The Gaming Den

I've been kicking around a new idea how to deal with the hit point crap.

First things first, there are no such things as healing surges. Everyone has an enormous pile of hit points, which is about equal to what everyone would have if they had all of their healing surges converted to hit points at once. Let's say that our level 1 fighter has 80 hit points now.

People have a 'HP budget' of how much hit point damage that they can take. If you go over this range you start suffering even more damage. For example, our fighter has a HP budget of 30 hit points out of 80. If he goes over his budget a bunch of bad mojo starts happening to him, like dropping his defenses, suffering extra damage (double at first, then quadruple and triple), so on. When you take damage, it reduces your absolute hit point limit and also reduces your budget by an equal amount. For example, if our fighter suffers 10 damage in a single attack, he has 70 hit points remaining and a hp budget of 20.

Effects like second winds, healing words, and so-on increase his hit-point budget to a limit defined by his level or ability scores or whatever. So after the first battle he has 60 hit points total and only has 10 hit points left in his budget. The warlord drops an inspiring word on him, which increases his budget to 30 hit points.

You get your hit points back after an extended rest. There are very few (or no) game effects that actually give you back hit points. 'Healing' in this game lets you tap into a greater reserve of strength rather than actually repairing your body. After a certain point people don't have any more healing left in them and nothing helps--they need to rest or have some out-of-combat effect or whatever.

How is this different then the system that 4ed uses? They just have the negative effect be "no actions+potential death." This seems to hurt people that would normally have "healing surges" or whatever.

Oh, also, if you take damage past your hit point budget in one action you don't receive any penalties for that attack. Only damage accrued after you've gone over budget counts.

How is this different then the system that 4ed uses? They just have the negative effect be "no actions+potential death." This seems to hurt people that would normally have "healing surges" or whatever.

This is A) to reduce peoples' problem with the idea that a person regains health by being yelled at or catching their breath but magic is okay and B) to prevent peoples' problem with the idea that a fighter can be reduced to almost zero or even past zero hit points in one battle but as long as they take a ten minute break they're fine.

Under this system, your actual health doesn't increase by being yelled at or whatever, it just increases your ability to tap into inner reserves of strength.

I mean, I don't have a problem with healing surges or godsticks but a lot of people do. So.

Lago PARANOIA wrote:Oh, also, if you take damage past your hit point budget in one action you don't receive any penalties for that attack. Only damage accrued after you've gone over budget counts.

Okay, that would make it significantly less likely to care up a fifth or more of your HP in one attack.

This is A) to reduce peoples' problem with the idea that a person regains health by being yelled at or catching their breath but magic is okay and B) to prevent peoples' problem with the idea that a fighter can be reduced to almost zero or even past zero hit points in one battle but as long as they take a ten minute break they're fine.

Under this system, your actual health doesn't increase by being yelled at or whatever, it just increases your ability to tap into inner reserves of strength.

I mean, I don't have a problem with healing surges or godsticks but a lot of people do. So.

Aren't HP an abstraction anyway. I don't think that not being at zero HP from that last sword to the gut will ever really placate the verisimilitude fans.

Just to play devil's advocate:
A) Why are they concerned with one version of refresh over another? If being inspired allows you to tap a reserve of inner strength then why can't that logic apply with the current system.
B) He could be almost knocked out or completely exhausted. Either of those would be a dangerous position to be in on a battlefield (which will lead to dying as you are trampled and absently kicked), but can be recovered from by catching your breath and bandaging up (well, not really, but the characters are superhuman anyway so they might have the ability).

What are you hoping to accomplish or simulate with this? I'm not really sure how to critique it, since I'm unsure what the actual objective is.

What are you hoping to accomplish or simulate with this? I'm not really sure how to critique it, since I'm unsure what the actual objective is.

Make cosmetic adjustments to the system so people won't be tempted to screw over people who don't have the special effects they want for a hp-regaining effect.

I don't have a problem with the healing surge system in abstract. I hate the idea of the healer/leader role and I hate multiple-encounter workdays, but if you insist on having these things I guess this is what you have to go with.