Unearthed Arcana Variant Rules - Previews and Questions

[mangamuscle]

RE: Wounds & Vitality, [snip] Therefore, it would stand to reason that under a VP/WP system, such damage would not change to wound damage on a critical hit, and would instead remain vitality damage.

For spells, I just took an alternate route. At the moment, I'm ruling that when a spell or similar energy effect critically hits, some of the damage becomes wound damage -- an ammount that cannot exceed the spell's level (or, if the effect has no level, 1/2 the hit dice of the creature using the attack). So far this has worked out well, but if it proves to be on the weak side, I may just change the wound cap to caster level (or, if I like the UA rules, "magic rating").

IMHO a more standard solution would be that any critical damage hit changes one hit die of criticall hit damage to wound damage without modifiers. So, i.e. a 20th level rogue that scores a crtitical sneak atack with a heavy mace still does only 1d8 points of direct wound damage, the +10d6+Str bonus+magical bonus go to vitality damage. The same goes for a spells, i.e. a critical maximized burning hands spell would do 8 points of wound damage and 32 points of vitality damage (1/2 that amount with a successful save vs. reflex, no damage on a succesful magic resistance roll).

Under this system it would make sense to allow critical multiplers, so in the rogue example above he would do an extra 1d8 vitality damage (since the heavy mace threat range is x2), meanwhile a light pick would do 1d4 wound damage and 3d4 vitality damage (critical x4).

 

[Tarril Wolfeye]

Thanks for the info on the xp award of UA, and I think that we had pretty much everything covered, as a last note, Tarril, I would like to ask you what do you think about the book now that you own it and has scanned pretty much everything in it, so?

It's nice. There's quite some good ideas in there, and although I'm tempted to include a lot in my campaigns I will try not to hit my players with too much at once.

 

[Renshai]

I picked my book up yesterday at my FLGS as they were unboxing it. So far I really like alot it. Some of the material seems like it will work VERY well with my Dawnforge Campaign

Ren

 

[Corinth]

Note: It is established that Sneak Attack (and other attacks that work in a similiar manner) goes straight to Wounds on a critical hit under the VP/WP paradigm.

 

[dagger]

Anybody seen the book around Austin, Tx or near it? Thanks

 

[Mercule]

Note: It is established that Sneak Attack (and other attacks that work in a similiar manner) goes straight to Wounds on a critical hit under the VP/WP paradigm.

So, if I understand correctly, a 5th level Rogue with a short sword could do 4d6 (including sword) damage to someone's Wound Points, if he caught them with their pants down? Yikes!

Since you say "established", can you tell us where this was established?

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

So, if I understand correctly, a 5th level Rogue with a short sword could do 4d6 (including sword) damage to someone's Wound Points, if he caught them with their pants down? Yikes!

Since you say "established", can you tell us where this was established?

Actually, that only happens if he scores a critical with his sneak attack I believe.
But yeah, it look like the Wound/Vitality system ups the power of Sneak Attacks a bit.

But, in a campaign that is trying to be "realistic" this is more realistic.

 

[mangamuscle]

Note: It is established that Sneak Attack (and other attacks that work in a similiar manner) goes straight to Wounds on a critical hit under the VP/WP paradigm.

But if you use the system "as is" it is quite illogical. let's suppose you are down to 3 VP but still have your full 16 WP (you are badly bruised, but nothing broken yet). This would be the perfect moment for the rogue to go out of the shadows and give you the killing strike. Let' suppose she is 20th level armed with her trusty nonmagical nonmasterwork dagger. She hits and scores a critical, that would be 10 WP + 1d4, not enough for the killing blow. But if no critical is scored, the she does 10d6+1d4 points of damage, thats 37.5 points of damage on average, enough to deplete 3 VP plus 16 WP in a sinlge strike.

 

[Corinth]

So, if I understand correctly, a 5th level Rogue with a short sword could do 4d6 (including sword) damage to someone's Wound Points, if he caught them with their pants down? Yikes!

Since you say "established", can you tell us where this was established?

Spycraft, Stargate SG-1 & Star Wars, as they are the extant VP/WP users.

And yes, you understand correctly. This is why critical threat ranges are smaller than standard D&D, and why other games that use this paradigm often alter or change entirely the proceedure regarding the confirmation of critical hits.

 

[Corinth]

But if you use the system "as is" it is quite illogical. let's suppose you are down to 3 VP but still have your full 16 WP (you are badly bruised, but nothing broken yet). This would be the perfect moment for the rogue to go out of the shadows and give you the killing strike. Let' suppose she is 20th level armed with her trusty nonmagical nonmasterwork dagger. She hits and scores a critical, that would be 10 WP + 1d4, not enough for the killing blow. But if no critical is scored, the she does 10d6+1d4 points of damage, thats 37.5 points of damage on average, enough to deplete 3 VP plus 16 WP in a sinlge strike.

No, you got it wrong.

If the rogue got a critical hit, then he would do 1d4(dagger)+10d6(Sneak Attack) directly to the target's WP. This is the established rule, as this is how it works in Spycraft, Stargate SG-1 and Star Wars; this is a feature, not a bug; additional damage sources (such as Sneak Attack) tend to be rare or expensive (in metagame terms, at the very least), and threat ranges are much smaller than in standard D&D because of this fact.