All player characters in the game have reduced hit points to help balance the game for fewer fights. When determining Hit Points you gain the maximum at Level 1 plus your CON modifier, then afterwards you gain HP based on the table below plus your CON modifier.
In a community game like this between all the RP, puzzle solving and discussion, most DM events will only have time for one or two fights. By reducing everyone's HP total we can make these fights more interesting without needing to overcompensate with overly deadly encounters.
Play smart, play carefully.
When a player character hits 0 hit points they are not knocked unconscious but instead enter an ‘injury’ state. While in this state you gain the following conditions:
You can no longer concentrate on spells, if you are concentrating on a spell it immediately fails.
If you suffer damage you roll a Death Saving Throw, the first two failures result in a minor injury, and a third failure causes a major injury or death. If you succeed three times you are knocked unconscious.
If you suffer damage at 0 Hit Points above your Constitution Score you automatically fail a Death Saving Throw.
Death Saving Throw results reset after a short or long rest.
Since HP is lower now it’s more likely you’ll be taken to 0 HP, but being unable to do anything is neither interesting or dramatic. The injury state aims to add tension, and create opportunities for great risk and bravery. In roleplay terms Hit Points represent your ability to defend yourself while fighting, and the loss of them indicates you’re becoming tired and leaving yourself vulnerable to true injury.
This system partially applies to enemies as well, but instead as soon as they are brought down to 0 Hit Points they immediately take a light or major injury and likely become unconscious/stop fighting. Only a rare number of creatures and people are truly willing to fight to the death. Optionally you can use non-lethal strikes against opponents and try to knock them unconscious at 0 hit points, even some enemies may try to do the same against you.
As an action you can spend as many hit dice as you choose to regain Hit Points. When you take a short rest you regain 1 extra Hit Point for every Hit Dice rolled, and heal to full during a Long Rest.
This is a replacement for Health Potions, which do not exist in this setting. Instead consider it as drawing from your inner strength to gain a second wind, so you can continue fighting. Certain powerful monsters can also benefit from this new rule, who must spend all their Hit Dice to heal, which is known as a foes ‘Last Gasp’.
All characters have access to every single ‘discovered’ spell in a community spellbook, found Here. If a spell does not exist within the community spellbook then you cannot prepare it. Whenever a spell casting class gains a level they can add one spell of their choice, that they could cast, to the spellbook. If a spell exists for more then one class it's added to all relevant spell lists.
In practice this means classes that would normally have access to all spells at new levels no longer do. For example a cleric cannot prepare Spirit Guardians unless someone discovers the spell or adds it on leveling up. Learning and preparing spells from the community spellbook is free (Try to only include your prepared spells onto your character sheets, just for easier management).
Optionally you can add a new spell to your own list without adding it to the community spellbook, but this should only be done for evil spells or spells better left undiscovered.
In the interests of persevering the lower hit point homebrew rule, Wild Shape has the following changes:
You can use the Wild Shape Feature as an At-Will ability.
Whilst Wild Shaped you can use an action to transform into a different creature, or use a bonus action to revert back to your normal form.
You gain a Wild Shape Hit Point total, based on your level and Wisdom modifier. These new Hit Points are shared between any form you take, once these Hit Points are depleted you can no longer use the Wild Shape Feature until you finish a short or long rest.
When you finish a short rest you can spend a Hit Dice to restore 1d10 to your Wild Shape Hit Point total. When you finish a Long rest you regain all of your Wild Shape Hit Points.
Circle of the Moon Druids can now ignore the Limitations section on Beast Shapes.
Wild Shape Hit Points = (8 + Wisdom Modifier) * Druid Level
As a bonus action Warlocks can spend half their total Hit Dice (Rounded up) to regain one spell slot. The power of the Warlock is often a thing of temptation, even if it’s source is not entirely evil. As a class Warlocks are designed for long haul dungeons with lots of short rests, but our style of game means they will find their small number of spell slots have diminishing returns.
In line with there lore we’ve added a mechanic where a warlock can give in to temptation, with a price, to gain more power.
In Anatos every Arc of the story will involve a maximum and minimum level range for all active characters. This way all events will be balanced so any character can join any event in that Arc. Once you reach the maximum level you can spend rewards on other bonuses or retire your character to gain Legacy Points to improve the city.
Whenever you use a spell or ability that allows you to summon a creature that can fight, you are limited to only one at a time. This is less of a balance change and more for the benefit of a DM’s ability to easily run a session, as commanding loads of critters or undead can take a lot of time during combat (even just rolling their attacks can take awhile). Any spell that can summon more than one creature can be reviewed to rebalance it if necessary.
Most minor injuries can be treated with a short or long rest. Major injuries are much more serious and likely permanent.
Experience rewards in Anataos are replaced by Milestone points, which are granted based on the difficulty of the event, and can be spent on level ups or magical items.
Any monetary or magical item rewards for an event are determined by its difficulty and the DM’s discretion. By the end of an event if someone in the party has been awarded a magical item, then everyone who didn’t acquire one gains 5 extra milestone points.
When spending Milestone Rewards to gain a Magic Item you may choose anything from the Dungeon Masters Guide or the Market.
Players are restricted to two characters each, but you can at any time retire a character from the Heartseekers Guild. When a character retires they take all of their wealth, magic items, and knowledge and use them to try and improve the city in some way. They can even go on to become an influential figure in the city.
When you retire a character calculate their score based on the table below and then assign your points to any city bonus you please.
When a new arc begins players have the option of starting over with one of their retired characters, who begins with the new minimal level, their background gold, but keeps their old magical items. Like normal characters they can retire again, and can start over with them again when another new arc begins.