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General Tabletop Discussion
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Why the disparity in hit dice between classes? between classes vs. creatures?
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8490855" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Then, firstly, you've made Constitution nearly worthless...unless the character is a spellcaster, or expects to make a LOT of Con saves. Because that's now the one and <em>only</em> thing Constitution is consistently good for.* Constitution has zero relationship to skill checks, little to nothing in relation to ability checks (except maybe like...to hold one's breath?), and only factors into <em>one</em> class's features as far as I'm aware (Barbarian's Unarmored Defense). The irony, of course, is that now the vast majority of Fighters and Paladins will have Con 8, because essentially nothing rides on it except a single save, which isn't even <em>that</em> important depending on your other features (e.g. Oath of the Ancients gives Advantage on all saves vs. magic, making Con 8 pretty tempting) while all the wimpy Wizards and Sorcerers will still have positive Con mod, because they have to make Concentration checks.</p><p></p><p>Secondly, you've made the game dramatically deadlier. By causing a net removal of HP--rather a <em>dramatic</em> removal at high levels--you have massively skewed the game's damage math. Fights are likely to be reduced to rocket-tag except that they favor monsters (since you've mentioned nothing about reducing monster HP), and critical hits are now a major risk of instant incapacitation. This goes doubly so for high-level melee characters (Paladins, Fighters, and <em>especially</em> Barbarians), who may now have only two-thirds as much HP as before. That is: Barbarian was in fact actually encouraged to max out Constitution, and even got a feature to get Con 24 at 20th level. In going from d12 to d8 HP, they now fall from an average of 12+3 = 15 HP at level 1 and 15+10*(9) = 105 HP at level 11 to 8+3 = 11 HP at level 1 and 11+10*(5) = 61 HP at level 11. What used to be a moderately serious hit (30 HP) is now an incredibly serious one, almost half the Barbarian's HP, and what used to be barely-survivable (90 HP) is now <em>instant kill</em>. (For comparison, at 20th level, assuming the Barbarian's highest modifier is used for base HP in your system, the ordinary 5e Barb has 12+7+19*(7+7) = 285; in your system, even allowing Primal Champion to improve base HP, the Barbarian now only has 8+7+19*5 = 110 HP. You've cut the Barbarian's HP to only about a third of what it was.)</p><p></p><p>Now, perhaps all this is intentional, and you also plan to reduce monster HP and damage dealt...or you just don't care that the game will now very frequently result in TPKs simply because the monsters get a couple of early crits. Hard to tell. But if any of this <em>isn't</em> intentional, you should consider the impact of the above things.</p><p></p><p>*The text even supports me on this one. "Constitution checks are uncommon, and no skills apply to Constitution checks, because the endurance this ability represents is largely passive rather than involving a specific effort on the part of a character or monster." I dunno about you, but it's pretty friggin' rare in my experience for D&D games to require characters to do any of the things required by the list (like holding their breath or going without sleep), unless the whole campaign is <em>about</em> those sorts of things (like a Dark Sun game) where you're going to see high Con scores <em>regardless</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8490855, member: 6790260"] Then, firstly, you've made Constitution nearly worthless...unless the character is a spellcaster, or expects to make a LOT of Con saves. Because that's now the one and [I]only[/I] thing Constitution is consistently good for.* Constitution has zero relationship to skill checks, little to nothing in relation to ability checks (except maybe like...to hold one's breath?), and only factors into [I]one[/I] class's features as far as I'm aware (Barbarian's Unarmored Defense). The irony, of course, is that now the vast majority of Fighters and Paladins will have Con 8, because essentially nothing rides on it except a single save, which isn't even [I]that[/I] important depending on your other features (e.g. Oath of the Ancients gives Advantage on all saves vs. magic, making Con 8 pretty tempting) while all the wimpy Wizards and Sorcerers will still have positive Con mod, because they have to make Concentration checks. Secondly, you've made the game dramatically deadlier. By causing a net removal of HP--rather a [I]dramatic[/I] removal at high levels--you have massively skewed the game's damage math. Fights are likely to be reduced to rocket-tag except that they favor monsters (since you've mentioned nothing about reducing monster HP), and critical hits are now a major risk of instant incapacitation. This goes doubly so for high-level melee characters (Paladins, Fighters, and [I]especially[/I] Barbarians), who may now have only two-thirds as much HP as before. That is: Barbarian was in fact actually encouraged to max out Constitution, and even got a feature to get Con 24 at 20th level. In going from d12 to d8 HP, they now fall from an average of 12+3 = 15 HP at level 1 and 15+10*(9) = 105 HP at level 11 to 8+3 = 11 HP at level 1 and 11+10*(5) = 61 HP at level 11. What used to be a moderately serious hit (30 HP) is now an incredibly serious one, almost half the Barbarian's HP, and what used to be barely-survivable (90 HP) is now [I]instant kill[/I]. (For comparison, at 20th level, assuming the Barbarian's highest modifier is used for base HP in your system, the ordinary 5e Barb has 12+7+19*(7+7) = 285; in your system, even allowing Primal Champion to improve base HP, the Barbarian now only has 8+7+19*5 = 110 HP. You've cut the Barbarian's HP to only about a third of what it was.) Now, perhaps all this is intentional, and you also plan to reduce monster HP and damage dealt...or you just don't care that the game will now very frequently result in TPKs simply because the monsters get a couple of early crits. Hard to tell. But if any of this [I]isn't[/I] intentional, you should consider the impact of the above things. *The text even supports me on this one. "Constitution checks are uncommon, and no skills apply to Constitution checks, because the endurance this ability represents is largely passive rather than involving a specific effort on the part of a character or monster." I dunno about you, but it's pretty friggin' rare in my experience for D&D games to require characters to do any of the things required by the list (like holding their breath or going without sleep), unless the whole campaign is [I]about[/I] those sorts of things (like a Dark Sun game) where you're going to see high Con scores [I]regardless[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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