Talk:Wounds (3.5e Variant Rule)

Ratings

MisterSinister dislikes this article and rated it 1 of 4.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not against such a system in principle, but this implementation leaves much to be desired. First of all, -1s all over the map (so annoying to track and rarely significant); second, the whole 'GM's choice' thing without a limiting stipulation (so your GM can go 'ok, no ballsack, -10 Con, Cha and Wis!); lastly, falling below 0 doesn't happen often enough for these things to come up in a meaningful way. Overall, too narrow, not well-implemented, and generally missing a lot.

It happens a lot more than you think under Grimoire/Grimoire Saga; with that in mind, I would like there to be an actual penalty, without people just popping up and down constantly with no detriment. Do you have any ideas for things that will make the players wince, but won't make them absolutely useless in combat? --Ghostwheel 20:29, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Let's begin with a basic idea - not all wounds are the same. Ideally, the severity of whatever brought you under 0 should be considered, either by virtue of 'how far below 0' or by virtue of 'how hard the hit was'. I prefer the former, because otherwise high-level characters get it far worse than low-level ones by definition, but some kind of granularity here almost begs to be included.

Another point is 'write abilities, not numbers'. People shouldn't be tracking penalties of a numeric type against wounds in an ideal world. If you end up with a broken arm, it means you cannot use that arm. This leads to things like 'no two-handed weapons', for example, and is easy to think about and remember. This doesn't mean that you should write no numbers (I'm not sure this is even possible), but limit their use.

A third point is that casters and non-casters should be equally boned by this (or have an equal chance to be). Head wounds should cost you spell slots, for instance. I can see three categories of injury here : 'bones casters' injuries, 'bones noncasters' injuries, 'bones both' injuries.

Some examples:

• Head wounds of some kind
• Arm/leg wounds
• Never-healing injuries (some kind of HP reduction?)
• Sensory damage (vision, hearing, something else?)

All of these can have multiple implementations, too. - MisterSinister 20:42, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Potential idea/note for self - perhaps have it reduce the number of HP gained from willpower reserves by a number equal to HD until you've taken an extended rest? --Ghostwheel 20:43, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Seems legit. - MisterSinister 21:14, 12 July 2012 (UTC)