HP System Change (opinions please)

[SpawnOfMorbo]

In a current game I'm testing out the following rules. I don't really need help changing them but I would like input for how they could effect the game as we go on (things I may have missed). Do note that we don't play over level 8 or 10.

HP

All damage taken by any effect (magic, martial, ranged) is Non-Lethal. Once you hit Non-Lethal Damage = HP you start taking lethal damage and are staggered (changed old condituon) and may take 1 move action + 1 other action per round but never a full round action. When your Non-Lethal Damage = Max HP and your HP drops to 0 you are dead.

This essentially gives players 2x the HP but if you are on the second leg then you are at a disadvantage. Monsters will not use this rule, players always (unless otherwise stated by player) count their attacks as lethal.

Some bosses and scary creatures deal lethal damage as normal.

Healing works on Lethal damage first if magical then non-lethal damage second. Magic from resting or other effects that aren't spells work on nonlethal first and then lethal second.

When resting for (DM specified minutes... Usually 10 or so) you heal your HD + Con Score in Non-Lethal HP. Resting or doing minor work for a full day allows you to heal lethal and non-lethal damage in the same way. Resting for each additional day increasing the damage healed by both (Non-Lethal and Lethal) by your ECL x additional days spent resting.

So this represents those hero's that spend a few days resting and come back from having all their bones broken or what knot.

So how can this backfire? Well other than "omg this kills gritty adventures haha :). (I like gritty adventures but I don't run them, I tend to run fantastical fantasy type games... Where breaking real world rules isn't uncommon for nonmagical hero's.).

[GreatDane]

Just looking for potential problems, it seems like martial-types have it pretty rough using this system, particularly melee characters that rely on full attacks. These are the PCs most likely to take damage (and thus gain the staggered condition), but also the characters most in need of their full-round actions.

Compare to caster-types, who are rarely on the front lines, and typically don't need their full-round actions unless they're casting summon monster or using metamagic (if the PC is a sorcerer), or to ranged-types, who may or may not need their full-round actions (thanks to feats like Manyshot), but are also less prone to taking damage.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Just looking for potential problems, it seems like martial-types have it pretty rough using this system, particularly melee characters that rely on full attacks. These are the PCs most likely to take damage (and thus gain the staggered condition), but also the characters most in need of their full-round actions.

Compare to caster-types, who are rarely on the front lines, and typically don't need their full-round actions unless they're casting summon monster or using metamagic (if the PC is a sorcerer), or to ranged-types, who may or may not need their full-round actions (thanks to feats like Manyshot), but are also less prone to taking damage.


I knew I forgot to add something.

While staggered spell casting is disrupted, along with anything nor permanently created by spell casting before or after staggering occurred.

I'll grab my notes and report on this soon.

But while staggered a caster can't cast spells that take 1 round or more (they can't use the start full round casting standard action either*), and are limited from immediate actions and swift action spells unless they give up their standard action.

I believe I had something else for casters... I'm just drawling a blank.

*Yes in the rules you can, if casting a spell that is a full round action, use a standard action to start casting then move with your move action, then on the next round use a standard action to cast the spell and move again. This staggered would get rid of that.

[Summerstorm]

Hm, i recently started in a new pathfinder group where the DM homebrewed a similar system - partly based on the Vitality-Points of the Star-Wars D20 system, i reckon.

Rules were:
You have Con+First Hit-Die+Feats hitpoint (So a Fighter has like 16 con, 10 Fighter =26 HP)
You also have Endurance points: Con Mod + Half die+rolled half die (So pretty much what you would have as HP in the normal system -ever growing).

Spells which allow reflex and such damage-spells go half-half into both, if you save its all endurance, or nothing with evasion. Critical Hits are only on a 20, but you get extra-damage for critrange and multiplier - a crit is damage to Endurance AND HP.

Healing: You heal 10% HP and 100% Endurance naturally for resting a night, Healing spells heal normal endurance, but minimum for HP (Cure light heals 2 HP, Cure Medium 4 HP etc.) Endurance you can get instantly after an encounter i think 20% or such, and once a day you can get "second wind" +40%.

This of course works only for low-level games (We are told in this world we will have a maximum Level of about 6-8)

So far fights we had were longer but more tense and healing is effective, but not as vastly supperior to just having good healthcare and taking a few days off *g*. (Although he is playing with scars and infections and such.)