From: Rannou@info.polymtl.ca (Patrick Rannou)
Subject: Re: A modest proposal concerning HEALING
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada
	<7064@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 03:22:01 GMT

In article <7064@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:


   In article <0eowcnm00YV7Q9_l4q@andrew.cmu.edu> jw67+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jordan M. Wolbrum) writes:
   >Changing the healing spells unbalances the cleric, and changes the
   >meaning of a light wound, serious wound, etc.

	   Yep, sure does. It makes the definition CONSISTENT. If you
   define light, serious, critical, etc, in the right way.

	   The change we made was simple:

	   I believe this was from the Arduin Grimoires: 
	   Cure Light: up to 25% of the recipients maximum HP
	   Cure Medium: up to 50%
	   Cure Serious: up to 75%
	   Cure Critical: up to 100%

	   This makes each spell proportionately as useful to adventurers
   and characters of ALL levels -- that is, no matter who you are, a 
   Cure Critical will restore you back to full health.

	   We define the wounds as being proportions of your maximum. If you
   have 300 hit points and take 10, that's a light wound. If you have 12 
   points and take 10, that's CRITICAL!

Seems logical... Only, I have a little (well, BIG, in fact) problem
with that (apart from the fact that I wonder how you manage to have a 300
hp character...). See below...

	   (And it makes it useful for the high level cleric to use his
   Cure Light wounds spell; if you have hundred+hp characters and you don't
   change the CLW rules, the things become more of an annoyance than anything
   else ("I'm down 75 points, anyone got 40 Cure Lights?")

You go from one extreme to the other.

Listen:

Joe avarage take a big critical wound ( say, 5 HP out of 6 ). He's nearly
dead. OK, so a cure critical should do the job, right? Right. Up to here,
everything is OK.

Now, Conan the Barbarian has 300 hp and he face a titan who decides to play
golf with him and throw him all over the country. Conan takes a big
critical wound. BUT (it's here that the problem I have is...). WHAT is a
critical wound to Conan? While Joe average can take only a single critical
wound, have a buig scar and start shouting "Uncle! I surrender!", Conan the
Barbarian, being surhuman, can take much more punishment than that. You'll
say that's why he has more hit points. No, I say "You LOOK at the wounds on
his body, how many holes he can be riddles with before starting to shout
"Uncle!"?

 When Joe average take 5HP of damage, that's a critical wound to him. What
the players see is a guy with a big huge scar on his body. And we all know
that Joe the Average can't take more punishment than that at all. He looks
hurt badly, and the way he walks it shows he;s feeling it too.

BUT when Conan the Barbarian is taking 5 HP of damage, what is it to him? A
minor flesh wound, a tiny scar quickly forgotten. How much damage does it
take to make Conan look like Joe average, look like he has one big huge
scar on his body, a critical-category wound?

If we usec trigonometry, or the method you just suggested, since 5hp out of
6 is a critical wound, by your definition then 250 HP out of 300 is also a
critical wound.

BUT forget HP for a little and think. we all know that even tough Conan the
Barbarian's body might show a huge scar, Conan the Barbarian's face will
still clearly show that he's far more tougher than that, and willing to
still fight. Heck, we'vwe seen Conan be so full of wounds that he looked
like a walking hunk of bloody meat, and he was still willing to fight!
A normal Joe, in that situation, would have died on the first "critical"
wound it got after the first, while Conan is soooooo tough that he can take
critical wound after critica; wound and still walk. WOW. So it's clear
that 250 HP, to Conan. isn't a critical wound, much like 5HP is just a
minor scar.

So just how much HP for a wound? Simple, first you ask yourself the
question:

How many critical-looking wounds (seeing by the PCs on Joe and Conan's
bodies) does it take before Joe or Conan feel he's finished?

Joe can take one, and die the next.
Conan can take a lot of them, maybe say 9, and die at the tenth.

OK, 10 is maybe a little bit far fetched, but you get the idea.


So, for Joe a critical physical-wound is 5 HP, and for high to FELL
critically wounded, it takes also 5 HP.

But for Conan, a critically-looking physical wound is *30* HP, and for him
to FEEL critically finished it takes *250* HP. Bifg difference.

What I'm saying is that I use a system halfway between

"Cure give a fixed number of HP"

and "Cure give a % of max HP"



I work this way:

For each character, there is a certain number of wounds which the character
can take, and it's based only on maximum hit points. Although priests seem
the be supposed to be a lot less tougher than fighters, and thus should be
able to take far less comparable-looking wounds of punishment before
falling, remember that they have inner faith... (yeah, sure... as it this
was a good reason... the real reason it that it makes things more simple
and straightforward that way because it includes every modifier that could
ever happen, including loss of CON and "bonus magical" HP. "Aid" and
similar spells suddenly becomes more useful...


Say for Joe:


MAX HP base used for healing scale: 6 HP.

Light wound:       Max 6  (HP value: 1 / D2)    [ ] [ ] [ ]
Medium Wound:      Max 3  (HP value: 2 / 2D2)   [ ]
Serious Wound:     Max 2  (HP value: 3 / 2D3)   [ ]
Critical Wound:    Max 1  (HP value: 4 / 2D4)   [ ]
Decrease Wound:    2 1/2 days.

Note that every wound category make for a as near 100% as possible.
This means that characters can survive a LITTLE longer if they're lucky and
the no-HP system is used, but when you get your last wound, you buy the
farm... It;s not neccesseraly thje best scale, but whatever. I never said
my system was roded. Remember that this does not make a total of 400%,
because all categories overlap.

Note that if all "wounds slots" for a given wound type are used up, you
start using up the wounds slot from higher wound types, because the stress
on your body make you more fragile and the more you're hurt, the more even
a minor wound start making you feel badder.

The fixed number of the hit points value show how much damage create a
wound. So, when Joe takes 4 or 5 HP, he gets a critical wound. The dice
value shows how much HP are restored by the appropriate curing spells.
Since Joe the average is only 0 level, Heal will always restore him to full
hit points. If he was say 2nd level, and the D4 rolled wasn't a 1, then he
would be restored to his max HP minus 2, even if the D4 showed a 3 or 4.
So if Joe get say a "cure light wound", he gets back D2 HP. Wow, big
deal... but that's life.

You'll note that 1st level characters seem to be at a disadvantage because
a HEAL will not get them to their max compared to a zero level character, but
since when you roll up a starting character you roll HP (in my house rules)
once for the background chosen (it's usually a D4 for youth, tough those
destined to be fighter and having started young care tougher and roll a D6
instead), and then once again for the first level (i.e. EVERYBODY gain an
additionnal hit dice, with full CON bonus, and all OR you choose the best
of the two rolls, depending if the campaign is bloody or "realistic"), then
it's not a problem. I mean, if a common militia has D8+1 HP, then an
ADVENTURER fighter with 15 CON who has earned the right to be called a
VETERAN should have more than D10+1 HP, or at the very least have a better
chance of having more. I also use the minimum HP rule:

             First level  Other levels
Fighters:       6             4
Priest:         5             3
Thieves:        4             3
Mages:          3             2

Though I'm not sure i want to keep it. The way things are going not is that
I'll use the "Other levels" minimum HP for the first level, and if you roll
1 on your other levels then that's life, and you take only the best of the
two rolls (the one for level zero and the one for level 1). Anyway, that's
beside the subject...

Back to our "wounds". Conan would have:

MAX HP base used for healing scale: 300 HP.

Cure Light:       Max  30 ( 10 / 2D6  * 2 ) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
                                            [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
                                            [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Cure Medium:      Max  15 ( 20 / 2D12 * 2 ) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Cure Serious:     Max  9  ( 33 / 2D20 * 2 ) [ ] [ ] [ ]
Cure Critical:    Max  6  ( 50 / 3D20 * 2 ) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Decrease Wound:   1/4 day.


I used 50 HP for Critical wounds because that's the number where you have
to save-vs-death or die/fall down immediately from massive pain, or the
obscure rule where when you lose more than half of your hit points it;s
also the same thing (that;s why a critical wound is 4 hit points for a zero
level character with 6 HP). In fact, now that we have numbers for "critical
wounds", we can use instead the "Critical wound" number to use when big
damage is rolled. That will make players save more often, but a player
should beware that when his character is hurt down to a fourth of his HP,
that means that he's really in a bloddy shape... Using Wounds as an
indicator, this give the player more "feeling" over his PC`s real status.

So Joe could have, at MOST, 5 arrows pin-cushionned into him and still be
able to walk (tough barely), while Conan could have over a score of arrows
in him and still fight.

Note that a potion of healing does the effect of a cure light, and a potion
of extra heling is now simply three doses of cure light, plus the effect of
another curel ight if all three doses are taken together. The Extra-Healing
potion has the effect of a cure cirtical wound, or three cure light wounds,
which makes it more potent than before.

Note also that the cure spells use often 2 or 3 dices instead of just one.
This is to insure that the spells give something you can count on a little
more. The spells give either (mean value) the same number or a little above
the "hit point value" of a wound, so that a cure light has more than 50%
chances of really being able to completely cure a cure light wound (if the
HP system is still used).



OK, so now come the bg decision: do you use the wound-tables only as an
indicator, or to really represent how many wounds are taken, or a mix of
both, just to complicate matters?

If you use them to really represent how many wounds are taken, then when
damage is suffered instead of taking off hit points, you see how many hit
points the damage has done and look it up the HP Value of a wound on your
table (provided your CON hasn't changed... or any other spell hasn't taken
any effect on your HP). Thgen you checkmark a box to indicate the suffered
wound. 

When you use a cure spell, the appropriate wound is taken off. You can also
use a spell to diminish the intensity of a wound, or split it against
several wounds that are physically located near one another (if you keep
the location of each wound, then a whole page may be needed for Conan...).
When a wound has healed, it becomes a new-scar, then a outline-scar, then a
souvenir-scar, then a fantom-scar, then a skin-line... it may even
disappear after a few years (or much healing magic). I don't have rules for
such things now, but generally most adventurers don't care about such
little things unless it's in their face... 

I calculated healing rates ( Decrease Rate: x Days) so that after one month
of complete rest, the character is fully recovered of a normal character
suffering from all his wounds. Note that constitution affects this rate
also, and that the rate given is the BEST one attainable (full rest, tended
for at least once every turn, no travel, climate OK, etc...). Minor
deviations are maybe tolrated but anything which gives the GM some doubts
should make him double the Decrease Rate, and anything more make the
decrease rate even worse, or stop natural healing completely.

The Decrease Rate heals a wound one step. Remember that when there aren't
any slots left from a wound-category, you must take the superior category,
thus making the wound more dangerous.

Also, wounds heal randomly. There is the same chance that any wound will
decrease. Since most healing will take place directly in one long resting
duration, and since curing spells affect spells indiscriminately (i.e. a
cure critical wounds can cure a critical wound, or a serious and a light,
or two mediums, or one mediums and two lights, or 4 light wounds). A cure
light wound can be used to bring a critical wound one level down to serious
wound, too. Any mix is available.

The easy way to do it is simply to make the sum of all the wounds, all
category counfounded, and divide 30 by this number, then apply constitution
as a multiplier and you'll get the Decrease Wound Rate, in days (or
half-days, or quarter-days, or 3-hours multiples, or hours of you really
are a Conan... or even shorter if you can regenerate)

In Conan's case, he can "take" up to 60 wounds, thus it makes his healing
go at a Decrease Wound rate of half a day. But his incredibly high CON
(19) make him double his healing, so he's got only 1/4 day to heal a wound.

An arrow in the body is, to Conan, a light wound in most cases. Conan the
pincushion man could walk with up to 30 arrows in his body (none having
scored over 10 HP of damage) and say "Uncle! I'm feeling Ill".

Of course, since an arrow does only D6 damage + strength in most cases,
you'll get the typical problem that characters always seem to get the same
kind of wounds from the same kind of atack, unless a poor damage roll is
made or a critical hit is made. But it's true that a NORMAL adventurer
doesn't have 300 HP. Let's try Selenior the Elfin Warrior... 

7th level, 14 CON (way high for an elf), and 60 HP.

MAX HP base used for healing scale: 60 HP.

Cure Light:       Max  10 ( 6  / 2D6  * 2 ) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Cure Medium:      Max  6  ( 10 / 2D12 * 2 ) [ ] [ ]
Cure Serious:     Max  3  ( 20 / 2D20 * 2 ) [ ]
Cure Critical:    Max  2  ( 30 / 3D12 * 2 ) [ ] [ ]

Decrease Wound:   1 1/4 day ( 1 1/2 day without CON counted).

So, as we can see, our Freind Selenior isn't 60/6 = 10 times tougher than a
zero level PC named Joe. Joe can take 11 wounds, Selenior can take 21.
That's double the number. Add to that the effect that Selenior, fighting
better, will generally tend tu suffer lesser wounds, and you get maybe
another doubling or tripling factor, tops. Selenior is approx. 5 times
tougher than Joe. So you see that using a wound system should help decrease
the difference between character levels and make combat more enjoyable.
also, even a dagger could make critical wounds...

Of course, we are now going farther and frather from AD&D. 


Conclusion: *IF* and *WHEN* i have a nice COMPLETE set of rules TYPED IN
WORDPERFECT in and EASY TO READ and UNDESTAND and CONSULT format, like a
real rulebook, then I'll publish my own gaming system.

I think I'll nbame it D&D, or DD, or something... now, what words cstrating
with 'D' could i use that aren't either Dongeons, Dragons, Dangerous or
Dimensions? And that have as much effect as our ole D&D? Hmmm...

Now, THAT'S a tough question...



--
/---------------------------\
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |
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