Running combat at my table, I put extra effort into describing the damage as it happens somewhat cinematically. While describing crossbow bolts piercing shoulder joints, Warhammers crushing ribs, and rapiers deftly finding their mark, I find this sinking feeling that this damage I’m describing isn’t going to be reflected mechanically. Mechanically there is no difference between 300 hit points and 1. I got my start in tabletop RPGs playing Mutants and Masterminds. M&M uses a damage system related to the True20 system that doesn’t use hit points. Instead, they use a Toughness save against damage; so when a strike hit and it finds purchase, a character attains a mechanically wounded condition and may even be struck down if the damage is so severe. In this system, damage is a condition or package of conditions that have a mechanical impact on player and non-player characters.
A toughness system would lend itself to cinematic damage, and it would put serious stakes on getting hit. Playtesting and system tuning will enable tables to set the lethality for their games.
What follows are elements of a toughness system I’m working on as an optional rules package for Pathfinder 2e.
Optional System: Toughness
Toughness is a save stat like Fortitude, Reflex, and Will; Toughness would primarily use the constitution score and its own independently scaling proficiency track to represent the physical heartiness of a character.
Calculating your Toughness Save
Toughness Save = 10 or 1d20 + Constitution + Proficiency (Level + T, E, M, or L bonus) + Any Additional Modifiers
Ancestries will not affect the Toughness score; as a description of the role characters fill, Toughness fits best in a character’s class choice. I feel that each class should start off trained in their Toughness Save, and most classes should have a distinct escalation track for Toughness, If the Toughness Save grows at the same rate as Fortitude, there is no reason for another stat.
Option: Fortitude Saves against damage
One option to simplify this approach to damage and to flatten the learning curve is to use the fortitude save against damage checks. Fortitude makes thematic sense as a defense against injury and uses the Constitution stat.
Tough Combat
Running combat with toughness is fairly similar to the current system; there are two rolls to determine outcomes in combat, a roll to see if an effect hits and a roll to determine how hard it hits. Attacks seek to beat the AC; the damage roll now attempts to best either a toughness save or a static DC based on the toughness score. The typical damage results would look like this.
Critical Failure: No Damage affects the target; the blow glances off
Failure: The attack marginally damages the target; The target accumulates a damage condition that can be easily treated after the encounter, most often Bruised.
Success: The target is injured by the attack; The target accumulates a more severe damage condition (Bloodied) and typically another negative condition (Slowed or Staggered) requiring resource commitment to treat.
Critical Success: The target is downed by the Attack; the target suffers the Unconscious or Dying and Unconscious conditions
Tougher combatants
If the Tough Combat option proves more lethal than you like, I have a few other options you can use.
Option: Fifth Check Outcome
One option to hearty up characters in this system is to bring this option a little closer to how it was implemented in True20. When using this option, an additional possible outcome is added to Damage/Toughness checks. A Catastrophic Failure or Overwhelming Success occurs when a DC is missed or exceeded by 15 or more. This is what the typical damage results would look like in this system.
Critical Failure: No Damage affects the target; the blow glances off
Failure: The attack marginally damages the target; The target accumulates a damage condition that can be easily treated after the encounter, most often Bruised.
Success: The target is injured by the attack, accumulating a more severe damage condition (Bloodied), requiring resource commitment to treat.
Critical Success: The target is injured to the point of dibilitation; The target accumulates a severe damage condition (Bloodied) and typically another negative condition (Slowed or Staggered), requiring resource commitment to treat
Overwhelming Success: The target is downed by the Attack; the target suffers the Unconscious or Dying and Unconscious conditions
Option: Armor as Damage Reduction
This option permits characters to use armor bonuses on damage checks instead of AC. In this option AC = 10+DEX+modifiers; The Armor Check becomes 1d20 or 10 +Armor proficency + the armor’s Item bonus +any additional modifiers. Toughness Conditions
Bloodied
You have been severely injured and are susceptible to more severe injury. Each rank of the bloodied condition reduces the results of any toughness check by 1; these effects stack with your ranks in the bruised condition. Ranks in Bloodied can only be removed by specific treatment.
Bruised
You have been injured, and you are susceptible to more severe injury. Each rank of the bruised condition reduces the results of any toughness check by 1; these effects stack with your ranks in the bloodied condition. All ranks of the bruised conditioned are removed by taking a 10 min refocus action to shake off their effects.
Doomed
Source Core Rulebook pg. 619 4.0
A powerful force has gripped your soul, calling you closer to death. Doomed always includes a value. Your doomed value reduces the dying value at which you die. If your maximum dying value is reduced to 0, you instantly die. When you die, you're no longer doomed.
Your doomed value decreases by one each time you get a full night's rest.
Dying
Source Core Rulebook pg. 619 4.0
You are bleeding out or otherwise at death’s door. While you have this condition, you are unconscious. Dying always includes a value; if it ever reaches dying 4, you die. If you’re dying, you must attempt a recovery check each round at the start of your turn to determine whether you get better or worse. Your dying condition increases by 1 if you take damage while dying or by two if you take damage from an enemy’s critical hit or a critical failure on your save.
If you lose the dying condition by succeeding at a recovery check and are still at 0 Hit Points, you remain unconscious, but you can wake up as described in that condition. You lose the dying condition automatically and wake up if you ever have 1 Hit Point or more. Any time you lose the dying condition, you gain the wounded one condition or increase your wounded condition value by one if you already have that condition.
Death and Dying Rules
The doomed, dying, unconscious, and wounded conditions all relate to the process of coming closer to death. When you’re damaged severely enough to gain the dying condition, you’re knocked out with the following effects:
You immediately move your initiative position to directly before the turn in which you gained the dying condition.”
You gain the dying one condition. If you have a wounded condition, increase this value by your wounded value. Creatures are also unconscious while they are Dying. A creature gains one rank of the wounded condition when they recover from the Dying condition.
Persistent Damage
Adapted From Core Rulebook pg. 621 4.0
Persistent damage comes from effects like acid, being on fire, or many other situations. It appears as “X persistent [type] damage,” where “X” is the severity of the persistent Damage condition and “[type]” is the damage type. Instead of taking persistent damage immediately, you take it at the end of each turn as long as you have the condition. The DC for a toughness save against persistent damage is the persistent damage severity plus 10.each turn, you succeed against persistent damage, you reduce it’s severity by one.
Persistent Damage Rules
The additional rules presented below apply to persistent damage in certain cases.
Persistent damage runs its course and automatically ends after a certain amount of time as fire burns out blood clots, and the like. The GM determines when this occurs, but it usually takes 1 minute.
Assisted Recovery
You can take steps to help yourself recover from persistent damage, or an ally can help you, allowing you to attempt an additional flat check before the end of your turn. This is usually an activity requiring 2 actions, and it must be something that would reasonably improve your chances (as determined by the GM). For example, you might smother a flame or wash off acid. This lets you immediately attempt an extra flat check, but only once per round.
The GM decides how your help works, using the following examples as guidelines when no specific action applies. The action to help might require a skill check or another roll to determine its effectiveness. Alter the number of actions required to help you if the means the helper uses are especially efficient or remarkably inefficient.
Immunities, Resistances, And Weaknesses
Immunities, resistances, and weaknesses all apply to persistent damage.
Unconscious
Source Core Rulebook pg. 622 4.0
You're sleeping, or you've been knocked out. You can't act. You take a –4 status penalty to AC, Perception, and Reflex saves and have the blinded and flat-footed conditions. When you gain this condition, you fall prone and drop items you are wielding or holding unless the effect states otherwise or the GM determines you're in a position in which you wouldn't.
If you are unconscious but not dying, you naturally awaken after sufficient time passes. The GM determines how long you remain unconscious, from a minimum of 10 minutes to several hours. If you receive healing during this time, you lose the unconscious condition and can act normally on your next turn.
If you're unconscious because you are asleep or unconscious due to a sleeping effect, you wake up in one of the following ways. Each causes you to lose the unconscious condition.
You take damage, provided the damage doesn't impose the unconscious or dying condition.
You receive healing other than the natural healing you get from resting.
Someone shakes you awake with an Interact action.
There's loud noise going on around you—though this isn't automatic. At the start of your turn, you automatically attempt a Perception check against the noise's DC (or the lowest DC if there is more than one noise), waking up if you succeed. If creatures attempt to stay quiet around you, this Perception check uses their Stealth DCs. Some magical effects make you sleep so deeply that they don't allow you to attempt this Perception check.
If you are simply asleep, the GM decides you wake up either because you have had a restful night's sleep or something disrupted that rest.
Wounded
Source Core Rulebook pg. 623 4.0
You have been seriously injured. If you lose the dying condition and do not already have the wounded condition, you become wounded 1. If you already have the wounded condition when you lose the dying condition, your wounded condition value increases by 1. If you gain the dying condition while wounded, increase your dying condition value by your wounded value.
The wounded condition ends if someone successfully removes all of your Bloodied and Bruised condition ranks with Treat Wounds.
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