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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KenHood" data-source="post: 1462498" data-attributes="member: 4413">I appreciate the suggestion, but I disagree. Adding a new column increases survivability. However, you have a semantical point about the need for a middle category. I've dropped Not Wounded, and changed it to Lightly Wounded.Yes. You are correct. There are some things that occur whether or not one is conscious or able to take actions. The penalties apply in these cases.Each purchase of Toughness is a "level" of Toughness. I would permit a character to acquire no more than three "levels" of this feat. Each time you get Toughness, you get +1 Soak. I did change the wording in the original document to add clarity.There are no hit points. A barbarian's Damage Reduction would make them quite different from a ranger in taking damage. Hit points are a cinematic element of the d20 system. The GnG rules favor less cinema, so everyone has pretty much the same reaction to being stabbed, shot, and burned. If you wish a character more resistant to damage, get a high Constitution, wear armor, and acquire levels of toughness. In this manner, fighter types have more resistance to damage. (And that makes combat a little more like real life.)Hit points in the d20 system don't represent a character's actual life, but more luck, ability to avoid attacks, etc. In the GnG system, Defense handles that. Characters with high attack bonuses or good Reflex saves have better Defense. In the GnG system, the Life Bar is your actual life. You'll find, in the end, that classes end up sorting out in combat ability pretty much the same as if you used hit points and regular AC. Fighter types will be at the top end of soaking up damage (from use of armor and toughness) and avoid damage (from high base attack bonuses). (Remember, in the regular system, high Hit Points mean you are better at avoiding attacks.) Rogue types come out in the middle. They'll have poor Soak capacity from light armor and typically low Constitution. They'll have decent ability to avoid attacks, because of the high Reflex save or middling base attack bonus. Their sneak attacks will devastate characters with high Soak.Cleric types notch out the rogues in the Soak department: They can wear armor and most people put a better Constitution score on a cleric than a thief. Their ability to avoid attacks will be about the same as rogue. Overall, it's about what you'd expect in the difference between d8 and d6 hit points.Wizard types end up on the bottom of the scale. Their Soak will stink. Their ability to avoid attacks will likewise stink. ----Honestly, if you want to maintain the specific core rules differences between classes, DO NOT use this system! This is one of the things I found frustrating about comments regarding the original GnG rules. Folks kept sending e-mails along the lines of "It doesn't work like the core rules! Why won't you make it work like the core rules?!" They missed the point that it is NOT SUPPOSED to work like the core rules. It's a variant, and it changes the game on a fundamental level. That's not a weakness of the system, but the PURPOSE of the system.</blockquote>

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