My Modified Hitpoints and AC rules

[Albert_Fish]

These rules borrow heavily from Ken Hood and his Grim-N-Gritty rules system. Whereever you are, thankyou.

If you are not familiar with the Grim-N-Gritty rules it goes a little like this.... in a Low magic world where realismis valued and the protagonists (heroes) are the "small fish" you need a system taht reflects the realities of life and the fact that survivinga fight is tough business. To this end Ken Hood developed a set of rules where Hitpoitns were derived from your Constitution score, armour acted asa for of Damage Reduction and your ability to not be hit was a Fuctionof your dexterity and martial skill.

Well for my own low magic campaign i have borrowed Mr. Hood's work but with the following differences

Playres have Vitality, basically normal hitpoints. This reflects the characters ability to turn a grievous wound into a bruise or sinple cut. Once Vitality is Expended you start eating into Hitpoints. Wounds taken to hitpoints are terrible gaping holes, crushed bones, torn ligaments and the like.

Rather than this just being a bonus to the players total pool of hitpoints/vitality my low magic hitpoints are the direct target of any criticals or sneak attacks. Thus you could have full vitality and still fall to one gruesome swing of an axe or a well placed blow from an assassin's dagger.
Hitpoints also carry with them penalties as you begin losing them, beginning at a -2 to all rolls at 3/4 HP to a -6 to all rolls at 1/4 HP.
At 0 (zero) HP a player suffers a permanent wound. A milky eye, a missing hand, a permanent limp, etc.

An average first level Fighter would have around 12 Hit points and 7 Vitality points. He would go down quick in a fight. To protect himself he has armour which soaks damage and fancy footwork to deflect blows.

i am still trying to figure out how to deal with Shields. in D&D they are too paltry. Aas anyone who has ever taken part in a mock combat your shield is the only thing between life and death at many points in combat.

Should i improve the AC Bonus given by shields as such: Bucker +1, Small shield +2, Medium Shield ( my own creation) +3 Large Shield +4?

Or is there a better way to approxiamate the true defensive qualities of a shield? Perhaps a feat progression chain?
Any ideas?

 

[danzig138]

Rather than this just being a bonus to the players total pool of hitpoints/vitality my low magic hitpoints are the direct target of any criticals or sneak attacks. Thus you could have full vitality and still fall to one gruesome swing of an axe or a well placed blow from an assassin's dagger.

Like VP and WP from SW. My players didn't like that when I switched to it. Oh well.

Hitpoints also carry with them penalties as you begin losing them, beginning at a -2 to all rolls at 3/4 HP to a -6 to all rolls at 1/4 HP.

Too much math I'd rather go with a penalty at 0 vitality, and then another penalty once you've suffered HP damage.

Or is there a better way to approxiamate the true defensive qualities of a shield? Perhaps a feat progression chain?
Any ideas?

I know that somewhere I've seen a feat chain for getting better use from shields. I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

[Albert_Fish]

I was worried about the Math problem too, but i fixed that by creating a combat sheet where you just plug in the appropriate number.

Well i hope the Vitality/HP idea goes over well, its similar to what you have in Spycraft, Starwars D20, and Palladium games.

I will post an update after tomorrows game.

 

[Arienys]

I have always liked the idea of letting the character sacrifice his AoO (or one of them, if he has Combat Reflexes) to more actively use the shield defensively against one specified attack. Depending on how you like to use it, this could either double the shield's effectiveness or add a blanket +2 to the shield's effectiveness. Again, it is only versus the one attack, not a full-round bonus.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The Kalamar Player's guide has a shield specialization feat that gives all shields a +1 to armor class and the ability to make attacks with the shield without forfeiting the armor class (except for that extra +1).

As far as shields go, however, I think they end up modelling the amount of protection they give fairly well all things considered. . . as long as you maintain a level of magic item availability fairly close to the book and the players do more to focus their character defensively than just pick up a shield (buying good armor and, when it's available, amulets of natural armor, rings of protection, etc). If you allow more magic than the book, shields can become unnecessary (as characters can buy more powerful amulets, rings, and armor to offset the loss that would otherwise come from not having a shield) and if you allow significantly less magic, all armor class can become pointless as monsters' attack bonusses increase. (Which is why Star Wars, and WoT include a level based defense bonus which stacks with armor).

The reason for this is that small bonusses to armor class mean more the higher an armor class is. A demonstration of how this works out follows:

Assume a standard foe at level 1 has +3 to hit (Orc War 1 w/greataxe, 14 str) , at level 4 he has +8 to hit (Orc War 4 w/masterwork greataxe, weapon focus, 14 str) , at level 8 he has +14/+9 to hit (Orc War 8 w/+1 greataxe, weapon focus, 18 str.--after a bull's strength or some other buff)

Similarly evaluate the defense of the PC this way: Dex 13.
Level 1: Chain mail and large shield; Level 4: Masterwork fullplate, +1 shield; Level 8: +2 fullplate, +2 shield, +1 ring, +1 amulet.

Level 1: AC 16 or 18 (with shield)
Standard Opponent hits on a 13 or a 15.
Level 4: AC 19 or 22 (with shield)
Standard Opponent hits on a 11 or a 14.
Level 8: AC 23 or 27 (with shield)
Standard Opponent hits on a 9/14 or a 13/18.

Crunching the numbers with the Munchkin Damage Calculator
http://www.public.asu.edu/~tarchon/munchkin.html

I get the following amount of average damage per round inflicted on the shieldless character and the character with the shield:
Level 1: 4.18 or 3.135--a 25% reduction in damage
Level 4: 5.225 or 3.6575--a 30% reduction in damage
Level 8: 14.1075 or 8.1675--a 42% reduction in damage

So, for moderately defense (None of the characters are as well defensively equipped as they could be--although the first level fighter is close for a starting character) focussed characters with reasonable equipment for PCs of their level, the simple shield results in a 25-42% reduction of average damage taken.

However, if by level 8, the character has only found a +1 shield and is relying on masterwork fullplate for the rest of his defense, you get the following results from an orc armed with a masterwork axe (the 18 strength may come from rage or slightly better than average stats):
18.5625 or 14.4375--a 22% reduction in damage

If the character hasn't managed to get any magic items at all by 8th level, it's:
18.5525 or 15.8125--a mere 15% reduction in damage

If the foe has a higher attack bonus, the shield will make less difference; if the foe has a lower attack bonus the shield will make more difference.