D&D 5E The "everyone at full fighting ability at 1 hp" conundrum

[Tony Vargas]

I guess my ideal would be the hit points as injury trip points, using hit locations, combined with armor as DR and weapons possibly having a penetration value that either offsets the DR or acts as a multiplier to damage. Every hit is a hit - armor makes some of them glancing blows or cushions the impact or prevents penetration.

So, GURPS, then?

Armor has both a PD and a DR. Damage types multiply the amount that gets through armor. You roll to hit and to parry and passive defense. IIRC there were hit locations, though I don't recall if they were optional or standard.

So, yeah, prettymuch a home run.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Sorry for quoting an old post, but I just saw this now, and I don't think this has been mentioned yet:

IRL, one successful sword hit will kill many people who aren't wearing armor, with little regard for combat experience. Against someone wearing armor, a solid impact from a sword will cause a significant amount of bruising.

If you have to choose between "every hit is a solid impact" and "the first solid impact is probably fatal"; then the former is much more realistic than the latter, given the sorts of characters we're trying to model - characters wearing armor, and characters who use magic. It only really fails when you take it outside of its assumed context.

Sorry, I meant your average person, not taking training, armor, and other factors into account. Given those things, I completely agree.

Actually they could simply be different classes within the same party; and-or have rolled well/poorly for hit points during their careers.

This is why I suggested it be variable - instead of [5 + Con mod] body points, make it 2d4 + Con mod (and if results of 2 and 8 are too extreme, rule that any such rolls become 5 instead) - to account for different bodies having the same Con score.

You could then also vary it by race: spindly Elves and little Hobbits might only be 2d2 + Con mod, for example.

Even if they are different classes, they will be a few levels apart (I think at least two, and often 3 or 4).

You could use a variable, of course, but we're happy with the base 5 since CON really becomes the variable.

 

[3catcircus]

So, GURPS, then?

Armor has both a PD and a DR. Damage types multiply the amount that gets through armor. You roll to hit and to parry and passive defense. IIRC there were hit locations, though I don't recall if they were optional or standard.

So, yeah, prettymuch a home run.

I like the rules concepts contained in GURPS, but not their particular implementation.

I'd like to see a d20 dice pool roll under your target number based core mechanic. The use of skill ranks to determine quantity of dice in your pool when making skill checks. Encumbrance directly affecting initiative. The combat mechanics and hit points as injury thresholds I previously discussed. Healing taking a lot longer for major wounds unless you have the right healing spells.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'd like to see a d20 dice pool roll under your target number based core mechanic.The use of skill ranks to determine quantity of dice in your pool when making skill checks.

I think I've considered something like that - so you'd count up a number of successes, and naturally have degrees of success?

Healing taking a lot longer for major wounds unless you have the right healing spells.

Really kinda moot. If you don't have the healing magic, you won't be able to handle much of anything. You might as well just not have characters heal without magic. All that kind of rule says, ultimately is "Healbot Required to play."

 

[3catcircus]

I think I've considered something like that - so you'd count up a number of successes, and naturally have degrees of success?

Yep. You'd compare your die roll to a target number. The amount you roll under is considered your margin of success and the amount you roll over is a margin of failure. A margin of 5 or more is akin to a crit or fumble. For multiple dice, you'd pick the best roll and then add 2 to the margin of success for each additional die that is also a success.

Really kinda moot. If you don't have the healing magic, you won't be able to handle much of anything. You might as well just not have characters heal without magic. All that kind of rule says, ultimately is "Healbot Required to play."

Not really. Because you have rules for recuperating during down time, they can be tweaked to consider chirurgeons and extended care - non magical healing would work fine for all but the most serious of injuries. This is really no different than 1e AD&D's rules that dropping to our below 0 hp and surviving requires a week's bed rest even if you were magically healed using a potion or cure spell. The only exception being a heal spell.

I like the idea of the following:

1. Battlefield stabilization and/or last-ditch resuscitation.
2. First Aid immediately after combat - i.e. cure spells or natural healing kits.
3. Trauma chirurgeons (somebody call a cleric - get him to the temple!)
4. Extended Care - the AD&D week's rest with possibility of skill checks to reduce the duration.

 

[Garthanos]

This is really no different than 1e AD&D's rules that dropping to our below 0 hp and surviving requires a week's bed rest even if you were magically healed using a potion or cure spell.

That was another rule that to me very much implied that cure spells were not really patching wounds. You could have full hit points AND still be incapacitated.

 

[3catcircus]

That was another rule that to me very much implied that cure spells were not really patching wounds. You could have full hit points AND still be incapacitated.

I disagree, depending upon your definition of wounds. It implies that the cure spells were stitching up the holes in your body or setting your fractures, but the feeling of just having gotten a mudhole stomped into your butt remained. You may have gotten the necessary repairs done, but the healing process needs to continue...

 

[Garthanos]

I disagree, depending upon your definition of wounds.

Clinton sex definitions all over again.

 

[Garthanos]

You can have 1 hit pt and be completely functional and have full hit points and be incapacitated from injury still to me that is case closed.. .no hit points were not wounds.

 

[Umbran]

Clinton sex definitions all over again.

How about you find another way to talk about definitions, rather than by reference to real-world political sex scandals, hm?