In my home campaign I've used this version for the past two years, ever since I started fiddling with WP/VP rules from Star Wars. I actually did a D&D conversion in an issue of Asgard before I knew exactly that it would be against WotC licensing agreements to do so.
Anywho, I'm pretty sure that issue is moot. Here's the system.
Alternative Hit Point System
by Ryan "RangerWickett" Nock
Playtesting Credits: Theodore Brzinski, Nic Bumpus, Neil D'cruze, Michael Gallogly, Raul Gonzalez, Jessica Jones, Tom Jones, Chris Mecklenborg, Justin Rollins.
The purpose of this system is not to make combat realistic, but rather to make injuries be properly daunting. In movies and adventure fiction, characters can fight for a long time before taking any serious injuries, but after being wounded they often have to heal for a long time before they're ready to fight again. The philosophy behind this system is, therefore, that attacks will slowly wear down combatants through exertion, until finally serious injuries take characters out of combat.
Another aim of this system is to abolish the need for magical healing to make adventuring possible. In most fantasy fiction, characters aren't always going to a party healer after every little fight. This system makes magical healing less of an assumption; magic is still needed to handle the most grievous wounds, but people naturally recover from mild scrapes rather quickly.
Terms:
Hit Points (HP) - Hit Points represent your ability to survive minor hits without serious damage. Whenever your opponent's attack manages to get through your defenses, you have to dodge, roll with the blow, or grit your teeth and ignore the pain. However, regardless of how much damage you take, as long as you still have HP, all such damage is relatively minor, amounting to no more than grazes, shallow cuts, and bruises. Hit points are gained just as they are in core D&D rules.
Wound Points (WP) - Wound Points represent your body's ability to handle severe trauma, like being impaled with a spear, having your heart stopped, or freefalling 20 feet or more. When you run out of HP, further damage is dealt to your WP. When you reach 0 WP, you are disabled (just the same as if you were at 0 HP in core D&D). At -10 WP, you die. Characters receive WP equal to their Constitution score, modified by their size.
Medium-size characters get WP equal to their Con score. Small characters get 3/4 their Con (round down), while large characters get 1.5x their Con.
For monsters and bad guys, it rarely matters whether damage is dealt to WP or to HP. If you want to have a clear answer, whenever a creature would have bonus hit points from a high Constitution, it instead has those as WP. They're even conveniently listed in most monster stat blocks, so a typical Troll has 27 HP and 36 WP; a standard Fire Giant has 67 HP and 75 WP.
Mooks vs. Heroes:
Heroes gain a great boon from these rules, in the form of 8 to 18 buffer hit points. It doesn't affect combat as much as you'd think, though, since after getting to WP, characters aren't as effective in combat. General bad guys and henchmen, however, just wouldn't be the same if they could keep fighting with that many extra hit points, especially since warriors would have to deal 20+ damage with one hit to be able to cleave.
Therefore, the 'Mook Rule' says that any un-named character cannot fight after being reduced to 0 HP. Depending on the demeanor of your party, this could mean that they easily succumb to the most minor wounds and die off-screen, or that they hang to be taken prisoner, or that they lie in fear for the PCs to finish them off once the fight is over. Or, if you want, it gives you an angle to let NPCs survive a fight and come back later, since they only looked dead.
Basic Changes:
First, ignore subdual damage as you know it right now. Second, if you're familiar with Star Wars's VP/WP system, ignore that too (we don't use their critical hit rules).
Hit Points heal at a rate of 1 per level per hour. Wound Points heal at a rate of 1 per day of rest. If you get solid bed rest for a week, you heal 7 WP plus your Constitution modifier (if positive). Your Hit Points cannot heal if you have 0 or fewer Wound Points.
When you any Wound Point damage, you suffer a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, saves, and skill checks. Even if you have healed HP so you are above 0 HP, if you still have WP damage, you're still weakened.
Subdual Attacks:
Subdual attacks deal normal damage to HP. Any damage to WP from subdual attacks heals at a rate of 1 per level per hour, instead of the normal 1 per day. It is not possible to kill with subdual damage.
Magical Healing/Wounding:
Magical healing heals HP as normal, plus for every die of magical healing it also heals 1 WP. So cure serious wounds would heal 3d8+5 HP, plus 3 WP. Magical wounding, such as from inflict wounds spells, work the opposite way. Inflict critical wounds deals 3d8+5 HP damage and 3 WP damage.
Miscellaneous:
The Toughness feat grants +3 WP. A new feat, Quickness, grants +3 HP.
