Fatigue Point Use for Wizards AND Warriors

[flankspeed]

Originally Posted by Anomylous

I've toyed with some similar ideas, but this is probably simpler and more balanced.

I thought about using fatigue for my "elves are allergic to iron" rule variant - having them take 1 fatigue point per turn in contact with the metal, or something like that.

I’m happy if you find some way to take these ideas and customize them for your own use!

Also, you made me think that a slave collar could be created that would drain a wizard’s Fatigue Points to hinder spell casting, or drain a warrior’s FP to hinder fighting. For example, this would force an imprisoned wizard who used magic to risk hitting 0 FP, possibly falling unconscious and beginning to cast using HP, which does lethal damage.

[flankspeed]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

At first glance I see splitting the Hit Points and Fatigue points as an easy, useful way of understanding what is happening to the character. It was always so confusing separating the two when they occured....

What it does is increase the wizard's ability to not worry about Hit Point wounds affecting his spell fatigue. An injured wizard can still cast his full allotment of spells, even if damaged. Can't do that with current rule system. In keeping with the current system, perhaps if you are at 50% hit points, there is a negative DX or IQ penalty for casting when your fatigue also reaches 50%? or maybe the fatigue costs double at that point?...

I like TFT for its easy to learn and easy to play elegance. Merely saying that HP and FP are both based on ST but marked off separately seems to be a game mechanic that is easy to comprehend and to use during gameplay.

I considered trying to connect Hit Points and Fatigue Points more closely, as you hinted at by mentioning 50% Hit Points. I thought about saying every -2 HP lost causes -1 FP lost, and every -2 FP lost causes -1 HP. Or that every 5 or 6 rolled on a die for wounds would cause -1 FP and every 5 or 6 rolled on a brawling punch would cause -1 HP.

That way a brawl would not kill an uninjured person, but it could kill a wounded person. And every physical HP wound could reduce FP available for casting or fighting. But, in the end, that seemed too complicated for me since ST is such a low number anyway, so I didn’t mention this in my suggestions. Feel free to accept the complication in your house rules if it seems fun to you.

The other thing about 50% HP or 50% FP is that this was not included in the original rules. The rules could have said that every 25% of HP lost causes -1 DX or some such. Or that when characters are at 50% or fewer HP, they are at -2 DX. The rules do mention -3 DX for reaching ST=3, as well as -2 DX for the next turn after taking 5 Hits, so those modifiers do exist already.

In the end, I chose to think that adrenaline compensates for pain in the midst of battle, so all I suggested was that once a character reaches FP=2 or less, they are at -2 DX. If a wizard keeps casting after FP=2 or less, they must make a 3d vs ST save to remain conscious at FP=0, and if they stay awake, then continued casting using HP would be at the -2 DX as just described for FP=2 or less. And if HP=3 or less, then the character is hit by an even nastier -3 DX, for a potential total of -5 DX.

ST seems like such a low number anyway that it was not worth adding too much detail. The difference between 50% of ST=10 and the ST=3 penalty is, afterall, only 2 points. I decided not to bother adding detail to such a small spread of points. Feel free to make your house rules as detailed as your group enjoys!

[CardDiceian]

What about the fatigue of actually striking with your weapon. So that swings that do damage to your opponent - also give you a single point of fatigue. This would also have the effect of cutting down extended battles.

Perhaps you could regain a fatigue point when you choose to defend rather than swing your sword / axe etc - as that is in effect taking a very short moment for breath,and would also be a very good reason to choose defend rather than attack.

So that it's not an automatic 1 point each time you swing - if you fail your DX roll, there is no fatigue point - (You just didn't find the right moment to swipe.) - Unless it's a 17/18. - (Perhaps the fatigue point only takes effect if your hit roll is over 5 - before armour is calculated)

[flankspeed]

Originally Posted by CardDiceian

What about the fatigue of actually striking with your weapon....

Perhaps you could regain a fatigue point when you choose to defend rather than swing your sword / axe etc....

I did not want to include Fatigue loss as being too common during combat because I did not want to make a few turns of combat require more than an hour of rest unless the character was really trying to put forth unusual effort.

I also did not want to allow any way to regain Fatigue during combat (other than by magic or potion) since I did not want to alter the normal mechanic of 15 minutes rest for +1 Fatigue Point. (Defending oneself in life-or-death combat is still a very stressful activity and might not allow any chance to catch one's breath.)

I chose to say that any combat of a certain length would cause -1 Fatigue Point. I thought maybe 6 consecutive turns of life-or-death combat (or 6 turns of combined fighting and moving at full Movement Allowance during a chase sequence) might work for -1 Fatigue Point.

This seems short enough to actually come up during game play but long enough to not apply when a combat or chase is over in a few turns UNLESS someone really went all-out fighting desperately or sprinting hard for +2 MA per turn.

A d6 showing a 1 could be placed out by the GM at the end of the first turn of combat and then incremented by one at the end of each turn of combat. Every time the 6 comes up on the die at the end of a turn, everybody involved gets -1 FP.

I chose not to include Fatigue loss for every individual swing or Fatigue gain for 1 turn of rest because I thought the scale of normal human ST=10 did not support that level of detail, and the time scale of 5 second turns would not allow one turn to equal 15 minutes of rest.

As always, if a group wants more detail, I say go for it, but I am only trying to add a little flavor with Fatigue Points, such as wizards not killing themselves through Fatigue loss and all characters gaining a very limited energy pool for incredible effort or short bursts of more rapid movement.

But whatever a group enjoys is fine by me!