Thanks for bumping this thread! I'd actually been looking for it recently, without finding it. So in thanks, I'll answer... one of your questions.
Yes, negative constitution definitely lowers soak. My players have their soak and defense written out like AC used to be, with each modifier getting written down so that when one changes, or one becomes irrelevant, it's instantly noticable as to how things change.
My group lacks a paladin, so I don't know how to handle that. Seems like a bit of a tricky situation.
On the other hand, I did give "Energy Substitution: Positive" as a metamagic feat to the party's sorcerer (mostly because we also lack a cleric) so we have had to adjucate random other spells being turned into healing spells. The way we do THAT is compare the "damage" of the evocation in question to one of the cleric healing spells. So a positive energy Magic Missile heals 2 points per missile, because each missile can be compared to a Cure Light Wounds.
Now then.
Speaking of Magic Missile... the way I ended up working it is that each magic missile is treated as a 1d4 weapon (of force) that automatically rolls 1 higher than the defense, no matter what the defense is. (making each missile do... 1d4+1 damage) The critical range for each weapon would be, in non-GnG, 15-20, meaning that it automatically criticals. I also have it automatically confirm the critical. This has presented no problems... it makses the spell useful, but not devestating. The critical effect chosen is almost ALWAYS bypass XXX armor... blinding or breaking arms or legs or whatever doesn't work, because without bypassing a certain amount of soak, it's rare that any damage is EVER done by the spell when cast at creatures of comparable CR.
I also fixed True Strike likewise. Instead of giving players +20 to damage, which is insane, I make the spell give you a bonus to your attack roll sufficient to let you win by one, so long as this bonus doesn't exceed 20. Meaning that it's useful for enemies that have incredibly high defense, but next to no soak (or even negative soak!). A useful spell still, but not as godly as before. You may need true strike to kill grigs, for instance, but it won't help much against a dragon unless you're combining it with something else up your sleeve. It remains as useful as always for touch attack spells.
Here's something I'm thinking of adding to the system though, which I'd like feedback for...
I was considering pitting my guys up against a suit of empty armor this monday (if they get to a certain point). Now, I could give said suit of armor some nastily high soak, and "painless" traits (meaning no negative penalties for low HP) but in my mind, I'm seeing a battle where the party needs to dismantle the armor bit by bit in order to "kill" it, and that any two peices still in contact with each other with remain animated and be able to continue fighting... a creepy kind of monster fight. And while I could describe this as happening by every time 5 damage is done, something falls off... there's already a mechanic for dismantling something.
The critical hit rules.
Now what if I created a new trait for some Grim-n-Gritty creatures, that made them invulnerable to anything but critical hits? You can hack at this thing all you want, but unless you're putting out eyes or removing limbs, you ain't doin' jack to it. Give it soak 10 or maybe a bit more so that added damage by rolling that crit doesn't hurt it more. Make it an inherant bonus to saok so that it can't be bypassed by the critical. The idea here is to keep the physical damage low but possible, so that other critical effects are encouraged, and have them start chopping off limbs...
Now I'm thinking that there are lots of creatures this could apply well too, starting with the undead... but now that I'm thinking of it, why not everything that's normally immune to criticals? This is an odd reversion of the way things work, but with the new critical rules, I think it may very well apply better...
What do you guys think? I know I'm giving this to my enchanted suit of armor, but what about to all normally crit immune things?
, where only equipment based soak (aka Armor) does not help towards falling damage.
