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Designers Help! D20 Variant - HardCore
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<blockquote data-quote="Rystil Arden" data-source="post: 2080661" data-attributes="member: 29014"><p>Expected Consequence Guesstimation:</p><p></p><p>Constitution becomes extremely important, since it is now the only thing that keeps you alive at any level. Consequently, if you have any races with -2 Con, nobody will want to play it. Conversely, classes with low hit dice and good fort saves become strangely more resilient based on Con (to use a D&D example, a Monk with only 2 higher Con than a Barbarian would suddenly become more survivable in every way). Similarly, low level enemies (such as the lowly kobold or housecat) become much harder to kill (in fact, a 1st-level kobold PC who rolls well becomes harder to stagger than a 16 HD Juvenile Silver Dragon, although the dragon will obviously have a better Fort save). </p><p></p><p>While at level 1-2, some of the PCs might now actually have more HP than usual, by about level 10, every attack by an enemy spellcaster is more-or-less instantly deadly unless you can make the save on the spell or the Fort save on the death, and your whole party gets staggered automatically from Fireball without Evasion. Thus, Improved Initiative becomes necessary (perhaps what you want for a Quick-Drawing Wild West game?) as whichever side's spellcaster goes first will stagger the entire other team, gaining a huge advantage (because every full attack from a level 11 fighter is equivalently fatal to the mage's fireball, but one quick fireball renders the fighters automatically staggered and unable to attack more than once). The only chance a party that loses initiative will have is to manoeuvre staggered allies into flanking positions so that the fresh-faced rogues can Sneak Attack (two Sneak Attack hits will be instantly fatal unless your Fortitude save bonus is absolutely insane). After losing their first few characters to fireball, everyone will either buy a Ring of Evasion or take a few levels in Rogue or Monk, and that includes your NPCs unless you want the PCs to return the favour. Of course, then the Fort Half spells will continue the slaughter unless everyone gets Mettle, and those have the added benefit of penalising the people with low Fort saves twice (once for the spell, once for death).</p><p></p><p>Those are my random observations.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rystil Arden, post: 2080661, member: 29014"] Expected Consequence Guesstimation: Constitution becomes extremely important, since it is now the only thing that keeps you alive at any level. Consequently, if you have any races with -2 Con, nobody will want to play it. Conversely, classes with low hit dice and good fort saves become strangely more resilient based on Con (to use a D&D example, a Monk with only 2 higher Con than a Barbarian would suddenly become more survivable in every way). Similarly, low level enemies (such as the lowly kobold or housecat) become much harder to kill (in fact, a 1st-level kobold PC who rolls well becomes harder to stagger than a 16 HD Juvenile Silver Dragon, although the dragon will obviously have a better Fort save). While at level 1-2, some of the PCs might now actually have more HP than usual, by about level 10, every attack by an enemy spellcaster is more-or-less instantly deadly unless you can make the save on the spell or the Fort save on the death, and your whole party gets staggered automatically from Fireball without Evasion. Thus, Improved Initiative becomes necessary (perhaps what you want for a Quick-Drawing Wild West game?) as whichever side's spellcaster goes first will stagger the entire other team, gaining a huge advantage (because every full attack from a level 11 fighter is equivalently fatal to the mage's fireball, but one quick fireball renders the fighters automatically staggered and unable to attack more than once). The only chance a party that loses initiative will have is to manoeuvre staggered allies into flanking positions so that the fresh-faced rogues can Sneak Attack (two Sneak Attack hits will be instantly fatal unless your Fortitude save bonus is absolutely insane). After losing their first few characters to fireball, everyone will either buy a Ring of Evasion or take a few levels in Rogue or Monk, and that includes your NPCs unless you want the PCs to return the favour. Of course, then the Fort Half spells will continue the slaughter unless everyone gets Mettle, and those have the added benefit of penalising the people with low Fort saves twice (once for the spell, once for death). Those are my random observations. [/QUOTE]
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