I've decided to houserule that characters start with their Con score as physical hit points at 1st level to save them being mauled/trampled to death by domestic animals.
This represents the real "toughness" damage they can take.
Its not quite the +20 hp kicker at 1st level Hackmaster gives and to my mind makes already frail first level characters more survivable - most can now take a couple of good whacks. The appropriate HD is then gained at subsequent levels as "non physical" HPs.
Of course this means corporeal monsters have more hit points as well......
Floaty things like wraiths use their listed Int/Wis as a base then add the appropriate HD.
I think this may actually work without wrecking the mechanics too much......B-)
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Man I've been tempted to do something like this with recent PC deaths we've had, but I'm going to wait a little longer.. "Trampled to death by domestic animals." haha - indeed! We start at max hit points for now but it's a bit nerve wracking anytime there's the merest threat of battle about to occur. Lots of attempts at pushing the hirelings to the front, that sort of thing.
ReplyDelete@ Bulette:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!
It kind of makes sense to me anyway - the less combat oriented types still have less HPs.
It came to me the other week as an idea then I read on Dungeonmums blog about a domestic cat being able to take out a 1st level wizard without getting lucky.
Bearing in mind the only player I DM for at the moment is 10 and has a habit of blundering round like in a browser game I've tried to make it so the party doesnt get slaughtered immediately or at least get time to think about it...with a bit of kindly DM input..B-)