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Behold_the_Void
2007-10-27, 01:20 AM
I'm going to be starting a D20 Modern campaign pretty soon, and I'm messing with several rules for mechanics and style.

One of the things I've always hated about the D20 system is the abundance of save-or-dies. I hate having people put a lot of effort into their character, only to have them die because they rolled low once, or just happened to roll a 1 at the wrong time. And especially here, in D20 Modern, where you can't exactly go to a temple and get them ressed.

I want to change massive damage to force a save or suck. And by suck I mean really suck. I want to change it so that if you take massive damage and fail your save, you get a bunch of penalties until you receive the appropriate medical attention. Problem is, I'm not quite sure how I want to represent this.

What would you guys suggest as a reasonable penalty to impose if someone fails their massive damage save? I may make some feats to mitigate this effect of course, but I generally want it to be pretty nasty, but not something that won't necessarily end the game or kill the character, as that's no fun for me or the player.

Edit: Crap, this should have been in gaming, not homebrew (although I suppose it's somewhat applicable). Could this be moved?

Ceiling009
2007-10-27, 02:34 AM
Well, I actually like the Modern Massive system... though I don't make it save or die, cause I always thought if they failed the fort save (15), they drop to 0 health and be unconscious. They're not dead till -10; and they can stabilize with the same fort save... I think there's a talent for the tough hero that lets them move around stay conscious, in fact I think it's called that, Stay Conscious, that if they are dropped to 0, even through massive, they're still conscious but only do either a move or a standard action... You ideally make it a feat, or just change the rules to just that... if you take massive, you are only allowed to take either a move or a standard action until a Treat injury check is performed on you... even if you're not at 0.

Dhavaer
2007-10-27, 02:49 AM
In my sig, somewhere, there's a link to an injury level system. Instead of saving against massive damage, you suffer certain penalties that increase depending on how many times you've taken massive damage.

Arakune
2007-10-27, 07:31 AM
If they take their Con as damage, they drop to 0, if they take 2x Con damage, they drop to -5 and finally if they 3x+ Con damage they are dead.

magic8BALL
2007-10-27, 10:18 PM
I rework the whole damage system my home brew d20 modern game. Here it is. It works well.

Your hit points are a measure of how hard you are to kill. A character with more hit points can sustain more and larger injuries before being rendered helpless than a character with fewer hit points.

Massive damage
Any time you take more damage than your massive damage threshold on a single attack, that damage is considered massive damage. A creature’s massive damage threshold is equal to its constitution score. This is increased by 2 or every size category larger than medium the creature is, and reduced by 2 for every size category smaller, and may be increased by taking the Increased Massive Damage Threshold ability.
When you take massive damage that doesn’t reduce your hit points to 0 or lower, you must make a fortitude save or automatically fall to 0 Hit Points. The DC for this save is equal to the amount of damage taken.
The damage taken may be lethal or nonlethal. In the latter case, the attack would knock the target out.
Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to the effects of massive damage.

Fatal Damage
Anytime you take more damage than your fatal damage threshold on a single attack, that damage is considered fatal damage. A creature’s fatal damage threshold is equal to double its constitution score. This is increased by 4 or every size category larger than medium the creature is, and reduced by 4 for every size category smaller, and may be increased by taking the Increased Fatal Damage Threshold ability.
When you take fatal damage that doesn’t kill you, you must make a fortitude save or die. The DC for this save is equal to the amount of damage taken.
Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to death from fatal damage.

Incapacitation
You may be able to live after you get shot a few times, but you still feel pain. Getting shot in the arm or leg is also painful. This pain incapacitates you, effecting every thing you do. Whenever you take damage you receive a penalty to your defence score and all d20 rolls.

Penalties for Hit Point Loss
Hit Points
Lost ** Penalty
1/4 ** -1
1/2 ** -2
3/4 **-4
All (0 hit points or less) ** -8

A characters arms and legs each have one quarter the characters maximum hit point total for the effects of incapacitation. See Targeting Body Parts, below.

Disabled
When your current hit point total is exactly equal your non lethal damage (usually 0), you are disabled. A disabled character can only make a single action a round. Anything more strenuous causes him to lose 1 hit point, rendering him unconscious, and he may start dying.

Nonlethal Damage
A punch to the jaw from someone untrained may not kill, but it still batters, bruises and can knock someone out.
Nonlethal damage does not affect the targets hit points; instead compare the total amount of nonlethal damage the target has with their current hit points. If he has more nonlethal damage than hit points, he is unconscious.
A character regains nonlethal damage at the rate of one point per point of constitution score per minute.

Dying
A character with fewer than 0 hit points is unconscious and dying. A dying character looses 1 hit point a round, until his is stabilised.

Death
A character dies when his current hit points fall their constitution score below zero. A character with a con score of 14 is dead when his hit point total is -14 or below.

Recovering From Injury
A dying may make a DC 20 fortitude save each round to become stable. Stable characters remain unconscious, but do not continue losing hit points.

Revival form Death
A dead character may be revived with a series of successful heal checks. The DC of the check is 10 minus the patients current hit points (which is a negative number), and increases by one for every round after the character dies. Success means the patient gains 1 hit point. The patient gains an additional hit point for every 5 points the check exceeds the DC. Failure has no effect, other than delaying time. These checks may need to go on for some time. The patient is alive, but unconscious, when their hit point total exceeds the negative of the constitution score.

Revised Feat:
Toughness [General]
You are tougher than normal.
Benifit: Your Hit Point total is increaed by 4. You massive damage threshold is increased by two, and your fatal damage threshold increaed by 4.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, its effects stack.

Xuincherguixe
2007-10-28, 12:38 AM
Not sure how well this will work but here's two possible penalty sets

Move speed reduced to 5 feet per turn
-5 penalty to all rolls (including attacks)

and
Unable to move
-10 to all rolls
treated as prone

There could be feats to reduce the penalties, or existing useless ones could be boosted (I'm looking at you toughness. No stop crying that's not going to help you suck less. Yeah I know I'm mean. Look just shut up before I throw you in the well again.)

Maybe there could be healing options as well?

Caewil
2007-10-28, 12:45 AM
SAGA's condition track method works pretty well.

Basically, everytime you take a hit above your damage threshold, you take a penalty to attacks, defenses and all saves.

It starts at -1, then goes to -2, -5 and then unconsciousness.