Help incorporating Star Wars Vitality System to D&D

[ThorneMD]

This goes out to anyone who has done this.

What have you done with spells? (ex. Cure ... Wounds, Heal, Harm, ...)
What did you have to do with monsters?
What about PrC's that gave better multipliers to crits? (ex. Deepwood Sniper)
What have you done with the various burst weapon abilities?
How has it influenced battles and your game?

Thanks to any who answer.

 

[Merlion]

Exact details on how to do it can be found in Unearthed Arcana.

 

[mirivor]

Wow... someone else who is doing this. Here are some of the key points that I came up with for the simplified system that I use today.

1) The only time that a fortitude save is made is when you are dropped to -1 wound points or below. Failure indicates unconsciousness, success indicates consciousness, but helpless. This drastically reduced the dice rolling under the rules as written in UA.

2) I incorporated the Armor as Damage Reduction rules. They make a ton of sense and allow for a much more visceral feel in combat.

3) All weapons and damage sources have their critical multipliers reduced by one, to a minimum of one.

4) Any source of damage that is dealt via dice, besides standard weapon damage, is reduced to one point per die when dealing wound damage. For example, a successful critical sneak attack by a 20th level rogue deals his weapon damage + 10 bonus damage (instead of 10D6!). This also applies to spells and effects. A critical hit with a Scorching Ray deals 4 points of damage per ray.

5) Monsters are where you really have to wing it. Most monster will wind up with no vitality points and a little or a lot of wound points, depending on Constitution and size. Undead and other critical immune monsters become very scary because you simply have to beat them down with no chance to drop one with a critical hit, they effectively retain their original hit points. Other monsters can really suffer under this system. Giants become much easier to kill, having their Constitution in WP x8 for size. On the other hand, a critical hit from one could easily slay a character of any level.

6) Spells and healing effects work like so: Any spell that heals dice, such as Cure Light Wounds, heals its actual die, I.E. 1D8, in Vitality Points, while the bonus points derived from cleric level heals wound point damage. Heal takes care of all wound point damage first, then any remaining healing goes to vitality. Harm does the reverse, vitality first the wound.

7) I play 3.5 Exclusively, but I would leave the Deepwood sniper ability alone, or grant a larger threat range instead of crit multiplier. Never thought about this.

8) I have had very good success with my home-made system overall, though I have yet to test it at the higher levels. Battles are scarier yet more thrilling. Healing can take a little longer, yet also can go much quicker depending on the number of crits in a given combat. Healing 1 vitality per level per hour just rocks! Healing 1 wound point per level per night can take forever.... especially if you have axed clerics like me