Mjolnirbear
2019-04-26, 12:52 AM
I had reviewed Man_Over_Game's Pain brew a while ago. One of my players regularly asks to make a called shot, to which I usually say no (and they are very accepting of my reasoning). I had previously tried, then scrapped, an effort to make a serious wound system, which simply did not work.
Today on Reddit, someone asked about how to make Medicine relevant, one of my particular pet peeves of this edition. All of a sudden, all these things combined to form CAPTAIN PLANET a new way for me to kill all these birds with one brew.
It modifies Man_Over_Game's brew (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23622972&postcount=1) a bit and adds some details. Any errors or misunderstandings regarding his brew are my own.
SIGNIFICANT WOUNDS (Working Name)
Called Shot: 1 Special Attack Action
Make a weapon attack roll with Disadvantage. When you take the attack action, if you have advantage on the roll, you can make a called shot once per turn. If it hits, it does damage as normal, but do not include "additional damage" sources such as Sneak Attack, Smite, Sharpshooter, or Rage. If *both* results would hit, you inflict a Significant Wound in addition to your damage.
Note: I'd done a lot of homebrewing in the past, and most of it ended up too complicated. I wanted something simple. I considered a contested roll, but that's solidly on the side of the PCs. Man_Over_Game's version struck me as not simple--action economy wise, and numbers-in-your-head-wise. However, I'm not great at judging balance, and this is where I would appreciate the most input. Yes, I know this could get gamey in things like Darkness, but I'm not actually sure that's a bad thing.
Significant Wounds:
While cosmetically a Significant Wound can be described as a disorienting blow to the head, a heavily bleeding wound, a sprained or broken bone, a strike to the groin or kidney, or something else, practically it has a measured effect, which replicates (and stacks with) the Exhaustion mechanic (except that if you reach level 6 and they are not all levels of Exhaustion, you fall unconscious instead of dying). Thus, if you have 2 Significant Wounds and 1 level of Exhaustion, it affects you as though you had 3 levels of Exhaustion.
Other sources for Significant Wounds:
Reviving from 0 HP or coming back from the dead.
Critical Hits (you can choose to deal normal damage and the enemy automatically suffers a Significant Wound, or deal extra damage as normal.)
Massive sources of damage (Falling, crushed under a boulder, etc).
Treating a Significant Wound:
A Significant Wound is too complicated to treat while fighting. A character proficient in Medicine can make a DC 15 Medicine check to remove a Significant Wound during a short rest, which represents sewing up a cut, setting a break, reducing swelling, reapplying a poultice or bandage, or the like. A Healing Kit grants advantage on this check. A Long Rest while under the care of such a person removes all Significant Wounds.
Additional Medicine Skill uses:
* A Medicine check is used to see how badly a creature is wounded (DC 10, Bonus Action to look the enemy over).
* Find Weakness: Make a Medicine Check as a bonus action to look over a wounded creature, contested by your target’s Constitution (Deception). Until the beginning of your next turn your next attack has Advantage, or their save against your Called Shot has disadvantage. Note: this is intended to make Medicine a worthy choice for all characters. If it allowed you to point out the weakness to others, which is logically not a problem, Medicine would become a must for support characters and no one else would need it.
Today on Reddit, someone asked about how to make Medicine relevant, one of my particular pet peeves of this edition. All of a sudden, all these things combined to form CAPTAIN PLANET a new way for me to kill all these birds with one brew.
It modifies Man_Over_Game's brew (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23622972&postcount=1) a bit and adds some details. Any errors or misunderstandings regarding his brew are my own.
SIGNIFICANT WOUNDS (Working Name)
Called Shot: 1 Special Attack Action
Make a weapon attack roll with Disadvantage. When you take the attack action, if you have advantage on the roll, you can make a called shot once per turn. If it hits, it does damage as normal, but do not include "additional damage" sources such as Sneak Attack, Smite, Sharpshooter, or Rage. If *both* results would hit, you inflict a Significant Wound in addition to your damage.
Note: I'd done a lot of homebrewing in the past, and most of it ended up too complicated. I wanted something simple. I considered a contested roll, but that's solidly on the side of the PCs. Man_Over_Game's version struck me as not simple--action economy wise, and numbers-in-your-head-wise. However, I'm not great at judging balance, and this is where I would appreciate the most input. Yes, I know this could get gamey in things like Darkness, but I'm not actually sure that's a bad thing.
Significant Wounds:
While cosmetically a Significant Wound can be described as a disorienting blow to the head, a heavily bleeding wound, a sprained or broken bone, a strike to the groin or kidney, or something else, practically it has a measured effect, which replicates (and stacks with) the Exhaustion mechanic (except that if you reach level 6 and they are not all levels of Exhaustion, you fall unconscious instead of dying). Thus, if you have 2 Significant Wounds and 1 level of Exhaustion, it affects you as though you had 3 levels of Exhaustion.
Other sources for Significant Wounds:
Reviving from 0 HP or coming back from the dead.
Critical Hits (you can choose to deal normal damage and the enemy automatically suffers a Significant Wound, or deal extra damage as normal.)
Massive sources of damage (Falling, crushed under a boulder, etc).
Treating a Significant Wound:
A Significant Wound is too complicated to treat while fighting. A character proficient in Medicine can make a DC 15 Medicine check to remove a Significant Wound during a short rest, which represents sewing up a cut, setting a break, reducing swelling, reapplying a poultice or bandage, or the like. A Healing Kit grants advantage on this check. A Long Rest while under the care of such a person removes all Significant Wounds.
Additional Medicine Skill uses:
* A Medicine check is used to see how badly a creature is wounded (DC 10, Bonus Action to look the enemy over).
* Find Weakness: Make a Medicine Check as a bonus action to look over a wounded creature, contested by your target’s Constitution (Deception). Until the beginning of your next turn your next attack has Advantage, or their save against your Called Shot has disadvantage. Note: this is intended to make Medicine a worthy choice for all characters. If it allowed you to point out the weakness to others, which is logically not a problem, Medicine would become a must for support characters and no one else would need it.