How much more useful would blasting be...

[Amechra]

...If Bonus HP from Constitution was, instead of being directly applied, instead derived from the table for extra power points per day?

E.g. Franky the fighter is 7th level, and has a Constitution of 18.[+28 HP (Normal)][+14 (This change.)]

[SneeR]

It would be just as bad, relatively. Everything else would become so much more devastating. Blasting would hurt more, sure, but everyhting else would jump up in power, too.

Too many hit points might make blasting ineffective, but too few makes everything extremely powerful.

[Maat_Mons]

Discounting rounding, this is just adding half your con mod to HP every level instead of the whole thing. 

[Amechra]

Shhhh, Maat Mons, we don't want everyone to know...

[Shiki]

It increases Rocket Tag even more than it already is..?

Edit: Well, kind of. If you considered damage as an okay source for KILLING things.

[Drammor]

Con drain > hit point or ability damage.

At least in my opinion. And... disintegrating seems to be even better.


What is Rocket Tag?

[weenog]

Disintegrating is just hit point damage that wipes out the body if it takes out all the hit points.

Rocket Tag is the tendency of certain characters and monsters in D&D 3.5 (mainly casters) to come up with such devastating attacks that whoever wins initiative wins combat in round 1.

[Akalsaris]

I think it would probably make blasting relatively more useful. There's no need to pack spells to disable an opponent for 1-2 rounds if you can kill them reliably in 1 round. Look at 2E mages - their high burst/area of effect damage in a game with very low HP gains made blasting a decent tactic.

[X-Codes]

Disintegrating is just hit point damage that wipes out the body if it takes out all the hit points.

Rocket Tag is the tendency of certain characters and monsters in D&D 3.5 (mainly casters) to come up with such devastating attacks that whoever wins initiative wins combat in round 1.

At the very least, the first one to land a spell wins.  Sometimes a saving throw is made, someone gets a surprise round, or initiative is rendered irrelevant for some other reason.

[weenog]

Well yes, but if you're including freak accidents like natural 20s on saving throws or genuine surprise, the selection of rockets available broadens somewhat and may include attacks that aren't spells.  Some of those charger builds, and hulking hurlers even more so, can do unbelievable amounts of damage if they get to attack before they're shut down.

Maybe most accurate to say the first combatant to solidly connect their best offensive option wins?

[SneeR]

Yeah, now everything is wildly more powerful. Basically, the entire game would devolve into rocket tag much earlier. Magic classes and monsters would both become much more powerful, while non-charging mundane types would all fall short. Even one-hit-killers like those would find themselves too vulnerable to reliably use that tactic without initiative boosters.

In addition, initiative would also spike dramatically amongst PCs. If everything can take you to critical hp in one round, everyone wants to go first. You only need 1 hp to deliver a kill-strike.

[PhaedrusXY]

Yeah, now everything is wildly more powerful. Basically, the entire game would devolve into rocket tag much earlier. Magic classes and monsters would both become much more powerful, while non-charging mundane types would all fall short. Even one-hit-killers like those would find themselves too vulnerable to reliably use that tactic without initiative boosters.

In addition, initiative would also spike dramatically amongst PCs. If everything can take you to critical hp in one round, everyone wants to go first. You only need 1 hp to deliver a kill-strike.

I tend to react exactly the opposite way, and try to layer my defenses to insure that I can always have some way to negate that killer strike... Otherwise, the PCs always lose in rocket tag, because sooner or later someone else will go first (or there will be a second guy, etc). The DM has limitless NPCs, and they're mostly designed to fight once and die. The PCs are supposed to last a bit longer...

In addition, in a system where "rocket-tag" is the norm, being able to kill is easy. Being able to survive is a lot more challenging.