Dark.Revenant
2013-10-02, 04:03 AM
Virtus Animae
Replacement combat system for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and Pathfinder.
Summary: This system replaces Hit Points with two resources: Vitality and Toughness. When creatures take more damage than their Toughness, they are Injured and take ability damage and a special form of Constitution damage. Sooner or later, this causes death (particularly powerful and well-timed hits tend to kill more often than a larger number of weaker attacks). Vitality is used to boost saves and counter effects that are normally unavoidable, but Vitality cannot be regained throughout the day, and expending Vitality lowers Toughness. Full attacks involve only a single, more powerful attack rather than multiple standard attacks. Finally, another resource called Combat Actions is added, allowing interesting effects and dynamics for martially-oriented characters in battle.
Why?
Hit Points are, by far, the silliest system in D&D. Some individual quirks or exploits inherent to other systems (like spellcasting) might be pretty bad, but Hit Points are the worst. Why?
Hit points work the best around level 6. A Wizard is looking at around 30 HP and a fighter has at least 50 HP. The Barbarian will have over 70 HP. This has a nice range of survivability as most competent equal-level attacks deal damage in the 20-30 range (up to 60 on buffed full attacks, critical hits, etc.) Attacks are weighty and dangerous but won't be killing the heroes outright. Sure, it has a few issues, like the fact that someone with 1 HP is performing just fine compared to the guy with no injuries, but clever DMing can get around that limitation.
However, the further one gets from level 6, the worse it gets. At level 1, a character rarely exceeds 20 HP and can sometimes be below 10 HP, which means even a single attack with no modifiers (1d12) has a good chance of dropping the character outright. A critical hit with a x3 or x4 weapon is instantaneous death. Likewise, at level 12, characters have around 80-200 HP depending on class. This seems like a lot -- and it is, from the perspective of a blaster who needs to expend lots of resources to eat through all that padding -- but in reality it gets chewed up very quickly; a barbarian will be chewing through over 100 HP per round; if buffed, it can reach 200 damage in one round. Combat is likely to end very quickly. These problems persist for party-appropriate creatures, who often have game-ending abilities to compensate for less than stellar optimization; as a result, combat ends very quickly, for either side.
Suppose everyone just had a lot more HP to compensate. This severely punishes blasters because they lose their main strength -- removing rooms of weak creatures -- and are worse at their secondary ability, which is expending resources to lay the hurt on a single big target. At the same time, it buffs save-or-lose (or lose-or-lose) casters because they get additional turns to cast and end the combat prematurely. Balance simply becomes worse.
And so, we have the core of the problem with D&D's combat system: Hit Points are simultaneously Too High and Too Low; there is No Feedback/consequence for taking Damage less than Hit Points; Damage values become Too High over time due to Iterative/Natural Attacks; Full Attacks Limit Mobility and Limit Options; Constitution Cannot be Dumped; Hit Points, Hit Dice, and Mundane methods offer No Protection against Magic; and Blasting is Too Weak.
Vitality
The first thing I did was turn Hit Dice into a resource. The goal is to add a certain baseline of survivability, based on level, without it ballooning out exponentially. At the same time, I wanted to add a second layer of defense against the encounter-ending effects that casters can pump out, so that more synergy happens between the classes and the encounters last longer.
Each creature starts the day (after 8 hours of rest) with Vitality equal to its Hit Dice; literally equal to its Hit Dice. A creature with 5d10 hit dice has five d10-rated Vitality points, and a creature with 1d8+1d12 hit dice has one d8-rated and one d12-rated Vitality point. Vitality (in any quantity) can be expended as a non-action in response to various stimuli (affects only the creature expending Vitality):
Vitality
{table=head]
Vitality Cost|Effect|Notes
-1|+1d4/+1d6/+1d8/+1d10/+1d12 (equal to Vitality rating) to a rolled saving throw|All dice must be rolled at the same time. Once the amount is chosen, the new result must be taken.|
-1|Simulate evasion/stalwart against an effect|Save halves or save partial becomes save negates. Using this must be decided before rolling the saving throw.|
-2|Add a saving throw to an effect that does not normally allow a saving throw|Save negates. This also applies to "see text" portions of an effect that otherwise do not allow a save. Using this must be decided before rolling the saving throw.|
-1|Prevent the Fatigued condition, or downgrade Exhausted to Fatigued|Cannot be used to prevent permanent Fatigue.|
-1|Reduce incoming ability damage or ability injury by 2|Minimum of 0.|
-2|Prevent Shock|This delays becoming disabled, dying, or dead.|
-2|Refresh Combat Actions|This resets one's Combat Actions to equal one's Base Attack Bonus. This cannot be used to spend more than one's maximum Combat Actions within the span of 1 round; trying to burn up Vitality to perform dozens of extra attacks via Flurry is invalid.|
+1|Add the Fatigued condition|This is permanent and stacks with existing Fatigue. This cannot be removed except via Wish, Miracle, Reality Revision, or by resting for 8 hours. This cannot be used if the creature is already Exhausted.|
[/table]
Toughness
Toughness is a quantity that replaces Hit Points. The role of Hit Points (determining when you die) is performed by both Toughness and your Constitution score. The term "Toughness" pays homage to Wizards of the Coast's other major product, Magic: the Gathering, as the mechanic works similarly. Some creatures can become so tough that the blade of a sword simply doesn't penetrate as far into them as it does for normal people; a high Toughness can represent this effect, or it could be interpreted to mean that the creature is adept at softening blows through body control and minute movements like a Shaolin monk.
Toughness = Constitution Score + Vitality*(Die Size/2 - 2; minimum 1)
In other words, d4 -> 1, d6 -> 1, d8 -> 2, d10 -> 3, and d12 -> 4. For example, a Fighter 3/Bard 2 with 14 Constitution starts with 27 Toughness (14 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2).
Creatures without a Constitution score use whatever ability score replaces Constitution for the purposes of Toughness and Injuries. If no replacement exists (such as for constructs), a Constitution score of 10 is used.
Injuries and Damage
When a creature takes damage, rather than subtracting from Hit Points, the damage taken is added to the creature's Damage, an unbounded quantity representing cuts, bruises, burns, fatigue, and other minor injuries. Damage, like Hit Points, persists over time until the creature is injured.
Once a creature's Damage exceeds his Toughness, that creature is injured. First, reduce the creature's Damage by his current Toughness. Then, apply the effects of the injury. The severity of the injury depends on how far above the threshold set by his Toughness his Damage reached. The injured creature takes 1d4 ability damage to a random ability score, but he takes an additional 1d4 damage to that ability score for each multiple of that creature's Constitution that the creature's Damage exceeded his Toughness by. For example, if a creature whose Toughness is 20 and his Constitution 10 takes 25 Damage (over by 5), that creature takes 1d4 ability damage to a random ability score. If that same creature takes 40 Damage instead (over by 20), that creature instead takes 3d4 ability damage to the same ability score.
Injury Table
{table=head]
d12|
Xd4 Ability Damage
1 - 3|
Strength|
4 - 6|
Dexterity|
7 - 9|
Constitution|
10|
Intelligence|
11|
Wisdom|
12|
Charisma|
[/table]
In addition, the injured creature takes 4 Constitution injury. Ability injury works like ability damage, except it can only be healed through effects that normally grant Hit Point healing [see Healing].
Invariably, the creature will be left with a lower Toughness score as a result of taking the injury. Eventually, the creature will be rendered defeated by reaching a score of 0 in an ability score (such as Constitution), but typically before that point the creature will suffer Shock [see Shock and Death] and be knocked unconscious or killed as a result.
If a creature is immune to the particular ability damage that was rolled (or if that ability score has already been reduced to 0), re-roll. If a creature that is immune to all ability damage (or is immune to Constitution damage when taking an injury), all of the damage/injury must be paid for with Vitality. If insufficient Vitality remains, the creature suffers Shock.
Shock and Death
A creature usually suffers Shock any time that creature reaches a Damage score higher than his Toughness without it being the direct cause of damage or an Injury. This especially applies to effects that restore Damage, such as the Damage restoration taken after suffering an Injury. For example, if a creature with 23 Toughness takes 50 damage and is therefore reduced to 20 Toughness and 27 Damage, that creature suffers Shock. As a result, particularly devastating hits can cause a creature to suffer Shock (sometimes more than once).
Any time a creature suffers Shock, that creature reduces his Damage score by his Toughness. This does not cause Injury, though it can cause Shock if the resulting Damage is still above the creature's Toughness.
The first time a creature suffers Shock, the creature becomes Disabled (as if his Hit Points were reduced to 0). If a disabled creature suffers Shock, that creature is rendered Dying and Unconscious (as if his Hit Points were reduced below 0). If a Dying creature suffers Shock, that creature dies.
Normal -> Disabled -> Dying/Stabilized -> Dead
A Dying creature takes 1 damage per round, but may attempt to stabilize each round by succeeding a Fortitude save (DC equal to 10 + total amount of Constitution injury).
Shock can be prevented through the use of Vitality [see Vitality], but this can be dangerous because the loss of Toughness resulting from expending Vitality can itself cause Shock. Constitution damaging and energy draining effects are particularly dangerous against Damaged targets because of the Shock that can be triggered.
Healing
Healing effects restore Damage. Keep track of over-healing (i.e. healing Damage to negative values). If a creature is over-healed to a magnitude equal to his current Constitution, he adds damage equal to his current Constitution (this will not result in a positive Damage score) and then loses one point of Constitution injury (if any), representing a restoration of overall health due to the ensuing increase in Toughness. For example, a creature with 4 Constitution injury from a maximum of 15 Constitution requires a grand total of 50 Hit Points' worth of healing (11 + 12 + 13 + 14) to restore his injuries.
If a Dying creature is healed, that creature automatically stabilizes. A Dying/Stabilized creature is made Conscious and Disabled by over-healing that creature (whether through natural or supernatural means) enough to restore one point of Constitution injury (even if the creature does not actually have any Constitution injury). The same process can remove the Disabled condition from a creature to make it fully functional once again.
If a creature takes damage (except damage taken to restore Constitution injury, as shown above), any over-healing not already converted to injury restoration is immediately removed; there is mechanically no difference between 0 Damage and negative Damage.
Restoration effects can restore ability damage, as usual, but can NOT restore ability injury; only healing effects [see above] can restore ability injury.
Attacks
When a creature performs a standard attack action or full attack action, they make only a single attack roll against their target using their full Base Attack Bonus. If the creature chooses to perform a full attack with secondary natural attacks, this attack roll is made at a -5 penalty (-2 with the Multiattack feat). If multiple weapons or limbs are used for the attack, pick one weapon or limb to use as the baseline; attack, damage, and other effects will be calculated from that implement and any additional damage dice will be added to that amount.
Full attacks deal damage as a standard attack would, with the exception that any additional weapon damage dice from additional iterative, off-hand, or natural attacks are added to the total. For example, Joey the Fighter with standard attack damage of 1d12+15 deals 2d12+15 damage on a full attack action. Do not add any damage dice other than the standard weapon damage dice; effects such as Sneak Attack or the Flaming weapon enchantment are applied only once.
Full Attack Damage = Standard Attack Damage + Full Attack Damage Dice
Furthermore, if any standard or full attack exceeds the target's Armor Class, the difference is added to the damage. This is called accuracy damage. For example, Joey the Fighter rolls a 30 against his target's AC 20, adding 10 to his damage, for a total of 1d12+25. Accuracy damage is not a precision effect and is not multiplied in the event of a critical hit.
Actions that provide attacks separate from the standard or full attack actions (such as attacks of opportunity, the Flurry Combat Action, Spellstrike, or the numerous attacks of a Cleave -- including the first attack of a Cleave) DO NOT gain accuracy damage and DO NOT include additional damage dice (such as Sneak Attack or the Flaming weapon enchantment). Actions that simulate the standard or full attack actions (such as Spring Attack, Vital Strike, or charging) DO gain accuracy damage and DO include additional damage dice.
Extra Attack Damage = Standard Attack Damage - Accuracy Damage - Additional Damage Dice
Nonlethal Damage is tracked separately. If Nonlethal Damage exceeds Toughness, rather than sustaining an Injury, the victim falls unconscious (until the Nonlethal Damage is reduced to a value below his Toughness) unless he expends 1 Vitality. If he does spend 1 Vitality, Nonlethal Damage is reduced by an amount equal to his Toughness (as if he had sustained an Injury).
Combat Actions
A creature gains a number of Combat Actions equal to his Base Attack Bonus. 10 minutes of uninterrupted rest (avoiding strenuous activity, such as combat) restores any expended Combat Actions to once again equal a creature's Base Attack Bonus.
Combat Actions may be used for a number of benefits which can be activated as a non-action, even as an interrupt (unless specified otherwise). It is possible, for example, to use Guard in response to an enemy's attack roll to raise one's Armor Class high enough to avoid the attack. The enemy, at the same time, can Break in response to one's Guard to raise his attack to beat the new Armor Class. One can Guard again in response to this, and so on. It is also possible to use these Combat Actions during other actions, such as movement (Flurry can be used to attack multiple creatures along a movement path). If a particular Combat Action is not possible to be used as an interrupt, one may only attempt it during one's own turn, never during another creature's turn.
Combat Actions
{table=head]
Action|
Cost|Effect
Break|
1|+1 attack/CMB for 1 round.|
Guard|
1|+1 AC/CMD for 1 round.|
Control|
1|-X damage for 1 attack. X can be any value; minimum damage is 0.|
Shatter|
X|Critical threat range increased by 1 for 1 round. Cost X equal to critical multiplier.|
Analyze|
3|Learn the exact values for a visible target's current Damage and Toughness.|
Resolve|
6|Ignore the Nauseated, Staggered, Dazed, Frightened, and Confused conditions for 1 round.|
Dash|
3|Gain an additional 5-foot step. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Flurry|
5|Perform an extra attack against any creature within reach/range. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Haste|
5|Gain an additional swift action. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Alacrity|
7|Gain an additional move action. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Celerity|
10|Gain an additional standard action. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
[/table]
Additional Changes
The Impact weapon enchantment is removed, as are other permanent die size increasing magic. Weapon damage dice can still be improved via the use of temporary means such as Enlarge Person, Lead Blades, or the Aegis' Augmented Weapon customization, as well as through feats such as Improved Natural Weapon or class features such as the Monk's Unarmed Strike. Methods of using oversized weapons (large two-handed weapons on a medium character), such as being half-giant, are removed.
Temporary HP is added onto a creature's toughness, soaking up incoming damage until the Temporary HP is depleted. The Temporary HP does not return after the creature suffers an Injury.
20% concealment grants immunity to accuracy damage. 50% concealment grants immunity to accuracy damage, and also forces attackers to roll twice and take the lower result for all attack rolls. The standard miss chance is ignored, though effects that counteract concealment also negate these abilities. The Blind-Fight feat downgrades this effect from immunity to accuracy damage to half accuracy damage (rounding down). The Improved Blind-Fight feat entirely removes immunity to accuracy damage.
Mirror Image and its like (defenses that are based on volume of attacks) are removed (or, optionally, changed to represent that most attacks involve only a single roll); it is far more difficult to produce enough attacks to eat through 6 or more images under this system.
The Manyshot feat acts as the Rapid Shot feat, but does not have an attack penalty.
Effects that rely on multiple hits (such as Rend) shall instead require the full attack roll to exceed the target's Armor Class by a factor of 5 per each additional hit required to trigger the effect. For example, an effect that requires three attacks to connect from a single full attack action is instead triggered if the result exceeds the target's Armor Class by 10 or more.
The Toughness feat adds 3 Toughness and can be taken multiple times.
This should go without saying, but the favored class bonus option to gain additional Hit Points is removed.
It is greatly recommended to limit/ban methods of casting multiple times per round, with the exception of Quicken Spell/Power, which is itself rather expensive. Arcane Fusion and Celerity are right out. Fission, Schism, Hustle Power, and Twin Power need tweaking.
Optional Rules
Virtus Animae is mathematically involved and enforces a certain play style. These optional rules allow you to tweak the experience to something more to your own tastes.
No Combos
If you want to use this system but do not like the combo-chain style of attacking (dealing just damage to an amount just under the threshold, then hitting with a big attack), remove the ability damage mechanic from the system and simply increase the amount of Constitution injury sustained when a creature is Injured. A value of 6 works well for this.
Faster Math
If you want combat calculations to go more quickly at the table (it is often useful to do this specifically for mooks and other unimportant combatants), rather than doing the usual ability damage/injury calculations, whenever a creature is Injured, that creature simply takes Constitution injury (or damage to some other thematically appropriate ability score) as such:
Constitution Injury = (Damage / Constitution Score) + 2
For example, if a 20 Toughness, 10 Constitution creature reaches 30 Damage, that creature takes 5 Constitution injury.
Grittier Experience
For a faster, grittier game suitable for low fantasy or a high-mortality setting, simply decrease the amount of Vitality given to each creature. Only a fraction of a creature's Hit Dice will translate into Vitality. Consult the following table:
Scaling Table
{table=head]
Hit Dice|
Heroic Fantasy|
Gritty Fantasy|
Semi-Realistic|
Harsh Reality
1 HD|
1 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
2 HD|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
3 HD|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
4 HD|
4 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
5 HD|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
6 HD|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
7 HD|
7 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
8 HD|
8 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
9 HD|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
10 HD|
10 Vitality|
7 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
11 HD|
11 Vitality|
8 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
12 HD|
12 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
13 HD|
13 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
14 HD|
14 Vitality|
10 Vitality|
7 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
15 HD|
15 Vitality|
11 Vitality|
7 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
16 HD|
16 Vitality|
12 Vitality|
8 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
17 HD|
17 Vitality|
12 Vitality|
8 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
18 HD|
18 Vitality|
13 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
19 HD|
19 Vitality|
14 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
20 HD|
20 Vitality|
15 Vitality|
10 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
[/table]
Replacement combat system for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and Pathfinder.
Summary: This system replaces Hit Points with two resources: Vitality and Toughness. When creatures take more damage than their Toughness, they are Injured and take ability damage and a special form of Constitution damage. Sooner or later, this causes death (particularly powerful and well-timed hits tend to kill more often than a larger number of weaker attacks). Vitality is used to boost saves and counter effects that are normally unavoidable, but Vitality cannot be regained throughout the day, and expending Vitality lowers Toughness. Full attacks involve only a single, more powerful attack rather than multiple standard attacks. Finally, another resource called Combat Actions is added, allowing interesting effects and dynamics for martially-oriented characters in battle.
Why?
Hit Points are, by far, the silliest system in D&D. Some individual quirks or exploits inherent to other systems (like spellcasting) might be pretty bad, but Hit Points are the worst. Why?
Hit points work the best around level 6. A Wizard is looking at around 30 HP and a fighter has at least 50 HP. The Barbarian will have over 70 HP. This has a nice range of survivability as most competent equal-level attacks deal damage in the 20-30 range (up to 60 on buffed full attacks, critical hits, etc.) Attacks are weighty and dangerous but won't be killing the heroes outright. Sure, it has a few issues, like the fact that someone with 1 HP is performing just fine compared to the guy with no injuries, but clever DMing can get around that limitation.
However, the further one gets from level 6, the worse it gets. At level 1, a character rarely exceeds 20 HP and can sometimes be below 10 HP, which means even a single attack with no modifiers (1d12) has a good chance of dropping the character outright. A critical hit with a x3 or x4 weapon is instantaneous death. Likewise, at level 12, characters have around 80-200 HP depending on class. This seems like a lot -- and it is, from the perspective of a blaster who needs to expend lots of resources to eat through all that padding -- but in reality it gets chewed up very quickly; a barbarian will be chewing through over 100 HP per round; if buffed, it can reach 200 damage in one round. Combat is likely to end very quickly. These problems persist for party-appropriate creatures, who often have game-ending abilities to compensate for less than stellar optimization; as a result, combat ends very quickly, for either side.
Suppose everyone just had a lot more HP to compensate. This severely punishes blasters because they lose their main strength -- removing rooms of weak creatures -- and are worse at their secondary ability, which is expending resources to lay the hurt on a single big target. At the same time, it buffs save-or-lose (or lose-or-lose) casters because they get additional turns to cast and end the combat prematurely. Balance simply becomes worse.
And so, we have the core of the problem with D&D's combat system: Hit Points are simultaneously Too High and Too Low; there is No Feedback/consequence for taking Damage less than Hit Points; Damage values become Too High over time due to Iterative/Natural Attacks; Full Attacks Limit Mobility and Limit Options; Constitution Cannot be Dumped; Hit Points, Hit Dice, and Mundane methods offer No Protection against Magic; and Blasting is Too Weak.
Vitality
The first thing I did was turn Hit Dice into a resource. The goal is to add a certain baseline of survivability, based on level, without it ballooning out exponentially. At the same time, I wanted to add a second layer of defense against the encounter-ending effects that casters can pump out, so that more synergy happens between the classes and the encounters last longer.
Each creature starts the day (after 8 hours of rest) with Vitality equal to its Hit Dice; literally equal to its Hit Dice. A creature with 5d10 hit dice has five d10-rated Vitality points, and a creature with 1d8+1d12 hit dice has one d8-rated and one d12-rated Vitality point. Vitality (in any quantity) can be expended as a non-action in response to various stimuli (affects only the creature expending Vitality):
Vitality
{table=head]
Vitality Cost|Effect|Notes
-1|+1d4/+1d6/+1d8/+1d10/+1d12 (equal to Vitality rating) to a rolled saving throw|All dice must be rolled at the same time. Once the amount is chosen, the new result must be taken.|
-1|Simulate evasion/stalwart against an effect|Save halves or save partial becomes save negates. Using this must be decided before rolling the saving throw.|
-2|Add a saving throw to an effect that does not normally allow a saving throw|Save negates. This also applies to "see text" portions of an effect that otherwise do not allow a save. Using this must be decided before rolling the saving throw.|
-1|Prevent the Fatigued condition, or downgrade Exhausted to Fatigued|Cannot be used to prevent permanent Fatigue.|
-1|Reduce incoming ability damage or ability injury by 2|Minimum of 0.|
-2|Prevent Shock|This delays becoming disabled, dying, or dead.|
-2|Refresh Combat Actions|This resets one's Combat Actions to equal one's Base Attack Bonus. This cannot be used to spend more than one's maximum Combat Actions within the span of 1 round; trying to burn up Vitality to perform dozens of extra attacks via Flurry is invalid.|
+1|Add the Fatigued condition|This is permanent and stacks with existing Fatigue. This cannot be removed except via Wish, Miracle, Reality Revision, or by resting for 8 hours. This cannot be used if the creature is already Exhausted.|
[/table]
Toughness
Toughness is a quantity that replaces Hit Points. The role of Hit Points (determining when you die) is performed by both Toughness and your Constitution score. The term "Toughness" pays homage to Wizards of the Coast's other major product, Magic: the Gathering, as the mechanic works similarly. Some creatures can become so tough that the blade of a sword simply doesn't penetrate as far into them as it does for normal people; a high Toughness can represent this effect, or it could be interpreted to mean that the creature is adept at softening blows through body control and minute movements like a Shaolin monk.
Toughness = Constitution Score + Vitality*(Die Size/2 - 2; minimum 1)
In other words, d4 -> 1, d6 -> 1, d8 -> 2, d10 -> 3, and d12 -> 4. For example, a Fighter 3/Bard 2 with 14 Constitution starts with 27 Toughness (14 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2).
Creatures without a Constitution score use whatever ability score replaces Constitution for the purposes of Toughness and Injuries. If no replacement exists (such as for constructs), a Constitution score of 10 is used.
Injuries and Damage
When a creature takes damage, rather than subtracting from Hit Points, the damage taken is added to the creature's Damage, an unbounded quantity representing cuts, bruises, burns, fatigue, and other minor injuries. Damage, like Hit Points, persists over time until the creature is injured.
Once a creature's Damage exceeds his Toughness, that creature is injured. First, reduce the creature's Damage by his current Toughness. Then, apply the effects of the injury. The severity of the injury depends on how far above the threshold set by his Toughness his Damage reached. The injured creature takes 1d4 ability damage to a random ability score, but he takes an additional 1d4 damage to that ability score for each multiple of that creature's Constitution that the creature's Damage exceeded his Toughness by. For example, if a creature whose Toughness is 20 and his Constitution 10 takes 25 Damage (over by 5), that creature takes 1d4 ability damage to a random ability score. If that same creature takes 40 Damage instead (over by 20), that creature instead takes 3d4 ability damage to the same ability score.
Injury Table
{table=head]
d12|
Xd4 Ability Damage
1 - 3|
Strength|
4 - 6|
Dexterity|
7 - 9|
Constitution|
10|
Intelligence|
11|
Wisdom|
12|
Charisma|
[/table]
In addition, the injured creature takes 4 Constitution injury. Ability injury works like ability damage, except it can only be healed through effects that normally grant Hit Point healing [see Healing].
Invariably, the creature will be left with a lower Toughness score as a result of taking the injury. Eventually, the creature will be rendered defeated by reaching a score of 0 in an ability score (such as Constitution), but typically before that point the creature will suffer Shock [see Shock and Death] and be knocked unconscious or killed as a result.
If a creature is immune to the particular ability damage that was rolled (or if that ability score has already been reduced to 0), re-roll. If a creature that is immune to all ability damage (or is immune to Constitution damage when taking an injury), all of the damage/injury must be paid for with Vitality. If insufficient Vitality remains, the creature suffers Shock.
Shock and Death
A creature usually suffers Shock any time that creature reaches a Damage score higher than his Toughness without it being the direct cause of damage or an Injury. This especially applies to effects that restore Damage, such as the Damage restoration taken after suffering an Injury. For example, if a creature with 23 Toughness takes 50 damage and is therefore reduced to 20 Toughness and 27 Damage, that creature suffers Shock. As a result, particularly devastating hits can cause a creature to suffer Shock (sometimes more than once).
Any time a creature suffers Shock, that creature reduces his Damage score by his Toughness. This does not cause Injury, though it can cause Shock if the resulting Damage is still above the creature's Toughness.
The first time a creature suffers Shock, the creature becomes Disabled (as if his Hit Points were reduced to 0). If a disabled creature suffers Shock, that creature is rendered Dying and Unconscious (as if his Hit Points were reduced below 0). If a Dying creature suffers Shock, that creature dies.
Normal -> Disabled -> Dying/Stabilized -> Dead
A Dying creature takes 1 damage per round, but may attempt to stabilize each round by succeeding a Fortitude save (DC equal to 10 + total amount of Constitution injury).
Shock can be prevented through the use of Vitality [see Vitality], but this can be dangerous because the loss of Toughness resulting from expending Vitality can itself cause Shock. Constitution damaging and energy draining effects are particularly dangerous against Damaged targets because of the Shock that can be triggered.
Healing
Healing effects restore Damage. Keep track of over-healing (i.e. healing Damage to negative values). If a creature is over-healed to a magnitude equal to his current Constitution, he adds damage equal to his current Constitution (this will not result in a positive Damage score) and then loses one point of Constitution injury (if any), representing a restoration of overall health due to the ensuing increase in Toughness. For example, a creature with 4 Constitution injury from a maximum of 15 Constitution requires a grand total of 50 Hit Points' worth of healing (11 + 12 + 13 + 14) to restore his injuries.
If a Dying creature is healed, that creature automatically stabilizes. A Dying/Stabilized creature is made Conscious and Disabled by over-healing that creature (whether through natural or supernatural means) enough to restore one point of Constitution injury (even if the creature does not actually have any Constitution injury). The same process can remove the Disabled condition from a creature to make it fully functional once again.
If a creature takes damage (except damage taken to restore Constitution injury, as shown above), any over-healing not already converted to injury restoration is immediately removed; there is mechanically no difference between 0 Damage and negative Damage.
Restoration effects can restore ability damage, as usual, but can NOT restore ability injury; only healing effects [see above] can restore ability injury.
Attacks
When a creature performs a standard attack action or full attack action, they make only a single attack roll against their target using their full Base Attack Bonus. If the creature chooses to perform a full attack with secondary natural attacks, this attack roll is made at a -5 penalty (-2 with the Multiattack feat). If multiple weapons or limbs are used for the attack, pick one weapon or limb to use as the baseline; attack, damage, and other effects will be calculated from that implement and any additional damage dice will be added to that amount.
Full attacks deal damage as a standard attack would, with the exception that any additional weapon damage dice from additional iterative, off-hand, or natural attacks are added to the total. For example, Joey the Fighter with standard attack damage of 1d12+15 deals 2d12+15 damage on a full attack action. Do not add any damage dice other than the standard weapon damage dice; effects such as Sneak Attack or the Flaming weapon enchantment are applied only once.
Full Attack Damage = Standard Attack Damage + Full Attack Damage Dice
Furthermore, if any standard or full attack exceeds the target's Armor Class, the difference is added to the damage. This is called accuracy damage. For example, Joey the Fighter rolls a 30 against his target's AC 20, adding 10 to his damage, for a total of 1d12+25. Accuracy damage is not a precision effect and is not multiplied in the event of a critical hit.
Actions that provide attacks separate from the standard or full attack actions (such as attacks of opportunity, the Flurry Combat Action, Spellstrike, or the numerous attacks of a Cleave -- including the first attack of a Cleave) DO NOT gain accuracy damage and DO NOT include additional damage dice (such as Sneak Attack or the Flaming weapon enchantment). Actions that simulate the standard or full attack actions (such as Spring Attack, Vital Strike, or charging) DO gain accuracy damage and DO include additional damage dice.
Extra Attack Damage = Standard Attack Damage - Accuracy Damage - Additional Damage Dice
Nonlethal Damage is tracked separately. If Nonlethal Damage exceeds Toughness, rather than sustaining an Injury, the victim falls unconscious (until the Nonlethal Damage is reduced to a value below his Toughness) unless he expends 1 Vitality. If he does spend 1 Vitality, Nonlethal Damage is reduced by an amount equal to his Toughness (as if he had sustained an Injury).
Combat Actions
A creature gains a number of Combat Actions equal to his Base Attack Bonus. 10 minutes of uninterrupted rest (avoiding strenuous activity, such as combat) restores any expended Combat Actions to once again equal a creature's Base Attack Bonus.
Combat Actions may be used for a number of benefits which can be activated as a non-action, even as an interrupt (unless specified otherwise). It is possible, for example, to use Guard in response to an enemy's attack roll to raise one's Armor Class high enough to avoid the attack. The enemy, at the same time, can Break in response to one's Guard to raise his attack to beat the new Armor Class. One can Guard again in response to this, and so on. It is also possible to use these Combat Actions during other actions, such as movement (Flurry can be used to attack multiple creatures along a movement path). If a particular Combat Action is not possible to be used as an interrupt, one may only attempt it during one's own turn, never during another creature's turn.
Combat Actions
{table=head]
Action|
Cost|Effect
Break|
1|+1 attack/CMB for 1 round.|
Guard|
1|+1 AC/CMD for 1 round.|
Control|
1|-X damage for 1 attack. X can be any value; minimum damage is 0.|
Shatter|
X|Critical threat range increased by 1 for 1 round. Cost X equal to critical multiplier.|
Analyze|
3|Learn the exact values for a visible target's current Damage and Toughness.|
Resolve|
6|Ignore the Nauseated, Staggered, Dazed, Frightened, and Confused conditions for 1 round.|
Dash|
3|Gain an additional 5-foot step. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Flurry|
5|Perform an extra attack against any creature within reach/range. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Haste|
5|Gain an additional swift action. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Alacrity|
7|Gain an additional move action. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
Celerity|
10|Gain an additional standard action. Cannot be used as an interrupt.|
[/table]
Additional Changes
The Impact weapon enchantment is removed, as are other permanent die size increasing magic. Weapon damage dice can still be improved via the use of temporary means such as Enlarge Person, Lead Blades, or the Aegis' Augmented Weapon customization, as well as through feats such as Improved Natural Weapon or class features such as the Monk's Unarmed Strike. Methods of using oversized weapons (large two-handed weapons on a medium character), such as being half-giant, are removed.
Temporary HP is added onto a creature's toughness, soaking up incoming damage until the Temporary HP is depleted. The Temporary HP does not return after the creature suffers an Injury.
20% concealment grants immunity to accuracy damage. 50% concealment grants immunity to accuracy damage, and also forces attackers to roll twice and take the lower result for all attack rolls. The standard miss chance is ignored, though effects that counteract concealment also negate these abilities. The Blind-Fight feat downgrades this effect from immunity to accuracy damage to half accuracy damage (rounding down). The Improved Blind-Fight feat entirely removes immunity to accuracy damage.
Mirror Image and its like (defenses that are based on volume of attacks) are removed (or, optionally, changed to represent that most attacks involve only a single roll); it is far more difficult to produce enough attacks to eat through 6 or more images under this system.
The Manyshot feat acts as the Rapid Shot feat, but does not have an attack penalty.
Effects that rely on multiple hits (such as Rend) shall instead require the full attack roll to exceed the target's Armor Class by a factor of 5 per each additional hit required to trigger the effect. For example, an effect that requires three attacks to connect from a single full attack action is instead triggered if the result exceeds the target's Armor Class by 10 or more.
The Toughness feat adds 3 Toughness and can be taken multiple times.
This should go without saying, but the favored class bonus option to gain additional Hit Points is removed.
It is greatly recommended to limit/ban methods of casting multiple times per round, with the exception of Quicken Spell/Power, which is itself rather expensive. Arcane Fusion and Celerity are right out. Fission, Schism, Hustle Power, and Twin Power need tweaking.
Optional Rules
Virtus Animae is mathematically involved and enforces a certain play style. These optional rules allow you to tweak the experience to something more to your own tastes.
No Combos
If you want to use this system but do not like the combo-chain style of attacking (dealing just damage to an amount just under the threshold, then hitting with a big attack), remove the ability damage mechanic from the system and simply increase the amount of Constitution injury sustained when a creature is Injured. A value of 6 works well for this.
Faster Math
If you want combat calculations to go more quickly at the table (it is often useful to do this specifically for mooks and other unimportant combatants), rather than doing the usual ability damage/injury calculations, whenever a creature is Injured, that creature simply takes Constitution injury (or damage to some other thematically appropriate ability score) as such:
Constitution Injury = (Damage / Constitution Score) + 2
For example, if a 20 Toughness, 10 Constitution creature reaches 30 Damage, that creature takes 5 Constitution injury.
Grittier Experience
For a faster, grittier game suitable for low fantasy or a high-mortality setting, simply decrease the amount of Vitality given to each creature. Only a fraction of a creature's Hit Dice will translate into Vitality. Consult the following table:
Scaling Table
{table=head]
Hit Dice|
Heroic Fantasy|
Gritty Fantasy|
Semi-Realistic|
Harsh Reality
1 HD|
1 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
2 HD|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
0 Vitality|
3 HD|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
4 HD|
4 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
5 HD|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
1 Vitality|
6 HD|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
7 HD|
7 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
8 HD|
8 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
2 Vitality|
9 HD|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
10 HD|
10 Vitality|
7 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
11 HD|
11 Vitality|
8 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
3 Vitality|
12 HD|
12 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
13 HD|
13 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
14 HD|
14 Vitality|
10 Vitality|
7 Vitality|
4 Vitality|
15 HD|
15 Vitality|
11 Vitality|
7 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
16 HD|
16 Vitality|
12 Vitality|
8 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
17 HD|
17 Vitality|
12 Vitality|
8 Vitality|
5 Vitality|
18 HD|
18 Vitality|
13 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
19 HD|
19 Vitality|
14 Vitality|
9 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
20 HD|
20 Vitality|
15 Vitality|
10 Vitality|
6 Vitality|
[/table]