Here it is . . . my not-so-long-nor-actually-ever-awaited-for VP/WP system for DnD.
Note that this system DOES NOT WORK WITH LARGE CREATURES. It works well with faced-paced games, and medium-sized enemies. It's orignal use was a Wuxia-ish campaign that is still running. If you use it with large creatures, you'll end up with Great Wyrms still having an AC in the 30s from HD, about 30/- extra points of DR from Natural Armor, and 640 extra woulnd points to boot. In fact, all monsters gain a large dose of lethality: They usually have their WP increased due to size, gain extra DR from natural armor, and suffer no Defense loss because of their HD bonus.
VITALITY
Characters have Vitality points determined by level. Each time they gain a level, they roll the appropriate Hit Die and add their Constitution modifier. They gain this many Vitality points. Note that 1st-level characters gain max vitality for their Hit Die (i.e., 10+con mod for a fighter, 6+con mod for a rogue, etcetera). The character may take the Quickness feat to increase their Vitality total by 3.
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WOUNDS
Characters have Base Wound Points equal to their Constitution score (10, for constitution-less creatures). They may take the Toughness feat to increase their Base Wounds by 3. Characters multiply their Base Wound Points by their Size Rating to determine their Wound Point Total:
Fine: x 1/16
Diminuitive: x 1/8
Tiny: x 1/4
Small: x 1/2
Medium: x1
Large: x2
Huge: x4
Gargantuan: x8
Collassal: x16
Note that characters always have at least 1 Wound Point, regardless of how small they are.
If characters are missing any WP, they make all d20 rolls and damage rolls at -1, and suffer a -1 penalty to Defense. When they drop to only half their WP, this penalty increases to -2. When they have only 10% of their WP remaining, the penalty doubles again, to -4.
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CRITICAL HITS
When a weapon scores critical hit, instead of dealing damage to Vitality, it deals damage to Wounds. If the weapon has a critical multiplier beyond x2, it deals points of bonus damage as shown on the following table:
Critical Multiplier . Bonus Damage
x2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +0
x3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +3
x4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +6
x5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +9
+1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +3
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DEFENSE
Characters have Defense instead of Armor Class. Their Defense is equal to 10 + Dexterity modifier + Shield bonus + Size bonus + Class bonus + Other bonuses. Each class either has a Low, Medium, or High Defense Bonus. Characters with at least 1 level in a PC class or Prestige class recieve a +2 bonus to Defense. (This makes the progressions match those in SW and WoT).
LOW: Psion, Wizard, Sorcerer, Commoner, Adept, (Fey, Undead, Ooze)
MEDIUM: Barbarian, Fighter, Bard, Ranger, Paladin, Cleric, Druid, Psychic Warrior, Warrior, Aristocrat, Expert (Outsider, Elemental, Construct, Abberation, Animal, Beast, Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid, Giant)
HIGH: Monk (NOTE: Monks keep their wis to Defense, but lose the class bonus that they formerly had), Rogue (Dragon)
Defense Bonus progressions are identical to save progressions.
LOW defense bonuses begin at +0, and end at +6 (at lv. 20).
MEDIUM defense bonuses begin at +1, and end at +9 (at lv. 20)
HIGH defense bonuses begin at +2, and end at +12 (at lv. 20).
(NOTE: The Psychic Warrior/Monk IMC has horridly high Defense. This makes me think that this part needs a wee bit of tweaking.)
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ARMOR, NATURAL ARMOR, AND SHIELDS
As normal, Shields provide a bonus to Defense, representing their deflection power. However, armor and natural armor provide Damage Reduction that applies to Wound Points only. This Wound Point DR, also called Protection, equals the AC bonus that the armor or natural armor would normally give.
For example, a human warrior has 7 Vitality, and 13 Wounds. He wears a Chain Shirt. Suppose that he is dealt 18 damage from a great sword blow. His Vitality would drop to 0, and the remaining 11 damage would carry over to Wounds. Since he is wearing the chain shirt (DR 4), he takes (11 - 4 or ) just 7 points of Wound damage.
A second example: The warrior above is critted by a scythe. The attacker rolls a 7 for damage, and adds the 6 points of bonus damage for the x4 multiplier. Today, the warrior is suited up in his +3 Full Plate (DR 8 base +3 enhancement, or 11). Only 2 points of damage get through his mighty armor.
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ADJUSTED PSIONIC FEATS
The Psi feat Inertial Armor, and it's upgrade (Improved Inertial Armor), provide a +4 armor bonus to AC when using the traditional rules. Using these VP/WP rules, the GM may decide to either provide a +2 deflection bonus to Defense (+1 per Improved Inertial Armor), or DR 2 against WP damaging attacks (+1 per Improved Inertial Armor).
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MAGICAL HEALING
Magical healing heals both VP and WP. It helas the stated amount of dice in VP, and a smaller amount of WP based on the size of the VP-healing die:
heals d4s of Vitality: Heals 1 WP per die
heals d6s or d8s of Vitality: Heals 2 WP per die
heals d10s or greater of Vitality: Heals 3 WP per die
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PENETRATION
Some peircing weapons have Penetration: the ability to ignore some amount of a target's Protection. Penetrations are listed below (DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how historically accurate thes are):
Dagger: 2
Picks: 3
Lance: 1
Crossbow (light): 2
Crossbow (Heavy): 4
Longbow, Shortbow: 1
Longbow, Shortbow (Composite): 2
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Note that this was orignially used in a psionic setting. Magic simply does not exist. I use an alt.monk and alt.ranger with Psionics instead of magic/ki, and just nixed the Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizzard. Most enemies are monstrous humanoids (Yuan-Ti), and the few encounters with even low-CR monsters have been deadly (Due to their durability, some Large Monstrous Spiders reduced 1 character's STR to -18). I also include a mechanic that allows manifesters to burn a few WP for a single PP, a number of times per day equal to half their manifester level. Just ring if you want more info on that, and the feats that go along with it (quick burn, heavy burn, energy burn, extra burn).
Note that this system DOES NOT WORK WITH LARGE CREATURES. It works well with faced-paced games, and medium-sized enemies. It's orignal use was a Wuxia-ish campaign that is still running. If you use it with large creatures, you'll end up with Great Wyrms still having an AC in the 30s from HD, about 30/- extra points of DR from Natural Armor, and 640 extra woulnd points to boot. In fact, all monsters gain a large dose of lethality: They usually have their WP increased due to size, gain extra DR from natural armor, and suffer no Defense loss because of their HD bonus.
VITALITY
Characters have Vitality points determined by level. Each time they gain a level, they roll the appropriate Hit Die and add their Constitution modifier. They gain this many Vitality points. Note that 1st-level characters gain max vitality for their Hit Die (i.e., 10+con mod for a fighter, 6+con mod for a rogue, etcetera). The character may take the Quickness feat to increase their Vitality total by 3.
_____________________________________________________
WOUNDS
Characters have Base Wound Points equal to their Constitution score (10, for constitution-less creatures). They may take the Toughness feat to increase their Base Wounds by 3. Characters multiply their Base Wound Points by their Size Rating to determine their Wound Point Total:
Fine: x 1/16
Diminuitive: x 1/8
Tiny: x 1/4
Small: x 1/2
Medium: x1
Large: x2
Huge: x4
Gargantuan: x8
Collassal: x16
Note that characters always have at least 1 Wound Point, regardless of how small they are.
If characters are missing any WP, they make all d20 rolls and damage rolls at -1, and suffer a -1 penalty to Defense. When they drop to only half their WP, this penalty increases to -2. When they have only 10% of their WP remaining, the penalty doubles again, to -4.
_____________________________________________________
CRITICAL HITS
When a weapon scores critical hit, instead of dealing damage to Vitality, it deals damage to Wounds. If the weapon has a critical multiplier beyond x2, it deals points of bonus damage as shown on the following table:
Critical Multiplier . Bonus Damage
x2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +0
x3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +3
x4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +6
x5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +9
+1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +3
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DEFENSE
Characters have Defense instead of Armor Class. Their Defense is equal to 10 + Dexterity modifier + Shield bonus + Size bonus + Class bonus + Other bonuses. Each class either has a Low, Medium, or High Defense Bonus. Characters with at least 1 level in a PC class or Prestige class recieve a +2 bonus to Defense. (This makes the progressions match those in SW and WoT).
LOW: Psion, Wizard, Sorcerer, Commoner, Adept, (Fey, Undead, Ooze)
MEDIUM: Barbarian, Fighter, Bard, Ranger, Paladin, Cleric, Druid, Psychic Warrior, Warrior, Aristocrat, Expert (Outsider, Elemental, Construct, Abberation, Animal, Beast, Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid, Giant)
HIGH: Monk (NOTE: Monks keep their wis to Defense, but lose the class bonus that they formerly had), Rogue (Dragon)
Defense Bonus progressions are identical to save progressions.
LOW defense bonuses begin at +0, and end at +6 (at lv. 20).
MEDIUM defense bonuses begin at +1, and end at +9 (at lv. 20)
HIGH defense bonuses begin at +2, and end at +12 (at lv. 20).
(NOTE: The Psychic Warrior/Monk IMC has horridly high Defense. This makes me think that this part needs a wee bit of tweaking.)
_____________________________________________________
ARMOR, NATURAL ARMOR, AND SHIELDS
As normal, Shields provide a bonus to Defense, representing their deflection power. However, armor and natural armor provide Damage Reduction that applies to Wound Points only. This Wound Point DR, also called Protection, equals the AC bonus that the armor or natural armor would normally give.
For example, a human warrior has 7 Vitality, and 13 Wounds. He wears a Chain Shirt. Suppose that he is dealt 18 damage from a great sword blow. His Vitality would drop to 0, and the remaining 11 damage would carry over to Wounds. Since he is wearing the chain shirt (DR 4), he takes (11 - 4 or ) just 7 points of Wound damage.
A second example: The warrior above is critted by a scythe. The attacker rolls a 7 for damage, and adds the 6 points of bonus damage for the x4 multiplier. Today, the warrior is suited up in his +3 Full Plate (DR 8 base +3 enhancement, or 11). Only 2 points of damage get through his mighty armor.
_____________________________________________________
ADJUSTED PSIONIC FEATS
The Psi feat Inertial Armor, and it's upgrade (Improved Inertial Armor), provide a +4 armor bonus to AC when using the traditional rules. Using these VP/WP rules, the GM may decide to either provide a +2 deflection bonus to Defense (+1 per Improved Inertial Armor), or DR 2 against WP damaging attacks (+1 per Improved Inertial Armor).
_____________________________________________________
MAGICAL HEALING
Magical healing heals both VP and WP. It helas the stated amount of dice in VP, and a smaller amount of WP based on the size of the VP-healing die:
heals d4s of Vitality: Heals 1 WP per die
heals d6s or d8s of Vitality: Heals 2 WP per die
heals d10s or greater of Vitality: Heals 3 WP per die
_____________________________________________________
PENETRATION
Some peircing weapons have Penetration: the ability to ignore some amount of a target's Protection. Penetrations are listed below (DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how historically accurate thes are):
Dagger: 2
Picks: 3
Lance: 1
Crossbow (light): 2
Crossbow (Heavy): 4
Longbow, Shortbow: 1
Longbow, Shortbow (Composite): 2
_____________________________________________________
Note that this was orignially used in a psionic setting. Magic simply does not exist. I use an alt.monk and alt.ranger with Psionics instead of magic/ki, and just nixed the Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizzard. Most enemies are monstrous humanoids (Yuan-Ti), and the few encounters with even low-CR monsters have been deadly (Due to their durability, some Large Monstrous Spiders reduced 1 character's STR to -18). I also include a mechanic that allows manifesters to burn a few WP for a single PP, a number of times per day equal to half their manifester level. Just ring if you want more info on that, and the feats that go along with it (quick burn, heavy burn, energy burn, extra burn).
