A Radical (Not to Mention Controversial) Change to Characteristic Determination

[mythusmage]

I always thought the housecat vs peasant issue was more indicative of not enough granularity in the HP system.

Some attacks should not do the 1hp minimum they should do like .01 of a hp or something equally small.

I'd rather avoid fractions. Some people have hissy fits about fractions

Besides, my problem with the hit point system is not that it's not granular, it's that the grains are too big.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Housecats ought to do 0 damage, 1 on a critical hit, plus a chance of disease on any successful hit. Solve the peasant issue right quick. The peasant will win, but will probably die a week later.

 

[Felix]

I agree that the housecat v peasant is a problem with Hit Points, not abilities.

And as far as STR goes, the ability to carry things is also modified by your size, so that gives the stats slightly more flexibility.

 

[Jack Simth]

If that's all you are after....
Start out by multiplying every base thing by 10. A level-1 NPC human commoner has 1d4*10 HP, the NPC ability rolls are 3d6*10 in each stat, synergy grants +20, DC's for tasks are multiplied by 10, the d20 on the skill roll is multiplied by 10, you get +10 to one stat every four levels, et cetera. Modifiers are based on the stats as normal, with the exception that the "center line" is 100 (10*10), rather than 10 (so a dex of 110 (roll of 11) gives you a +5 to AC, but it hardly matters, as the attack roll against you is 1d20*10; you haven't changed the hit probability any). And then re-work the monsters you want to weaken under the new more granular system (after all, as DM, you can pick where the stat is, so that cat can have a Str of 2 (as he didn't roll) giving a -49 to damage on his, what, 1d3*10? EVERY hit by that cat would be falling under the 1 point minimum damage rule (which we don't change), and a peasant could laugh at the cat for half the day... well... for quite a few attacks, anyway.

 

[mythusmage]

Housecats ought to do 0 damage, 1 on a critical hit, plus a chance of disease on any successful hit. Solve the peasant issue right quick. The peasant will win, but will probably die a week later.

If the peasant has had any contact with cats he should be resistant to cat scratch fever. Besides, most small children get no worse than a light fever from it. Life threatening reactions are rare.

At the same time, I like your idea for handling damage inflicted by a house cat. Works better than mine for the (current) standard hit point system.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So there you have my radical (not to mention controversial) change to Characteristic determination. Your thoughts?

My thoughts?

House Rules forum.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

 

[mythusmage]

I agree that the housecat v peasant is a problem with Hit Points, not abilities.

And as far as STR goes, the ability to carry things is also modified by your size, so that gives the stats slightly more flexibility.

True enough. But I'm looking for something that will give large creatures greater strength. So that an ogre with a below average Strength* (for an ogre) of 65 would be able to lift and carry as much as a human with an above average Strength (for a human) of 65. Make life easer on the players by eliminating the mulitplication the current system requires.

*Let's say ogres get 21 d6 for Strength thanks to the size (lots of muscle mass there). That would give a range of 21-126 with a median of 73.5, or 73-74. So an ogre with a Strength of 65 would be weaker than the average specimen, but still get the +2 to hit and damage.

 

[mythusmage]

My thoughts?

House Rules forum.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

Proposed change to the official rules. House Rules forum not applicable.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Proposed change to the official rules. House Rules forum not applicable.

Proposed change to the official rules - House Rules forum absolutely applicable.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

 

[genshou]

I like this. One problem I have with it is that it'll be *much* harder to roll above-average stats for the heroes. If you multiply everything as Jack Simth suggested, that'll be 4d6 (drop lowest) * 10, so you'll still get more heroic characters. I'd recommend 30d6 for ordinaries under this system, since the higher number of dice phenomenally increase the probability of mundane scores, lending much more to the idea that less than 1% of the population excel in any given attribute to the extent that a core 13+ represents.

If I had a gaming group, I'd bring the suggestion up that we playtest your idea to see how easy it is to grasp. Sorry I can't be of service in that regard