I'm pondering using a mook rule where any hit that does more than 5 + the mook's Fort save bonus takes the mook out. What I'm really trying to do is reverse-engineer the massive damage save with the presumption that the mooks will roll 10 on average (sort of like static AC) on the damage save. There's got to be a way to allow the mooks to stay up & in the fight until a certain hit just takes them out of play. Then, the main foes can have hit points to track just like usual. Of course, the PCs track their hit points, too.
Damage saves: Too deadly?
- Thread starter Gundark
- Start date
Dragonblade
Adventurer
theRogueRooster said:
Sorry, that didn't come out the way I intended. What I meant was in 17 years of playing, I have found that non-HP systems, especially one as random as the damage save, tends to foster a grittier more survivalist play style.
I don't want the PCs to feel invincible, but neither do I want them cringe away from all combat and worry that a single unlucky roll will take them out.
theRogueRooster
First Post
Dragonblade said:
Gotcha. I thought perhaps you spent those 17 years in some non-D&D game system I'd never heard of. Either that or you were a great visionary who was way ahead of his time.
Dragonblade said:
Well, obviously, we've come away with different experiences using damage saves, and if there didn't exist the concept of Conviction points (spent for rerolls) then I would agree with you 100% on the randomness of the system. But that's precisely what Conviction points are there for and they are an integral part of the system. As long as you have a Conviction point left you'll never have a single unlucky roll take you out. And being out of Conviction points is equivalent to being down to your last few hitpoints -- in both cases one roll can send you reaching for a new character sheet. In a sense, Conviction points are the same thing as hitpoints, it's just that they only decrease when you really blow your damage save (if you choose to spend one to roll again) and they can be spent on other things besides rerolls.
So to give my opinion to this thread: No, I don't think a damage save system is too deadly (at least the system employed by MnM/Blue Rose/True20). For me, it is neither too hot nor too cold; it is just right.
-tRR
Dragonblade
Adventurer
theRogueRooster said:Gotcha. I thought perhaps you spent those 17 years in some non-D&D game system I'd never heard of. Either that or you were a great visionary who was way ahead of his time.
Sorry about that! I wish I could say I was ahead of my time, but its not true. 
