly shot with some sort of missile(s), or by being burnt/frozen/necrotized/shocked/etc. by some sort of spell effect(s).

None of those are going to fatigue you to death. You can dodge...until you can't, and one of 'em finishes you off, causing actual physical damage of some sort in the process.

I guess in a non-meat hit point world it means the edge of exhaustion or similar. Why does that necessarily mean a night's rest can't cure that?

Can't speak to your experiences, but I've never known anyone in the real world to be on the brink of death one day and feel right as rain the next. I'd like at least a modicum of that reality to bleed over into the game.

But I get what you're saying: it would be interesting if there was a penalty for getting to the point of having to make death saves. Maybe that imposes a penalty on the max hit points you can heal on a rest?

Now you're talking!

The way I do it (in an older-school system) is that if you've been near death recently nothing can cure you above a pretty low total until some time has passed, with the length of that time being determined largely by how far down you went. Said time can be shortened somewhat if all you do is rest. There's more to it (it's all on a body-fatigue point chassis) but that's the very basic version.

For your idea, maybe for each death save you have to roll in a day (whether it's successful or not) you can't recover 10%* of your hit points that night. So, if you roll 4 death saves in a day, the next long rest will only get you back to 60% of your total; with the remainder only recoverable either through curing (at half effect) or through another long rest that cannot be in the same calendar day. It maxes out at the %-age, thus even fi you somehow have to roll 14 death saves in a day you'll always get back to 10% of your total tomorrow.

* - or whatever % value seems to suit.

Maybe it applies a level of exhaustion?

Could do, but I think I like the limited-recovery idea better.

 

[Lanefan]

3e had a level based natural healing rate per day. A big increase over AD&D which had a per day flat rate with con coming in after a week's rest.

3.5 Unearthed Arcana had an optional rule of reserve points for healing one point per minute of rest up to your full normal hp limit per day.

4e and 5e both have full healing at long rests as core.

The progression has been going throughout the editions.

Indeed, and somewhere around 3e-ish it hit a useful point. Since then, the pendulum has swung way too far the other way.

That said, the 3e model still had one glaring flaw: the heal rate should be based on your total hit points regardless of level. A 6th-level Wizard with 20 hit points shouldn't naturally heal any faster than a 2nd-level Fighter with 20 hit points.

I use a flat 10%, rounding fractions of any kind UP.