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Post by dmcaleb on Aug 24, 2017 13:25:57 GMT
So it has been bothering me how players get all their Hit Points back after a long rest. I understand how important it is too the balance of the game so I've been trying to think of ways to add a little more consequences to being hit in the face without breaking the game. And here is what I am thinking of presently.
Each time a PC drops to 0, they automatically gain a level of Exhaustion, and for each failed death save they gain another point.
This way it's not permanent damage (they can long rest 1 level of exhaustion away at a time) but it adds a little more threat for being hit.
Thoughts? Any obvious problems?
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Post by dmsam on Aug 24, 2017 14:31:23 GMT
There are other healing rule variants in the DMG regarding this topic that seem to work mechanically for me in the past, especially the "slow natural healing" rule on page 276.
Characters don't regain hit points during long rests. Instead, they regain half their hit die, and need to spend hit die to regain health.
Be careful about this as it significantly slows the pacing of the traditional combat encounter based encounters. If you are running the sort of game where you are clearing rooms in a dungeon, your players may not appreciate this change.
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Post by dmcaleb on Aug 24, 2017 16:11:08 GMT
I didn't want to mess with the HP economy which is what the DMG variant rules messed with. I just wanted 0, to mean something more. Fortunately someone reminded me that hitting a PC while they are unconscious is a valid strategy for NPCs if they are being annoying, and I'm considering the DC15 Death save of Tomb of Annihilation.
I think the current healing system is fine, I'm just trying to make falling to 0 scary.
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Post by dmsam on Aug 24, 2017 16:25:50 GMT
If you want the dying condition to be scarier, then changing death saves to DC15 may be reasonable. Adding exhaustion levels sound pretty good as well, as long as you don't mind slowing down the pacing afterwards, since exhaustion levels may do that.
It might even add a bunch of fun "nursing back to health" scenes.
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Post by dmsam on Aug 24, 2017 17:13:46 GMT
By the way, if you want to make the dying condition scary, consider changing the it from unconscious to stunned so that the PCs can get some last words in.  |
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Post by clark on Nov 2, 2017 18:18:31 GMT
One of my players came up with an injury system, where you collect Injury Points every time you are knocked down.
— When your character is reduced to 0 HP during combat, you must immediately make a Constitution saving throw. The DC for this check equals 10 + half your character level (rounded up). If you have not taken a long rest since you were last knocked unconscious, you have disadvantage on this saving throw.
— On a failed save, you gain one point of Injury to a maximum of three. The more points you have, the more severe the injury you might receive.
— Whenever you receive an Injury point, the DM will roll on the injury table corresponding to the number of Injury points you have accrued.
— A long rest will reduce your accrued Injury points by 1, to a minimum of 0.
And we have 3 injury tables that you roll on if you fail. One table 1, there are minor scars that have no mechanical effect, but broken ribs and limps that do.... And table three has severed limbs and brain trauma. So it runs the gamut.
I personally dig this.
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