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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6897348" data-attributes="member: 58197">Above all else, do not allow critical hits to bypass vitality. At least not at full power.We think of crits as rare because they make up only 5% of the total number of attack rolls, but combat involves a lot of attack rolls. In a battle with 5 monsters lasting 5 rounds, with one monster dying per round and each monster attacking once per round, the PCs will have to eat a total of 15 attacks. On average, that's 3 critical hits every 4 encounters. The way you sketched out the system above, a crit is more likely than not to take a PC down with a long-lasting wound. 5-6 encounters and the entire party will be crippled.That's fine if what you want is a gritty, dangerous system where the warrior's motto is valar morghulis. But for your stated goal, "to make each combat encounter more of a known thing," it's the last thing you want. The whole point of VP is to act as a protective buffer between the PCs and the cruel gods of the d20.Anyway. To the project itself: I'd start by considering the expected balance of the game, using the current system, and see what happens if we try to match it. Under the current system, hit dice allow PCs to expend up to 200% of their base HP over an adventuring day. The "expected" adventuring day is 6-8 encounters, so if you went with that, it's about 30% of base HP per encounter. That's an appropriate VP value if you're doing the 6-8 routine, with consistent difficulty, and allowing full recovery after each. (I'm assuming you'll get rid of hit dice and make it so taking WP damage is serious business, something PCs strive to avoid.)However, a lot of DMs don't pack 6-8 encounters in the typical day. Moreover, the hit point system is much more resilient to ups and downs--you might go several encounters with no damage at all, then burn 80% of your party's base hit points in a single boss fight. Hit points let you "save up" your damage soaking over minor encounters to blow it all in a major one. In a VP system, that would be a TPK....Maybe just a 50-50 split? All PCs have the same total hit points, but 50% of them are slow-healing WPs and 50% are VPs that come back after each fight. (Get rid of hit dice, of course.) Healing magic can restore VPs at full power, or WPs at a 5-to-1 ratio (five points of healing for each WP restored.) Otherwise, a day's rest gives back your level in WPs.</blockquote>

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