Goodman Games

Hi all,

Just wondering how everyone's characters stamina is holding up after a few sessions? The rules as read state that you lose a permanent point of stamina every time you fall below 0 hp. If you are not attended to in time, you have to roll under luck to actually be alive but one of your three physical stats is reduced permanently by one. We don't have any plans to change anything yet but have started to notice its impact after a few sessions under our belt. Here is our play history as an example:

16 0 level characters went down Portal Under the Stairs and 7 came back up.
10 1st level characters started and all survived Doom of the Savage Kings. A few characters went down, two (a Warrior and Elf) in particular. The Elf ended up on 5 stamina from 8 and the warrior faired not much better.
10 2nd level characters tackled a home brew that may have been influenced to reduce our numbers to a manageable 2 characters per player. After 2 sessions the adventure is as good as complete and we have 5 survivors.

Link to that last session here:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/836773/ ... ew-session

To date we have gone with the strategy of using sacrificial characters at the front and the "keepers" at the rear. From this my Elf ended up with 3 stamina (started with 8 at 0 level) before she died. Even one of my "keepers" has lost a point of stamina now and he's a warrior (who needs it). Now that we are left with just keepers, they will all be in direct combat more than ever before. I therefore fear that after a couple of more adventures they will all have Stamina's less than 8. Are other people experiencing the same? Is it too harsh to lose a point every time you go less than 0 hp?

To date we don't plan to change the rules on this but I would like to know what more experienced players feel - are all their 5th/8th level fighters walking around with Zimmer frames?

Brutal.

I'd have to make some sort of rule where the character, if they convalesce for long periods of time, can regain lost stat points.

I roll for their physical stats randomly (1d3, 1 = Str, 2 = Agi, 3 = Sta) when they hit 0 HP.

In my current campaign, I think we had like 6 deaths in three sessions, though none have permanently died.

Running away is an option for avoiding death. Multitudinous hirelings are another.

I have had some players declare they didn't want their characters healed while in the "bleeding to death" phase after hitting 0 HP and before their level in rounds had passed because they didn't want the Stamina loss... and I roll a d3 to determine the "recover the body" ability score loss, so sometimes that strategy/gamble wouldn't help them at all.

All in all, though, I have only seen about 4 deaths actually "stick" (no healing while bleeding and failing their luck check when recovered) with any characters of 1st level or above... and it was Agility dropping lower and lower that had most of the players worried about ability loss.

Luckily, they can quest to fix that.

I guess as we level up we will have more chance of getting healed before dropping to 0 and running will be an option. To date one hit is a near death experience even at 2nd level. Mind all our hp rolls are ave or worse. Thief has 7, three warriors about 15, and one has 23. The other issue is if you're engaged and run its a free swing - maybe should only allow one free swing if 3 pc's run from 1 monster at the same time ...

I'd definitely only allow one free swing if all the characters bolt at once. Beyond that, I've felt from the beta that the Stamina loss was a bit too harsh. I think the options are:

House rule that the ability score loss varies.
House rule a way for characters to heal some Stamina lost in this way over time.
House rule a way for character to avoid the Stamina loss.
DM provides some in game method of Stamina recover (perhaps a quest for the local temple).
Hire lots of folks to be your front line.

Personally, I think I might go with the third option. You get a Luck check to still be alive when turned over later, I might grant a similar Luck check to recover from 0 hp without an ability score loss. Then, if a particularly beloved character gets too weakened there is always the quest option to let them recover.

Will discuss with our other players but I think over time perhaps it can be healed or the quest thing ...

OK we discussed in tonights session and decided to leave as is and see how it pans out. At the end of the session no one had gone down as it happens - 1 fight against 5 adventure types similar to us (trying to steal our loot!) and a minor fight against 4 demons - minor because 3 being whipped by the fouth, wanted to be somewhere else, and the cleric eventually managed to command them all to sleep after several rounds of below average rolls from all of us including my Wizards first corruption and spell misfire!

At any rate, we levelled up and the cleric discovered the spell Restore Vitality where if you roll a 20 or higher restores a permannently lost stat - problem solved