Kittenwolf
2015-09-22, 07:13 PM
Hey all. This is somewhere between help and a homebrew so please bear with me :)
I'm trying to put together a Vitality system for a game that's knocking around in my head, because I do like a few aspects of the system (such as being able to have threatening mooks that still go down in a couple of hits) but there's also a number of issues with the existing ones.
The way it'll be fluffed in the world I'm planning is "The Fates protect some people. Sometimes only for a short time, and sometimes Fate will briefly smile on someone in a specific situation".
ie, the PCs and big players will have Vitality/Fate 'health' and most NPCs will not, though sometimes Fate will 'throw a bone' to an NPC hard on their luck.
This only applies to Sentient things. Monstrous beings and animals would keep full HP progression (actually making them rather scarier).
The first thing is progression. Everyone would start with Health equal to their CON score but I'm still divided on whether Health or Vitality should be more based on HD, since I think "The tougher person gets looked after by Fate more" (ie, HD+Con to Vitality) would be.. strange.. to say the least.
On the other hand, HD to Health would keep large health pools.
I'm currently leaning towards:
CON score HP at level one, CON bonus to HP each level
HD plus Any stat bonus to Vitality on level up
This way particularly charismatic/smart/dexterous etc individuals will receive a higher amount of Vitality/Fate rather than just Con monkeys, but once they get to HP damage the tougher individual stays in the fight longer.
I'll also be modifying the "Crit goes straight to HP" rule to say that only Nat 20 Crits go to HP, and multipliers still go to Vitality.
Eg, you roll a nat 20 and crit with a x3 weapon. You'll do your base damage to their HP and then double the base damage to their Vitality.
If you have an extended crit range and crit on a 19, it all goes to Vitality.
This should hopefully remove the "Everyone goes crit builds!" issues.
I'm also thinking that DR will be relegated to HP damage only, and maybe should be increased for beings that have Vitality points but that'll be case by case I think.
I should probably also mention that this system is being crafted for a setting where full casters are banned for PCs (myths speak of beings that could cast high level spells but that's about it). Anyone playing a full casting class will be bumped down to Bard level spell progression, and anyone playing a non-casting (or minor casting) class gets to Gestalt.
Hopefully this should balance the tiers somewhat.
So yeah, that's my current ideas/planning, critiques? Any major holes people can spot? Any ideas for complementary rules or pitfalls that might crop up?
I'm trying to put together a Vitality system for a game that's knocking around in my head, because I do like a few aspects of the system (such as being able to have threatening mooks that still go down in a couple of hits) but there's also a number of issues with the existing ones.
The way it'll be fluffed in the world I'm planning is "The Fates protect some people. Sometimes only for a short time, and sometimes Fate will briefly smile on someone in a specific situation".
ie, the PCs and big players will have Vitality/Fate 'health' and most NPCs will not, though sometimes Fate will 'throw a bone' to an NPC hard on their luck.
This only applies to Sentient things. Monstrous beings and animals would keep full HP progression (actually making them rather scarier).
The first thing is progression. Everyone would start with Health equal to their CON score but I'm still divided on whether Health or Vitality should be more based on HD, since I think "The tougher person gets looked after by Fate more" (ie, HD+Con to Vitality) would be.. strange.. to say the least.
On the other hand, HD to Health would keep large health pools.
I'm currently leaning towards:
CON score HP at level one, CON bonus to HP each level
HD plus Any stat bonus to Vitality on level up
This way particularly charismatic/smart/dexterous etc individuals will receive a higher amount of Vitality/Fate rather than just Con monkeys, but once they get to HP damage the tougher individual stays in the fight longer.
I'll also be modifying the "Crit goes straight to HP" rule to say that only Nat 20 Crits go to HP, and multipliers still go to Vitality.
Eg, you roll a nat 20 and crit with a x3 weapon. You'll do your base damage to their HP and then double the base damage to their Vitality.
If you have an extended crit range and crit on a 19, it all goes to Vitality.
This should hopefully remove the "Everyone goes crit builds!" issues.
I'm also thinking that DR will be relegated to HP damage only, and maybe should be increased for beings that have Vitality points but that'll be case by case I think.
I should probably also mention that this system is being crafted for a setting where full casters are banned for PCs (myths speak of beings that could cast high level spells but that's about it). Anyone playing a full casting class will be bumped down to Bard level spell progression, and anyone playing a non-casting (or minor casting) class gets to Gestalt.
Hopefully this should balance the tiers somewhat.
So yeah, that's my current ideas/planning, critiques? Any major holes people can spot? Any ideas for complementary rules or pitfalls that might crop up?