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<blockquote data-quote="clark411" data-source="post: 1405239" data-attributes="member: 4768">Allowing damaging spells to go directly to wounds would turn most campaigns into a slaughter house.&nbsp; A character's wounds don't increase per level, so a 5d6 fireball dealing its average damage of 15 will drop anyone with less than 15 Con, level 2 or level 20.&nbsp; Even with stackable feats that allow players to gain more Wounds points (variant toughness feats), the power of spellcasters would always increase at a faster rate (by level) that feats could not compensate for.&nbsp; Not to mention you'd have players with absolutely no feats beyond toughness.Having spells hit vitality first is no different than having spells cut through HP normally.&nbsp; A fighter with 80 hp will be pretty unscathed by a 30 pt fireball even if he fails his reflex save.&nbsp; A fighter with 76 Vit / 14 Wounds who is now 46 / 14 is pretty equally damaged.Mechanically, there's little difference until Sorcerors with Rays and Touch attacks start getting weapon focuses and Improved Criticals... so that their arsenal has a better chance of going straight to wounds.&nbsp; In terms of flavor, nothing's changed in that a Lightning Bolt 5 ft in diameter pouring through target after target seems to have little effect... it's just the DND way, no different than trying to explain that an arrow that dealt 15 damage and solidly hit someone didn't kill him, or that a critical swording for 48 damage didn't skewer someone in half.&nbsp; It'd be cruel to describe to a player how a foe &quot;turned aside&quot; the crit or the max damage arrow simply because it did only dropped 1/3 of their foe's hp... I'd chalk it up to DND characters and monsters being tough as nails.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="clark411, post: 1405239, member: 4768"] Allowing damaging spells to go directly to wounds would turn most campaigns into a slaughter house. A character's wounds don't increase per level, so a 5d6 fireball dealing its average damage of 15 will drop anyone with less than 15 Con, level 2 or level 20. Even with stackable feats that allow players to gain more Wounds points (variant toughness feats), the power of spellcasters would always increase at a faster rate (by level) that feats could not compensate for. Not to mention you'd have players with absolutely no feats beyond toughness. Having spells hit vitality first is no different than having spells cut through HP normally. A fighter with 80 hp will be pretty unscathed by a 30 pt fireball even if he fails his reflex save. A fighter with 76 Vit / 14 Wounds who is now 46 / 14 is pretty equally damaged. Mechanically, there's little difference until Sorcerors with Rays and Touch attacks start getting weapon focuses and Improved Criticals... so that their arsenal has a better chance of going straight to wounds. In terms of flavor, nothing's changed in that a Lightning Bolt 5 ft in diameter pouring through target after target seems to have little effect... it's just the DND way, no different than trying to explain that an arrow that dealt 15 damage and solidly hit someone didn't kill him, or that a critical swording for 48 damage didn't skewer someone in half. It'd be cruel to describe to a player how a foe "turned aside" the crit or the max damage arrow simply because it did only dropped 1/3 of their foe's hp... I'd chalk it up to DND characters and monsters being tough as nails. [/QUOTE]

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