DonAdam
Explorer
Ok, this system hasn't been tested yet and is only something I've worked out in my head.
Hit points: these become vitality points. When you reach zero, Fort save vs DC 10 or stunned for 2d6 rounds (this sounds harsh, but is necessary to keep combat shorter). These heal at a rate of character level/hour of rest.
Wound points: equal to Con score. You lose these when you run out of hit points. Death as per Star Wars.
Furthermore, if you take wound point damage, make a Fort save, DC 10+damage dealt. If the damage was dealt by a bludgeoning weapon, and you fail, you may only take partial actions. If the damage was dealt by a slashing or piercing weapon, you are bleeding, losing 1 WP/rd.
These heal at a rate of 1 WP/week, and only with supervision. I find this rate to be more faithful to a medieval world. If your average peasant is brought to the brink of death, he's not better in a week.
Subdual damage is normal damage to VP and subdual to WP, subdual damage to WP heals at the same rate as VP.
Healing Magic: normal for vitality OR 1 WP/die, ie, CLW heals 1 WP or 1d8+x VP, CMW heals 2 WP or 2d8+x VP, etc.
Any other magical healing should convert at a rate of 5 VP/1WP, so a 10th level monk can heal 20 VP or 4 WP.
Defense: Class Defense + Dex + Shield + Deflection + luck + anything but armor bonus or natural armor
Class defenses are as per Star Wars, 3 rates: Good, Average, and Poor, each equal to the associated Save progression +2. Classes break down as follows:
Good: Monk, Rogue
Average: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Psychic Warrior, Samurai, Sohei, Shaman
Poor: Wizard, Sorc, Wu Jen, Shugenja, Psion
Furthermore, each gain in Defense bonus needs to be accompanied by a descriptor telling the maximum armor it works with. For example, a fighter shouldn't be able to get a kick in Defense from rogue levels, simply because rogues aren't trained to dodge around in light armor.
Supplementary rule: allow a class to opt to take a worse bonus from a previous class. Let's say the fighter isn't a munchkin and just wants rogue for the skill points- let him continue along the fighter Defense bonus as normal if he wants to keep wearing armor.
Armor:
OK, armor's complex, but that's just necessary. DR 8 on a 2nd level character is too much. So, having read the "armor converts damage to subdual" thread, it gave me an idea. Here goes:
Divide armor by half. Half (rounded down) is Damage Reduction against Wound Point damage. The other half (rounded up) converts the damage subdual damage.
This means two things:
A) subdual damage doesn't cause injury (no Fort saves to avoid bleeding or only taking partial actions).
B) it can heal like vitality points with healing magic.
Apply straight DR first. So a fighter in full plate, with 4 DR and 4 Subdual Conversion, would, if its wearer took 6 points of damage, ignore 4 and convert 2 to subdual. If the wearer took 10, 4 would be ignored, 4 would be subdual, and 2 would be normal.
Critical hits: There are no such thing as crit multipliers. The threat range of all weapons increases by current multiplier - 2. So a longsword and a battle axe become identical. (nod to Asgard magazine for that one) If you roll in your threat range on a confirmation, roll double damage. Continue rolling and adding one more die of damage with all modifiers as long as you keep landing in the crit range. As a result, no Improved Crit feat.
Various other considerations:
Barbarians: DR should be for vitality points only- you can't wear out a barbarian.
Monks: Wisdom bonus acts as an armor bonus, in that half is Damage Reduction and half is Subdual Conversion (monks blocking swords with their forearms and stuff). Also, the old monk class bonus to AC now acts as armor as well. These should not stack with armor bonus from bracers of armor, mage armor, etc.
Remove starting kicks: dipping becomes even more attractive under this system, especially for heavy armor, so you need to decrease multiclass kicks in the following ways:
Fractional Base Attack bonus: this is pretty self-explanatory. A wiz 1/sorc 1 has a BAB of +1, not +0. A level 1 wiz/sorc 1/bard 1/cleric 1/rogue 1/monk 1/druid 1 has a BAB of .5 (wiz) + .5 (sorc) + .75 (cleric) + .75 (bard) + .75 (rogue) + .75 ( monk) + .75 (druid) = 4.75 rounds down to 4, rather than 0.
Stack saves via progression: Count up the number of levels of Good and Poor progression for a particular save to find its value. So a 2nd level fighter/2nd level barbarian would have the saves of a 4th level barbarian or fighter. Do the same thing with class defense, in addition to subtracting 2 for each class beyond the first.
Starting feats: this is the big change. You only get 1 starting feat when you multiclass into a new class, and you can't take a starting feat if you don't have a prerequisite for it that is also available. So a psion that takes one level of fighter can only get light armor proficiency, whereas a ranger could pick up heavy armor proficiency since he already has medium.
Damage that has no Critical chance: I'm mainly talking about sneak attack and iajitsu focus here. If you score a threat while making an attack that receives any damage that isn't normally multiplied, you can opt to do that damage to VP or do an additional 1 WP/die.
What do you guys think?
Hit points: these become vitality points. When you reach zero, Fort save vs DC 10 or stunned for 2d6 rounds (this sounds harsh, but is necessary to keep combat shorter). These heal at a rate of character level/hour of rest.
Wound points: equal to Con score. You lose these when you run out of hit points. Death as per Star Wars.
Furthermore, if you take wound point damage, make a Fort save, DC 10+damage dealt. If the damage was dealt by a bludgeoning weapon, and you fail, you may only take partial actions. If the damage was dealt by a slashing or piercing weapon, you are bleeding, losing 1 WP/rd.
These heal at a rate of 1 WP/week, and only with supervision. I find this rate to be more faithful to a medieval world. If your average peasant is brought to the brink of death, he's not better in a week.
Subdual damage is normal damage to VP and subdual to WP, subdual damage to WP heals at the same rate as VP.
Healing Magic: normal for vitality OR 1 WP/die, ie, CLW heals 1 WP or 1d8+x VP, CMW heals 2 WP or 2d8+x VP, etc.
Any other magical healing should convert at a rate of 5 VP/1WP, so a 10th level monk can heal 20 VP or 4 WP.
Defense: Class Defense + Dex + Shield + Deflection + luck + anything but armor bonus or natural armor
Class defenses are as per Star Wars, 3 rates: Good, Average, and Poor, each equal to the associated Save progression +2. Classes break down as follows:
Good: Monk, Rogue
Average: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Psychic Warrior, Samurai, Sohei, Shaman
Poor: Wizard, Sorc, Wu Jen, Shugenja, Psion
Furthermore, each gain in Defense bonus needs to be accompanied by a descriptor telling the maximum armor it works with. For example, a fighter shouldn't be able to get a kick in Defense from rogue levels, simply because rogues aren't trained to dodge around in light armor.
Supplementary rule: allow a class to opt to take a worse bonus from a previous class. Let's say the fighter isn't a munchkin and just wants rogue for the skill points- let him continue along the fighter Defense bonus as normal if he wants to keep wearing armor.
Armor:
OK, armor's complex, but that's just necessary. DR 8 on a 2nd level character is too much. So, having read the "armor converts damage to subdual" thread, it gave me an idea. Here goes:
Divide armor by half. Half (rounded down) is Damage Reduction against Wound Point damage. The other half (rounded up) converts the damage subdual damage.
This means two things:
A) subdual damage doesn't cause injury (no Fort saves to avoid bleeding or only taking partial actions).
B) it can heal like vitality points with healing magic.
Apply straight DR first. So a fighter in full plate, with 4 DR and 4 Subdual Conversion, would, if its wearer took 6 points of damage, ignore 4 and convert 2 to subdual. If the wearer took 10, 4 would be ignored, 4 would be subdual, and 2 would be normal.
Critical hits: There are no such thing as crit multipliers. The threat range of all weapons increases by current multiplier - 2. So a longsword and a battle axe become identical. (nod to Asgard magazine for that one) If you roll in your threat range on a confirmation, roll double damage. Continue rolling and adding one more die of damage with all modifiers as long as you keep landing in the crit range. As a result, no Improved Crit feat.
Various other considerations:
Barbarians: DR should be for vitality points only- you can't wear out a barbarian.
Monks: Wisdom bonus acts as an armor bonus, in that half is Damage Reduction and half is Subdual Conversion (monks blocking swords with their forearms and stuff). Also, the old monk class bonus to AC now acts as armor as well. These should not stack with armor bonus from bracers of armor, mage armor, etc.
Remove starting kicks: dipping becomes even more attractive under this system, especially for heavy armor, so you need to decrease multiclass kicks in the following ways:
Fractional Base Attack bonus: this is pretty self-explanatory. A wiz 1/sorc 1 has a BAB of +1, not +0. A level 1 wiz/sorc 1/bard 1/cleric 1/rogue 1/monk 1/druid 1 has a BAB of .5 (wiz) + .5 (sorc) + .75 (cleric) + .75 (bard) + .75 (rogue) + .75 ( monk) + .75 (druid) = 4.75 rounds down to 4, rather than 0.
Stack saves via progression: Count up the number of levels of Good and Poor progression for a particular save to find its value. So a 2nd level fighter/2nd level barbarian would have the saves of a 4th level barbarian or fighter. Do the same thing with class defense, in addition to subtracting 2 for each class beyond the first.
Starting feats: this is the big change. You only get 1 starting feat when you multiclass into a new class, and you can't take a starting feat if you don't have a prerequisite for it that is also available. So a psion that takes one level of fighter can only get light armor proficiency, whereas a ranger could pick up heavy armor proficiency since he already has medium.
Damage that has no Critical chance: I'm mainly talking about sneak attack and iajitsu focus here. If you score a threat while making an attack that receives any damage that isn't normally multiplied, you can opt to do that damage to VP or do an additional 1 WP/die.
What do you guys think?
