[Rule change: Magic can still be used to heal either
CS or both CS and health, but it should not be used only to
Combat Stamina
Synopsis
Hit Points (HP) work great for most groups and are
perfectly fine mechanically speaking. However, I think this
variant mechanic makes combat more interesting and
immersive. Simply put, Combat Stamina (CS) is a player
character resource that is spent to avoid taking
damage when they otherwise would. This variant
mechanic assumes you are changing HP to CS, however,
you can use the mechanics presented here without
changing the “names” if you find it unnecessary. The
change is meant to help with confusion that might
otherwise come up using default names in a new way.
If you’ve ever thought a little too long on how hit points
work as a mechanic, you’ve probably run into this problem.
Most groups run HP as a literal translation of your
characters health, and that’s not really the intention.
Combat stamina doesn’t just replace HP but it actually
changes how you manage health and run combat while still
keeping with the overall tradition of this mechanic. As
always use what you like and disregard what you don’t.
Remember as long as everyone is having fun you’re doing
it right. Your fun is NOT wrong!
Here’s how it works:
When a character or creature would gain hit points
they instead gain combat stamina. Simply put change HP
to CS. When they gain temporary HP they instead gain
temporary CS. The character’s health is equal to their
constitution score but should still be tracked separately. If
the character’s constitution increases that character’s
health increases. Constitution affects CS the same as it did
HP. At early levels this is effectively giving characters a bit
more survivability.
Once a character or creature drops to 0 CS they fall
unconscious or are too tired to defend their self. Any
damage remaining should be applied to the character’s
health. GMs it is up to you to use Death Saves or health
to determine death and dying. Regardless a character
or creature cannot fall below 0 health.
[Rule change: Falling damage should be dealt to
health but changed from 1d6 per 10 feet to 1 damage per
10 feet.]
When characters spend hit dice they gain CS instead
of HP, however they can not spend hit dice to regain
health. Regaining health can be done in a few ways.
As described in the Player’s Handbook (PHB), a
healer’s kit has 10 uses and as an action you can spend 1
use to stabilize a creature that has 0 HP, without making a
medicine check. [Rule change: Each use of the healer’s
kit instead restores 1d4 points of health, but can only be
used once per long rest per character.]
This makes actual healing take at least a few rests if
they are very low on health. Alternatively if your group is
not into the lengthy healing process then have each use
fully restore a character’s health.
heal health, because the more powerful spells would be
wasted.]
I prefer to have magic healing only affect CS so that
characters suffering from health damage actually “feel” the
damage via a lowered health stat. But if that seems to
hardcore for your players/characters then I would have
magical healing affect both CS and health. Game Masters
(GMs) I recommend at least glancing over any magic items
or spells you plan on having in your game so you can
properly incorporate them with this mechanic.
[Fun idea note: Perhaps nature based healing only
affects CS while divine healing affects both CS and health,
or vice a versa.]
In my games I prefer that the paladin’s Lay on Hands
and the monk’s Wholeness of Body features restore both
CS and health.
Flavor
So that’s how it works mechanically, but I also said it
makes combat more interesting and “immersive”. I know
immersive is a four letter word to some but hear me out.
The flavor in which combat and character damage are
described is the real reason for this mechanic change.
Some of you probably are already very descriptive with
your language and scene setting. Some of us are not as
good and some players don’t really get into it either. This
mechanic helps both players and GMs with their
descriptions while not forcing anyone into being overly
dramatic or having to step outside of any boundaries they
may have.
Basically when a character or creature gets “hit” by an
attack, spell, etc. that would normally deal hit point
damage, the character or creature instead takes combat
stamina damage. If a character does not get hit then run
combat as you normally would. So far so good?
The real fun is now up to the player or GM to decide
how their character or creature avoided taking damage.
Perhaps your goblin jumped to the side at the last second
narrowly avoiding a spear thrust at his chest, or maybe the
paladin Sir Wryp used his shield to block an arrow. In
essence whenever a creature or character is going to take
damage they instead spend CS to avoid the attack
describing how they avoid it. Eventually though they will
run out of stamina and be unable to properly defend
themselves.
[Note: I recommend not using the massive damage
and system shock rule in conjunction with combat stamina
as most attacks from strong monsters are going to be
enough to force a roll on the table once a character has
been depleted of CS. That being said, if you crave a more
difficult survivability when up against such creatures it
could be a fun and terrifying experience.]
It is very likely that I missed something. At the very
least I have not ready every book published nor can I
predict future rules supplements. Therefore this mechanic
may not mesh well with some other rule or mechanic you
encounter. GMs you will have to determine how best to
incorporate this mechanic if such issues arise. Hopefully
this supplement offers enough information to do so reliably.
Example in play
(In the interest of saving time and space this example will
be a condensed form of play that doesn’t get into the basic
rules like movement and bonus actions.)
[GM]: The three of you have found yourself surrounded by
4 gerbluns. What do you do?
(For this example the player characters decide to fight their
way out. Determine initiative however you like, this
mechanic shouldn’t interfere with any sort of combat style.)
[Naz]: I am going to swing my dwarven axe at the closest
gerblun. I rolled a 21 to hit.
[GM]: Of course you did. That is definitely enough to hit.
Roll for damage.
[Naz]: Damn! Only a 6.
(I’m using the default goblin in the monster manual page
166 to represent my gerblun. They have an AC of 15 and
only 7 hit points. Remember we’re changing HP to combat
stamina, so the gerblun’s constitution score will determine
it’s actual health. Of course rolling for their CS would allow
for more varied npc interactions and could even be done
on the fly.)
[GM]: Ok. You bring your axe down at the gerblun but he
sees the attack coming and ducks under it. (At this point
you subtract 6 from the gerblun’s CS leaving it with 1 CS.)
Now it’s the gerbluns turn. Two of the gerbluns attack you
Naz and they are flanking you for advantage. One gets a
critical hit and the other rolls a 13. The crit is going to be 10
damage to your combat stamina.
[Naz]: The 13 misses. I’m down to 26 CS.
[GM]: Alrighty. Syrianna, one of the gerbluns attacks you
but I believe an 8 is not going to do it.
[Syrianna]: Yarp, my AC is 15. Huzzah!
[GM]: The last gerblun shoots a dart at you, Wryp using his
blowgun. Uh… does 18 hit your AC.
[Wryp]: Sadly yes. I wish I hadn’t stepped into that
Gelatinous Cube earlier. I miss my plate armor...
[GM]: The gerblun chuckles as he blows this dart at you
and you notice a thick layer of snot dripping from the end of
the blowgun. 3 damage Sir Wryp.
[Wryp]: I bring my shield up at the last second to block the
disgusting booger dart. Unfortunately that’s the last of my
CS though and I’m down to 4 health.
[GM]: Whoa. Syrianna you’re up.
[Syrianna]: I’m going to blast all 4 of these sucka’s with
magic missiles using a 2nd level spell slot. Yeah max
damage, 5 force damage to each of them.
[GM]: Wow! That was lucky. All 4 gerbluns get hit right in
the chest. The 3 that haven’t been damaged seem winded,
but the one Naz hit starts bleeding from his nose. Alright
Wryp show them what you’ve got.
(So at this point all the gerbluns have 2 CS left except the
one Naz hit earlier. That gerblun only had 1 CS so the 5
force damage it took carries over 4 force damage to its
health, reducing it from 10 to 6. She’s not looking to good.)
[Wryp]: I’m going to use my Lay on Hands ability. All 15
points of it. I pull out my holy symbol of Thor pressing it to
my chest as a kind of static electricity harmlessly washes
over me.
[GM]: OK. Your constitution is 12 so the 15 points bring
you to max health and you gain 15 combat stamina feeling
reinvigorated. Naz, you know what to do. (In this example
Wryp used his lay on hands ability to restore both CS and
health. He can't raise his health higher than it's max so his
health goes back up to 12 from 4 but he gets the full 15 for
CS.)
[Naz]: Aye. Naz goes into a rage and attempts to chop the
bastard’s head off. 23?
[GM]: … Yup! Go ahead and roll for damage. She’s
bleeding from the nose and doesn’t look like she can take
much more.
[Naz]: 13 slashing damage.
[GM]: With a grunt and a roar you swing your axe at the
gerbluns neck and with a look of surprise on her face,
unable to defend herself quickly you remove the burden of
her head from her body. Both pieces fall to the ground with
a wet smack.
(Play commences from there with the players defeating the
gerbluns but not until Syrianna takes a pretty nasty hit
obliterating her CS and dealing 5 damage to her health.
She uses a stamina potion (formerly health potion) to
regain some CS. Afterwards the party binds their wounds
using a healer’s kit to restore some health.)
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Rules Changes
Falling Damge: 1 damage to health per 10 feet.
Options
• Once a character or creature drops to 0 CS instead
Healer’s Kit: Each use of the healer’s kit instead of damage carrying over to health, the remaining
restores 1d4 points of health, but can only be used once damage is ignored and the next time they take
per long rest per character. damage it goes to health. This further improves
Health: Equal to the character’s Constitution score but survivability and is only recommended for the
is tracked separately. munchkiniest of groups.

Magic Healing: Restores either CS only or CS and • For those that are math averse, CS could be
health. simplified to a smaller number such as what would
be a character’s hit points rounded up to the
nearest 10s place. That number is then divided by
10 to determine the character’s CS. So HP of 87
would be rounded up to 90 and divided by 10 to
equal a CS of 9. Each time a character or creature
would take damage they can spend a number of
CS per 10 damage rounded down. In example,
Naz has 9 CS and is about to take 23 damage
rounded down to 20. Naz spends 2 CS leaving him
with 7 CS and avoids the damage. (This makes
more math in theory but less during play, kind of.)