Stamina


Prerelease Discussion


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It still looks like no classes are based on Constitution, and no skills are based on Constitution. It's just hit points and fort saves, and there's really not a lot of reason for ranged characters in particular to take it except to spend leftover ability points once their key stats are where they want them. But there's an easy way to both make Constitution more useful, while also cleaning up a lot of fiddly stuff from the character sheet at the same time, as well as making some abilities scale better when multiclassing.

So, there's a lot of feats and class features that give you a certain number of uses per day, pools of points to spend, and so on. These can be folded into a single pool, like Starfinder's Resolve, but instead of implying something about personality like Resolve does this can be called Stamina and based on Constitution. Probably on the order of your level + half your Constitution score. Want to use a Metamagic feat, or Smite a foe as you swing your weapon, or enter / extend Rage for a number of rounds equal to your Berserker class level, or start / maintain a Performance for a number of rounds equal to your Bard class level, or activate a Domain feature, or use a Wizard specialty school power? Spend a point of stamina.

Stamina can carry some stuff intrinsic to itself independent of what class and feats you have. As part of this, it can take some of the load of trivial stuff off Action/Fate Points, so those can be reserved for really impressive stuff like auto-stabilize or maximizing a roll. Want to get a +2 bonus on a saving throw or any other roll on D20 to represent extra effort? Spend a stamina. Want to use a feat for 1 round you don't have but that you do qualify for, like Power Attack, or attempt an action to interact with the surroundings that the GM isn't sure you could /quite/ do but that doesn't rise to the level of superheroics as with a Fate Point? Spend a stamina. Want to reduce a condition like Fear or Shaken by one step for 1 round? Spend a stamina.

It can interact with other systems. Most forms of energy drain can target Stamina and/or Resonance instead of your levels and ability scores, saving people from having to recalculate a bunch of stuff on the fly at the table. A disease can reduce your current and maximum Stamina while your body fights it off. An inspiration effect can give you and your allies temporary Stamina to spend.

People get less tired over time. So when you take a short rest, you get half your expended stamina back; when you take a full rest, you get all your stamina back. This helps extend the adventuring day so it's not over in 15 minutes.


That stamina system sounds a bit complex for my tastes. I also dont want to extend adventuring days any further than is necessary. I do like your idea of giving more value to CON though.


There might be a pony in there. I'm not sure I'm a fan of each and every one of the suggested uses, but I could get behind a system that gives certain actions like bardic performance and rage a predictable duration per activation and costs per activation instead of per duration. I also like the cases where it applies to a multi-class character with a bunch of different abilities, making it so that they have a fixed number of cool things they can do between rests without restricting which of those cool things they have to be.


As I see it, a single pool is a lot easier to keep track of than a cumulative boatload of different abilities that all use independent point pools, uses per day, rounds per day and so on.


Well, it worked for CHA, but think CON should be more like for stuff like "Combat Stamina" that were about physical exertion.

Maybe Universal stamina tricks... -drool-


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I really like this idea, it makes a lot of sense to me.

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