WP/VP more dangerous or less?

[Aubri_]

Wow... that fort save system is... odd.
It seems like that would make the deadliness heavily dependent on your fort save. A high-level fighter with +14 or better to his fort would be all but guaranteed to survive (he'd have to botch twice in a row to die) while a relatively fragile wizard is in serious danger from a 1st level archer, no matter how many protective spells he casts.

Granted, the fighter could stabilize while unconcious and get CdG'd, but still...

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The armor as DR system you suggest has two problems:

1. Under my revised wounds/vitality system where only the base dice of the weapon are done as wounds, it's too good for high AC armors. A fighter with +1 fullplate would generally not take any extra damage. This also would exaggerate the difference between heavy armor wearers and other characters in a way that I don't think would be healthy for most games.

2. Under the unmodified unearthed arcana variant, it's not nearly enough. Given slight use of power attack, giants, dragons, fighters, and barbarians often reach damage dice+20 per hit. At that point, combats are still just a matter of who crits first. Sure, take 11 points off my 33 point hit and compare it to your con... good luck. It would also REALLY advantage heavy armor wearers since they would still be immune to crits from weak creatures and at low-levels.

A reduced version of the armor based DR would work well with my revised wound/vitality system. Heavy armor DR 3/-, medium armor DR 2/-, and light armor DR 1/- against crits would be very helpful but not overpowering. with my system. One-handed weapons would still generally inflict wounds (with the accompanying fatigue and chance for a stun). Light weapons would have a chance to do so against heavy armor but it wouldn't be guaranteed. Two handed weapons would almost always inflict serious wounds on a crit. However, I don't think anything can make wounds/vitality safe in a game that includes barbarians and power attack.