DonAdam
Explorer
Fair warning: This post/thread will annoy you if you hate the idea of hit points as (primarily) fatigue.
I've been thinking about what it would take for the mechanics of D&D Next to primarily embrace the idea of hit points as fatigue without a complicated injury or wound/vitality system. That means identifying the problems that hit points as fatigue introduces into the fiction of the game and (ideally) simple, elegant solutions for them. What are your best ideas for simple mechanics to deal with those problems?
Here's one I've been contemplating:
The latest Q&A points to a main source of difficulty: how do you model attacks that deal different types of damage if most hit point loss is dodging, losing ground, etc.? This is a legitimate concern for the fiction at the table, but I don't think it is insurmountable. It bugs me when people use the word "abstraction" as a wand of ignoring inconsistencies.
I think tying damage types to (a) critical hits and (b) save for half damage effects resolves this problem in a straightforward way. It seems obvious how (b) works so I'll discuss (a). Crits are an easy to use, already existing mechanic that can draw a clear distinction between when a hit is a wound vs. when it is a near miss that induces fatigue.
Let's take the example of attacks that deliver poison. Such an attack would just do regular damage most of the time, but do +X poison damage on a critical hit. Most "hits" are near misses, and you only get poisoned with substantial contact. Add a minor resource cost for poisoning weapons and I think you're on your way to a sensibly balanced set of base rules.
Now to problem cases:
1) An encounter with an enemy for whom poison is thematic: This is potentially problematic because a mere 5% chance per attack of getting poisoned is usually not sufficient to shape the nature of such an encounter, especially with short 5e fights. Fortunately this can be solved by building exceptions into the relevant monsters because we can adjust the crit range. A giant scorpion might crit on a roll of 17+ with its stinger, or auto-crit against creatures it has grappled (like a rend attack). Properly designed, these sorts of conditional but very dangerous effects should reward clever play and engender different tactics against different monsters.
Monster vulnerabilities could be handled similarly, especially on larger monsters for whom (recognizing there are always exceptions) we want hit points to represent "meat." Attacks with fire might crit a troll on a roll of 18 or higher and deal an extra X damage.
2) A character who specializes in poison: How does one balance adding poison to weapons in a system with flat math? Introduce feats or class features that trade off damage on a regular attack for an increased crit range. Because the character needs to aim for soft spots or veins, his attacks are easier to dodge. Alternatively, one could trade off accuracy. What matters is that the expected damage be relatively constant.
This approach as a whole has the effect of making damage types more dramatic in the fiction and allows for more complex mechanics without slowing game play much since crits are infrequent. A flaming weapon would only deal extra fire damage on a crit; but it can be a dramatic amount of fire damage or even ongoing.
What do you think? What are the limitations of this approach? What are other problems hit points as fatigue creates, and what are potential solutions?
I've been thinking about what it would take for the mechanics of D&D Next to primarily embrace the idea of hit points as fatigue without a complicated injury or wound/vitality system. That means identifying the problems that hit points as fatigue introduces into the fiction of the game and (ideally) simple, elegant solutions for them. What are your best ideas for simple mechanics to deal with those problems?
Here's one I've been contemplating:
The latest Q&A points to a main source of difficulty: how do you model attacks that deal different types of damage if most hit point loss is dodging, losing ground, etc.? This is a legitimate concern for the fiction at the table, but I don't think it is insurmountable. It bugs me when people use the word "abstraction" as a wand of ignoring inconsistencies.
I think tying damage types to (a) critical hits and (b) save for half damage effects resolves this problem in a straightforward way. It seems obvious how (b) works so I'll discuss (a). Crits are an easy to use, already existing mechanic that can draw a clear distinction between when a hit is a wound vs. when it is a near miss that induces fatigue.
Let's take the example of attacks that deliver poison. Such an attack would just do regular damage most of the time, but do +X poison damage on a critical hit. Most "hits" are near misses, and you only get poisoned with substantial contact. Add a minor resource cost for poisoning weapons and I think you're on your way to a sensibly balanced set of base rules.
Now to problem cases:
1) An encounter with an enemy for whom poison is thematic: This is potentially problematic because a mere 5% chance per attack of getting poisoned is usually not sufficient to shape the nature of such an encounter, especially with short 5e fights. Fortunately this can be solved by building exceptions into the relevant monsters because we can adjust the crit range. A giant scorpion might crit on a roll of 17+ with its stinger, or auto-crit against creatures it has grappled (like a rend attack). Properly designed, these sorts of conditional but very dangerous effects should reward clever play and engender different tactics against different monsters.
Monster vulnerabilities could be handled similarly, especially on larger monsters for whom (recognizing there are always exceptions) we want hit points to represent "meat." Attacks with fire might crit a troll on a roll of 18 or higher and deal an extra X damage.
2) A character who specializes in poison: How does one balance adding poison to weapons in a system with flat math? Introduce feats or class features that trade off damage on a regular attack for an increased crit range. Because the character needs to aim for soft spots or veins, his attacks are easier to dodge. Alternatively, one could trade off accuracy. What matters is that the expected damage be relatively constant.
This approach as a whole has the effect of making damage types more dramatic in the fiction and allows for more complex mechanics without slowing game play much since crits are infrequent. A flaming weapon would only deal extra fire damage on a crit; but it can be a dramatic amount of fire damage or even ongoing.
What do you think? What are the limitations of this approach? What are other problems hit points as fatigue creates, and what are potential solutions?
