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imp_fireball
2009-06-11, 01:00 AM
This will be filled in later.

Vitality and Wound Points Variant

Original VP/WP rules. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/vitalityAndWoundPoints.htm)

Vitality Point/Wound Point rules have the following changes -


Wound Points

Wound Points are replaced by ordinary Hit Points under this variant. Hit Points use ordinary class/racial HD and progress and behave normally under ordinary rules that do not use VP/WP. Vitality Points are essentially temporary damage reduction.

A character only dies when their Hit Points are reduced to -10, in accordance to standard rules in the SRD. The same rules apply to a character when determining whether or not they are conscious, stabilized, etc.
-
Hit Dice

Vitality point HD and HD progression/level is instead equivalent to character's racial HD instead of their class's HD. Wound points remain the same.

Ie. A human commoner is humanoid. Since humanoids have d8 HD, the typical commoner with averaged HD has 4 Vitality Points and 2 Hit Points.

Vitality points reflect a character's ability to survive blows and continue fighting. A single stab of a typical dagger isn't going to fell even a frail woman. Adrenaline will keep her alive for at least a short while.

Vitality Points can also be healed with the usual spells that ordinarily heal Hit Points, is affected by CON bonuses and other things that affect hit points, etc.

Finally, a character can have 0 Vitality Points (if they have CON penalties and are unlucky, ie.) but always has a minimum of 1 Total Hit Points, in accordance with SRD rules.
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Critical Strikes

Critical Strikes deal double damage, and do damage to Hit Points instead of Vitality Points. The same applies to Coup De Graces - usually reflecting someone's ability to 'instantly kill' a person. A critical strike can also damage Vitality Points instead of Hit Points at a character's choice (usually declared prior to rolling to confirm a critical).
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Post Combat

After a number of hours equal to a character's CON score without combat or otherwise realized immediately deadly circumstances, Vitality Point damage is recovered entirely, however the amount of damage recovered is subtracted from that character's Hit Points.

This is due to the fact that while adrenaline usually keeps somebody alive, the full realization of bodily damage (the wearing off of shock) then takes affect. If this would reduce a character below 0 hp, the character is instead reduced to -1 hp and makes the usual Fort save to stabilize.
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Suffering Hit Point Damage

Suffering Hit Point damage has no ill affect whatsoever, as opposed to a character becoming fatigued if they suffered Wound Point damage.
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Reducing Vitality Points to 0

A character who's Vitality Point thresh hold is reduced to 0 or surpassed during combat/otherwise deadly circumstances must make a Fort save equal to the attack roll that was made to surpass that thresh hold/reduce it to 0, or equal to the DC required to initially save against suffering such damage (ie. a reflex save versus a fireball). Upon failure, roll 1d4.

{table]1|Fall Prone
2|Stunned for One Round
3|Dazed for 1d4 Rounds.
4|Fatigued
[/table]



Perks

Some fighters are more skilled than others. Some rogues are more wily than the next. But that next rogue can cope with failure better.

Perks offer a realistic alternative to HD progression.

Upon gaining a level, do not acquire new HD. Select a class to progress in, but do not acquire additional skill points, instead only BAB and saves. Acquire 3 perk points. Alternatively, you may choose not to gain a level in a chosen class and instead acquire 5 perk points.

Perk Points can be spent on a number of things:

One additional Class Specific Bonus Feat - 2 points
-
One additional General Feat that has a Feat/ability Prerequisite that you have, assuming you meet other requirements (such as level) - 3 points
-
One additional class feature or ability (can include anything allowed by that class), assuming you meet the prerequisites - 2 points

Ie. A warblade might take on additional maneuvers that he hadn't chosen previously, or learn a new stance.
-
The ability to remove, at GM discretion, one class or feat limitation. Or alternatively, investment in removing a more major class, feat, or even action limitation (after having 'spent' a number of perks at GM discretion) - 2 points.

Ie. When removing a 'major' limitation, a warblade might take on the ability to execute two stances at once, or a wizard might suffer no casting penalties for wearing armor whatsoever, or being able to perform more than one swift action in a round.

A 'minor' limitation that is removed might result in a barbarian being permitted his fast movement in heavy armor or taking improved trip without needing combat expertise.
-
One additional trait or Regional Feat (assuming the GM allows it) - 1 point
-
Additional Spells/Power Points/Class-Specific Points equal to the ability's modifier that grants those bonus entitlements. - 2 points

Ie. A wizard with +4 INT taking that perk would effectively double the amount of bonus spells acquired upon gaining a level for having a higher than (human) average INT score.
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Double the Usual Action Points acquired for gaining a level (assuming action points are permitted) - 2 points
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A 'Special Circumstance' Custom Extraordinary/Supernatural/Spell-like Ability - 2 points

Ie. A fighter, after GM approval, might take an extraordinary ability that gives him a +8 to Fort saves that involve a 'save or die' circumstance. He'd call the ability 'Death Defying Fortitude'.
-
Upgrade an existing feat or class ability depending on what the GM allows. - 2 points

Ie. A 2nd level fighter who took Power Attack at 1st level might double his power attack range of damage at 2nd level through use of this perk. Power Attack now deals up to +4 damage with weapons used in one hand for that fighter (effectively +2 damage per -1 penalty to attack), while weapons using two hands have up to a +6 damage modifier (in accordance with the rules for doubling a double), and weapons using three hands would involve a +8 damage modifier, etc.

ECL can no longer be measured using this supplement. Instead, PCL, or 'Proportionate Character Level', is measured for characters that have chosen, at any time, to take perks instead of Hit Dice. PCL is essentially a character's Class Level(s) + Level Adjustment + Any Racial Hit Dice.

A character's Class Level(s) still increases if they choose to take perks instead of Hit Dice and thus a character still gains all the features/sp/etc. of its class upon acquiring a new level in that class.

- Gain another unique ability that offers a small advantage. This is called a 'talent'. (ie. Use your own blood as poison upon succeeding on a save against a recent poisonous affect) - 1 point.

- Gain a unique ability that offers a major advantage. This is also a talent. (ie. the plan talent from modern or martial artist attack options such as ignore cover on unarmed strikes and round house kicking, that can be taken a number of times equal to 1 + int modifier) - 3 points.

Ashtagon
2009-06-11, 01:11 AM
Looks good so far :smallbiggrin:

imp_fireball
2009-06-13, 01:15 AM
Updated. Feel free to comment.

Frog Dragon
2009-06-13, 02:03 AM
I've been working on a similar system for my custom D&D (I know. There's like a million of them) variant and what happens here seems to be (If I'm reading this right) that high level adventurers can still take a dragon crush attack and keep standing if it's not a crit.

I did this

Fight points
Fight points signify the characters endurance in a fight and his/her ability to go on dodging and blocking. Each time your reflex defenseis missed by less than 10 substract the amount missed by from 10 and substract this amount from your fight points.

Vitality
Vitality signifies a characters ability to take hits and keep going. Every character has a Vitality cap of 10+Con Mod+Class Bonus+Other Bonuses. If this cap is breached in one blow, then the character takes a wound. If the character's vitality cap is not breached at once, you add points to the vitality pool as follows
75+% of the Vitality pool breached equals 10 points to the pool
50+% of the Vitality pool breached equals 5 points to the pool
25+% Vitality pool breached equals 2 points to the pool
Any less equals 1 point to the pool

Basically under my system your standard human fighter probably has around 14 vitality points at level 1. And about 25 at level 20 though I've been thinking of increasing the bonuses. And the fight points mechanic I invented makes angry mob's a threat since you lose fight pints if the enemy misses you by less than ten. No more fight points? Roll damage.

imp_fireball
2009-06-13, 03:53 PM
I've been working on a similar system for my custom D&D (I know. There's like a million of them) variant and what happens here seems to be (If I'm reading this right) that high level adventurers can still take a dragon crush attack and keep standing if it's not a crit.

I did this

Fight points
Fight points signify the characters endurance in a fight and his/her ability to go on dodging and blocking. Each time your reflex defenseis missed by less than 10 substract the amount missed by from 10 and substract this amount from your fight points.

Vitality
Vitality signifies a characters ability to take hits and keep going. Every character has a Vitality cap of 10+Con Mod+Class Bonus+Other Bonuses. If this cap is breached in one blow, then the character takes a wound. If the character's vitality cap is not breached at once, you add points to the vitality pool as follows
75+% of the Vitality pool breached equals 10 points to the pool
50+% of the Vitality pool breached equals 5 points to the pool
25+% Vitality pool breached equals 2 points to the pool
Any less equals 1 point to the pool

Basically under my system your standard human fighter probably has around 14 vitality points at level 1. And about 25 at level 20 though I've been thinking of increasing the bonuses. And the fight points mechanic I invented makes angry mob's a threat since you lose fight pints if the enemy misses you by less than ten. No more fight points? Roll damage.

That's a good system but a tad more complicated (imo). It's great people like lots of detail and math for combat encounters. Although shouldn't be more like missing by 5 or less? Missing by 10 or less is still enough to have an arrow randomly rebound off of full plate or missing altogether (without the fighter making an effort to dodge it). A flatfooted character with 10 AC who is missed would still lose fight points - even if they didn't notice someone was trying to kill them!

Not to mention a swarm of arrows would wear out a fighter almost instantly - "Should us mooks deliberately engage the hero one by one, or should we all just send a volley of arrows at him and be done with it?" The second option makes even more sense though, unless the hero is readying an action to take total cover.

----
My system's there as a variant if people aren't too concerned with fights turning 'immediately lethal' or 'danger around every corner'.

The dragon crush attack wouldn't kill the high level adventurer, but he'd still have to get healed, otherwise he'd essentially collapse in a pool of his own blood come the next day.

Poison and all those other things are still deadly as usual. It's just that traps would have to focus on dealing even more damage if they wanted to kill people instantly (lop off the arms and legs... don't just stab them in the gut).

Also, I imagine that evil GMs using this variant would focus more on traps that prevent escape instead of simply kill. :smallamused:

Frog Dragon
2009-06-14, 05:48 AM
A flat footed character is not dodging so he effectively has a -10 to AC under my system. And If you're confident enough in your armor (which will be like DR) you can also forgo dodging and let the plate do the work for you. But yeah. I might change the dodging thing to something that collaborates with your dex score.

Also your reflex defense goes up fast enough that if you're in a stage of game where you are attacked by swarms of mooks then you
A: have lots of fight points
B: Enough Reflex Defense to not bother too much.

Also. Readied actions will be significantly changed for my system. There's n AOO:s either because you can just say. I use one of my (two) standard actions. Then an enemy does something and you use the rest of you actions to interrupt the enemy.

imp_fireball
2009-06-15, 02:25 PM
Bump. Any more feedback?

Jergmo
2009-06-27, 12:15 AM
I kept hit points, but added this system here.

50% health:(Deeply bruised, pierced, or sliced open)
Arm: -2 to all attacks and all skill checks involved in using that arm.
Abdomen: -2 to attack rolls involving the tail and Balance, Jump and Tumble skill checks.
Leg: -2 to all Dexterity bonuses for AC (if any) and Balance, Climb, Jump, Move Silently and Tumble skill checks involving that leg.
Torso: -1 penalty to attacks and Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Move Silently, Ride, Swim or Tumble checks.
Wing: Flying speed reduced by one-half and maneuverability by one category.
Head: -2 penalty to Initiative, Listen and Balance.

Note: Body part must be hit again when below 25% health for the penalties to rise.

25% health: (Bone has been snapped, area severely pierced or split open.) Victim begins suffering from continual bleeding damage until injuries are healed.
Arm: Penalties rise to -8.
Abdomen: Penalties rise to -8.
Leg: Penalties rise to -8, movement rate reduced by one-half.
Torso: Penalties rise to -5 and movement speed is reduced by one-half.
Wing: Wings can only be used to glide clumsily and can only take off from an elevated position. When attempting to land, victim must roll a Dexterity check (DC 17) or crash, taking 2d6 damage.
Head: Constitution check (DC 17) or go into shock and suffer additional damage equal to base damage of the weapon used to cause the injury.
Bludgeoning: Cannot speak command words properly or cast spells with verbal components.
Piercing: Severe eye damage. -4 penalty to ranged attacks and Spot.
Slashing: -4 penalty to Initiative, Listen and Balance.