So I am running a game and we have a homebrew rule because my group want the game to be "hardcore". I am wondering want you all think of this rule since my party seems to enjoy it.
To clarify, this rule affects both players and NPCs/Monsters.
Starting at 50% health any proficiency bonus is lost to attack and skill rolls excluding perception.
Starting at 25% health any ability mods are lost to attack and skill roll excluding perception. Perception loses proficiency bonus. Also any multi attack, extra attack, and off hand bonus action attack is lost.
As I said my players like the rule and I did give them the option to take it or leave on session 0. I am personally just wishing to share it but would love to hear your opinions.
So I'm thinking, if I would do more hardcore combat, wouldn't the logic penalty to low HP be a level of Exhaustion? It seems like that way you could get more out of it as a mechanic, it has longer lasting effects, and you can't afford to drop HP too often because 6 Levels of Exhaustion and your dead. Or is that too hardcore for what you had in mind?
At the time I didnt think about that. The idea came from be always hearing "1hp is just as good as 100hp" and as a way to work on my side of the screen as well. I may still look into that as well depending on how the game goes.
If you want to get into some really complicated aspect you could do what some Live Action Role play systems do which is split the body into 6 areas (Head, Left Arm, Right Arm, Torso Left Leg, Right Leg), each location has 1/3 of the character total HP, when you roll to hit you roll a d6 to see where the blow landed, roll damage as normal and deduct it from the total HP and the locations HP, when the location reaches zero HP it is considered broken, if a location reaches minus double its HP it is severed. That way as a DM you can keep track of injuries as you go along, assign penalties to movement for leg injuries, penalties to hit or damage for arm injuries and if the torso/head reach zero then the player falls unconscious and rolls death saves to see if they stabilize, if head or torso reaches the "severed" stage then the character is dead. It can make for some truly traumatic combat as anyone going into heal someone else get a vivid description from the DM about the injuries the character has, also makes for some good role play possibilities from the players as you tell them their a weapon blow lands on their arm/leg and the hear a sickening crack of bone and their arm is now broken and they can't use it until they are healed.
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So I am running a game and we have a homebrew rule because my group want the game to be "hardcore". I am wondering want you all think of this rule since my party seems to enjoy it.
To clarify, this rule affects both players and NPCs/Monsters.
Starting at 50% health any proficiency bonus is lost to attack and skill rolls excluding perception.
Starting at 25% health any ability mods are lost to attack and skill roll excluding perception. Perception loses proficiency bonus. Also any multi attack, extra attack, and off hand bonus action attack is lost.
As I said my players like the rule and I did give them the option to take it or leave on session 0. I am personally just wishing to share it but would love to hear your opinions.
So I'm thinking, if I would do more hardcore combat, wouldn't the logic penalty to low HP be a level of Exhaustion? It seems like that way you could get more out of it as a mechanic, it has longer lasting effects, and you can't afford to drop HP too often because 6 Levels of Exhaustion and your dead. Or is that too hardcore for what you had in mind?
At the time I didnt think about that. The idea came from be always hearing "1hp is just as good as 100hp" and as a way to work on my side of the screen as well. I may still look into that as well depending on how the game goes.
Thank you
I mentioned this on another post about healing...
Location damage:
If you want to get into some really complicated aspect you could do what some Live Action Role play systems do which is split the body into 6 areas (Head, Left Arm, Right Arm, Torso Left Leg, Right Leg), each location has 1/3 of the character total HP, when you roll to hit you roll a d6 to see where the blow landed, roll damage as normal and deduct it from the total HP and the locations HP, when the location reaches zero HP it is considered broken, if a location reaches minus double its HP it is severed. That way as a DM you can keep track of injuries as you go along, assign penalties to movement for leg injuries, penalties to hit or damage for arm injuries and if the torso/head reach zero then the player falls unconscious and rolls death saves to see if they stabilize, if head or torso reaches the "severed" stage then the character is dead. It can make for some truly traumatic combat as anyone going into heal someone else get a vivid description from the DM about the injuries the character has, also makes for some good role play possibilities from the players as you tell them their a weapon blow lands on their arm/leg and the hear a sickening crack of bone and their arm is now broken and they can't use it until they are healed.