I hope my idea will be of your interest.

Cya

That means that giving all characters “healing surges” does take a load off healers, because characters are better able to heal themselves.

Similarly, your appraisal of the “bloodied” rule doesn’t stand up in full because there aren’t “dragonborn” in 3.x to worry about – and there are heaps of things that already adjust + to hit, everything from position on the battlefield to magic weapons to feats to what class you are.

Nevertheless, your comments regarding potential pitfalls in these house rules are welcome here and worth bearing in mind should anyone be minded to try these for themselves.

I also like the idea of minions with a bit more than 1 hit point, just so that little incidental things like a Rod of Reaving can’t just decimate entire armies of mooks.

I’d have to play around with the idea for bloodied to see if it is fun at all. I have the suspicion it would just be kind of annoying. Also, you should think about how dragonborn would interact with that rule. Maybe dropping their speed by -2 would make more sense, since anything that adjusts +to hit in 4th edition has a massive impact on gameplay. You don’t want to be fighting a boss that needs 14+s to hit, and suddenly need 16+s. That’s simply not fun.

Another idea would be to set the number as 1 for every ten hp the character has, but this discriminates against non-fighters. On the other hand, non-fighters are less likely to need to use them, so perhaps offering an xp bonus for unused action points would balance the books? No, because a fighter is more likely to have action points left over simply because they start with more of them.

It’s easy to come up with things that, if kept track of, would add to the realism or excitement of combat. But each one comes with a bookkeeping cost, and that cost usually subtracts from the player’s ability to immerse themselves in the combat – subtracting from the realism and excitement of the battle. I’ve yet to be convinced that there’s anything much beyond hit points that’s worth the cost; each time I’ve thought I’ve found something, testing has proved me wrong.

Chris Tregenza’s last blog post..“You want to do what?”

I got to play test the Fencing Points system a little more this past Sunday, and I really like the way that it is working. Players are more willing to try stunts and actions, such as dodging, parrying, blocking, and swashbuckling when they know it isn’t going to cost them their standard/movement action.

Next session has quite a bit more combat in it than last, so hopefully my players will have more time to use it and try it out with greater success!

Mike E.’s last blog post..I got Savage Worlds

As far as I’m concerned, the fencing system idea is brilliant. Sure, there are some improvements that will eventually suggest themselves, but having such a thing to begin with removes cumbersome and unworkable arrangements for swashbuckling characters and city settings, and that’s a fine thing.

Rook’s last blog post..My Foray into 4E: Taking the “Role” out of roleplaying