D&D 5E Bloodied and Reduced Defenses

[Garthanos]

the Reason people don’t spread the pain is they want to eliminate the oppositions attack actions. If bloodied = weakened attacks (like 5e swarms for example) and players knew it they might take that path BUT if it’s generally easier to get from 50% to 0 as in the OP s suggestion they will likely take that route

spread the pain initially to soften them up then focus fire might be a way to see it.

Enemy spreads out after being first bloodied by area effects

 

[HomegrownHydra]

For me improving the value of spreading the pain ... would be an advantage to the breadth of tactics for the game

Right, so reducing attack accuracy when bloodied would be a much better approach. This would work best when paired with the PCs benefiting from a 13th Age-style escalation die so that the players don't feel overly burdened by it.

 

[Garthanos]

Right, so reducing attack accuracy when bloodied would be a much better approach. This would work best when paired with the PCs benefiting from a 13th Age-style escalation die so that the players don't feel overly burdened by it.

or damage reduction but yes I agree.

 

[jgsugden]

I'd try it in a one shot at level 7 or 11 before bringing it to a campaign. If I were to do it, I'd make it a -2 to all d20 rolls. I'd also add some spells and magical items that interact with the mechanic as well.

 

[Garthanos]

I think its a solid point that the goal may be the Offense of "general" enemies to go down when they hit bloodied. And that for player characters maybe not at all.

edit removed something that would not work to encourage bloodying enemies.

Perhaps - Most monsters could get at half hit points -2 (basic disadvantage) on rolls, and if one quarter hit points full disadvantage on rolls (even heroes could have basic disad at this point to encourage healing them early which may be part of the op goal? ).

Using basic advantage/disadvantage avoids too much stacking and allows more nuance if we use more of it.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

If using a mechanic like that, I'd definitely allow something like inspiration use to ignore all the penalties for a round.

 

[Shiroiken]

The best defense is a good offense. With a such a rule, the players are much more likely to go nova as much as possible. Everything is a resource, including HP, and with this system it would increase the value of HP as a resource.

 

[Horwath]

 

[Don Durito]

Right, so reducing attack accuracy when bloodied would be a much better approach. This would work best when paired with the PCs benefiting from a 13th Age-style escalation die so that the players don't feel overly burdened by it.

Yes it's important to consider what you want to incentivise.

A -2 to defences tends make characters step up and blow thing quickly (because running away just got more dangerous if opportunity attacks are involved).
A minus to attacks is more likely to encourage withdrawl and healing. (Although a -2 too may not be strong enough- you'd probably want disadvantage on attack rolls if that was the goal).

I tend to think this would work best if it was about change in affordances and not just numbers although I'm not really sure what that would involve.

That said, thinking about numbers, perhaps something like bloodied creatures have the crit range against them increased by one (or two). That compared with lower hitpoints would make the characters feel the tension. But as Garthanos suggested upthread you'd want players there to be some way to take advantage of this as well.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

This rule would encourage me to do nova-damage at the start of the fight in order to bloody opponents as fast as possible and making the rest of the fight easier. It would also encourage character builds who can avoid getting damaged in the first place, "tanking" is right out.