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Re: Rules Nugget (D&D): Real Hit Points for Real People
Thu, 2007-10-25 22:23 — tussock (not verified)Star Wars d20 used Con for Hit Points, forever. HP for level were called Vitality. Until you ran out of Vitality only surprise attacks and critical hit could damage hit points. It caught on for a while in various games, then died out as ever more PCs went down to crits and surprise rounds at mid-high level.
DnD presented optional rules in Unearthed Arcana that did similar.
The newer Star Wars Saga edition starts "heroic" characters (all PCs and leader-type NPCs) with triple maximum class HP, 18/24/30 + (0-4) Con bonus. Weapons are more deadly than DnD for average characters, but still weak compared to a 1/2 Orc Barbarian with a greataxe. SWS characters automatically do more damage with weapons as they improve (+ half level, over 3d8 base for a blaster).
4th edition DnD is going to copy that to some extent, at least for HP.
That's mostly copied from Iron Heroes d20, I think. Seems a lot of people were skipping 1st and 2nd level play, so characters are made start out more like 3rd level for survivability.
Negative HPs are gradually being changed too, typically to be used as a fixed 9 round counter for those who've run out of HP, with every attack while helpless like that needing a save to avoid dying but not otherwise affecting the counter.
Personally I've house ruled similar for a while. Heroes start with 2nd level hit points (mooks still only get around 5), and once you've run out you start suffering limited amounts of Con damage, needing a save each round to stay active, and need to save or die vs any attacks (including the one that removed your last HP). Con can also be lightly damaged by spells and critical hits.
Sounds more and more like GURPS, really. 8]