Condition track - wishful thinking, rumor or confirmed?

[Kahuna Burger]

There has been a bit of talk about the "bloodied" condition and how it might be a hint about a Saga-esq condition track, but have there been any other pointers this way?

Personally, I welcome any additional steps between "I'm fully functional" and "I'm knocked out and dying" and a full condition track with penalties for each step would be great.

 

[Green Knight]

God, I hope so! While Bloodied is nice, I really hope there's more to it then just that. We've heard that certain abilities become available when you're Bloodied, so it's possible that that's the reason that's the only condition we've heard of so far. Could be that the other conditions don't get put on the statblock because none of the rest trigger special abilities the way Bloodied does. Well, here's hoping. Personally, I REALLY, REALLY hope they have a condition track. I don't like knocking 80 hit points off a guy and him being perfectly fine, and then doing two more points of damage and suddenly the guy's unconscious and bleeding to death.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

Even if 4th edition doesn't have a condition track, I am going to utilize one. We're even using one now with the SW Saga to fantasy conversion I did a few months ago.

 

[psionotic]

I'm in favor of it so long as the conditions that set each change off are clear, and that the effects are easy to remember and incorporate into your rolls (or movement, or whatever they affect).

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I hope not, if I wanted a death spiral I'd use the Storyteller system. The hitpoints system and its oddities are one of the things I've always liked about D&D.

 

[WyzardWhately]

I'm in favor of it so long as the conditions that set each change off are clear, and that the effects are easy to remember and incorporate into your rolls (or movement, or whatever they affect).

They work pretty well in SWSE. I'm sort of suspecting that Bloodied takes the place of the Track, since they might be going too fast-play to have two separate condition measures like that. This will make me Very Sad.

 

[PeelSeel2]

No condition track! Hit points BABY!!

 

[Michael Silverbane]

No condition track! Hit points BABY!!

If its anything like Star Wars Saga Edition, the condition track will work alongside hitpoints.

Later
silver

 

[KarinsDad]

We've used variations of the Condition Track for years (the two systems we used were -1 on all D20 rolls when 1/3rd wound, -2 when 2/3rds wounded and -3 at zero or lower; and the slightly simpler -2 when half wounded and -4 at zero or lower).

However, we never used a Condition Track for unconsciousness. I think that is a good addition.

The main problem with it I have, at least the SWSE version, is that when a PC is at zero hit points, he's dead. I think too many players will have dying PCs if this occurs in 4E, just because they are used to the 0 to -9 buffer. This will probably take some getting used to.

Also, even with a Condition Track system, it still won't address the issue of being at 1 hit point and still being able to fight at full effectiveness unless there are some additional rules I am unaware of.

 

[WyzardWhately]

We've used variations of the Condition Track for years (the two systems we used were -1 on all D20 rolls when 1/3rd wound, -2 when 2/3rds wounded and -3 at zero or lower; and the slightly simpler -2 when half wounded and -4 at zero or lower).

However, we never used a Condition Track for unconsciousness. I think that is a good addition.

The main problem with it I have, at least the SWSE version, is that when a PC is at zero hit points, he's dead. I think too many players will have dying PCs if this occurs in 4E, just because they are used to the 0 to -9 buffer. This will probably take some getting used to.

Also, even with a Condition Track system, it still won't address the issue of being at 1 hit point and still being able to fight at full effectiveness unless there are some additional rules I am unaware of.

IIRC, you're only dead at zero if the hit that took you there was ALSO higher than your damage threshhold. And I believe WotC already confirmed death is at -10, so it's a non-issue anyway.