My friends and I were eagerly waiting for Ultimate Combat to come out to introduce the alternative Armor and HP system. I read through them and decided to create my own combat system in which I plan on using in my first campaign. I need suggestions and constructive criticism to know if this system could possibly work.
Here are the changes to HP:
- Heath Points are broken up in Vigor and Wound Points (just like Ultimate Combat)
- Vigor Points to level*hit die (pretty much like HP points but without the con mod bonus)
- Wound Points are always equal to Constitution
- Wound Points are broken up into three categories: blunt (heals constitution modifier per hour), piercing/cutting (heals con mod per day), supernatural/elemental (heals con mod per week). [similar to WoD]
- Vigor points are fully restored after an 8 hour rest
- Potions and magic restore only Vigor points
- Only way to regain Wound points is to wait for it to heal (a heal check is necessary)
Changes to Armor:
- Each body part has its own AC (torso, legs, arms, and head)
- Called Shots are built-in (instead of providing a penalty on the attack roll, it will give a bonus to AC)
- The AC given by each part of the armor will be raised (since there is no "total AC" the AC bonus found on Ultimate Combat will be raised)
- Piercing weapons receive a +2 attack roll bonus against leather/hide/chain mail (any piercable armor) and a -2 attack against metal and wooden plates (anything that is hard to pierce)
- Slashing weapons receive a +2 against against plated armors (any armor that could possibly deflect a blow, thus increasing the chances of hitting another body part) and a -2 against leather/hide/chain mail
- Blunt weapons do not receive bonuses or penalties
Changes to Called Shots:
- Players will have to track their Wound Points for each body part
- The debuffs that Called Shots bring will be linked to Wound Point loss (1/4 of total WP to the same body part will cause a light penalty, 1/2 will cause a moderate penalty, and anything over will be a debilitating blow)
Example:
A Fighter has 14 Constitution so he will also have 14 total Wound Points
- If he takes 2-4 wound points to his right arm he will get a -2 penalty on any action involving that arm
- If he takes 5-7 wound points to his right arm he will get 1D4 of Str and Dex damage (fort save halves the damage)
- If he takes more than 7 wound points to his right arm he will debilitate his arm and lose 1D6 of Dex and Str will run the risk of severing his arm.
I am working on a character sheet to help players track Wound Points (I think I would track Vigor points for them and tell them when they are running out). Here is the link to the character sheet (I am still working on it)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/woundpoints.jpg/
The goal of this system is to make game play more cinematic and realistic. I don't like the traditional HP system because a character with 1HP fights just as well as one with full health; on my alternative system wound points prevent this from happening.
Also HP tracking will no longer be a burden since I would be tracking the vigor points and my players would only have to worry about their wound points. When a player takes blunt damage he would mark a box with a circle, if he takes slashing or piercing he would put a slash, and elemental/supernatural would be marked with a star.
I would also like to add that the campaign that I plan on running will have limited magic (no PC casters allowed). Thats why magical damage is so dangerous.
Please tell me what you think about this system, and any comments on how to improve it will be greatly appreciated.
