Injury (UA)

[Eltern]

After several years as a Monte-written adventure junkie, I am striking out on my own to make my own campaign setting. This setting will have an Indiana Jones/Mummy kind of feel, geographically and cinematically speaking. People will generally not wear a lot of armor, flintlock pistols abound, and DON'T GET HIT BY A BULLET, they sting, you know.

So my thought was to implement defense bonuses, armor as damage reduction, and the Fortitude saves instead of HP rules from Unearthed Arcana. Here's where I hit my big snag: Injury.

I like the idea of this system, but manner in which it was built takes the balance of D&D, puts it on it's head, spins it around, and throws it out the window. Does anyone else think the system needs further refinement/more extensive changes to work well with the D&D system? My two major complaints are:

Different sized hit dice. One thing that the barbarian has over the ranger is that he will have 2 HP/level (on average) more than the ranger. Now there is no difference. The sorc is supposed to be a bit tougher than the wizard. No difference now. I think some sort of bonus to Fort saves against injury my be appropriate:

d4: -2/2 levels
d6:-1/2 levels
d8:+0
d10:+1/2 levels
d12: +2/2 levels

(These numbers are largely arbitrary, as I have not doen some spreadsheeting to see if the numbers still work out. I realize that generally classes with d4s and d6s ALREADY have a poor Fort save, and now they're being penalized more. This is also a problem)

Constitution is now worthless. I realize that sounds counterintuitive. Whereas before Bracers of Health would get you +1 HP/level, it now gives you +1 to Fort save, independent of level. Woopdy friggin do! A magic item simulating the feat Great Fortitude is far better than the bracers. Trolls, ogre mages, and other regenerating monsters now have lost a big part of what makes them nasty. I imagine some system with losing "hit" status could be made for these folks, but none is given.

Anyone already talked about this, suggested a better system, etc.? (BTW, if this belongs in House rules, please send it on its merry way.)

 

[WaterRabbit]

All of your concerns are noted in the sidebar on page 114. You might be better off using Wounds/Vitality. Another suggestion would be to change the damage divisor:

3 for d4 classes;
4 for d6;
5 for d8;
6 for d10;
7 for d12.

So for an 12 point attack you would get Fort DC of 19, 18, 18, 17, and 17 respectively. You could also just use the die-type as the divisor. This would make the saves 18, 17, 16, 16, and 16.

You might also just consider using d20 modern, which uses defense bonuses, hit points, and massive damage thresholds.

 

[Eltern]

About half of them are noted, yes, but what it basically says is "We didn't do anything to balance this out." Yes, there are now only two kinds of "tough," tough and not tough. But the classes were designed with more possible variations, and now some of the balance is thrown off.

Took your advice and browsed through the d20 Modern SRD, something I had never done. I also checked out Wounds/Vitality points. For some random reason, I also looked at Ken's Grim and Gritty rules. Here's what I thought:

I'm looking for a system/combination of systems where people do not generally get hit. They dodge and weave a lot or wear some armor so when they are hit it just sloughs off. However, the reason people are doing this is because if they do get hit (usually with a pistol or somesuch) they are either unconcious or nearly there pretty much off the bat. What you get then is an action pointsy kind of thing where people are shooting from behind a table then somersaulting over behind a support beam, then hit the guy on the back of the head and he's out.

Modern: I wanted the "base" rules to be D&D fantasy, but I tried to look past that. I liked the idea that death by massive damage was more likely, but the damage output of the weapons was not high enough to get to where I was going (given the hit dice of the characters and only needing to roll a 15 on your Fort).

Vitality/Wounds: Basically didn't quite get there. Close, but it didn't seem getting hit was "dangerous enough." Could be bad, yes, but not often.

Grim n Gritty: Good, generally, but seems people will get hit more often than I like. Also, fireball just kills everyone instantly, which is annoying.

I think part of the problem is not having seen these different systems in action, so I cannot make a very educated assessment of them. Maybe what I'm going for has never been had spot on before, or maybe one of these IS it, but I don't recognize it...

 

[Planesdragon]

I've got something different--it's a little bit clunky on the "When do I drop over dead" end, but it doesn keep the balance of the game rather intact--and it requires less math than the UA system.

e-mail me (or reply with an e-mail address) if you're interested.

 

[Eltern]

Sure I'd like to see that!
a l a c a s t 2 3 @ a o l
I guess I'll ask you "what do you mean by that comment?" after I read it

Thanks,
Eltern

 

[Eltern]

bump (Just looking to get an email from Planesdragon )

 

[Eltern]

One last bump, since I can't get at Planesdragon's e-mail for some reason. Planesdragon, respond or I'll cry

Thanks!
Eltern