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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 8208799" data-attributes="member: 12731">I sincerely recommend you to use lower hit points in that case.It is the hit point buffer, and more specifically, the size of it, that is the root cause of your concerns. Instead of adding mechanisms that randomly bypass the hit point buffer, why not make it smaller?As we seem to agree, D&D is plenty lethal and scary at low levels (up to perhaps 6th level as you suggest). I would argue that at 1st level, D&D is actually even more <a href="http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/04/fantasy-fckin-vietnam.html" target="_blank">fantasy-fracking-vietnam</a>:ish than WFRP! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f914.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":unsure:" title="Unsure    :unsure:"  data-smilie="24"data-shortname=":unsure:" /> (Yes, not only old D&D obviously, but even more contemporary versions of the game)If heroes gain hit points slower, the "sweet spot" is prolonged.For regular D&D, general consensus seems to agree that's from perhaps 4th through 9th level, but that's because grim and perilous death at low levels isn't what most people want out of regular D&D. For S&S that is clearly different, at least for you. ([USER=6986003]@xoth.publishing[/USER] what do you think - what's your idea of an ideal level to play D&D in your world?) If we were to agree, the tension is starting to lose its edge at sixth level in regular D&D, that means we're saying the turning point is when a fighter has more than ~55 hit points. Isn't the obvious solution then to delay that occurrence?Details on how to accomplish this is maybe best discussed in a different thread, but if heroes only gain 75% as many hit points then that fighter only reaches 55 hp at level 9 instead of level 6, and the sweet spot has been prolonged. (Actually, it's probably prolonged even more than that, since damage output goes up. Having 70 hp at level 11 is still scarier than having 95 after all)Actually I mean that "give them 75%" quite literally. Any direct change, such as reducing hit dice one step, or removing the Constitution bonus to hit points each level, impacts classes very unevenly: the first change is bad for Wizards, the second for Barbarians. Much better imo to keep calculating hit points just as usual, only to then reduce it to 3/4ths, since this keeps the ratio between classes.</blockquote>

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