One Hit Die per Character. Ever.

[Wightbred]

From 2e to 3.5 we played with a house rule that damage (and healing) dice explode on a maximum roll, and keep going if you keep rolling maximum again. After years of doing this (and the math) I can say:
- Average damage is only slightly higher;
- Player's love the second way to get a critical ("just a normal hit, but I could roll a max on this damage dice now...") that keeps going, and going...;
- Players are more cautious (I've seen higher level character's pause before considering taking a volley of arrows from guards); and
- Combat is more tense, and slightly faster.

YMMV, but we loved this solution for its simplicity and fun. And we would still be playing it if we hadn't switched to a game (Dungeon World) without escalating HP.

With this house rule, Jon Snow is always in some danger.

 

[Kinak]

@Kinak : cool idea. Why not turn Hit Dice into tools, instead of a number? Maybe all characters have only three hit points, and each hit die is a daily (encounter?) chance to roll damage reduction against a hit of your choice. So, fighters have better damage reduction than wizards?

That's about the idea. Looks like [MENTION=14391]Warbringer[/MENTION] used something similar.

I'd tend towards more than three base hit points, but not for power reasons. Con just needs something to modify. I'd tend towards just using Con Score, but even 5 + Con Mod would also work.

The question of whether they refresh daily or after each encounter is interesting. Per-encounter feels more like what happens to me, but daily would give a grittier atmosphere. Per-encounter also allows longer adventures in a setting without magical healing. Otherwise you'll hit a five minute work day wall pretty quickly.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[the Jester]

From 2e to 3.5 we played with a house rule that damage (and healing) dice explode on a maximum roll, and keep going if you keep rolling maximum again.

Just curious- how do you handle weapons with a damage value of, say, 2d4? Do you treat each die separately or do both have to come up 4 for this rule to kick in?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Use an idea I floated a while ago.

You hit dice are your "defense pool". Every time you take damage, say 6 from an attack, you take dice from your pool (hit dice) and roll them to absorb the attack. If there is any left over damage you suffer a wound, the higher the damage the worse the wound.

So Jon (6d10 hit dice, Con +2), attacked in the storm, and unarmored is easily "hit". To wildlings attack him; the first swings and misses, the second hits for 11 points of damage. Jon's player uses two dice (rolling 4 and 7, for 11+2), reducing his pool to 4. He takes no damage as he turns the blow aside. He swings and cuts a wildling with Longclaw, a bloody gash down his opponents arm.

The wildlings attack again, this time both hitting for 8 and 12 respectively; Jons player rolls 1 die for the first hit, 2 for the second, getting 6 and 11. Jon takes 3 actual damage this time ... and then some table.

This is actually grittier as rolling to absorb damage has a risk that checking of hit points doesn't, and it seems to fit the flavor better. (under this, give AC damage reduction equal to the AC bonus)

Clever. If the resulting damage then goes against CON score, you have a good death threshold plus reinforcing the value of CON (which can be modified, but with difficulty), while gaining levels indicates gaining experience in dodging blows. It's easy to append this system to D&D, too. I like it!

How often do you replenish hit dice? Every encounter, or after every rest?

About the only significant challenge I see is adapting high-damage spells, but then that wouldn't be necessary for a low-magic gritty campaign.

 

[Warbringer]

How often do you replenish hit dice? Every encounter, or after every rest?

About the only significant challenge I see is adapting high-damage spells, but then that wouldn't be necessary for a low-magic gritty campaign.

For each "excess damage", named a wound, subtract your con bonus and consult the below table

0 or less minor wound
1-3 minor wound plus Bleed (1)
4-5 major wound plus Bleed (2)
6-10 major wound plus Bleed (2), Damaged (1)
10+ major wound plus Bleed (2), Damaged (2), Death save

Bleed add this any further results in the combat; Can be stopped with Heal (10+(5xBleed score)); don't stack
Damaged reduce one ability score (Dex, Str, Con*, etc) by this value and apply to attack/save/check using that value
Death save; make a Fort save vs DC (15+damage taken) or die. *(Con, reducing Con lowers you dice pool, so pretty risky)

A hero can only have (Con+1) minor wounds (min 1), any excess convert to a major wound
A hero can have no more than 3 major wounds, after that they simple pass on, the body cannot handle the trauma

Dice recharge after every encounter (short rest if you want that mechanic). However, for every minor wound subtract 1 die from the recovery; For every major wound reduce the pool by a further 3. (I like Monte Cooks idea that recovery can happen the first time in combat, the second time immediately after, the third time after a short rest, the final time after a long rest, in any given adventuring period)

Dice also charge after long rest, but during the rest minor wounds equal to Con bonus are restored, plus a Heal check DC25 can downgrade one major wound to a minor.

One thing in playing around with this was calculating the dice pool. Rather than just using hit dice (simply to brutal at low level) instead you take your total hit points and divide by 4.5 (rounddown). To this then add your Con bonus, and you have this many d8s.

So if Jon was a 3rd level fighter with a Con 15, in a game where first level is max + con he would have 27 hps (12+7.5+7.5); this converts into 6 hit dice + 2 for con, for a pool of 8d8.

Anyway, hope that makes sense.

 

[Wightbred]

Just curious- how do you handle weapons with a damage value of, say, 2d4? Do you treat each die separately or do both have to come up 4 for this rule to kick in?

We re-rolled each die that came up maximum, including for a 6d6 Fireball. This brings the damage of weapons closer together (average dagger damage is less than, but closer to that of a short sword) and bumps up magical damage a bit. But in all those years we never felt we needed any other house rules to rebalance any of this. Combat was just recognisable more dangerous and faster.

 

[GMMichael]

[MENTION=14391]Warbringer[/MENTION]: that system is reminding me of another published one...maybe Fate. But I think I'm dreaming up a simpler one...

Damage reduction might defeat the purpose of having low-hit-point characters, since it's effectively hit points in reverse.

As far as character builds go, I like the idea of each character getting a max hit die, and his CON bonus in HP. Each Hit Die you gain is effectively an Anti Hit Die, which you get to use in each encounter (medium danger) or daily (high danger!). It would probably be a good idea to make 0 HP the Narrative-Health point, so characters don't automatically die, but they do need some sort of story-based explanation for how they survive. You'd probably also need to turn healing spells into temporary-HP spells, in case the PCs decide to attack something that's a little too big.

What about high level monsters that deal high level damage? You'd need a combination of approaches: tactics, resistances, (vastly) improved AC, maybe regeneration, temporary hit points, and superior numbers. Scrolls of Raise Dead if you're really in deep.

As far as the campaign goes, like others have said, increase social encounters and decrease combat encounters. Some hero/action points wouldn't hurt either.

Would you need to drastically increase AC? Or does a normal D&D/Pathfinder game already have enough options for increasing AC?