Theodoxus
2018-10-02, 03:37 PM
So, after running 5 campaigns into the upper teens and 1 to 20, I've come to the very personal conclusion that hit point bloat is my biggest buggaboo. With 5E specifically, but in general as well (particularly video games, where having lots of hit points looks impressive, but doesn't mean much as most things at your level effectively deal a percentage anyway).
Anyway, my proposal for my table is a comprehensive cut across the board. My players have expressed a tempered willingness to go along with this experiment, I think reserving the rights to "I told you so!" if/when it fails - they are particularly skeptical that there won't be a weekly TPK due to my modifications.
Ok, on to what I did.
Hit points are based solely on Con Score. At 1st level, you get your Con Score in HP regardless of class. You do get hit dice, which are used for healing (and other things unrelated to this change). You do not get your Con Mod added at 1st level.
Every level thereafter, you gain only your Con mod (feats like Hardy still exist, so you get 2 extra HP per level if you take it).
I also have a feat called Brute, available only at 1st level (I give feats out every odd level, regardless of race, so this isn't just Human centric). Brute adds your maximum class HD at 1st level (only).
What this means, is a Barbarian with an 18 Con, taking Brute, would have 30 hit points, gaining +4 hit points per level. And that's really the far limit I'm happy with when it comes to soaking damage.
Now, to compensate, I stole (and then modified) the saving throws from Pathfinder 2 - Critical success, success, failure and critical failure. For damage, this generates 4 effects: None, 1/10th, 1/2 and full. For status effects, immunity to the effect for the round, no effect, full effect, and auto fail next round (or extended by 1 round if it normally lasts 1 round).
I also stole PF2s +10/-10 rule for criticals. I think the players really like criting on a +10 - their 1st fight was against demon goats with an AC of 11, they crit three times. They didn't get a chance to play with saving throws though...
I'm not modifying the characters damage or save effects for things they do against monsters - A save (even critical) is 1/2 damage, full on a fail and double on a critical fail. Monsters don't get the +10 rule either. So, the players can just play the game with no real changes to the core abilities - all the modification is on my side - though it does mean PvP can get quite deadly, if it breaks out.
So, basically, is there anything that I'm forgetting? Maybe a low CR creature that suddenly got particularly powerful; a glass cannon that deals a lot of damage on a hit that might rip through lowered HP characters?
Anyway, my proposal for my table is a comprehensive cut across the board. My players have expressed a tempered willingness to go along with this experiment, I think reserving the rights to "I told you so!" if/when it fails - they are particularly skeptical that there won't be a weekly TPK due to my modifications.
Ok, on to what I did.
Hit points are based solely on Con Score. At 1st level, you get your Con Score in HP regardless of class. You do get hit dice, which are used for healing (and other things unrelated to this change). You do not get your Con Mod added at 1st level.
Every level thereafter, you gain only your Con mod (feats like Hardy still exist, so you get 2 extra HP per level if you take it).
I also have a feat called Brute, available only at 1st level (I give feats out every odd level, regardless of race, so this isn't just Human centric). Brute adds your maximum class HD at 1st level (only).
What this means, is a Barbarian with an 18 Con, taking Brute, would have 30 hit points, gaining +4 hit points per level. And that's really the far limit I'm happy with when it comes to soaking damage.
Now, to compensate, I stole (and then modified) the saving throws from Pathfinder 2 - Critical success, success, failure and critical failure. For damage, this generates 4 effects: None, 1/10th, 1/2 and full. For status effects, immunity to the effect for the round, no effect, full effect, and auto fail next round (or extended by 1 round if it normally lasts 1 round).
I also stole PF2s +10/-10 rule for criticals. I think the players really like criting on a +10 - their 1st fight was against demon goats with an AC of 11, they crit three times. They didn't get a chance to play with saving throws though...
I'm not modifying the characters damage or save effects for things they do against monsters - A save (even critical) is 1/2 damage, full on a fail and double on a critical fail. Monsters don't get the +10 rule either. So, the players can just play the game with no real changes to the core abilities - all the modification is on my side - though it does mean PvP can get quite deadly, if it breaks out.
So, basically, is there anything that I'm forgetting? Maybe a low CR creature that suddenly got particularly powerful; a glass cannon that deals a lot of damage on a hit that might rip through lowered HP characters?