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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ainamacar" data-source="post: 5997489" data-attributes="member: 70709">In one of the old L&L article threads I think similar ideas were being bandied about.  Thresholds based on current hit points and maximum hit points both have counterintuitive cases and metagaming issues.  Personally, I think there is something to be said for rolling "damage" (basically setting the threshold on the fly) for non-damaging spells to reduce both problems.  And honestly, I found all the fixed hit point/hit dice mechanics to determine spell effects in earlier editions to just be inelegant.Suppose "Suggestion" worked as follows:If the target has fewer than 6d6 current hit points, charmed for 1 minute (save negates) otherwise charmed for 1 round (save negates).  This version functions both on beat-down powerful creatures as well as weaker creatures with full health.  Since the "threshold" is variable it is a little tougher to metagame, especially after the fight has been going for a while.  One could combine this with other levels of health (as in the post you liked) for specific spells as well, of course.  In simple cases it might not even set up a different effect, just specify that the save is made at a penalty (or even that no save occurs).  For abilities where a damaging spell of the same level with similar targeting characteristics would knock a creature below 0 hit points this is perfectly reasonable.The downside, of course, is that there is rolling to be done, so play isn't quite as speedy, and even with rolling the variance in the threshold isn't necessarily very large, just a couple levels worth of hp in either direction.  To keep the slow-down to a minimum I'd probably keep the number of dice rolled constant with spell level, and add in a minimum fixed amount.  For example, a 6th level analog of Suggestion might specify 40+6d6 hit points.  That would mean a typical unhurt 13th or 14th level monster would be the average creature to feel the full effect, but with the roll that might actually range from 10th to 17th level monster.  And a 20th level monster that is down to half hit points would almost certainly be susceptible, but would "likely" be susceptible earlier.And if there are spells where using maximum hit points certainly makes the most sense then it may also be set the same way.  The fuzziness will againt mitigate some of the metagaming problems.</blockquote>

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