Alternate Health

[Dragongrief]

Looking for feedback on an alternate hit point/health system. There are some things that would need to be ironed out (like how multi-classing factors in to Threshold), but I wanted to make sure the basic mechanic is solid first.

A while back, some of my players had asked for a more "realistic" armor system (i.e. armor lessens damage rather than just increasing the chance of avoiding it entirely). I found a couple decent options, but due to the way Hit Points work, they all added more complexity than is manageable for a large group. For whatever reason, the topic jumped back into my head while watching my wife play Assassin's Creed, and this is what I came up with.

Life Points = Constitution + Proficiency
Threshold = 1/2 Hit Die size + Armor modifier (not the current AC mods)
*Higher Threshold values mean you have more training on defending yourself from harm (or are wearing significant padding)

Rolled Damage / Threshold = Life Damage (round up)

For example, and Level 1 unarmored fighter with a Con of 14 would be:

Life: 16
Threshold: 5

On a damage roll of 1 to 5, he takes 1 Life damage. On 6 to 10, 2 damage. Etc.

Hit Dice: Expended to reduce the Rolled Damage before applying Threshold (reducing it to 0 would result in no damage).
**Instead of a restorative ability, HD become an exertion mechanism. The number being rolled would need to be chosen at one time, probably after the damage dice are shown, but before they are rolled (you know there's an 8d6 Fireball headed at you, but not whether it will be all 1s or all 6s).

**** Update ****
Life = 8 + Constitution Modifier + Proficiency

Surprise: Character cannot use Hit Dice to reduce attack damage.

Helpless/Paralyzed: Only armor and magic are applied to Threshold (minimum rating 1).

Magical Healing: 1st die of healing (plus modifiers) is applied to Life. Additional dice restore HD, starting with the lowest.

Natural Healing: Regain 1 Life for each day of light activity. Regain Con Mod Life for each day of complete bed rest (minimum 2).

Hit Dice Recovery
*Take a Breather (all characters): You may recover up to half of your Hit Dice during a short rest. This ability recharges on a long rest. (Will need to check if this needs to be more often or allow to recover more)
*Second Wind (fighters): Recover a number of your Fighter Hit Dice up to your proficiency modifier.

 

[JValeur]

I've been tinkering with a an alternate system myself. The main problem here, is how a 1st level character will have almost similar durability as a 20th level character. The difference will be (using your example) 14 Life Points to 26 Life points (with maxed constitution). So, it's a very small range of durability, and 1st level characters will be very durable, compared to now.

 

[Dragongrief]

Thanks for the feedback.

The small change in durability was actually intended. Life is a direct body-trauma number. Getting stabbed in the face should hurt as bad at 1st level as it does 19 levels later.

The significant difference between the two is how much skill/endurance you have to avoid getting stabbed in the face (represented by Hit Dice).

At 1st level, you can try to reduce the severity of one successful attack against you. At 20th level, you can do the same with up to 20 attacks.

Increasing low level survivability is a side effect, but I'm undecided on whether it's a bad thing (Life would not recover fully over night).

 

[Davinshe]

Hmmm.... in a grittier game, it could be interesting. Is this used for monsters as well? It could be expanded further to make certain situations more or less dangerous. It could also be used to support assassination rules pretty easily. For example, perhaps in a surprise round you aren't allowed to spend Hit Dice, and maybe suffer a reduction to threshold.

 

[Dragongrief]

That's the plan.

Monsters would vary the Life/Threshold values to make them an appropriate challenge (a typical kobold might be 2 Life, 3 Threshold).

Powerful monsters could have an ability giving reduction similar to how Hit Dice work for PCs.

 

[the_cowley]

I think this is very interesting.

If im understanding this right, you take damage by increments of your threshold. so for the fighter mentioned, by fives, and the kobolds by 3's. 1 point at 1-3 damage, 2 life points at 4-6, ect

 

[Dragongrief]

You've got the right concept.

Was looking at armor and here's what I've come up with for first draft. The everything would stay the same aside from the AC/Threshold split. (Also, apologies if the formatting sucks - posting from my phone).

Armor. AC. Threshold
Padded. 11. 1
Leather. 11. 1
S.Leather 12. 1
Hide. 11. 2
C.Shirt. 12. 2
Scale. 13. 2
B.Plate. 13. 3
H.Plate. 14. 3
Ring. 13. 3
Chain. 14. 3
Splint. 15. 3
Plate. 15. 4

 

[Dragongrief]

Had the chance to playtest yesterday, and it went pretty well.

The characters involved were:

Chuck (Barb 1/Warlock 3)
Life: 16
AC: 14
Threshold: 6

Lance (Fighter 4) - Bow/Dual Wield
Life: 16
AC: 15
Threshold: 8

Astrid (Fighter 4) - Sword & Board
Life: 17
AC: 16
Threshold: 8

Eviedra (Wizard 4) - Dwarf w/armor
Life: 18
AC: 16
Threshold: 6

Merielle (Wizard 4)
Life: 15
AC: 12
Threshold: 3

Chadwick (Bard 4)
Life: 16
AC: 15
Threshold: 7

I ran three battles for them using the DMG Cultist (2 Life, 5 Threshold), the Crushing Wave Reaver (6 Life, 4 Threshold), and the Crushing Wave Priest (13 Life, 6 Threshold). They seemed to go down at around the expected rate - 1 or 2 hits for Cultists, 3 to 5 for Reavers, and Priests took focused fire to drop.

By the end of it, the worst off was Chuck, who'd taken 13 damage and used 2 HD. Most of the others were in the mid-single digit damage and had used 1 or 2 HD. The only one who escaped damage was Merielle, who did what a squishy wizard should do - throw spells from the back (and managed to dodge both parts of the Ice Knife thrown at her.

Feedback from Players
*Threshold needs to scale with level. It worked well at this level, but once heavier hitting enemies get involved (dragons), everyone would be toast if the same damage to life conversion numbers are used. Need to look at numbers, but will probably be half level added to the range.
*Life may be starting a little high. Only one character took more than half their life in damage over the three battles, and one was just under. Thinking of max sized-based HD (I believe medium creatures would be an 8) + Proficiency + Con Mod. This would have put most of the team in the 12-13 range. So Chuck would have been seeking healing, and a couple others would have been seriously considering whether they need it.

 

[irwindyl]

This system sounds promising, but how would you rebalance the healing spells/potions?

 

[Dragongrief]

Thinking of having Cure Wounds do the one die of healing to Life Points (it is magical after all), and then having any additional dice from up-casting restore Hit Dice. I need to decide how quickly I'd like to have Hit Dice restore naturally first to know if that's reasonable though.