Pan Dion's page

I'm by no means a rules expert.. and I apologize for the long post. I just like to play the game.. Someone else is usually the gamemaster. That being said.. Armor has always bugged me. An over simplified example of why is as follows.. Take a character.. class/race doesn't matter really.. Make one version of this character 1st level, and another say 10th level (basically the same exact character.. same starting stats and equipment etc.. just at different levels). They are the same character and wearing the same armor (yes, I know characters can upgrade equipment and get stat improvements etc.. but bear with me). It doesn't make sense to me that the 10th level version of the character isn't harder to hit than the 1st level version. I think the 10th level character should have learned by combat experience etc., how to avoid being hit, use their armor to it's potential and position himself/herself so it's a glancing or deflected blow etc... and be a bit better at this than the same character at 1st level. What I'm getting at.. is it makes sense for the character to improve his/her Armor Class as he/she advances, based on improved skill in combat.

I've heard argued that the character's increased Hit Points sort of account for this, in that the higher level character can take more of a beating and stay in the fight.. basically.. the Hit Points soaking up the glancing blows etc. In a way, I can sort of understand that.. But it still bugs me. Which gets me going on Hit Points (belongs in another thread, so I'll be brief). Increasing how much physical damage a character can take as he/she advances in level bugs me. I would think it would make more sense to break Hit Points into two different stats. Say one stat is the actual physical damage the character can take before dying. This stat does not increase with level. Another stat would be for keeping track of wear and tear, non-life threatening injuries etc., and would increase with level. Damage taken in combat would come off the wear and tear stat first, and when that hits zero you start taking the real damage (Critical hits might make more sense to affect the physical damage instead..). Then healing would be at differing rates, but occur at the same time. More time is needed to heal the real damage versus the wear and tear, which might cut down on the getting badly injured and having to call it a day problem so you can heal (which can hurt game time). Enough on that.. but it is sort of related to the Armor problem.

Back to the Armor.. What is the real purpose of Armor anyway? When you really think about it.. it's purpose is not really to make the wearer more difficult to hit (in a way, it can actually make it more difficult to move and avoid the blow in the first place.). It's purpose is to reduce the damage taken by the wearer when they do get hit. Silly example.. But if a character holds still while you clobber them, the Armor isn't going to make you miss.. it's going to protect the wearer to some degree from the hit. I've heard of rules that apply Damage Reduction to armor etc., which seems like a good idea and makes sense to me. In a game though, keeping track of Damage Reduction can be a pain. Game wise, having too many blows not connect could make some combat take too much game time.. so there are playability trade-offs to consider as well. I'd like to see some kind of change to the rules or some alternate rules to take these things into account more. Any thoughts?

Hit Points are one of those game mechanics that sort of bug me. It's interesting that most of the comments are about how to roll or how not to roll them, and no comments on Hit Points themselves. Scrapping a character due to a bad Hit Point role is not a good option in games that I play. Suddently popping in with a new character just isn't something we do, and doesn't always make sense game flow wise. Typically in our games, we start a character at 1st level, and continue to use the SAME character and ADVANCE in level until the game is over (often a campaign) and the character is retired (average of 12th level or so..). Yes, a bad Hit Point role can hurt a bit, but you get another shot at it the next level increase. It's just something you deal with in how you play your character. Bad rolls are reduced by throwing out a roll of one etc.., and a house rule of only allowing just so low a number at low levels etc. (and by a certain level, you roll it you got it). I'm not the gamemaster, so I can't quote the system used.. but I'm sure it's similar to some already mentioned. Overall, since we advance a level at a time.. the rolls often balance out. Some good.. some not so good.. That's all I have to say at the moment on rolling Hit Points. Now on to Hit Points themselves...

Increasing how much actual physical damage a character can take as he/she advances in level bugs me a bit (I mentioned this in a related post about Armor), but I understand an increase is necessary in order to take on more powerful opponents that deal more damage. What I'm getting at is.. if you get run through with a sword.. well.. I would think you'd be pretty hosed. Why would the same character at a higher level be OK after that? I would think it would make more sense to break Hit Points into two different stats (Yeah, I know.. another stat to keep track of.. What a pain!). Say one stat is the actual physical damage the character can take before dying. This stat does not increase with level and remains constant. Another stat would be for keeping track of wear and tear, non-life threatening injuries etc., and would increase with level (die roll). Damage taken in combat would come off the wear and tear stat first, and when that hits zero you start taking the real damage (Critical hits might make more sense to affect the physical damage instead..). Then healing would be at differing rates, but occur at the same time. More time would be needed to heal the real damage versus the wear and tear, which might cut down on the getting badly injured and having to call it a day problem so you can heal (which can hurt game time). Afterall, it can be a pain game wise (for both players and gamemasters) to get into a preliminary combat that the gamemaster intended to be something the party could handle and still move on to what he/she had planned next.. And as can happen in combat (and understand.. I'm not complaining about this happening), the party rolls badly and they end up way more banged up than intended and have to go back to town (call it a day, leave.. etc.). Splitting Hit Points into two different stats that recover at different rates might help this a little. If you took mostly damage to the wear and tear stat in a fight, this damage will heal faster and you can rest a bit and move on rather than call it a day. But it also accounts for taking serious injury, which heals at a slower rate and might make it necessary for you to call it a day. It also makes a little more sense to me to have a non-changing amount of actual physical damage a character can take, while providing a mechanic that allows the total overall damage a character can take to increase with level advancement, which allows higher level characters to take on those more powerful opponents that dish out more damage. Any thoughts?