This variant makes battles focus more on circumstances and critical hit effects than merely grinding a target down to 0 HP. It is designed to make battles more strategy-oriented rather than build-oriented. Players and games that focus solely on strong builds and powergaming, are likely not going to appreciate this variant. It is for games where the GM wants more strategy "in the moment" a more "cinematic" combat instead of just watching hit points go up and down.

CIRCUMSTANCE SCALING
Circumstance modifiers such as flanking, prone, high ground and so forth scale their bonus/penalty with level.

 1 = 1 + 1/20th your level
 2 = 2 + 1/10th your level
 4 = 4 + 1/5th your level
 5 = 5 + 1/4th your level
10 = 10 + 1/2 your level
20 = 20 + your level
Always round down.
Always penalize the higher level character more (such as the case of flanking, use the higher level, either the target or attacker to determine the attack bonus).

Example: A 10th level character is flanked by two 2nd level characters. The bonus to attacking them is increased to +3. A 15th level character falls prone. Their penalty to melee attacks and defense against melee attacks increases to -7. A 20th level character with +40 Bluff tells an impossible lie and their penalty is -30 instead of -20.

DAMAGE VS. PENALTIES
Rather than having the game only come to a conclusion by reducing someone's HP to 0, cap damage output and create injuries that manipulate the battlefield.

ABILITY DAMAGE

Ability damage/drain cannot grind a target below a score of 1 so long as they have at least 50% of their max HP and no more nonlethal damage than 50% their current HP. For every point of ability damage that would've been done beyond this, they lose 5 hit points (or 10 hit points for ability drain). In addition, whenever a target with an ability score of 1 is dealt ability damage to that ability score, they suffer an additional effect based on the damage:
1 damage = nauseated for 1 round (even if normally immune)
2 damage = staggered for 1 round (even if normally immune)
3 damage = dazed for 1 round (even if normally immune)
4 damage = stunned for 1 round
5 damage = paralyzed for 1 round
6+ damage = unconscious for 1 round

DAMAGE CAP

No creature can dish out more damage than 10 + their level to any one creature with a single attack (unless it's a special attack with limited uses per day in which case the damage cap is doubled). Limited buffs per day to attacks that are usable at will don't count. However, for every 5 points of damage they would've done above this amount, the target of the attack is dealt an injury instead of straight up damage (see below).

INJURIES

Use the critical hit deck. For every 5 points of damage beyond the damage cap, draw a card. The attacker can pick which one occurs. They may choose to draw only half the number of cards (rounded down) in order to deal 2 critical cards to the target instead of 1, but only if they would normally draw 4 or more.

http://paizo.com/products/btpy...ry-Critical-Hit-Deck

So, for example, if a level 1 raging barbarian charged with a power attack and dealt 26 damage, only 11 points of damage would be dealt to the target's hit points and the other 15 damage would be divided by 5 (15/5 = 3, always round down). So the barbarian would draw 3 critical cards and pick one to deal to the target.

Any critical effect card that deals double damage adds 5 damage to the attack per time it is doubled (this extra damage is not affected by the damage cap or calculated for drawing more cards).

Critical Hit
Upon a critical hit, you simply add (your critical hit multipler -1) to the number of cards drawn and the number of cards dealt.

Hit Dice
To further this concept, all characters and creatures automax all of their hit dice. Fights last a bit longer, making strategy over time more important than raw damage output and granting characters time to assess whether a battle is worth fighting or not and "retreat" during combat becomes more of an acceptable option (in case story reasons demand or suggest it).

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INJURIES (alternative)[list]
Another alternative is that characters and creatures have no true hit points at all.

All characters and creatures have an amount of hit points equal to max HD + Constitution score + level. Multi-classers add up all their HD and take average (round down). So a 3rd level Fighter with 14 Con would have +10 (d10) + 14 (Con) + 3 (level) = 27 hit points. A Fighter 4, Wizard 3, Bard 2 (4d10+3d6+2d8 = 40+18+16 = 74/9 = 8.22 = d8). Toughness allows you to add 3 or your level to this amount (whichever is better).

Whenever a target is reduced to 0 hit points, their hit points reset to the maximum amount and they receive a critical hit effect card as a negative condition. If they are reduced to 0 hit points again before the critical hit effect's duration wears off, it becomes permanent until the character receives magical or natural healing.

If damage from a single hit ever exceeds double a target's current hit points to less than 0, the additional damage is dealt to their next reset of hit points, possibly causing another critical hit effect.

Example: A bard has 17 hit points and a raging barbarian slashes him with a greatsword for 25 damage. The bard's hit points are reduced to 0 (17 of 25 damage) and reset to 9 (remaining 8 of 25 damage) and takes 1 critical hit effect. The bard is struck again for 25 damage reducing their 8 hit points to 0 (8/25) and their reset to 0 again (17/25) and then they reset back to 17. This deals them 2 critical hit effects in a row. Since the 2nd critical hit effect took place before the 1st one could wear off, it's permanent until healed.

If a target ever has more critical effect cards hindering them at the same time than 5 + 1/4 level, they become staggered until they drop back down below this amount. If they have more than double this number, they fall unconscious or become paralyzed (whichever the GM deems more appropriate for the circumstances) until they heal.

Fortification & Crit Immunity: Fortification applies only to critical hit effects achieved from a critical hit, and not those dealt from raw damage. Creatures that are normally immune to critical hits simply gain an additional amount of hit points equal to their HD instead of critical immunity.

Regeneration & Healing: A creature with regeneration is simply immune to permanent injuries but still sustains temporary ones. A creature that receives healing while already at maximum hit points, removes 1 critical hit card from their injury pool if they receive an amount of healing equal to (5 + Con mod) or more. If they receive less healing, they can write the healing in a note card and add it up over time. If they receive more than double this healing, they can remove two cards and if more than triple they can remove three and so on and so forth. Always remove temporary afflictions before removing permanent ones.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:30, Mon 14 Apr 2014.