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Alright, I'm trying to bring the 4e concept of "Bloodied" to the 3.5 system. I fear I might not have done such a good job. Does anyone have any suggestions?
New Condition: Bloodied
In most D&D settings, the Hit Point system is not very good at accurately portraying injury. If you have 140 hit points, you will be fighting just as well if you only have 1 hp remaining. 4e introduced the term “bloodied,” which means that a player or monster is at ½ total hit point value or less. This seems to be an interesting idea. This is an attempt to introduce this concept into the game.
When a creature is reduced to ½ its total hit point total, a creature is considered “bloodied.” In this state, they take a -2 penalty on all skill checks, saving throws, attack and damage rolls, and their Armor Class. In addition, they must make a fortitude save (DC 15), or take 2 points of Constitution damage. If they fail the fortitude save, they take 1 point of damage for every hit die they have as a result from this Con loss.
When brought down to ¼ its total hit point total, the penalties are doubled to -4. In addition to this, the creature loses any Dexterity bonus it has to its Armor Class. This leaves the creature vulnerable to sneak attacks, sudden strikes, or skirmish damage.
This condition lasts until the creature is above ½ its current hit points.
Some abilities work differently when using this variant. For example:
• Creatures with either the Ferocity special quality or the Die Hard feat have their damage multiplied by 1.5, rounding down. For example, a bloodied boar that would have dealt 12 points of damage damage instead deals 18 damage.
• Barbarians who begin raging while bloodied do not lose their Dexterity bonus to their Armor Class, and do not suffer penalties from being blooded until after they stop raging. Monks never lose their Dexterity bonus due to becoming bloodied.
• Precision damage (like that caused by sudden strikes or sneak attacks) dealt to bloodied targets is doubled.
• Constructs, Deathless, Plants, and Undead are not affected by this system.
How does this affect the game?
This variant makes combat finish more quickly, while increasing the lethality of combat. This makes the need for healing magic much more apparent. This system is best used at higher levels, as a single blow in a level 1-3 campaign may cause instant death (or suckyness, depending on how many hit points a character has).
Two things:
Isn't there a decent chance that the con damage will drop them into or incredibly close to the next category?
I'm also not sure how necessary doubling precision damage and auto sneak attacks are. With all the penalties and con damage they're pretty much dead at that point which seems fairly excessive.
Also, out of curiosity, since I've never read the rules for 4.0, what is the purpose of bloodied? What reaction or play-style is it trying to force?
Also also, how does the default availability of healing hand hp compare between the two systems?
The purpose of the bloodied condition in 4e is mainly the ability to damage creatures more easily and to give creatures access to new powers that are only usable when bloodied. In 4e, healing is much easier to get, through the use of healing surges.
Do you think that I should get rid of the con damage altogether, and multiply the precision damage by 1.5 rather than 2?
I dunno. I would prefer the stacking, but I can see that some might not. Perhaps merely add the 'can't run or charge' to the bloodied status and the 1/4 causes people to move at 1/2 speed?
The purpose of the bloodied condition in 4e is mainly the ability to damage creatures more easily and to give creatures access to new powers that are only usable when bloodied. In 4e, healing is much easier to get, through the use of healing surges.
Do you think that I should get rid of the con damage altogether, and multiply the precision damage by 1.5 rather than 2?
So, several things:
First you're taking this from a system where it's easier to come by healing and there are abilities that take advantage of being bloodied (which 3.5 flat out doesn't have unless you plan to homebrew them). So you're going to want to either tone down what it does or give them some ways to deal with it.
Second, you should probably consider what affect you want this to have on your game. As it currently stands it suggests rogues take more of a cleanup role and that continuing combat after falling to half health is a very bad idea so intelligent characters are going to be allot quicker to run. It also make low levels more deadly (since you'll get to half health quicker) and will probably hurt tanks the most since they're the most likely to soak up damage and continue fighting.
Lastly, yeah, I'd drop the con damage and maybe the boost to precision damage. Taking damage because you took damage is a little silly. And while it might make sense that they'd be less able to defend themselves from sneak attacks while badly wounded they're already taking a bunch of penalties, by definition are low on health, and that's allot of damage multiplication; it might be a bit overkill and/or lead to situations where once you get to half health the rogue walks over and kills you and there's not much you can do about it.
I use a similar system for my game, MV, though that was an effect of universalising a rule that originates from the Dragonmech mech rules.
I use Fatigued at <50%
Exhausted at <25%
and Staggered at <10%.
It might prove too much for D&D, but in a shooting based game, it makes cover really important. I have a low healing setting too, and it doesn't break the bank, just makes combat more dangerous, your players more likely to actually run and pushes Constructs and Undead back up into a threat without altering their stats [you try dealing with something that's not subject to wounds and see how you like it!]
As pointed out before, unless you're planning to make a major overhaul of the system or just try to make combat more deadly [to the detriment of the "stand and take it" defence types], this is going to earn some griping at the loss of power and may feel tacked on...
I also don't recommend Con damage. It's just annoying.
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Bloodied (3.5 condition, Help)
