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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other [3.5] My take on : Vitality & Wound Points plus Armour as DR



Sarethus
2017-01-09, 02:59 PM
Hello all,

I've always been intrigued by the Vitality and Wound and Armour as DR points system and managed to convince my table to give a shot in our next game so I'm posting my rules for on thse systems and hoping for some nice feedback before the weekend.

Vitality and Wound Points System:


Fatigue / Stun: Character only becomes fatigued and/or stunned if they have lost at least 10% of their total WP. This prevents creatures such as dragons from becoming stunned/fatigued upon suffering 1 WP of damage.


Critical Hit: A critical hit now allows an Attacker to choose between:-

Not worrying about VP and instead damaging the Defender's WP directly but DR due to armour will still apply in this case (see Armour as DR below).
Damage VP but bypass the Defender's DR due to armour.
If the Defender has no VP left, the critical hit does WP damage but bypasses DR due to armour.
Note: Fortification enchantments do not prevent VP damage from critical hits but do prevent direct damage to WP due to critical hits. If the Defender has no VP left then they suffer from WP damage as normal (DR is not bypassed though).


Natural Healing : Healing rates are changed as follows :-

Vitality Points : Characters heal 1 VP per hour of rest per character level.
Wound Points : Characters heal 1 WP per full night's rest (8 hours) plus an additional WP for every ten character levels (Wounds are difficult to heal). This doubles in case of complete bed rest for 24 hours.
Heal Skill : May double above rates with long term care.


Fast Healing : Will affect VP as normal. Once VP are fully healed, Fast Healing will begin affecting WP at the rate of X per hour where X is the rate of healing. This is more to give Fast Healing an effect out of combat then inside combat.


Subdual Damage : Does not matter in case of VP (calculate subdual VP damage like normal VP damage). Subdual damage is tracked separately when considering WP. Once subdual damage is greater then a character's current WP then the character is subdued / unconscious like normal.

Characters need to select if they are doing non-lethal or lethal damage before they make an attack roll as their choice will matter if they make a critical hit.
Merciful enchant still does 1d6 bonus damage in case of VP (it is just not tracked separately.) It also does 1d6 bonus damage in case of WP, this is tracked separately.


Deadly Narrative Damage : In certain situations, DM's may rule that characters may by pass VP entirely and even discard DR if appropriate. While there is no specific rule for these cases, the following examples should be used as a guideline:

A Ninja holding a dagger up to a character's neck. In this case the Ninja may by pass VP and DR and do direct WP damage. (DM may rule that the character simply dies or is near death also.)
A Rogue brings a blackjack down on an unsuspecting guard's head. In this case the Rogue by passes VP and may by pass DR if the guard was not wearing a helmet or equivilent. If the guard was wearing head protection then DR would still apply.


Epic Levels: Upon reaching Epic Level (Level 20), all character's WP will increase by 50%. Example: The Warrior with 14 Con (and 14 WP) will have a total of 21 WP upon reaching level 20. This makes a nice capstone for PC's and helps them in Epic levels. This is untested though and I am unsure whether to apply this to NPC's.



Armour as DR:


Base DR is calculated as in Unearthed Arcana except AC is not reduced by DR and direct enhancement bonuses to AC count towards DR calculation. Example: A +4 Fullplate with AC 12 (8+4) would grant DR 6. This keeps AC relavent and Power Attack is not any easier to use then it is now.


A Character's DR is also increased depending on their Character Level (uptil level 21) and effective category of Armour worn (if they are proficient with the armour type).

Heavy Armour grants 1/2 of a of a Character's level as DR rounded down.
Medium Armour grants 1/3 of a character's level as DR rounded down.
Light Armour grants 1/4 of a character's level as DR rounded down.
Robes, Shields and items such as Bracers of Armour (or Mage Armour)do not grant any DR from character level.
Note: DR bonus from character level stops increasing after level 21.
Note: Flat-footed or other wise immobilised (denied Dex bonus) characters do not get this character level DR bonus. This bonus is supposed to represent a character's skill in taking a blow with his armour.
Note: Effective Armour Category means any change of Armour Category (whether due to material or enchantment etc) counts in this calculation. (This gives characters motivation to not use mithral and use heavier armours.)

A Mithral Breastplate would count as light armour for calculating DR.
A Fullplate with the Half-Weight enchantment would count as Medium Armour for calculating DR.



Total DR would thus be Base DR + Character Level DR. Examples :- Full Plate at Level 20

At Level 1 Chain Shirt would give DR = (Base) 2 + (Level) 1 = 3. At Level 10, DR would = (Base) 2 + (Level) 2 = 4. At Level 20, DR would = (Base) 2 + (Level) 5 = 7. If it was a +4 Chain Shirt then Base DR would increase to 4.
At Level 1 Breast Plate would give DR = (Base) 2 + (Level) 1 = 3. At Level 10, DR would = (Base) 2 + (Level) 3 = 5. At Level 21, DR would = (Base) 2 + (Level) 7 = 9. If it was a +4 Breast Plate then Base DR would increase to 4.
At Level 1 Full Plate would give DR = (Base) 4 + (Level) 2 = 6. At Level 10, DR would = (Base) 4 + (Level) 5 = 9. At Level 20, DR would = (Base) 4 + (Level) 10 = 14. If it was a +4 Full Plate then Base DR would increase to 6.


Critical Hit: Critical Hits may bypass DR due to armour or character level as mentioned above in Vitality and Wound Points system.


Epic Levels : Epic characters and monsters may also ignore Base and Armour DR of non-epic characters and monsters if there is at least a 5 level difference between them.

A Level 21 character can ignore the DR of a Lv15 or below but cannot ignore the DR of Lv16 or up.
A Level 24 character can ignore the DR of a Lv18 or below but cannot ignore the DR of Lv19 or up.
A Level 27 character can ignore the DR of a Lv19 or below but cannot ignore the DR of Lv20 or up.


Natural Armour : Bestows DR of 1/- per every 4 points of Natural Armour. So a dragon with a base Natural Armour 24 would gain DR 6/- and still have Natural AC 24.

Note: I am uncertain whether to give monsters a DR based on CR or HD like akin to character level or how much it should be.