Could use help on a vitality/action system...

[mirivor]

Last night a friend and I stayed up talking in the bitter cold parking lot of our local gaming shop talking about D&D and what we might alter. The central theme revolved around the idea that fighters fighting, wizards casting, and rogues roguing never, ever seemed to wear anyone out. They could stand there all year long and fight, cast, and rogue without ever tiring so long as they rest at night. So, we decided to create a vitality system.

Mind everyone that my campaign is house rules heavy. I could type a post as long as a flatbed truck about all of the tweaks and changes... spell points, armor as DR, vitality and wound, using Dex to hit and something else (???) for initiative, the list goes on and on.

What I would like to do is develop a system where most actions cost a character a certain amount of vitality points to do. In the old Dragonlance campaign, if I recall correctly, casters burdened themselves by casting spells. Their head swam and buzzed, and they leaned heavily on their staffs for a bit to recoup. I would like to sort of replicate this, but for ALL classes.

One important thing to note is that I do use the vitality and wound system in Unearthed Arcana, so the transition shouldn't be awful.

Under such a system, vitality points go from being able to turn aside a blow to so much more. They represent fatigue, mental acuity, etc. So the first thing that needs to be done is the ditching of the current hit die structure. Casters should get more than 1d4 vitality points per level. Should everyone be given a flat D10, allowing armor to be the warrior's advantage over a sorcerer (I use class defense bonus equal to 1/2 the character's BAB rounded down)? I sort of thought that having spells cost their minimum caster level in vitality was a good spring board. A ninth level spell costs 17 or 18 points to cast, etc. Should I make casters pay extra points to cast beyong that minimum level? A magic missile with 5 missiles would cost 9 points, a summon monster I spell with a 10 round duration would cost 10 points, etc.?

Something else that needs to be done is to determine how expensive it is to do other things. How many points is it to make a full round attack (I want this to remain static... it represents a warrior's increasing skill and finesse; more attacks with his weapon for the same amount of energy as his skill grows) What about running? Movement? How would magical healing work? Should I axe it? Etc.

The real beauty of the system is that characters now measure fatigue, as well as have to accept that they cannot fight until the end of days without rest. Warriors may fight for a couple of minutes before being worn out and needing a break, casters can unload only a few spells at low levels before they are exhausted. To help ease this burden, vitality heals at the rate of 1 point per hour per character level. Thus even taking a short break would mean a lot to them.

Any input on ideas, sources of similar systems, etc. would be most welcome.

 

[The_lurkeR]

I like the idea on the surface, although it does present some new problems.

If you use the vitality for casting spells, would you then drop spell points? They would seem a little superfluous since the characters will likely run out of vitality before spell points at higher levels. Or would they remain as the meter for spells allowed per day?

Mixing in healing magic definately throws a wrench in this system. I guess that's another reason to keep the spell points in effect. To thwart a heal - cast spell - heal - cast spell, infinite loop?

In my current campaign we allow expending double vitality points instead of spell points, once a caster has run out of spell points. This only really came into play a couple of times when the characters were at low levels.

I'm not sure if your system totally fits with melee combat actions though. Fighters will already be losing vitality through the combat from opponents, is that not already representing what you're looking for?

If you're going to tax movement, would it only be in combat situations?

It's all interesting, but starts to feel a little too complicated for me once you get into it.

 

[mirivor]

Yes, vitality would fuel spells. This would make close combat incredibly dangerous for casters...

I think that magical healing would have to go. After all, characters heal 1 vitality point per level per hour. It is the Wound points that would require something more.

It is true that fighters and other warriors would be taking damage...


After meditating on this, I have decided this simply is not feasible in the current system. Unfortunate...

 

[genshou]

If you did use this, limit the healing of vitality points to once per hour per target, and wound points to once per day per target.

I would up Sor/Wiz hit die to d6 under this system.

 

[genshou]

Regarding combat fatigue, I wouldn't use vitality points myself, but if you're going that route, even making each standard action cost 1 vitality means that a 1st-level Barbarian who fights for a minute and a half will be too exhausted to fight for most of the day.

I've always preferred to allow a character to fight for a number of rounds equal to their Con score without penalty (Endurance adds 4 rounds). Once they are past that amount, at the beginning of their next turn they are fatigued. Once they reach 1.5*Con score (round up) in rounds spent fighting, they are exhausted. When they have fought for twice that value, they can take only a single move action each round.

The rounds need not be consecutive. For every minute of rest, restore 1 round of fighting ability to the character.

Instead of making a character fatigued after they reach their Con score in rounds spent fighting, you could make every standard action or attack cost 1 vitality, and every full-round action cost 1d4 vitality. Once their vitality points are exhausted, they begin taking "subdual damage". This damage adds up and compares against wound points in the same manner as subdual damage against regular hit points. Low-level characters could quickly find themselves unconscious from fatigue if they fought too long.

Honestly, I don't think this kind of mechanic is necessary in D&D unless you are frequently pitting the PCs against hordes of enemies. Most fights won't last even half a decent warrior's Con score in rounds.