In my game, we use the houserule (from Unearthed Arcana, I believe) where you die at -Con instead of -10. So if your Con is 15, you die at -15.
When reading the other thread about the savage template, it suddenly occured to me that I have a decision to make. Do I have Savage creatures die at - Con or at -10? For some of them, dying at - Con is a fairly big boost in fighting power. I'm just worried about doing too much to my PC's.
Now I should mention that we run a very high-powered game. (Most of us are unabashed power gamers.) We use gestalt and a high-powered rolling system. Of course all NPC's are gestalt, all monsters have their CR lowered by 1, and I've improved the Elite Array to account for the PC's higher ability scores so the relative toughness of the adventures is preserved.
In my game, we use the houserule (from Unearthed Arcana, I believe) where you die at -Con instead of -10. So if your Con is 15, you die at -15.
When reading the other thread about the savage template, it suddenly occured to me that I have a decision to make. Do I have Savage creatures die at - Con or at -10? For some of them, dying at - Con is a fairly big boost in fighting power. I'm just worried about doing too much to my PC's.
Now I should mention that we run a very high-powered game. (Most of us are unabashed power gamers.) We use gestalt and a high-powered rolling system. Of course all NPC's are gestalt, all monsters have their CR lowered by 1, and I've improved the Elite Array to account for the PC's higher ability scores so the relative toughness of the adventures is preserved.
I've been thinking about ways to tweak my gestalt campaign too. My party is pretty powered up was well, but they were still challenged by the opponents in the Cove. The dice just weren't with them that night though - Ripclaw almost killed one PC, the Krenshars frightened half the party and sent them straight into the maze ambush, Brissa infected one of the fighters, etc.
Maybe you could engineer a 'test' encounter for the players beforehand to see how they would do. Either that or just modify the savage monkeys and see how they do with them, then adjust accordingly based on those results.
Just my two cp :)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
That's a good idea--I'll have the savage monkeys as a test encounter. I'll have them die at negative Con, and if that seems like it's gonna be too tough, for the rest of them I'll have them die at negative 10. I'll probably stick with negative Con, because my PC's are pretty uber.
We don't use gestalt rules but I did house rule that once you reach -10 you have to make a fort save each round to stay alive. The save is equal to your negative HPs. We don't use resurrection magic and save or die spells became save or go to -1 HPs. We do allow the revivify spell from the Spell Compendium but you have to cast it within one round of dying or it doesn't work. It has been working well for our group so far.