Wound Thresholds (3.5e Variant Rule)

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Author: Zhenra-Khal (talk)
Date Created: 11/17/2018
Status: Complete
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Wound Thresholds[edit]

This variant rule adds in thresholds for hit points; Dropping below a threshold gives you increasingly worse penalties, as your injuries slow you down and you grow closer to death. The penalties scale with CR, allowing them to stay relevant at higher levels. And, getting healed removes the penalties.

This is intended to make noncasters, and magic that deals purely hit point damage, more useful, as most spellcasters are useful because they can end a fight on the whim of a saving throw, killing a creature outright or at least hindering it by targeting saving throws - A binary defense, that is either on or off. Meanwhile, the fighters and users of Evocation suffer, because a monster with 1 hp fights just as well as it did when it had 100 hp, because hit points are a gradual defense, going slowly down.

With this variant rule, and the additional options below, you can balance how often characters of all classes trigger death saving throws and how they apply penalties to enemies.

The Thresholds[edit]

The three Wound Thresholds are Grazed, Bloodied, and Injured. Rising above a Wound Threshold (Because you were healed, for example) removes its effects until you once again fall below that threshold.

A creature is Grazed when it is at or below 3/4 of its maximum health, but above 1/2 of its maximum health. Thus, if your max hp is 8 and you have 6 hp remaining, you are Grazed.

A creature is Bloodied when it is at or below 1/2 of its maximum health, but above 1/4 of its maximum health. Thus, if your max hp is 8 and you have 4 hp remaining, you are Bloodied.

A creature is Injured when it is at or below 1/4 of its maximum health, but not yet dead or dying. Thus, if your max hp is 8 and you have 2 hp remaining, you are Injured.

Threshold Effects[edit]

When you are Grazed, you take a penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, caster level, and AC against critical confirmation rolls equal to 1/5 of your CR (Minimum penalty of -0), as well as having your movement speeds reduced by 1/5 (Rounded to the nearest 5ft increment; Min -5ft), but not below 15ft. Thus a level 20 Human PC who is Grazed would take a -4 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws and AC against critical confirmation rolls, and would have their land speed reduced by 5ft.


When you are Bloodied, you take a penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, caster level, and AC against critical confirmation rolls equal to 1/3 of your CR (Minimum penalty of -1), as well as having your movement speeds reduced by 1/3 (Rounded to the nearest 5ft increment; Min -5ft), but not below 10ft. Thus a level 20 Human PC who is Bloodied would take a -7 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws and AC against critical confirmation rolls, and would have their land speed reduced by 10ft.


When you are Injured, you take a penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, caster level, and AC against critical confirmation rolls equal to 1/2 of your CR (Minimum penalty of -2), as well as having your movement speeds reduced by 1/2 (Rounded to the nearest 5ft increment; Min -5ft), but not below 5ft. Thus a level 20 Human PC who is Injured would take a -10 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws and AC against critical confirmation rolls, and would have their land speed reduced by 15ft.

Table Of Penalties By CR[edit]

To avoid confusion, here's a table of Wound Threshold penalties by CR, for Challenge Ratings 1 to 20.

Table: Wound Penalties By CR

Challenge
Rating
Grazed Bloodied Injured
1 or less -0 -1 -2
2 -0 -1 -2
3 -0 -1 -2
4 -0 -1 -2
5 -1 -1 -2
6 -1 -2 -3
7 -1 -2 -3
8 -1 -2 -4
9 -1 -3 -4
10 -2 -3 -5
11 -2 -3 -5
12 -2 -4 -6
13 -2 -4 -6
14 -2 -4 -7
15 -3 -5 -7
16 -3 -5 -8
17 -3 -5 -8
18 -3 -6 -9
19 -3 -6 -9
20 -4 -6 -10

Other Good Changes[edit]

Some other changes that work well with this rule, synergizing to work in the same direction.

Massive Damage[edit]

It's a good idea to change the Death By Massive Damage rule a bit too, because it doesn't end up being triggered until about level 10 or so. Instead of the save vs. death being triggered by taking 50 HP in a single attack, it would be triggered by taking half of your maximum HP, plus your HD, plus your Constitution bonus, in one blow - Thus if you were a level 3 Fighter with Con 14 and 30 HP, you'd have to take 20 damage in a single attack to force you to make a saving throw vs. death. This allows those that focus on HP damage to trigger Death saves more often and at lower levels.

Death Magic Using Thresholds[edit]

Similarly to the way Death Knell is a Death spell that finishes off a Dying target, you could have other spells function similarly. For example, spells and effects of 2nd level and lower should only work on Injured targets, levels 3-4 should only work on targets who are Bloodied or worse, and levels 5-6 should only work on targets who are Grazed or worse, while Death effects of level 7 and up should continue to work on creatures in any state of health.

Improved Death Thresholds[edit]

As with changing Massive Damage thresholds, tougher creatures should take longer to bleed out and die completely than "squishier" targets. Thus, you could use the Fortitude Dying Resistance variant rule (Which you should check out, all credit to Eiji on that one, it's magnificent), except that the threshold at which you die is equal to your total Fort save bonus, plus 1/4 of your maximum hit points, instead of merely -10. So if you possess 60 hit points, and possessed a total Fort save bonus of +12, you would have to reach -27 hit points before you actually die.

Feats To Reduce Threshold Effects[edit]

If you use this variant rule, it's a good idea to improve the Endurance and Diehard feats to reduce the effects of wounds you sustain. For every one of these feats you possess, or feats/abilities that count as these feats for the purposes of prerequisites, you always treat your wounds as one step less severe than they are - Thus if you are Injured and possess Endurance, you count as if you're Bloodied for all purposes, including penalties and determining what death effects can harm you (Though you're still near death via hit point damage, so be careful). If you possessed both feats, you would be treated as if Grazed instead of Bloodied while Injured, meaning it takes a lot more to take you down than most.

Spells To Ignore Wounds[edit]

Here are some spells that can be implemented and cast to temporarily ignore wounds, as well as Pain effects.

Wound Resistance[edit]

Wound Resistance is a number you add to your current health for the purposes of determining how severe your wounds are, making it take longer to actually slow you down. So if you have 8 HP and Wound Resistance 2, and you are reduced to 4 HP (Normally causing you to be Bloodied), you would instead be treated as if you had 6 HP due to your Wound Resistance, and thus would only take penalties for being Grazed. A good idea is to count all creatures as having Wound Resistance equal to their total Fortitude save bonus.


Outcome Of The Changes In Total[edit]

More or less, at lower levels, when the HP-damage-dealers are still useful (Up to 5th level), the penalty remains fairly low - A Grazed creature below level 5 won't take a penalty, which means you don't have to keep your whole party topped off for them to be useful. But at higher levels, the penalty can be pretty chunky, just from being Grazed alone, much less Injured. This helps you get through lower levels without screwing you over (Imagine, tripping on a wet spot and suddenly having -10 to attack rolls until you get healed) while still being helpful at higher levels, when martial characters and Evokers fall off massively.



Back to Main Page3.5e HomebrewVariant Rules

AuthorZhenra-Khal +
Identifier3.5e Variant Rule +
Rated ByGhostwheel +
RatingRating Pending +
SummaryCreatures become weaker as their health gets lowered, allowing for HP-attackers to be more impactful. +
TitleWound Thresholds +