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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbeTheGnome" data-source="post: 3417653" data-attributes="member: 47933">For a variety of reasons, the combat system of standard D&D is unsatisfactory to me.  Basically, it's just not gritty enough, and it relies too much on spells and magic items.  Please don't suggest Iron Heroes to me (it has its merits, but it's not for me).  I've been through several variants, both WoTC-sanctioned and not, and scrapped them all.  I've come up with something that may work, but it's still in a nascent and untested stage, and I'd like some opinions on how it would affect the game.First of all, my games are rather low magic.  Specifically, I do not allow enhanced armor or weapons or magic items that increase AC or attack bonus.  While I do still allow spells to this effect, I have found that restricting such items puts the PCs at a disadvantage in most encounters, especially at higher levels.  Healing magic is also severely restricted.  That being said...Defense Bonus (not the one from UA)I will grant PCs (and NPCs) a defense bonus equal to their base reflex save.  This stacks with other bonuses to AC (size, dex mod, shield, armor, etc.).  This will be a dodge bonus, therefore it also stacks with other forms of dodge.  This represents a character's ability to better defend himself as a result of combat experience.  I never understood why characters get better at attacking (BAB), but not at defending.Critical HitsThere is no magic number for critical hits.  A natural 20 will not automatically score a critical threat (though it will still automatically hit).  Beating an opponent's AC by at least 20 will score a critical threat.  A weapon with a critical threat range of less than 20 will score a critical threat when an attack beats an opponent's AC by whatever that number is.  This rewards combat prowess while decreasing the chance that a random mook will "get lucky" with a roll and put a severe hurting on a PC.Critical Hits, Part 2This is the most experimental part of the combat system.  I want to make critical hits truly devastating.  This way, characters will always think twice about going into battle, and will most likely try to avoid it as often as possible.  I'm not sure exactly how to go about this, but I have explored several options.1) Critical hits deal Constitution damage.  Most likely, the damage value of the attack would be divided by some number (2 or 5).2) Critical hits prompt a massive damage save (15+2 for every 10 points of damage beyond the character's Con score).3) Critical hits deal an amount of HP damage equal to their current multiplier multiplied again by some number (2 or 5).  For instance, if we used 5 as the additional multiplier, the new critical multiplier for the dagger would be x10.4) Critical hits would maim a character.  A confirmed critical hit would be rolled on a hit location table where each number corresponded to a body part, and that body part would be permanently disabled.  The head, torso, and abdomen regions, of course, may call for an even harsher penalty.Death and DyingInstead of 10 rounds, a dying character will have a number of rounds equal to her Constitution score to bleed.  In effect, when a character becomes dying, she will endure one point of Con damage for each round until she is stabilized.  In essence, this rewards characters with a high Constitution, and also serves to illustrate the lasting effects of such a grievous wound.  Ability damage takes a long time to heal.HealingAs I said before, healing magic is severely restricted.  Healing spells function as damage conversion, turning a certain amount of lethal damage into nonlethal damage.  Therefore, when a character is knocked out of a fight by enduring damage, the character stays knocked out... literally.Action PointsI will be using the action points variant from UA.  For this reason, I may be leaning towards option 2 in the critical hits variant because it gives PCs a greater chance to survive them through the use of action points, but it still costs something valuable to avoid death.  It also gives the PCs a chance to severely f*** up some villains and monsters, as they probably won't have any action points.Alright, I know this is a long post and you're tired of reading it.  But if you've made it this far, you may as well offer some constructive criticism.</blockquote>

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