Hi all , writing this from in hospital, waiting 3 weeks for a triple bypass. I kid you not. Anyway just wanted to get this down. Before my stay here in Waikato Hospital I had been playing with a new system to use instead of just hit points. Firstly a character rolls as usual for hit points up to third level as normal, then no more hit points beyond this. They also record their constitution as life points and then their level as death points. So this is how it works. Normal damage for hit points - this is just that sum of luck combat prowess etc that normally represents damage in combat or due to other environmental factors. Life points is next - for small weapons 1 point per hit, medium weapons or like damage is 2 points and 2 handed weapons or type/size damage is 3 points. If you are hit by something bigger DM/GM/Referee to adjudicate. When someone takes damage in life points they divide their full life points by remaining life points (round down) to get there penalty to hit, save or movement - eg 10 out of 14 the character has a -1 to hit and saves and -5 feet move, at 2 out of 14 the same character has -7 to hit and saves and -35 feet to move ( 5 feet x modifier). Once all life points have been depleted then on next successful hit character loses first death point - from then on -1 death point per round- player is dying - save vs Con to stay awake on a d 20 or 4d6 - which ever system feels right for your group. This opens the game to some interesting options, weapons, spells , poisons that deal damage to different pools - does Life damage instead of hit points or the serious stuff does direct death damage etc. Have yet to try this out with my group due to heart attack.
The next part is working on how to modify the monsters etc to fit in this. So far I am using this: Any creature that does not have a personal name has just hit points, anything that is named has the full set of pools. I am still working on adjusting the monsters hit point totals to align with the players new pool. Thinking of, depending on size , having a limit on number rolled on hit dice orcs have 1 d8. These orcs would keep this, a dragon may have 8d8, roll the first 3 h.d. as normal and the rest has a top of 6 on each die rolled after. Still playing with this and hope to get back to it either while I wait for the surgery or get back to the gaming table.
The reason I started down this was to speed up combat, do my own version of the old E6 in 3.5 D&D while giving the player and DM some more options in play. Also Magic users are a lot more liveable as are the other low numbered hp type characters , just thought the more martial types get 1 hp per level over 3rd, or 1h.p. and there con bonus hmmmmmm. Cheers all and Game On!
