Pathfinder 1E Tricky mechanic

[Player2]

First of all, thanks for taking the time to read and think about this.

My group usually enjoys having a special ability of sorts, homebrewed, for each character and major NPC. These can range from simple stuff as a couple of extra points for summoners, or a special attack which is often carefully balanced.

That said, I've ran into some trouble trying to make this particular idea work:

Those who are familiar with Dragon Ball Z, know that the Saiyan race grows stronger every time they come close to near death, to the point where one of the characters actually asks an ally to beat him black and blue in order to power up quickly to face the main villain.

How would it be possible to transcribe this into Pathfinder without making it broken, and avoid players deliberately letting themselves reach low hp?

The obvious step would be making the bonuses small. Perhaps only a +1 to a certain physical stat each time. But how could we rule this better to prevent people from exploiting it?

I'll be back in a few, gotta go to work, but I hope we can find a mechanic that makes it work properly.

May you roll well.

 

[billd91]

Thing about Dragon Ball Z, there's no real penalty for that character to beat black and blue. It's up to the author, not a game-mechanical process, to determine how being beat up affects him. Willingly trading hit points for strength is probably going to turn far more tragic for the PC with a sudden crit or lucky set of dice rolls from the GM.

But if you are interested in variations on this power: D&D 3.5's Players Handbook 2 had a variant barbarian rage ability. Rather than activate it willingly (as in PF), it automatically turned on when the barbarian PC was below a certain hit point threshold (5x level, I believe). There was no longer a limit the number of times the barbarian could enter that state - as long as hit points were below the threshold, it was on. Of course, you were looking at a more fragile character...

 

[Player2]

That's actually an interesting mechanic, I'll definitely look into it, the player will be playing on the limit that way, good thinking!

 

[Ramaster]

Every time the character falls below 20% her max HP, his maximum hit points increase by 1, up to a maximum of her Maximum Possible HP (as in the training rules in Ultimate Campaign). This increase can happen no more than once per day.

 

[Player2]

That could work, if it's a battle-bonus, the risk IS there, what if the boost only happens once they rest? They fight, get injured, recover, then get the boost? Do you think the danger is still there?

They could allow themselves to get beat-up, just to chance it at getting the bonus the next morning. Or is it the risk of dying to a random crit warning enough?

 

[Crucius]

As much as I think this is a cool mechanic, it's potential to be abused is gigantic. You'd have to be pretty confident in your player's ability to play that character's ability without metagaming. If the character didn't know about the +1 increase to max health, he wouldn't try to get himself beaten. It would just be a more literal fulfillment of 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'.

If the player is an effective RPer and is good at avoiding metagaming, this could be a really cool thing for a character to have.

Edit: Perhaps it could only come into effect if they are damaged by opponents equal to or above them or their party in CR?