Constitution variant: fast healing instead of extra HP?

[Jack Simth]

The Illiad
The Odyssey
The Aenied
Herakles
The Spartans at Thermopylae
Gilgamesh
Beowulf
Sampson
Cú Chulainn
King Authur and the Knights of the Round Table

Seriously.

Hey now: Personal preferences never have anything to do with logic anyway. Perhaps (s)he said it funny, but it reminding him/her too much of anime for his/her tastes is not invalidated by a listing of non-anime traditional characters that had similar things occur.


As to the OP and the effects:
1) Things will die much easier, both players and monsters. This will increase the lethality of the game. Reducing damage across the board... just puts you back to the pre-existing situation with larger grains (a given HP means more, but when your HP pool is cut in half, and the damage being dealt to you is also cut in half, the net effect is pretty negligible). Reducing the damage monsters can deal without reducing the damage players can deal has the effect of making monsters easier to kill.
2) If you survive an encounter, you'll be fully healed for the next at negligible resource cost. Fighters, Rogues, and other classes without significant per-day abilities are boosted slightly compared to classes with significant per-day abilities... but only when doing boring grindfests.
3) Casters become even better. Fireball + Flame Strike (Wizard, Cleric, in the standard team) will end most encounters outright, mostly regardless of the number of opponents (without con to HP, almost nothing will survive two Xd6/level spells). Once Maximize becomes available, a simple Maximized Fireball becomes Save-Or-Die for the vast majority of opponents of appropriate CR. Forget using mobs.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In a 3.5 campaign, my Geomancer uses the original Sacred Healing feat to grant his allies Fast Healing. It is so effective that he almost never casts a Cure Wounds spell.

You may really want to rethink this. If you think piles of HP are anime, what would you think of PCs- all of them- having a healing ability that is just shy of true regeneration?

 

[Jackinthegreen]

An alternate might be having the Con modifier as DR. Negative means the character takes an extra point of damage each hit.

 

[Visigani]

Here's your solution...


Remove Con Bonus to HP, save for first level. Give players max hp per level.



"...Tis only a flesh wound.


Add Con Bonus to AC, and Reflex Saves. This applies in all circumstances except touch attacks, when rolling to confirm critical hits, when unconscious or when denied your dexterity bonus.

Further, Con acts a standing form of resistance against all damage types


In this instance Con score acts as a kind of "Soft DR". When you have the chance to brace for impact, shrug it off, or tough it out some other way your con score comes into play.


Even characters with obscenely high Con scores still aren't invincible, nor will it protect you from a host of hazards.

It will, however, dramatically increase your survivability.


This buff won't be "insane" either. Someone walking around with 30 consitution SHOULD be superhumanly difficult to kill

 

[Belzbet]

I think that the Con Mod. Fast healing thing is an AWESOME idea! It sounds like you are the DM so I am sure you can make it work, and if it seems overpowered change it. I may use it myself... Yeah they will be healed up, give them more battles in a row, or make it a Supernatural ability and send them into an anitmagic field. OR like you say, make it only work for combat or maybe only up to 3/4 max (1/2 max may be too low). No matter you can for sure make it work...

 

[Sammael]

The Illiad
The Odyssey
The Aenied
Herakles
The Spartans at Thermopylae
Gilgamesh
Beowulf
Sampson
Cú Chulainn
King Authur and the Knights of the Round Table

Seriously.

I was, of course, being sarcastic. However, the point stands that high-level 3.x characters and monsters have a ridiculous amount of hit points when compared to their previous edition counterparts, which makes the power curve that much steeper; one of my system redesign goals is to flatten the power curve. Also, higher hit points necessitate higher damage outputs - an arms race which, in the end, result in characters that can level a small town in 1 round - and this is not an effect I wish to have in my games.

I have already dealt with the damage output of both characters, monsters, and spells. It's all back to relatively reasonable levels. My current solution to Con is to only apply it to HP during even levels, and it works - but I feel like that's not elegant enough.

Fast Healing is just a new idea I wanted to bounce off to see the reactions and pros/cons.

 

[Dandu]

1/2 Con mod to HP every level seems more elegant than Con mod to HP every other level.

 

[kitcik]

1/2 Con mod to HP every level seems more elegant than Con mod to HP every other level.

Does that mean no more 16 COns or no more 18 Cons?

 

[Visigani]

1/2 Con mod to HP every level seems more elegant than Con mod to HP every other level.

And really neither solution really addresses the problem of having gobs of HP.


My proposed solution is simply the better idea.

By reducing the damage before it comes in without having to constantly subtract based on DR you go a long way towards reducing the "bookkeeping" involved with gobs of HP... and allows the DM to create significantly dangerous situations.

And crits are a terrifying thing.

 

[Sammael]

Adding Con to HP only at 1st level while increasing the overall amount of HP (by giving max HP per level) seems like a decent idea. But I'm not sure it's enough:

Ftr 20 with Con +6: 206 HP (new system) vs 234 (default 3.x)
(Theoretical) Mage 20 with Con -1: 79 HP (new system) vs 31 (default 3.x)

The fighter still has way too much HP. The Mage is, indeed balanced better. But is the low Con penalty enough? I'm still tempted to add that Bleeding penalty for negative Con.

The Simulationist inside me can accept adding Con to AC, perhaps as a Natural AC bonus. He's iffy on adding Con to Reflex saves, though.

"Soft" DR against natural hazards and such is something I'm already using, though it's a bit difficult to adjudicate properly.