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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 4568423" data-attributes="member: 63">One of my friends wants to use 4e rules as a baseline, but make a lot of changes to accomplish a feel that matches a Conan game he ran. He is of the opinion that fourth edition feels too much like the PCs and monsters all wear suits of foam rubber, because nothing seems to really hurt anymore. There's too much 'whittling down' of hit points, and not enough brutal devastation caused by PCs and monsters alike.He doesn't want to stick with 3e because of the established frustrations of tracking lots of modifiers, so his hope is to just change how 4e balances itself. Instead of having a low center of gravity so things don't rock too much, he wants to have things 'balanced high,' where combat can swing back and forth drastically, but still be fair.I remain uncertain whether we can accomplish such a goal. But I've designed tons of alternate rule sets in the past, so I figure I should give it a shot. Some of the basic solutions we've considered are:Up One StepIn this variant, at-will powers can be used as opportunity attacks, encounters can be used at-will, and dailies can be used once per encounter (with the caveat that you can't spam them out of combat). A Feeling of FragilityWe feel that one problem lies with 'healing surges.' Flavor-wise, you get bloodied, then get better, then get bloodied, then get better, and there's not a consistent sense of danger. This possible change would change healing.First, we'd split hit points into two pools, each equal to half the normal amount of HP you'd have. You'd have 'Stamina' and 'Hit Points.' Stamina is your ability to ignore minor cuts and scrapes, and to turn a deadly blow into a mild one. You go through Stamina first, and Stamina is the only thing that can heal without an extended rest. Once you're out of Stamina, extra damage goes to HP, which represents actual serious wounds. We'd eliminate "healing word" and "inspiring word." Taking a 'second wind' would be the only way of healing during combat, and getting a second wind would require a little work. Either you have to make an Endurance check to get your own second wind, or a buddy can make a Diplomacy check to pep you up enough to get their second wind. Once you're down, a buddy can make a Heal check to force you to wake up. However you do it, though, your second wind just replenishes your Stamina. It doesn't heal an HP. And if you have any HP damage, you're still considered bloodied for the purposes of some other rules. It would be possible to get 'third winds' and 'fourth winds.' I'm thinking the base DC for Second Wind would be 10, increasing to 20 for third, and 30 for fourth. This is like in Terminator, when Sarah Connor is screaming at Reese to get up and keep moving. He's already gone through a second wind, so it takes her a few tries, but she manages to get him on his feet.You'd heal to full Stamina after a 5 minute rest. But I'm not sure how quickly we'd want to let people heal hit points. We'd still have healing magic, which could work out of combat. And stuff like "Cure Light Wounds" might actually heal real hit point damage. Big HittersWe either need to reduce enemy HP, or increase PC damage. Not sure.This is still a work in progress.</blockquote>

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