One of the perennial problems of D&D-type games is the 'death by cheese grater' damage model. This is going to bite us on the ass in Iron Kingdoms.
This is a proposed rule to 'fix' the problem for settings where no matter what level you are, a firearm should remain a threat.
1) On a critical success, the target makes a Fortitude save. The save DC is 25 + the crit damage multiplier. The AC bonus for their actual physical armor (but not shield) adds to their Fort save, so someone wearing a breastplate gets +6 to their Fort save against criticals.
If the save succeeds, multiply the variable damage amount and add any plusses; it's taken against hit points. If the save fails, multiply the variable damage amount of the weapon normally and apply it as Con damage. Any fixed damage amount is applied towards hit points.
In either case, only the variable damage amount is multiplied by the critical multiplier. Any damage that is never multiplied by a critical is applied to the hit point total.
In the case of Vital Strike, if a critical is rolled, the weapon does its normal critical damage as Con damage, and its Vital Strike modified damage to hit points.
As an optional rule: Characters may trade multiples of +4 in fixed damage to roll an extra 1d6 of variable damage. This decision is made before all attacks are made and is applicable to all attack rolls. This variable damage would be treated as 'variable damage' for the critical hit rule.
2) Because critical damage is lessened, fights will take a few rounds longer than they otherwise would. On the other hand, crits are MUCH MUCH nastier.
I propose the following mechanic - as a player choice - at character leveling time. Rather than get their normal hit die added, they get a number of 'crit re-rolls'. These crit-rerolls are usable only once per crit that you get hit by. They can also be used to stabilize you at 0 hit points or 0 Con. Once used, these re-rolls are gone.
The basic number of crit rerolls gotten is equal to the die size over 6. So a d6 or d8 gets 1 re-roll, a d10 or d12 gets two.
I think that is too confusing. So confusing, in fact, that I don't really understand it.
Are you suggesting making a Fort save for each crtitical hit, and if it fails, the damage applies as Con damage instead of hit point damage?
Maybe take a rule from d20 Modern and make the massive damage threshold equal the character's Con score (instead of the RAW 50 it is now). If that is too deadly, maybe try doubling their Con score.
If you want guns to be deadlier, one thing I've found useful in the past is to rule that all successful firearm hits against flatfooted opponents are automatically considered critical threats (that still need to be confirmed normally). It kind of models the pointing of a gun at a body with their hands raised.
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I'm a math major and have no clue what you just said; but crits are good enough as is (Falchion > Great Sword from 10 on). You don't want to male the game mote luck based and make the best weapons better. Plus, the math seems unnecessarily complicated; there are other systems if you like mega-crits of death, or just add the Paizo "Crit Cards" into the mix.
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Simplicity is bliss at the table - especially at high levels or with large battles.
Do something like making critical hits do max damage (including all the extra dice) or criticals assume the massive damage rule (every critical is a save or die roll).
Alternatively, you could limit the hit points every character gets. If you really want to get nasty, allow everyone to get max hps at first level and then 1+Con Bonus hps per level. Stuff like Toughness still applies.
EDIT: now that I think about it, there was a great rule in Torn Asunder that let you increase the damage dice one level for every 5 your attack beats the opponents AC or something...
Sunken Empires Pathfinderizes exploding dice, which I've been thinking of stealing from Savage Worlds for some time.
You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this. It saddens me to tell you that it doesn't accomplish what you want it to do.
Fighter types will never take the con damage unless they're very low level and arcane casters will die too readily all the way up to higher levels. As a feat tree it's a very good idea, especially for a magekiller character.
More math is bad. Trading in 4 damage for a 1d6 doesn't speed combat up, but the reverse does. If you had a feat that let you do average damage rounded up with each attack then that wouldn't be so bad (consider that idea sniped).
The crit rerolls is another good idea, you could just reward good roleplaying with those (yet another sniped idea). That way people who play their characters well will get to play those characters longer than other people.
I hope I didn't come off as being too critical (pun intended).
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If you want to make crits more common with firearms you could just make their crit threat range larger. So while a longbow crits on a 20, a crossbow crits on a 19-20, a firearm could crit on a 18-20 or even a 17-20. This would make crits more common. If you would like larger crits just increase the crit mod or keep it at x2 to keep the crit dmg low.
This would make firearms the premier weapon most likely and particularly nasty when combined with improved crit of some kind and a the critical feats.
I've not yet seen the firearms in Iron Kingdoms yet but I have firearms with a x4 critical in my game.
Just implement a lower Massive Damage Threshold.
You can take some trial runs to find the setting that works best for you.
MDT = Con
MDT = 20
MDT = 30
MDT = 40
Each will provide different results while increasing lethality.
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Thalin's post about "open end" dice was used in 2nd edition firearms for the Realms. If you rolled the max # on the damage die, you kept rolling and adding on the damage (before any criticals). This was offset by a slow reload time.
Alternately, you could house-rule that firearms have a crit modifier based on proximity (x5 10', x4 20', x3 30', x2 beyond 30').
The whole point of getting to a higher level is that things that would kill a normal man DON'T kill you, the hero. Normal men would be felled by one gunshot, but not you.
Of course, if you've got a gun to your back and the enemy fires, I'd have a hard time not applying a coup d'grace effect.
M P 433 hit it on the head. All you have to do with firearms is loosen the coup d'grace rules a bit for them.
Each crit could be one and while holding a weapon on someone (CMB check to "lock" on) you get a coup d'grace if they move (but they get a reflex save or something if you just try to shoot them). Just something to consider.
OK - here's the if-then-else version.
IF you get a critical hit, THEN the target makes a Fort save. Save DC is 25+N, where N is the critical damage multiplier.
IF Fort Save is failed, multiply the damage dice by by the critical multiplier and apply that damage to Con. Anything that adds to the damage is not multiplied and whittles off hit points.
IF Fort Save is made, multiply the damage dice by the critical multiplier, add the adds at the end, apply total damage to whittling off hit points.
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In the event of a Critical Hit with a weapon weapon with Vital Strike, a critical hit will do the normal weapon damage for Vital Strike to the target's hit points, in addition to the critical damage described above.
So, a Falchion hitting with Vital Strike and +12 damage would do this on a crit:
4d4 to Con, 4d4+12 to Hit Points.
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For every +4 points of weapon damage, you can convert the +4 into an extra 1d6 of damage. If there's a Critical Hit, that d6 of damage would be multiplied.
That same Vital Striking falchion, converted to 'all variable' damage would do 4d4+3d6 of damage normally. On a critical hit it would do 4d4+3d6 Con damage, and 4d4+3d6 Hit Points damage as well.
Make more sense?
The Con damage is really swingy. It does less damage at low levels (4d4 Con damage averages out to 5 hit points at 1st level), but a lot more at higher levels (50 hit points at 10th level).
The Con damage is really swingy. It does less damage at low levels (4d4 Con damage averages out to 5 hit points at 1st level), but a lot more at higher levels (50 hit points at 10th level).
It's the same percentage of hit points. He wants to ignore heroicness in favor of slaughterness.
Too much math. Too much time away from playing the game to figure out if a character is still alive after a critical. The hero of the story should never get killed by a stray bullet. Besides, setting up a campaign where someone will die every session seems counterintuitive. Pathfinder/3.5 characters are not particularly easy to whip up, especially at higher levels.
Lots of others have offered solutions that are considerably more workable and simpler.
My own suggestion? If you want to do away with the meat-grindyness, why not simply say "Okay, everyone get's max hitpoints at first level, and after that it's half hitpoints until we end the campaign or you feel the cold embrace of death."
Characters will fear for their lives, critical hits become super-scary, and no one has to do complicated math.