D&D (2024) 5E x Savage Worlds; AC, Toughness and Wounds

[ElPsyCongroo]

I found myself really appreciating both systems but wondered if there could be a reasonable combining of the two...

AC remains an exceptionally graceful catch all for determining a Successful Hit, and Bounded Accuracy ensures (more or less) a level of combat effectiveness.
However what I find less elegant is the old punching bag, Hit Points. They're ungainly pools of abstraction... imo.

Thats when I stumbled upon the Toughness and Wounds System of Savage Worlds. A suprisingly ideal metric for the severity of damage! With a "Raise" scoring another Wound, or in the case of the To Hit roll add a d6 to the Damage Roll. Its Brutal, simple and easy to scale. Ideal for gritty settings.

A PC's/NPC's/Monster's Wound total could be determined by Max HD/2 and Toughness could be calculated by Con/2. With every increment of damage rolled that = Toughness resulting in another wound dealt.

 

[Stalker0]

Biggest note about a savage world like system. Savage Worlds relies on the "benny" system to keep things in check, otherwise players can get mowed down very very quickly. You could use "inspiration" for that mechanic, but would need to be much more freely giving of inspiration to keep that up, or expect a VERY gritty experience

 

[ElPsyCongroo]

Biggest note about a savage world like system. Savage Worlds relies on the "benny" system to keep things in check, otherwise players can get mowed down very very quickly. You could use "inspiration" for that mechanic, but would need to be much more freely giving of inspiration to keep that up, or expect a VERY gritty experience

Starting them with a few Inspiration per session should give them some token solace, but I intend for it to be a brutal and gritty experience where combat really does mean putting yourself on the line. General run of the mill monsters and chaff will follow the 1 wound rule, but they'll still hit hard if given the chance

 

[Sir Brennen]

A PC with Con 14 would have Toughness 7, meaning they’d be immune to creatures doing d6 or less damage (barring Str mods) Or are you also going to implement exploding dice for damage? That carries with it other considerations. Like creatures using a d12 will explode less often than one with 2d6. Sneak attacks will explode like crazy. As will spells like Fireball and to a lesser extent Paladin smites.

Then, how does healing magic work?

This is one of those changes that will have a lot of ripple effects. I’m also a SW player, but I’m not sure this mod to D&D would be worth the effort.

 

[ElPsyCongroo]

A PC with Con 14 would have Toughness 7, meaning they’d be immune to creatures doing d6 or less damage (barring Str mods) Or are you also going to implement exploding dice for damage? That carries with it other considerations. Like creatures using a d12 will explode less often than one with 2d6. Sneak attacks will explode like crazy. As will spells like Fireball and to a lesser extent Paladin smites.

Then, how does healing magic work?

This is one of those changes that will have a lot of ripple effects. I’m also a SW player, but I’m not sure this mod to D&D would be worth the effort.

Exploding dice would be the go to... and as for healing, it'll be a case of 1 or more Wounds being treated or Medical Supplies over a longer period of time. Most damaging spells and sources will likely need to be reduced within a range of 1-4 die depending on the spell's strength. As working with Wounds and not piles of HP doesn't require bigger numbers.

I'd also implement the "raise" the To Hit roll against AC, scoring 4 points above giving you another 1d6 damage. Perhaps collapsing Greatsword and Greataxe into the same weapon type and both using 2d6/1d12. As aside from a higher average for the Greatsword, both mechanically work the same.

 

[ElPsyCongroo]

A PC with Con 14 would have Toughness 7, meaning they’d be immune to creatures doing d6 or less damage (barring Str mods) Or are you also going to implement exploding dice for damage? That carries with it other considerations. Like creatures using a d12 will explode less often than one with 2d6. Sneak attacks will explode like crazy. As will spells like Fireball and to a lesser extent Paladin smites.

Then, how does healing magic work?

This is one of those changes that will have a lot of ripple effects. I’m also a SW player, but I’m not sure this mod to D&D would be worth the effort.

I understand what you mean though, the feeling of grit and lethality could be achieved through HARDCORE D&D or any other OSR like or adjacent rule sets with a lesser degree of changing the numbers

 

[GMMichael]

What don't you like about Savage Worlds that keeps you from abandoning D&D altogether?

 

[ElPsyCongroo]

What don't you like about Savage Worlds that keeps you from abandoning D&D altogether?

A good question, but its not like I hate the system of D&D theres much of it to enjoy. I just wanted to try to remedy the over reliance on HP as a metric for progression, so my thought was a static Wound total as in SW, alongside a system to dictate wound severity like Tougness. So I didn't want to abandon D&D, and I don't think "HP" is all that makes it what it is.

 

[GMMichael]

A good question, but its not like I hate the system of D&D theres much of it to enjoy. I just wanted to try to remedy the over reliance on HP as a metric for progression, so my thought was a static Wound total as in SW, alongside a system to dictate wound severity like Tougness. So I didn't want to abandon D&D, and I don't think "HP" is all that makes it what it is.

Sure. The tricky part is keeping your solution short enough to make it worth the effort. D&D's systems are very codependent - break one and others start to fail too, so try to keep your solution independent of the rest of the game.

Or just use something 5e friendly that might have already done the legwork. Maybe Dark Souls or Level Up?