An important discrepacy between editions seems to be the fact that some players want a gritty feeling during their game, meaningful injuries and wounds that only magical healing can affect, whereas other players want a lighter approach for more heroic action and a faster paced game. This system is a shot at accomodating both those ideas into D&D. Note that this is a starting middle ground that works as a skeleton for houseruling. The optional rules at the end of the system are some ideas as to how to easily accomodate both grittier and lighter fantasy adventures without breaking the system or changing the overall mechanics.
This system also addresses another "problem" that emerged on the boards, which is the difference between warlord's (non magical) healing and the cleric's (magical) healing. Under this system, all healing effects can give you back a certain amount of Health (warlord's morale boosts, cleric's cure light wounds, even an artificer's protective barriers can work with the concept of "Health" described below) and all healers have class features, feats, talent trees or whatever that grant a bonus at treating Injuries out of combat (during rests) - even the Warlord (after all, non-magical treatments work in real life too). The difference comes in place mainly during the actual combat sequences: non-magical healing grants additional benefits and boosts to the character it targets, including the ability to ignore part of the penalties given by the Injuries they sustained; magical healing on the other hand can heal Injuries in the middle of a fight as well as during downtime. This separates the two nicely while still being balanceable and fun in both cases.
Finally, a note about the Death Spiral problem: this system assumes that healers have powers that aid Injured characters during a fight, and classes that grant the ability to sustain more Injuries will have feats or class features limiting the effect of Injuries (for example, a Barbarian will ignore Injury penalties during rage and a fighter might have a paragon feat that reduces Injury penalties by 2). The system makes sure characters cannot simply ignore being Injured but are still playable and effective when Injured - after all, they are heroes.
Your character has a certain amount of Health, as defined by your class and level. This number represents roughly how much damage you can sustain in a fight before actually having consequences. Note, however, that the damage you take is rarely in the form of an actual wound: it may represent your fatigue, your loss of morale, your magical defenses weakening or breaking, your luck exhausting, any amount of different things. It might even represent actual damage, but remember: loss of health hasn't got lasting consequences, so scratches are way more common than actual wounds. Every time you take damage from an enemy action, you subtract an equal amount of Health. Some healing powers allow you to recover Health. When you reach a Health of 0, you cannot lose any more Health and start getting Injured. When you are at 0 Health, you are exhausted: this means any additional damage you take causes you an Injury (see below). The attack that reduces you at 0 Health normally causes you an Injury too with leftover damage. No matter how much damage you are taking while you have 0 Health, you will still receive only one Injury for every attack; however, a critical hit on an exhausted character will inflict two Injuries instead of one.
Injuries represent substantial problems for your character: a broken rib, a dislocated arm, a wound to the chest, a bad blow to the head, all these are possible Injuries your character may receive. Your character may sustain only a limited amount of Injuries (usually between 2 and 4, but Paragon and Epic characters may sustain up to 6 and some feats or abilities allow you to sustain even more Injuries): this is found in your character's class advancement table. When your character is Injured he starts being less capable in a fight. You take a -1 penalty to all d20 rolls for every Injury you have sustained. If you have sustained a number of Injuries equal to the maximum number of Injuries you can sustain, you are unconscious. Some healing powers allow you to recover Injuries; however, the most serious Injuries will be tough to get rid of. See the following paragraph for the rules that concern treating Injuries. When your character is unconscious and still receives damage equal to or higher than his Fortitude, he dies. Any creature can take a standard action to make a Coup de Grace and kill an adjacent unconscious target.
Finally, Reserves represent your character's overall tenacity, toughness and capacity to keep going after a lot of stress and damage. Your amount of Reserves is defined by your class, though some characters have more than the normal amount of Reserves granted by their class due to talents, feats or features. Reserves are spent to heal yourself, but some situations or effects may strip you of your Reserves due to external stress or environmental difficulty. When your character has no Reserves left, he cannot recover Health nor Injuries unless subject to very powerful magic. If your character has no Reserves left and an effect dictates that he loses a Reserve, he takes an Injury instead. If he cannot sustain any more Injuries, he dies.
HEALING AND RESERVES
When your character sustains damage of any kind, he will need some kind of treatment to recover. Since your character is an adventurer, it is likely that he knows how to treat a wound. After every scene, each character can spend a Reserveto restore all his Health. This symbolizes your character's capacity to quickly gather his strength back, bandage a superficial wound, set up new magical barriers, cast a few healing spells or otherwise recover from a fight. Every PC is able to survive on his own, therefore has the capacity to restore his Health and keep going.
Injuries are not as simple to recover from. During a break, characters can treat all their Injuries, trying to heal themselves. Every character is able to treat Injuries, but some characters are better than others. These characters act as competent doctors or magical healers and aid characters in their recovery. However, nobody automatically succeeds at treating Injuries: whenever a character treats his own or his allies' Injuries, he needs to make a level check (rolling a d20+level) with a -4 penalty for every Injury after the first that the target has and with a target DC of 20. Some feats, talents, powers or other capacities give a bonus to this check, and many classes have features that help treating Injuries. If the check succeeds, the character spends a Reserve and recovers from the Injury. If the check fails, the character cannot recover that Injury until after a rest period (usually 8 hours of sleep in a comfortable place). At the end of every rest period, characters can treat all their Injuries with a +5 circumstance bonus to the level check.
Reserves are restored automatically during each character's downtime. During a rest period a character automatically gains back all his Reserves. Remember that a character can truly rest only in comfortable places and situations: tension, extreme heat or cold, excessive fatigue and the like can hinder a character's capacity to get back his Reserves at the Master's discretion.
GRITTY GAMES For those groups that like grittier games, here is a short list of guidelines to change the Health System and adapt it to your campaign:
Injuries give a -2 to all d20 rolls instead of -1.
Treating Injuries has a base DC of 25.
During a break, each character can treat up to one Injury per tier.
During a rest period, your character restores a number of Reserves up to your Constitution modifier.
All critical hits net one automatic Injury instead of normal damage.
Be warned that these changes significantly alter the difficulty and lethality of the game and may result in long downtime periods for the characters to recover.
ACTION GAMES For those groups that like lighter games and do not want to have their fast paced adventurers take a break from action just because of a simple Injury, here is a short list of guidelines to change the Health System and adapt it to your needs:
Double the amount of Injuries each character can take. Every two Injuries give a -1 penalty to all d20 damage rolls.
Treating Injuries has a base DC of 15 and every Injury after the first gives a -2 penalty to the level roll.
During a break, each character also restores one Reserve.
During a rest period, all Injuries are automatically treated (no roll required). However, you still need to spend Reserves to treat them, meaning you will start the next day with less than the maximum amount of Reserves.
Remember that these changes might make the game easier for the PCs. However, they also allow the Master to extend the adventuring day longer without having to worry about his characters as much.
*Note: I think it fits better here, so I have deleted the old thread in the other subforum. Couldn't access this subforum sooner, so...
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Reflavoring: the change of flavor without changing any mechanical part of the game, no matter how small, in order to fit the mechanics to an otherwise unsupported concept. Retexturing: the change of flavor (with at most minor mechanical adaptations) in order to effortlessly create support for a concept without inventing anything new. Houseruling: the change, either minor or major, of the mechanics in order to better reflect a certain aspect of the game, including adapting the rules to fit an otherwise unsupported concept. Homebrewing: the complete invention of something new that fits within the system in order to reflect an unsupported concept.
I think it has a lot of potential as well. Far action games could even not use the Injury mechanic, and far gritty games could lower initial health. I'm bookmarking this page for incorporation into future games as a houserule at least.
I mean that the difference between the two styles can be quite effectively dealt with by simply running the grittier game from L1 and the less gritty game from L11, assuming you scale things properly for that purpose.
Something similar, that doesn't require rewriting large chunks of the game:
"Survival Horror": You gain [hit die] HP per level. You recover damage at a rate of [Con mod] HP per day of complete rest, otherwise none. No magical healing. You die at 0 HP.
"Grimdark": You gain [hit die]+[Con mod] HP per level. You recover damage at a rate of [Con mod] HP per extended rest. Magical healing is 3e-style (die+mod, touch-range only, Standard action, Cleric must sacrifice a prepared spell). You die at -[Con score] HP, and take 1d6 bleed damage every round you are below 0 HP.
"Gritty": You have [Con score] starting HP, and gain [hit die]+[Con mod] HP per level. You recover 1/4 of your HP per extended rest, or 1/2 for a day of complete rest. Magical healing is 3e-style. You die at -[Con score] HP, and take 1d6 bleed damage every round you are below 0 HP; in addition, you must make a save or immediately die of shock.
"Gritty Action": You have [Con score] starting HP, and gain [hit die]+[Con mod] HP per level. You recover 1/2 of your HP per extended rest. Magical healing is 3e-style, but spontaneously casting a Cure spell is a Minor/Swift/Free action 1/round. You die at -[Con score] HP, and must make a save every round you are below 0 HP or take 1d6 bleed damage.
"Heroic Action": You have [Con score+10] starting HP, and gain [hit die avg+2] HP per level. You recover 1/2 of your HP per extended rest. Magical healing is as Gritty Action, but healing spells restore 1/4 HP to the recipient. You must make a save every round you are below 0 HP. If you fail three saves before you are healed, or reach -1/4 HP, you die.
"Cinematic Action": You have [Con score+10] starting HP, and gain [hit die avg+3] HP per level. You recover full HP per extended rest, and 1/4 HP per short rest. Magical healing is 4e-style. You must make a save every round you are below 0 HP. If you fail three saves before you are healed, or reach -1/2 HP, you die. If you roll a natural 20 on this save, you immediately regain 1/4 HP and stand up.
"Big Damn Heroes": You have [Con score+15] starting HP, and gain [hit die avg+4] HP per level. You recover full HP per short rest, and gain a Second Wind to use 1/encounter that heals you for 1/4 HP. Magical healing is 4e-style. You must make a save every round you are below 0 HP. If you fail four saves before you are healed, or reach -1/2 HP, you die. If you roll a natural 20 on this save, you immediately regain 1/4 HP and stand up.
"Just Who The Hell Do You Think I Am?!": You have [Con score+15] starting HP, and gain [max hit die] HP per level. You recover full HP per short rest, and gain a Second Wind to use 1/encounter that heals you for 1/2 HP. Magical healing is 4e-style. You must make a save every round you are below 0 HP. If you succeed, you are restored to 1 HP. If you roll a natural 20 on this save, you immediately regain 1/2 HP and stand up. If you fail three or more saves before you are healed, you are unconscious for the rest of the encounter, and must make an additional save after the encounter: if you succeed, you recover normally. If you fail, you die, but may make a dramatic final speech before expiring.
-m4ki; one down, one to go
"Retro is not new. Retro-fit is not new." --Seeker95, on why I won't be playing DDN
DDN Metrics (0-10) | enthusiasm: 1 | confidence in design: -3 | desire to play: 0 | Sticking with 4e?: Yep. | Better Options: IKRPG Mk II
The Five Things D&D Next Absolutely Must Not Do:Show
1. Imbalanced gameplay.Any and all characters must be able to contribute equally both in combat and out of combat at all levels of play. If the Fighters are linear and the Wizards quadratic, I walk. 2. Hardcore simulationist approach. D&D is a game about heroic fantasy. I'm weak and useless enough in real life; I play RPGs for a change of pace. If the only reason a rule exists is because "that's how it's supposed to be", I walk. I don't want a game that "simulates" real life, I want a game that simulates heroic fantasy. 3. Worshipping at false idols (AKA Sacred Cows). If the only reason a rule exists is "it's always been that way", I walk. Now to be clear, I have no problem with some things not changing; my issue is with retaining bad idea simply for the sake of nostalgia. 4. DM vs. players. If the game encourages "gotcha!" moments or treats the DM and players as enemies, adversaries, or problems to be overcome, I walk. 5. Rules for the sake of rules. The only thing I want rules for is the things I can't do sitting around a table with my friends. If the rules try to step on my ability to roleplay the character I want to roleplay, I walk. Furthermore, the rules serve to facilitate gameplay, not to simulate the world.
1. When in doubt, wing it. 2. Keep the story moving. Go with the flow. 3. Sometimes things make the best characters. 4. Always give players lots of things to do. 5. Wherever possible, say ‘yes.’ 6. Cheating is largely unnecessary. 7. Don't be afraid to give the characters a fun new toy. 8. Don't get in the way of a good players exchange. 9. Avoid talking too much. 10. Save some details for later. 11. Be transparent. 12. Don't show all your cards.
"Essentials zigged, when I wanted to continue zagging..." -Foxface on Essentials
"Servicing a diverse fan base with an RPG ruleset - far from being the mandate for 'open design space' and a cavalier attitude towards balance - requires creating a system that /works/, with minimal fuss, for a wide variety of play styles, not just from one group to the next, but at the same table." -Tony_Vargas on design
"Mearls' and Cook's stated intent to produce an edition that fans of all previous editions (and Pathfinder) will like more than their current favourite edition is laudable. But it is also, IMO, completely unrealistic. It's like people who pray for world peace: I might share their overall aims, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for them to succeed. When they talk in vague terms about what they'd like to do in this new edition, I mostly find myself thinking 'hey, that sounds cool, assuming they can pull it off', but almost every time they've said something specific about actual mechanics, I've found myself wincing and shaking my head in disbelief and/or disgust, either straight away or after thinking about the obvious implications for half a minute." -Duskweaver on D&D Next
And isn't THAT overcomplicated? It even requires rewriting all healing spells and class features!
Also, it doesn't accomplish the same purposes if you ask me... Your system doesn't give Injuries an in-game meaning (slight penalty). It doesn't separate Health from actual Injuries. It doesn't allow for both martial and magical healing into every game (even hardcore anti-warlords should admit that the warlord restoring Health makes sense, if he is not able to restore Injuries, by the way the system is described).
Although...
"Just Who The Hell Do You Think I Am?!"
+1 Awesomeness for the reference.
Are you interested in an online 4E game on Sunday? Contact me with a PM!
Reflavoring: the change of flavor without changing any mechanical part of the game, no matter how small, in order to fit the mechanics to an otherwise unsupported concept. Retexturing: the change of flavor (with at most minor mechanical adaptations) in order to effortlessly create support for a concept without inventing anything new. Houseruling: the change, either minor or major, of the mechanics in order to better reflect a certain aspect of the game, including adapting the rules to fit an otherwise unsupported concept. Homebrewing: the complete invention of something new that fits within the system in order to reflect an unsupported concept.
I think it has a lot of potential as well. Far action games could even not use the Injury mechanic, and far gritty games could lower initial health. I'm bookmarking this page for incorporation into future games as a houserule at least.
"Death Spiral" mechanic really worries me- especially when it's the melee types that end up getting hit the most. It may reinforce the idea that Fighters are just meat shields for the Wizard.
I thought one of the goals of D&D Next was to have multiple styles of characters at the SAME table and all play effectively and are fun to play. In 4e, this was like having a Slayer, a Mage, an Ardent and a Hexblade all at the same table. Slayer is pretty damn easy to play- pick your stance and either Hit it with my Sword, or Charge. Mage is more complex- which spell to use, what riders are added based on the school and other keywords. Ardent has another level of complexity- I'll use X for my at-will, but how many Power Points to spend on it to up it's effects? Hexblade- I have some basic options for melee (at-will and encounter) and some other options for Range (at-will and the daily spell to cast) and I get to do extra stuff when I kill something, or it dies while adjacent to me.
To run the Health systems like the OP suggests and other suggest, then your group has to choose which system to use. If D&D Next is meant to have basic play with various modules and options to add on, do you then get to pick and choose the Health system as well? I find it hard to think of anyone who wants to play a high-complex character, but with really gritty health mechanic. I'm sure they exist though.
