[Grim Tales] A grimmer DC for massive damage?

[HeapThaumaturgist]

My reasoning was actually to LOWER the DC on the average (in my game) check below the 15 mark. We have MDT saves outside of threat ranges ... on all crits, during the surprise round. At DC 15, those become quite lethal. DC 11, 12, 14 is somewhat easier for PCs to make.

25 points of damage in GT is huge.

It's very much a flavor issue, so yes, it's all joy on this side of the dice. Controlling the DC allows me to control a large part of the flavor of the game. As long as continuity and fun is had, I'm okay.

Setting a variable DC makes the true-MDT DC slightly higher, creates a real sense of threat to the PCs as damage/danger escalates. In a D&D game or combat-heavy GT game, it might be too much danger, but my point was to steer the PCs into considering options beyond charging the guys with greatswords.

In another game where damage outputs would be higher and PCs would be more apt to charge a fortified line, I might think of DC 10 + (DMG/5) to keep DCs quite low.

I think the DC is a great way for DMs to control combat flavor in their games.

--fje

 

[Wrathamon]

I use the MDT but I dont immediatly drop them to dying on a fail... I have wound levels.

1st wound level is bruised no penalty
2nd wound is injured -2 to all rolls
3rd wound is lethal - character drops and is immediatly dying.

That way if a character is unlucky its not like its game over.

 

[Victim]

My reasoning was actually to LOWER the DC on the average (in my game) check below the 15 mark. We have MDT saves outside of threat ranges ... on all crits, during the surprise round. At DC 15, those become quite lethal. DC 11, 12, 14 is somewhat easier for PCs to make.

25 points of damage in GT is huge.

It's very much a flavor issue, so yes, it's all joy on this side of the dice. Controlling the DC allows me to control a large part of the flavor of the game. As long as continuity and fun is had, I'm okay.

Setting a variable DC makes the true-MDT DC slightly higher, creates a real sense of threat to the PCs as damage/danger escalates. In a D&D game or combat-heavy GT game, it might be too much danger, but my point was to steer the PCs into considering options beyond charging the guys with greatswords.

In another game where damage outputs would be higher and PCs would be more apt to charge a fortified line, I might think of DC 10 + (DMG/5) to keep DCs quite low.

I think the DC is a great way for DMs to control combat flavor in their games.

--fje

I don't see how you actually lower the DC though. If a 12 Con character has to make a massive damage save, he's taking at least 12 damage so the DC is at least 16. The only way the DC is lower is if your characters have 8 Cons.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Because, in my games, we have MDT saves on all confirmed Criticals and on successfull attacks during the surprise round. This seems to come up about twice to three times as often as damage exceeding the Con threshold.

These saves seem to be made on 4-8 points of damage, on average ... sometimes as low as 1-2 points (in the case of surprise dagger attacks!) which, generally, keeps the DC lower than 15.

--fje