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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hawken" data-source="post: 5065237" data-attributes="member: 23619">Just to clarify, vitality points are in effect non-lethal damage. So, while you're not specifically tracking non-lethal, you're still using them.I'd say environmental damage should be independent of vitality completely, and maybe even wound damage, depending on how that is generated.Without shelter, a human is going to freeze to death if left out overnight. It doesn't matter how well he fights with a sword, casts a spell or picks a lock. If he's exposed to extreme cold without shelter or something to mitigate it, he's going to die of exposure and he's going to die quicker the colder it is. Same with extreme heat, if he can't hydrate enough in extreme heat, or get cooled off, he's going to get heatstroke or something and keel over dead. Again, it doesn't matter how good he is in combat, or spellcasting or sneaking around. Have environmental damage do temporary Con (and maybe other stats too) damage. Tougher people can last a little longer, but they're still human regardless of how talented they are and they'll die just the same. And you could do the same for falling damage too. An expert swordsman that falls from 100' is just as dead as a peasant that takes the same fall. Skill with a sword isn't going to prevent him from suffering the same amount of trauma to his body. The only thing that could mitigate falling damage would be the surface landed on and whether there's anything between them and the ground that could slow their fall without the impact of that killing them. This may be the wet blanket on heroic deeds but its just a plain and simple fact that the human body can handle only so much trauma under certain conditions before it just stops and swordplay and spellcasting ability aren't mitigating factors. DM: You slip and fall 100'.PC: No problem, I'm a 10th level fighter with a +18 Fort save and 150hp, I can survive it. DM: Explain to me again how your mastery of swordplay keeps you from going 'crunch'.PC: Because I can kill a Beholder single handedly. DM: And that's going to make the ground less soft how?PC: ...?</blockquote>

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