EL HUEVADOR
2007-11-28, 06:50 AM
Hey all.
I'm about to start DMing a campaign this week. It's a heavily homebrewed setup. There's this whole thing about dreams and magic and all that fantasy jazz.
While asleep (only in IC terms, hopefully), the players can go romp around dreamscapes and slay dragons and do other heroic activities.
While awake, the players are supposed to be occupied by unraveling this convoluted mysterious conspiracy plot I cooked up; and occasionally run away screaming from the BBEG who's, at least in the 'real' world, capable of eating them alive.
A big theme in the game is that it's a stupid idea to try and fight the bad guys face to face so you'd be better off by going Freddy Krueger and killing them in their dreams.
I don't want to just make everyone else more powerful than the PCs, but I need to get the message across that combat in the 'real world' is risky business.
What I came up with was a variant on massive damage that makes fights in the regular universe short, high stakes, and extremely one sided in favor of the person who strikes first. It applies to everyone, so it's not like the baddies are getting godhax, but (or at least I'm hoping) the players aren't going to want to gamble with their lives unnecessarily. The rule doesn't apply to the dreamworld, so the plan is, it makes fighting while awake even more unappealing since you can have the same fight in an environment where you stand a much better chance of walking away from a fight that didn't go your way.
Anyways I've read a couple threads about how poorly implemented house rules can scare off players, so I figured I would ask for a little proofreading before I show this to the group.
Thoughts on this?
"Massive Damage" is really a misnomer in this case; it's a relative term for the amount of abuse the human body can take at once before becoming overwhelmed. . Massive damage can actually be a very small injury if you're severely injured or simply physically unfit.
Massive damage checks are triggered whenever you lose more than a third of your *CURRENT* HP at once. It's the sudden shock that does you in, not the actual wound. If a character has 15 HP and gets hit for more than 5 damage from one action, the player (or DM if it's an NPC) must make a massive damage check.
A character who succeeds the check can continue to fight as normal. A character who fails the massive damage check goes into shock from the stress of the wound. That character immediately falls to -1 HP and is unconscious.
Massive damage checks work as follows:
d20+Fortitude Save vs. DC. DC= 5+the attacking weapon or spell's d type
A shortsword deals 1d6 damage, so an MD check caused by a shortsword would would have a DC of 11.
A revolver deals 2d4 damage, so an MD check caused by a revolver would would have a DC of 13.
A reversed Lesser Word of Nurturing deals 2d6 damage, so an MD check caused by a LWoN would have a DC of 17.
Critical hits do not effect the outcome of a MD check.
If Power Attack is used to cause massive damage, its bonus can be added to the DC of the massive damage check. The bonus from Power Attack cannot exceed your character's strength bonus.
If Sneak Attack or Skirmish is used to cause massive damage, the player can add the bonus (the result of the dice rolled) to the massive damage check DC.
If a Swashbuckler's Insightful Strike ability is used to trigger the massive damage check, the check's DC is increased by the Swashbuckler's intelligence bonus x 2
A magic user wanting to increase the MD DC of his/her attacks is advised to look into the Empower line of metamagic feats.
The feat "Toughness" now also gives a +3 to saves against MD, in addition to its regular bonuses. Like before, you can take Toughness multiple time and its effects will stack.
Killing people is inherently lethal, yo. For better or for worse, if you're fighting while awake, expect combatants to start dropping like flies after the first couple rounds of combat. This is also the reason why most of the fighting, by both the good guys and the bad guys, is being done by proxy in dreamworlds: It's simply a safer way to harass and harm your enemies.
Thanks.
I'm about to start DMing a campaign this week. It's a heavily homebrewed setup. There's this whole thing about dreams and magic and all that fantasy jazz.
While asleep (only in IC terms, hopefully), the players can go romp around dreamscapes and slay dragons and do other heroic activities.
While awake, the players are supposed to be occupied by unraveling this convoluted mysterious conspiracy plot I cooked up; and occasionally run away screaming from the BBEG who's, at least in the 'real' world, capable of eating them alive.
A big theme in the game is that it's a stupid idea to try and fight the bad guys face to face so you'd be better off by going Freddy Krueger and killing them in their dreams.
I don't want to just make everyone else more powerful than the PCs, but I need to get the message across that combat in the 'real world' is risky business.
What I came up with was a variant on massive damage that makes fights in the regular universe short, high stakes, and extremely one sided in favor of the person who strikes first. It applies to everyone, so it's not like the baddies are getting godhax, but (or at least I'm hoping) the players aren't going to want to gamble with their lives unnecessarily. The rule doesn't apply to the dreamworld, so the plan is, it makes fighting while awake even more unappealing since you can have the same fight in an environment where you stand a much better chance of walking away from a fight that didn't go your way.
Anyways I've read a couple threads about how poorly implemented house rules can scare off players, so I figured I would ask for a little proofreading before I show this to the group.
Thoughts on this?
"Massive Damage" is really a misnomer in this case; it's a relative term for the amount of abuse the human body can take at once before becoming overwhelmed. . Massive damage can actually be a very small injury if you're severely injured or simply physically unfit.
Massive damage checks are triggered whenever you lose more than a third of your *CURRENT* HP at once. It's the sudden shock that does you in, not the actual wound. If a character has 15 HP and gets hit for more than 5 damage from one action, the player (or DM if it's an NPC) must make a massive damage check.
A character who succeeds the check can continue to fight as normal. A character who fails the massive damage check goes into shock from the stress of the wound. That character immediately falls to -1 HP and is unconscious.
Massive damage checks work as follows:
d20+Fortitude Save vs. DC. DC= 5+the attacking weapon or spell's d type
A shortsword deals 1d6 damage, so an MD check caused by a shortsword would would have a DC of 11.
A revolver deals 2d4 damage, so an MD check caused by a revolver would would have a DC of 13.
A reversed Lesser Word of Nurturing deals 2d6 damage, so an MD check caused by a LWoN would have a DC of 17.
Critical hits do not effect the outcome of a MD check.
If Power Attack is used to cause massive damage, its bonus can be added to the DC of the massive damage check. The bonus from Power Attack cannot exceed your character's strength bonus.
If Sneak Attack or Skirmish is used to cause massive damage, the player can add the bonus (the result of the dice rolled) to the massive damage check DC.
If a Swashbuckler's Insightful Strike ability is used to trigger the massive damage check, the check's DC is increased by the Swashbuckler's intelligence bonus x 2
A magic user wanting to increase the MD DC of his/her attacks is advised to look into the Empower line of metamagic feats.
The feat "Toughness" now also gives a +3 to saves against MD, in addition to its regular bonuses. Like before, you can take Toughness multiple time and its effects will stack.
Killing people is inherently lethal, yo. For better or for worse, if you're fighting while awake, expect combatants to start dropping like flies after the first couple rounds of combat. This is also the reason why most of the fighting, by both the good guys and the bad guys, is being done by proxy in dreamworlds: It's simply a safer way to harass and harm your enemies.
Thanks.