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View Full Version : homebrew health system



Garwain
2011-06-17, 04:33 AM
Your opinion please on the following idea:

HP returns to max at start of your turn. In case your HP drops to 0 or below, make a d20 check. The result determines what body part you lost:

1: head -> instant death
2-5: legs, hands, arms -> impaired attack, movement, etc.
6-20: wew, nothing was cut off, lucky me.

I'm not specifying which system to use it with, but more the question: would you accept this type of hp management. You'd be safe most of the time, allowing you to do crazy things, but tremble when you are seriously hit.

DoomHat
2011-06-17, 04:41 AM
Reminds me of Warhammer 2nd ed. but...
Two problems.
1. HP will either need to raise slowly or not at all
2. If something has more Hp then you have damage per turn, then they're immortal. You can hit a guy all day with everything you've got and never get anywhere.
edit: 3. And even if you do bring them down there's only a 1 in 4 chance of that amounting to anything except needing to do it again.

Zeta Kai
2011-06-17, 07:50 AM
If something has more Hp then you have damage per turn, then they're immortal. You can hit a guy all day with everything you've got and never get anywhere.

This is a damning flaw, one that needs to be completely resolved before this system could be trusted to work. The attacker's damage would have to be carefully calibrated against the defender's health, as any major disparity would result in an insurmountable obstacle to victory/survival.


And even if you do bring them down there's only a 1 in 4 chance of that amounting to anything except needing to do it again.

This is also bad, but easily fixed. Just move the risk range way up. I'd say a 50/50 chance of grievous harm or death would be fair. The defender is at 0HP, so it's not like they should expect mercy at that point. By all rights, they would be dead with another system, so a roll like the one below would be more appropriate.

{table=head]D20|Body Part|Consequence
1|Head|Instant Death
2|Torso/Abdomen|Unconsciousness
3-4|Left Arm|Impaired Strength
5-6|Right Arm|Impaired Strength
7-8|Left Leg|Impaired Agility
9-10|Right Leg|Impaired Agility
11-20|N/A|-10% Health on Next Turn[/table]

That last row ("-10% Health on Next Turn") makes things a bit more dangerous, as well. The defender has lived to fight another turn, but with less health than they had last turn, so they need to be more careful, or they'll end up more dead. This gives something to the attacker who spent the last turn working the defender down to nothing, only to watch them escape without lasting consequence. This could be made even more dangerous, by making the health reduction cumulative (-10% = 90%HP, -10% again = 81%HP, -10% AGAIN = 72%HP, etc.).