Using Reserve Points with some modification? Opinions sought

[Sidekick]

Hi there Enworlders.

I’m (hopefully) going to be running a group through the Red Hand of Doom (RHoD) soon. One of the things that I’ve been wanting to adapt into all my future campaigns was Wound/Vitality Points, but on reflection things like the dragons and the large enemies will have too easy a time of killing the PCs in crucial battles.

So instead I thought that I could try using Reserve Points. If I don’t like it it’s okay as I’ll only be DMing the group through RHoD, not a full campaign so I can cut the rule from later use if the group decides they don’t like it.

However I don’t really like some of the mechanic’s of the Reserve points in that I don’t want the PCs to be able to use any of their healing capabilities for boosting their reserve points. So I was thinking of placing a caveat that if there is any healing left over from a healing spell then that will go into the reserve points. However once a character is at full hit points they cannot gain any further benefit from healing spells.

However there are a few things that I’d need to consider
• Fast Healing: Should this work on Reserve points as well? This is especially relevant if one of the PCs is a Dragon Shaman with the Vigour aura.

• Is there anything else I’m missing?

Additionally to emphasise the ‘specialness’ of characters with PC classes (I DM in Eberron) only levels in PC classes provide or increase a reserve point pool

So let me know what you think in general about Reserve Points, whether my adjustments make sense (if they’re not ask & I’ll try to clarifiy) and obviously whether you think these adjustments would be of benefit.

Cheers & happy gaming,
Sidekick

 

[JohnSnow]

Well, Iron Heroes uses Reserve Points, so they get a fair amount of discussion on that game's discussion forum.

In the experience of most of us, RPs basically eliminate the need for healing magic. Characters are no tougher in a single combat, but they can handle more combats in a given day. In other words, they fill the same role in a low-magic game that healing magic does in standard D&D. If I was using them in a game where healing magic was common, I would impose some limit on the number of hit points a character could regain from magical healing in a single day. I'd also preserve the rule that a character can't use Reserve Points to heal until he has stabilized. FWIW, Iron Heroes also holds to the notion that only levels in PC classes grant Reserve Points.

It's not that big a deal to be able to use healing spells to restore your reserve pool to full capacity. The characters can only benefit so much from a full pool of RPs. It would be perfectly fair (in my opinion) to limit the character to magical healing equal to their normal hit point total (or twice that perhaps) in a single day. In that case, RPs really just allow the characters to handle 8 CR-appropriate encounters in a day rather than just 4. Alternatively, they let you handle 4 encounters even if your PCs lack healing magic.

That might be nice for Eberron's fast-paced style, preserving the swashbuckling, Indiana Jones kinda feel.

Hope that helps.

 

[JohnSnow]

Oh, forgot something.

Since fast healing works every round, it should prevent the character from needing to use his reserve points unless he gets badly hurt. Reserve points, IIRC, can be used to heal 1 hp/minute during light activity. That's 10 rounds. So the character's fast healing will be MUCH faster than his RP healing.

Personally, I wouldn't allow fast healing to heal reserve points, but that's me.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I am using Reserve Points in my WoBS campaign, which is set in Eberron...altho I made a couple changes:

First, characters get CON score + level in Reserve Points. This meant my player's 1st level Mage could face combat multiple times in the night without too much fear of low-level death syndrome as he essentially had 3 times as many hit points as usual.

Second: I don't allow any healing to regain Reserve Points, only natural rest.

I have only had one session so far and my players were feeling out the rules.. I have had 2 of them clearly state that they felt they could loosen up alot in the next session

Reserve Points, IMO, are a mechanical representation of the characters ability to bounce back from combat and grab a second wind. This works much better than using Fatigue. At higher levels the addition won't be as much of an impact, but will cut into how much magical healing the party needs. The thought of a high level Barbarian literally doubling thier available HPs is definately something to worry about.

 

[Sidekick]

John Snow – thanks for the feedback. I think that I’ll be using the Reserve Points (if its good enough for IH then it’s good enough for me). I also think I’ll be discouraging my players to take full levels in Cleric. I’ll be having 6th level PCs with 3 levels gestalted and they can only take cleric as their ‘secondary’ class.

That’s a good point about how it eliminates the need for magical healing, I’d like my group to be able to do some healing mid-combat but hopefully they’ll not abuse the Reserve Points.

Also I think I might rule that there is no magical healing for reserve points either.

I am using Reserve Points in my WoBS campaign, which is set in Eberron...altho I made a couple changes:

First, characters get CON score + level in Reserve Points. This meant my player's 1st level Mage could face combat multiple times in the night without too much fear of low-level death syndrome as he essentially had 3 times as many hit points as usual.

Hmm I’ll think about the con score+level = Reserve Points. That’s an interesting idea for sure.

 

[FireLance]

Instead of using a reserve point system, have you considered using a vairant VP system instead?

One idea that I'd like to playtest is to give each PC a VP total equal to their current hp at the start of each encounter. Damage is first taken off VP before it is applied to hp, and effects such as the dragon shaman's healing aura, Devoted Spirit maneuvers and healing spells only affect VP, not hp.

This effectively gives the PCs double their normal hit points when each combat begins, but hp once depleted becomes very difficult to restore (only natural healing works), and as hp gradually wear down, the PCs have a smaller and smaller pool of VP at the start of each encounter.

 

[Sidekick]

I've tried using VP/WP systems before and found that my group hated the changes that it did to Critical Hits.

Scoring a critical and dealing lots of extra damage just didn't "feel" right to them so we dropped it.

The other thing is I'm more interested in finding a way to engineer the faster regain of hit points without magic healing, rather than loads of extra hit points at each fight.

It’s a good idea Firelance, but I just don’t know if it’ll have the desired effect that I’m looking for.

I’ll store that idea for later if the Reserve Points idea doesn’t work

 

[JohnSnow]

Sidekick,

Just thought I'd mention there's a few difference between the way Unearthed Arcana presents Reserve Points, and the slightly modified system in Iron Heroes.

Since I don't have my copy of Unearthed Arcana available, I'll have to get back to you on what those are. But I believe, for example, that IH calls for RP recovery at a rate equal to CON Score + Level per 8 hours rest. Or twice that with full day's rest. Double those if you're the recipient of long-term care.

Just fyi, the heal skill is far more effective in IH than in standard D&D.