Alternate Core Documents

[SilverlightPony]

A couple new notes in order to resolve some debate about skill points, hit points and strain:
Enhancements or reductions to Intelligence do not change a character's number of skill points. Permanent changes to Intelligence do not affect skill points gained from previous levels. Enhancements and reductions to Intelligence or Endurance do affect Hit Points and Strain. Permanent changes to these SPECIALs will change Hit Points and Strain gained across all character levels.

So, Strain and HP gain are retroactive; SP gain is not. Got it. *heads off to update some spreadsheet formulae*.

[Kkat]

One problem with the new ruling is the way this affects the drug Buck. Getting the bonus HP from +3 Endurance, and another +60 HP on top of that, is pretty insane. Imagine fighting raiders who are juiced with Buck... something which should hardly be uncommon.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

[Zepheniah]

One problem with the new ruling is the way this affects the drug Buck. Getting the bonus HP from +3 Endurance, and another +60 HP on top of that, is pretty insane. Imagine fighting raiders who are juiced with Buck... something which should hardly be uncommon.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

A simple and direct solution would be to stop the HP bonus from increasing your maximum health, since the Endurance bonus already does that. (by 30 at level 8, 60 at level 18 and 90 at level 28. [8, because of the 3x END at level 1])
Alternatively remove the bonus HP entirely or make you lose 60 HP when the drug wears off, since from a balance standpoint Buck is one of the most powerful drugs in the game, stat-for-stat and among the 'basic-tier' of chems. (Stampede's and Med-X/Painkiller's DR increase gives you an effective 25 HP if you have 100 HP and 100 for high-level characters with 400 HP.)

While not addressed to the issue above, this is relevant to the topic of resistance-enhancing chems:
For the sake of simplicity, I've changed the DR of Med-X/Painkiller and other temporary DR-increasing effects to a bonus in HP that wears off meaning you lose the HP once the duration is up. (As the idea behind the DR gain here is that your character becomes more resistant to shock, overriding that whole 'pass out and die' thing for a while, even if it doesn't reduce any actual damage taken. ...unless it's a magical drug, that is.)
My current play-test-value for Med-X/Painkiller's +20% DR is +50 HP and the ability to ignore crippled limbs and burnout penalties. (It remains the least addictive drug and got its duration bumped up a little.)
The +50 HP is equivalent to how much damage 20% DR prevents at 200 HP and unlike DR will provide its full effect even if the pony taking it is already hurt, although since DR stacks with other effects and itself an increase in the bonus might be warranted. (As said, I have yet to play-test the changes.)
The change would make applying the drug much faster and simpler due to less numbers being involved each time the character takes damage and also make things such as Med-X/Painkiller more attractive to characters without already massive HP-pools.

[Rottaran Owain]

Maybe have it so that increases to a character's endurance doesn't give them that hp, and will only affect their maximum health.

For instance: Yellowstone is a level 5 Earth Pony with 5 Endurance. Normally, he has 135 max health. If he intakes Chemical X, giving him a temporary 2 endurance, his max health will increase to 149, but his current health will remain at 135.

[Viewing_Glass]

Well...let's take a closer look at how much HP Buck actually gives you with the current ruling with endurance. It will give you 60 plus 3 times 3 (for the bonus endurance) plus 3 times your current level minus 1. This equation boils down to:

Bonus Health = 69 + ( 3 x (Level - 1) )

At level 20, this will give you approximately 69 + (3 x 19), or a 126 HP. This translates to surviving one more shot with an Anti-Material Rifle, with some spare HP left over.

Perhaps we should leave it as is? I mean, it already costs three times as much as Dash, Rage, and Painkiller, and those are good no matter what level you take them at. Arguably, the Painkiller is better at higher levels, where the damage values are higher and the 20% DR means that much more. With the change to Endurance and how hp is calculated, I think we should leave Buck the way it is, as now Buck has become that much better for everyone...not just melee/unarmed characters and Unicorns.

[Kkat]

Did a little housekeeping with the rules document. Now, the Traits and Perks for Alchemy, Shamanism and Spellcasting aren't duplicated. Instead, links are given to the Traits section and the Perk document. This way, we don't run into errors where one description of a perk or trait is updated and the other is not.

[Night Light]

One problem with the new ruling is the way this affects the drug Buck. Getting the bonus HP from +3 Endurance, and another +60 HP on top of that, is pretty insane. Imagine fighting raiders who are juiced with Buck... something which should hardly be uncommon.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

It all depends on just how powerful we want Buck to be. If Buck is supposed to make a combatant pretty darn scary, then leaving Buck as-is (especially given its addiction rating is nothing to sneeze at) might be alright. Especially if you're looking at raiders being one of the more common consumers of this drug, as they tend to have a piss-poor DT. Viewing Glass brings up some other strong points regarding this.

One option not brought up yet would be to reduce the flat bonus HP Buck gave you, say to +30, that way before level 8 the drug would be a bit weaker than it is before this change, and after level 8 it would start getting better. You could alternately drop it to +20 which would move that switch-point to level 11 (close enough anyways, rings in at 59 HP net there). If you remove the bonus HP altogether then Buck is only as good as it is currently at level 18. I personally don't really know what the right call is there.

Well...let's take a closer look at how much HP Buck actually gives you with the current ruling with endurance. It will give you 60 plus 3 times 3 (for the bonus endurance) plus 3 times your current level minus 1. This equation boils down to:

Bonus Health = 69 + ( 3 x (Level - 1) )

You can also just note Endrance change to HP as (Endurance change)*(level+2), same with Endurance or Intelligence changes to Strain as the formula is exactly the same.

Maybe have it so that increases to a character's endurance doesn't give them that hp, and will only affect their maximum health.

Kkat and I actually already discussed that option. You'd run into the situation of having to heal immediately after receiving an Endurance boost, either through drugs or through the couple spells that can do that, if you want to actually make getting the Endurance boost worth-while. We felt that would be a bit awkward.

[TyrannisUmbra]

One thing to note about Buck is the ponies that tend to use it -- brute melee fighters -- tend to already have high END. The HP bonus added on top for them tends to be much less drastic in comparison, and in some cases is capped because they have more than 7 END. I'd suggest not lowering the flat HP bonus because of this last reason. If you must nerf it, add a stipulation that the total amount of HP gained from using it can't exceed 60.

Though I don't really think it's necessary at all. The entire point of the drug is to make you harder to take down, and as Viewing Glass pointed out, the relative amount of HP gained isn't really that impressive on a number of extra hits you can take basis. If you want downsides, just make sure you mark that the bonus HP is lost when the drug ends. One of my groups ruled that because my unicorn was too low HP after the buck wore off, the resulting shock to her system resulted in cardiac arrest. She survived, but it was a pretty close call. Was fun from an RP standpoint, too.

[Night Light]

One thing to note about Buck is the ponies that tend to use it -- brute melee fighters -- tend to already have high END. The HP bonus added on top for them tends to be much less drastic in comparison, and in some cases is capped because they have more than 7 END.

Except drugs can break the 10-cap, thus meaning ponies gain HP from this change regardless of their current Endurance.

Though I don't really think it's necessary at all. The entire point of the drug is to make you harder to take down, and as Viewing Glass pointed out, the relative amount of HP gained isn't really that impressive on a number of extra hits you can take basis. If you want downsides, just make sure you mark that the bonus HP is lost when the drug ends.

Agreed, HP can be chewed through pretty easily, especially at higher levels. Also agreed that the bonus HP should be lost when the drug ends, meaning, for example, if my unicorn Night Light took Buck and gained the 114 HP he would gain from it, if he was sub 114 HP when Buck wore off he would very suddenly find himself unconscious and in negative hit points.

[TyrannisUmbra]

Except drugs can break the 10-cap, thus meaning ponies gain HP from this change regardless of their current Endurance.

Is this another undocumented change or something unofficial? I don't see anything like that in the rules at the moment. From glancing over the doc, it still states the exact opposite, being that nothing can raise a stat over 10.

Agreed, HP can be chewed through pretty easily, especially at higher levels. Also agreed that the bonus HP should be lost when the drug ends, meaning, for example, if my unicorn Night Light took Buck and gained the 114 HP he would gain from it, if he was sub 114 HP when Buck wore off he would very suddenly find himself unconscious and in negative hit points.

I dunno, I liked the cardiac arrest solution for that. Though I suppose "succeed this roll or die immediately" can be a turnoff for some ponies. In all seriousness though, glad we agree! (it makes keeping track easier as well for me, seeing as I keep track of HP using "MaxHP-x" as the formula!)