Forums of the Megaverse®

One thing I've noticed is that during combat with supernatural beings is the frustrating aspect of bio-regeneration. You'll have your players attempting to blast some demon for 20 minutes of combat rolls, reduce it to half of its M.D.C, and then the round is over and it's regenerated all that damage back. Combat is then reduced to an endless cycle of damage inflicted trying to keep pace with damage healed until you get lucky and manage to reduce the enemy to zero before it can heal. It drags out combat potentially forever, particularly if both sides have bio-regeneration.

I've been thinking of ways of limiting this in supernatural enemies. One way is linking the bio-regeneration ability to the being's P.E attribute, and that P.E number is the limiting cap on the amount regenerated. I ruled that regardless of the rate at which the character normally bio-regenerates, a being can only regenerate a maximum M.D.C/S.D.C/Hit Points equal to their P.E. attribute. If they roll a number above their P.E attribute, they simply regenerate a number no higher than their P.E. If a demon's race regenerates 6D6 M.D.C per minute, and the demon has 20 P.E and rolls a 36, he only regenerates 20 M.D.C instead of 36. The demon might have a bigger, burlier brother that has the maximum P.E for his type, say 36, and this is reflected in that the demon could potentially heal the maximum rate of 36 M.D.C per minute because he has the highest P.E. If the demon is affected by an illness, is sleep-deprived or spell like Sickness that reduces their P.E, this will be reflected in the fact that they will potentially heal more slowly while effected by it. Likewise, if the character casts a spell like Superhuman Strength that raises their P.E to 22, they will gain more benefit from it as it will raise the limiting cap and they will potentially heal faster.

This allows some variation among beings of the same race, with those members of the being's race be able to theoretically heal faster or slower, depending on how "healthy" (how high his P.E) that particular character is. This rule allows for the P.E to serve a larger role in game play, and keeps the bio-regeneration ability from being abused.

What do you think?

Uh, how is that problem mathmatically possible? one minute is four melee rounds, the average gun deals around 1d4*10 per action. but even with weak 4d6 per shot guns and 4 attacks per melee, that's still averaging 14*4*4=244 MD per minute per player character. At the end of which, the entity restores 1d4*10. how does healing 1d4*10 a minute unbalance the equation when your party is dealing a concervitve 600 MD to it per minute?

My games have always had the opposite problem. bio-regeneration is meaningless because combat never takes long enough for it to kick in.

Nekira Sudacne wrote:Uh, how is that problem mathmatically possible? one minute is four melee rounds, the average gun deals around 1d4*10 per action. but even with weak 4d6 per shot guns and 4 attacks per melee, that's still averaging 14*4*4=244 MD per minute per player character. At the end of which, the entity restores 1d4*10. how does healing 1d4*10 a minute unbalance the equation when your party is dealing a concervitve 600 MD to it per minute?

My games have always had the opposite problem. bio-regeneration is meaningless because combat never takes long enough for it to kick in.

I guess it just depends on the setting. I've run into this problem when there are attacks dealing 2D4 or 3D6. Even if you add damage bonuses, they can still be eliminated with a high bio-regeneration roll, and the PCs are back to square one. To each their own I guess.

It seems to me that a simpler solution isn't to nerf bio-regeneration so much as it is to give your characters weapons capable of dealing with it. but even so, it's still not adding up.

3d6= average damage of 10. assuming 4 members in the party, and assuming only half their actions hit/are attacks, and assuming first level PC's, that's 10*2*4=80 MD a melee around, and that's for a very low powered party. so even at max bio-regen roll, your still dealing double what the party can dish out per minute.

As far as your bio-regen rules, honestly, they work if you want to use them. if they work for your group, by all means, go for it. I just think your overthinking the issue. if your routinely setting your party aginst demons wiht 500 MDC and 1d6*10 per minute bio-regen rates, and only giving them dinky 2d4 pistols and 3d6 rifles to do it with, then the problem isn't the demon's bio-regen but their firepower. least that's my take.

but like I said, do what works for your group, I just think your group has an easier solution available to them

Nekira Sudacne wrote:Uh, how is that problem mathmatically possible? one minute is four melee rounds, the average gun deals around 1d4*10 per action. but even with weak 4d6 per shot guns and 4 attacks per melee, that's still averaging 14*4*4=244 MD per minute per player character. At the end of which, the entity restores 1d4*10. how does healing 1d4*10 a minute unbalance the equation when your party is dealing a concervitve 600 MD to it per minute?

My games have always had the opposite problem. bio-regeneration is meaningless because combat never takes long enough for it to kick in.

I've only had this problem, unless we were fighting an intelligence or something. But that would be a problem of biting off more than you can chew...