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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 08:34:21
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D&D is a heroic game, but even heroes have limits... Combat cannot go on forever, anyone who ever held a sword should know this.
In my campaign I already have implemented a rule for the one elven moonwarrior, he can summon his shadow for roughly CON in minutes. Should he summon more than that his current hitpoints, for stamina's sake, immediately drop to 50% and take an additional point of nonlethal damage per round until he drops unconscious.
Are there any rules covering this topic for combat's sake? Something in the vein of "How many combat rounds a character can figfht until he suffers penalties on attack, AC etc" ?
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Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4689 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 11:43:02
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" An exhausted character moves at half speed and takes a -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. After 1 hour of complete rest, an exhausted character becomes fatigued. A fatigued character becomes exhausted by doing something else that would normally cause fatigue. "
" A fatigued character can neither run nor charge and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted. After 8 hours of complete rest, fatigued characters are no longer fatigued. "
Both these rules effect combat to hit and damage, the Dex adjustment could remove any AC nonus and reduces chance of succeeding a Reflex save.
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"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 12:19:46
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I remember this part...now :-/ but didn't it only cover movement and forced marches etc?
I can see how this can be adapted to combat, but one would still have to set a specific number of rounds/minutes of continuous combat to make exhaustion/fatigue take effect...
That was what I was aiming for. |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Kaladorm
Master of Realmslore
United Kingdom
1176 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 12:25:52
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How long do your combats generally last? Remember a single round is 6 seconds, and a well trained and fit swordsman could probably keep up his skills for 'at least' 5 minutes before faltering a little.
I don't know about you but our combats rarely if ever last more than 30 rounds of intense action |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 12:33:14
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True enough, so far the situations hasn't occured.
However, I intend to put my players through some very challenging encounters (old 1st edition module "Ravager of Time") where they will have to face, after having been aged to venerable age, their younger duplicates, and a few other nice things... *cue evil laughter*
Whereas the group so far has disposed most of their enemies rather quickly, I fear that in this instance things will be far from clear cut. It might take quite a while longer to win, since the duplicates have all the characters' powers, equipment and so on. Thus I can basically stop holding back and not pull my punches, in which case the duplicates will be very heavy hitters. Stronger than the PCs at any rate.
Although I don't intend a TPK I want to be prepared. |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4689 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 12:58:52
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Under the rule set one becomes fatigued as a result of hustle, spell, lack or food or water, cold, heat, in fact many types of nonlethal damage, but not all.
For actually swinging a sword there is no rule that I know of, however you might consider something like if combat rounds exceed Con scrore, one becomes fatigued taking one point of nonlethal damage per round higher then Con (applying other rules for nonlethal damage, that is recovers at the rate of one point per hour and if nonlethal damage exceeds hit points one becomes unconsious).
This might upset game balance for low Con and/or low hit point characters. |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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Fletcher
Learned Scribe
USA
299 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 15:32:03
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| Also if you use the optional rules about armor granting damage reduction, then combats last much longer. Imagine two guys in heavy armor swing longswords at each other, only able to do a maximum of 3 points of damage on a non critical hit. If you have 45 HP, that is going to be a looong fight. |
Run faster! The Kobolds are catching up! |
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Faramicos
Senior Scribe
Denmark
468 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 16:28:50
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| I have discussed this with lots of my friends and we agree that for the health of the game we wont put limitations on this part of the game. As you said, D&D is a game of heroes, so let them feel like it and enjoy the flowing battle... |
"When dragons make war, worlds can only tremble in the shadow of angry wings" |
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Purple Dragon Knight
Master of Realmslore
Canada
1796 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2006 : 19:02:15
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IMC, PCs can fight/cast spells up to the Con in rounds, after which time they must make a Fort save DC 15 (+1 to DC for every round successfully saved) or become fatigued. Once fatigued, the clock 'resets' and they can fight up to the Con in rounds, after which they must make a Fort save DC 15 (+1 to DC for every round successfully saved) or become exhausted.
This rule has given a whole new meaning to the Tireless feat...  |
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stormcrow1618
Acolyte
12 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2006 : 09:55:50
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quote:
Originally posted by Fletcher
Also if you use the optional rules about armor granting damage reduction, then combats last much longer. Imagine two guys in heavy armor swing longswords at each other, only able to do a maximum of 3 points of damage on a non critical hit. If you have 45 HP, that is going to be a looong fight.
Where can I find this optional rule? I'm assuming that under this rule, armor grants DR equal to its AC bonus, but what would an enhancement bonus as a result of masterwork quality or enchantment on top of that apply to, AC (making you harder to hit) or DR (making you harder to damage)? I would imagine that in most cases it would apply to DR, but I'm curious how the rule is written. |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2006 : 12:27:54
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quote:
Originally posted by stormcrow1618
quote:
Originally posted by Fletcher
Also if you use the optional rules about armor granting damage reduction, then combats last much longer. Imagine two guys in heavy armor swing longswords at each other, only able to do a maximum of 3 points of damage on a non critical hit. If you have 45 HP, that is going to be a looong fight.
Where can I find this optional rule? I'm assuming that under this rule, armor grants DR equal to its AC bonus, but what would an enhancement bonus as a result of masterwork quality or enchantment on top of that apply to, AC (making you harder to hit) or DR (making you harder to damage)? I would imagine that in most cases it would apply to DR, but I'm curious how the rule is written.
The rule is in Unearthed Arcana. |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Alisttair
Great Reader
Canada
3054 Posts |
Posted - 19 Sep 2006 : 01:56:13
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| Like previous posters said, battles aren't usually long enough to warrant a fatigue level. The longest battle I've had was 7 or 8 rounds, summed up as less than a minute...and this was a big battle lol oh dear...maybe I should use more evil tactics. |
Karsite Arcanar (Most Holy Servant of Karsus)
Anauria - Survivor State of Netheril as penned by me:
http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/172023 |
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Tio
Acolyte
Netherlands
13 Posts |
Posted - 19 Sep 2006 : 10:31:09
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Well, my PCs just had their first battle. This took 13 rounds, quite long for a battle between 6 PCs (1st level) and 3 Worgs and 6 Orcs. But then, they did fail a lot. And I brought 3 of the PCs to death's door.
They thank me now that they didn't just die at 0 hp. |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 19 Sep 2006 : 12:13:48
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| I'm planning on letting my PCs help in the conquest of Felbar and as such it will probably be a battle that takes a little longer... we'll see |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Exhaustion rules
