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Hidden Hit Points Rule
New Life Points
Unconscious Characters
Modes of Attack
Fatigue Rules
Thief's Read Languages RuleHidden Hit Points Rule
This rule was created to add a sense of realism, mystery, and also a bit of fear for the PCs into the game. This also gets clerics more involved in that they may aid characters more often and it not become a "numbers game" where the players will appreciate the healing powers of the cleric more out of worry for their character's lives. Here's how it works:
The players will get a general sense of how many current hit points their characters have through the DM descriptions, but never know the exact number. For example: Flabar "the Fearless" Fighter has a maximum of 12 hit points at the beginning of a melee. If he is hit for 2 hp of damage, the DM may describe his remaining health as "good". If Flabar is hit the next round for 8 hp of damage, the DM may want to use words like "considerably weakened", "lightheaded", "you're excessively bleeding", giving some type of description to let the player know that his character is in danger of dying. It then becomes a guessing game on the player's part of when to pull back on combat. If he stays, how long will he last?
This rule will reduce the calculating "munchkins" in the group that know so-and-so monster only does this amount of damage, so my character with this amount of hit points could take this many rounds of combat against it. Creative combat at its best!!!!!!!
New Life Points Rule (Proposed by Jason)
In this system nothing changes about your character's hit points, they stay the same. They measure your well being or your current state of health. Your Constitution score, however, is equal to what we'll call "Life Points". The only way to die is to go to negative your constitution on your life points (See Unconscious Character Rule Based on Constitution below).
Now your thinking...Well Damn...that won't take long to lose 15 or so Constitution points...But wait there's more! Here's where it gets a little confusing... The only time you lose Life Points is when a weapon does more than half it's total damage potential.
For example: Sir Andrew, who has 12 hp, is facing a lizardman. The lizardman swings an axe (1d8 dmg) that hits Andrew for 3 hp of damage. No problem. Sir Andrew loses 3 hp, but no Life points. Second round comes up and this time the lizard man hits Andrew for 7 damage. Andrew loses 7 hp and 7 Life Points (7 is more than half the potential damage for his axe). Now "What happens when we go to 0 hp?" You fall unconscious and when you reach your negative constitution number, you're dead! You lose one Life Point every round until your bleeding is stopped or your wound is mended.
Unconscious Character Rule Based on Constitution
Normally a common house rule is that a PC can withstand -10 hit points of damage after he or she reaches 0 hit points. After 0 hit points, the character is considered unconscious. After -10 hit points, the character is dead. Well, we've decided to take that rule and modify it slightly to utilize the constitution ability score. Here how it works:
A character's "negative" hit points is equal to their constitution. For example, a character with a 12 Constitution would be able to go to -12 hit points before dying. Simple enough, however, in addition to this, the character may possibly stay conscious while below 0 hit points, if they roll a successful Constitution check. However, each round that the character is unaided (bound wounds, healed, etc.), that character loses one hit point and a -1 on future Constitution rolls to see if they stay conscious. While the character is conscious, they may not move or participate in combat. If a character does move, they immediately fall unconscious.
Mode of Attack Combat Rules
In an attempt to give more options during combat the character must choose a mode of attack before the initiative roll. When the PC's turn comes the following bonuses and hindrances apply.
1. Full Attack: The character goes on the all out offensive abandoning all attempts to defend himself. The character gains a +2 to all attack rolls and a +2 to damage, but suffers a +3 to his armor class and a -2 to all saving throws in that round.
2. Offensive Stance: The character makes more of an effort to attack than defend. While still watching for attacks, he tries harder to gain the upper hand than defend himself against attack. The character gains a +1 to all attack rolls, but suffers a +1 to his AC.
3. Normal Stance: The character defends and attacks normally seizing openings in his opponents defense but not over committing to the attack. All rolls are made normally for the round.
4. Defensive Stance: The character goes into a defensive stance using shields or weapons to mostly block his opponents attacks. The character suffers a -1 to attack and a -2 to damage rolls. He gains a -1 to his AC and +1 to Saving throws for the round.
5. Full Defense: The character gives up all hope for attacking this round and goes into a purely defensive posture. Weapons are used solely to parry enemy attacks. The character may not make an attack roll. He gains a -5 to armor class and a +3 to saving throws.
If the character decides to cast a spell or any other non melee action none of these modes may be used. The character is treated like he is in the Normal Stance.
Remember: This rule applies for the bad guys too!
Fatigue Rule For Combat
This is an adapted rule based on the fatigue rules in the AD&D Player's Option: Combat and Tactics Book. Normally a PC's Hit Die (HD) is used to determine fatigue for that character. For example a fighter class character would have 10 fatigue points at the beginning of combat. A thief would have 6. This rule is fine, but what happens if in our examples, the thief PC has a better Constitution or endurance than the fighter PC? Our solution or twist to this rule is to use half the PC's constitution score (rounded up) to determine the beginning fatigue points for that PC. So, for example, a PC, regardless of class, had a Constitution of 17, his or her fatigue score under the new rules at the beginning of combat would be 9. This character could go 9 rounds before the effects of fatigue begin to take place. (17 / 2 = 8.5)
Each additional level that the character has gained is a +1 to the PC's fatigue points.
I know, I know. You're asking, "What about the bad guys?" Well, we've decided to leave that one alone, since it looks to be working already. A monster's fatigue points are 8, its HD, +1 for each HD after one. So a 4 HD monster would have 12 fatigue points at the beginning of combat.
Thief's Read Languages Rule
Since you know of my bad habit as a DM of using handouts for riddles, puzzles, scrolls, and stuff written in other languages, I'd like to present an alternative for players playing thief characters that wish to use the "Read Languages" ability to decipher such a handout. Wizards already get this special treatment when they stumble across a scroll or spellbook. Usually these handouts are created in a different font or type and presented to the player as a handout that is as close to what they see as possible.
The reason for this rule is that I'd like to see player's actually figure out a handout, rather than just roll for success or failure. Here's how it works:
For each document (handout) the thief player encounters, the player rolls normally against the "Read Languages" percentage as in the Player's Handbook. Here's the change.... If the roll fails, the player receives no help from the DM to solve the document (handout). They must figure out the language's "code" alone and unaided. However, if the player's roll is successful, the player rolls 2d4 and adds +1 for each level to determine the number of "hints" they will receive. Hints are nothing more than revealed fonts to make it easier to solve the code.
Non-thief characters cannot help as they don't have this ability and plus it gives the thief character a chance to be in the spotlight within the game. Of course, if the document is magical, such as a scroll, the thief has no possibility of reading the document.
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