D&D 5E Escalating Conflict: a House Rule to curb the amount of death in D&D

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I see no one mentioned it yet, but The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is an adventure written to be fully played without combat or death. So it may have some systems you can use for yours.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I see no one mentioned it yet, but The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is an adventure written to be fully played without combat or death. So it may have some systems you can use for yours.

I've got to admit, I just love creating my own systems.

I'm not sure I would even use Escalating Conflict, but there's a part of me that hears of a challenge and then starts coming up with new systems to solve it.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I like the concept.

I'd be interested in seeing how it works in play.

During stage 3, "all damage" is doubled. Does that include things such as Smite and Sneak Attack?

On a critical, does the doubling of damage occur before or after the crit adds damage?

Yeah, it would be fun to run something classic like Sunless Citadel using this, just see how it plays out differently.

 

[Jmarso]

I mean, the core idea is, at the start of combat, everyone has the option not to deal damage with their hits. Once someone chooses to do damage, everyone loses that option, but they’re dealing “non-lethal” damage - 0 HP is a knockout instead of a kill. Once someone gets knocked out, 0 HP becomes a kill for the rest of the combat. Award bonus XP or some other appropriate reward for each stage before 3 a combat is in when resolved.

Fundamentally it’s pretty straightforward. The system for morale checks and momentum dice complicates it a bit, but those could easily be streamlined. I’m not even sure either is strictly essential to the system. The real innovation here is the three phases of escalating combat lethality.

If I'm not mistaken, you can do 'real' damage for an entire fight and then opt for a non-killing blow at the end, so this seems like an unnecessary addon. The reason I remembered that is because I house ruled it a long time ago to account for any non-martial class character accidentally killing (misjudging the knockout) if they fail a DC 8 save on that final hit. Martials don't have to make the save- they're trained fighters and can measure the focus of a blow properly.

 

[BookTenTiger]

If I'm not mistaken, you can do 'real' damage for an entire fight and then opt for a non-killing blow at the end, so this seems like an unnecessary addon. The reason I remembered that is because I house ruled it a long time ago to account for any non-martial class character accidentally killing (misjudging the knockout) if they fail a DC 8 save on that final hit. Martials don't have to make the save- they're trained fighters and can measure the focus of a blow properly.

With this house rule, there are slightly different rules for damage in each stage:

Trial: you have the option to deal damage or not (for abilities that have an effect as well as damage)

Combat: Deal damage as normal, and the first combatant to reach 0 hp is unconscious

Deadly Combat: all damage is doubled

So the idea is that even in the Combat stage you are trying to find options other than killing your foes, because once the first enemy is reduced to 0 hp things become really deadly.

 

[Jmarso]

With this house rule, there are slightly different rules for damage in each stage:

Trial: you have the option to deal damage or not (for abilities that have an effect as well as damage)

Combat: Deal damage as normal, and the first combatant to reach 0 hp is unconscious

Deadly Combat: all damage is doubled

So the idea is that even in the Combat stage you are trying to find options other than killing your foes, because once the first enemy is reduced to 0 hp things become really deadly.

I get it- you are looking for alternatives to reduce in-game carnage. It's cool.

 

[Charlaquin]

If I'm not mistaken, you can do 'real' damage for an entire fight and then opt for a non-killing blow at the end,

Only with a melee attack. Also, I assume this would not be the case under the house rule being discussed here.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think it's an interesting system, worth elaborating further.

I'm not sure I'd like morale checks every round after reaching half HP, if that's the case. I'd prefer at least to limit them when being hit, although in many cases it might still mean every round.

I have a general issue with morale checks. They don't apply to PCs

The typical difficulty of morale checks is that failing them result in fleeing or surrendering at DM's choice, and players often don't like being told what their PC have to do.

To make it work for PCs, I would establish specific conditions, the most obvious of which is "frightened". It has a very different feeling being told "your PC is now frightened" versus "your PC flees/surrender". But being frightened means you will be ineffective and implicitly suggests that ending combat might be best.

Actually in 5e when frightened you can't even move towards the source of fright. If this is too much when the condition is not forced by magic, we can consider a new condition specific for having failed a morale check, "frightened" is just the first idea and the point is using a technical condition instead of a forced behaviour.

 

[TheSword]

I think it’s a very interesting idea.

When it comes to morale checks I wonder how that impacts on the rest of the game.

Let’s say you’re fighting those trogs and three or four of them decide to run. Are they now fleeing for their lives, or just until they get to a place where they aren’t under immediate threat. Do you envision them joining other encounters or fleeing for the hills never to be seen again. Or worst of all does every combat now turn into a chase scene… dragging combat out even longer than it already is? Or perhaps they surrender, but how do you decided if something surrenders or decides to run?

 

[BookTenTiger]

I think it’s a very interesting idea.

When it comes to morale checks I wonder how that impacts on the rest of the game.

Let’s say you’re fighting those trogs and three or four of them decide to run. Are they now fleeing for their lives, or just until they get to a place where they aren’t under immediate threat. Do you envision them joining other encounters or fleeing for the hills never to be seen again. Or worst of all does every combat now turn into a chase scene… dragging combat out even longer than it already is? Or perhaps they surrender, but how do you decided if something surrenders or decides to run?

In this sort of game, I imagine there would have to be some sort of Defeated condition. Enemies that are Defeated are no longer encountered, and no longer threaten the community.