I just played a short session of Pathfinder last night. While I'm glad we're getting back into playing, I've noticed that the accounting for hit points rather annoys me, and sort of always has. I've purchased the Savage Worlds RPG over the summer, and ran a Forgotten Realms game with it once. And while I really liked the speed of the system, I missed the heaviness of D&D d20 (some people call me crazy). But I still think the wound system in savage worlds is onto something, minus a few points.
If you've ever played SW, you'd know that 'wild cards' which are basically the PCs and important NPCs/monsters, get a 3 wound threshold before they become incapacitated. While minions, lackeys, peons, and pawns can only take one abstract wound before they are incap'ed. This system relies on a 'toughness' stat to determine how much it takes for your character to take a wound (much like how AC determines how hard it is for you to be hit). Higher toughness = wounded less often, and vice versa. I LIKE this wound system, but I don't like that how many wounds a creature gets is so predictable.
SO, I was thinking, my games would run a bit faster if I didn't have to micromanage everything's Hit points. Of course, this would mean an overhaul of a lot of things, and a lot of math. I'm not sure I'm able to come up with a system like this on my own, while still keeping everything else Pathfinder.
Does anyone know any systems like this for the D&D/Pathfinder rules? Or has anyone designed their own? If not, what are your thoughts and suggestions?
I just played a short session of Pathfinder last night. While I'm glad we're getting back into playing, I've noticed that the accounting for hit points rather annoys me, and sort of always has. I've purchased the Savage Worlds RPG over the summer, and ran a Forgotten Realms game with it once. And while I really liked the speed of the system, I missed the heaviness of D&D d20 (some people call me crazy). But I still think the wound system in savage worlds is onto something, minus a few points.
If you've ever played SW, you'd know that 'wild cards' which are basically the PCs and important NPCs/monsters, get a 3 wound threshold before they become incapacitated. While minions, lackeys, peons, and pawns can only take one abstract wound before they are incap'ed. This system relies on a 'toughness' stat to determine how much it takes for your character to take a wound (much like how AC determines how hard it is for you to be hit). Higher toughness = wounded less often, and vice versa. I LIKE this wound system, but I don't like that how many wounds a creature gets is so predictable.
SO, I was thinking, my games would run a bit faster if I didn't have to micromanage everything's Hit points. Of course, this would mean an overhaul of a lot of things, and a lot of math. I'm not sure I'm able to come up with a system like this on my own, while still keeping everything else Pathfinder.
Does anyone know any systems like this for the D&D/Pathfinder rules? Or has anyone designed their own? If not, what are your thoughts and suggestions?
I dont think this is possible without a complete overhaul of the system. You are better off just playing a game with an abstract wound system. An abstract system would more or less invalidate a ton of combat feats, and most spells that do damage. How would you handle ability damage/penalties in conjunction with 'wounds'? It would also invalidate a whole mess of class features. Is a sneak attack worth an extra wound? How about rangers favored enemy? Paladins smite? Evokers intense spells?
I just don't see it as feasable. D20 revolves around hitpoints, if you try to do away with that, you pretty much have to re-write the whole system. Pathfinder is not an exception to this. It can be done, but you would have to look at every spell, every class ability, and every feat individually and decide how to fit it into the system, or how to remove/replace it.