D&D without damage dice (my own take)

 AKA current houserules, july'23

 Since I read this and this at the Homebrew Homunculus blog, I have been playing that way, barring ocassional spin-offs. It works. I think it also suits my GMing style (if there is such a thing) and combines perfectly with other personal houserules. But as I use the concept, I don't use it exactly as he devised it, nor as I did at first. It is thus necessary that I codify my own formulas and tables in this traveler log for the next pilgrim in need.

First: there are no hit points, only hit dice. 

Magic Users and Hobbits start with one hit die
Fighters and Elves start with two. This makes them relativelly tougher than their original counterparts, which seems very welcome to me.

I don't use more classes (I might cover this decision on another entry in the future)
Constitution bonuses add or take HD from this amount by their modifier (you cannot have less than 1 HD)

Everybody gets 1 HD every level. 

If you're reduced to 0 HD, you get a special save vs death. See below.

Second: 

Saves are more or less unified, and rolled with d6. In order of descending hardness, they are Spells (6+), Death Ray (5+) and Death at 0 HD, which works like this: 

On a 6 you are as fresh as ever, you regain your last HD.
On a 5 you are wounded and might suffer penalties to actions, and cannot roll this save until you recover.
On a 4 you are unconscious and will probably die if abandoned
On a 3 or less, you're dead or as bad as the situation demands.

This last save emulates the uncertainity of the last hit points and your opponent having to hit you, then rolling enough damage to take you down. Though the HD progression by level might be just a little under the BX one, the fact that the "save vs death at 0" increases with levels, just as any other save, makes more than enough for it. 

You might have noticed that Magic Users are just 1 HD behind Fighters during all their career. I don't think it's too bad, either. MUs also need much more XP to raise levels, so this will keep them another HD under them most of the time, and cannot use armor.

Table of save comparison (hasn't changed since the last time I wrote my houserules there)

Third: All weapons take 1 hit on a hit. They have different critical ranges and do different damages on critical hits. But in HHs calculations, he doesn't take into account the fact that monsters were effectivelly using d6 hp per hit dice, so when he compared his damage outputs vs the BX ones, the damage output is below the relative actual damage vs those monsters. I reworked the table taking this into account, using an AC of plate (16) for calibration. Better criticals equal greater damage dice the better AC the opponent has, and I love how organically this system gives so much variables with so little machinery.

"Roll to attack: If you hit, deal 1 hit. If you roll in your weapon's critical range, add your critical damage"

WEAPON CLASSIFICATION

A critical hit normally does an extra hit of damage. Excess damage is transferable to an enemy of equal or worst AC, so if you deal 2 hits to a goblin (with a single hit) you can deal that damage to a nearby goblin, representing how you managed to slay both of them in a single turn.

Daggers and other similar tier weapons crit on a 20 (1/20 of the time). When compared to B/X raw, they actually deal d7 damage. This dagger improvement is one of the greatest changes of the system. In a single attack, it will still kill easily a Magic User, but more rarely a Fighter. 

Swords and other similar one handed weapons crit on a 19+ (this is 1/10 of the times) and they are almost an equivalent to a d9 (a little improvement from the BX d8 longsword)

Greatswords and other similar greatweapons crit on a 18+ (1/7 of the time), which in damage output it means its equivalent to a d10

Unarmed attacks are at -2 to hit and do not normally crit (unless the STR bonuses are applied, see below). For an average STR character, it does an equivalent to a d4. A -4 to hit would put it on par with the 1d2 unarmed damage of the original, but I actually like to improve the output a little.

Edit: Spears work as daggers when using one-handed, and as swords when using two-handed. In both cases they give you +1 AC due to their reach. But once you are hit in melee, your opponents will close range, negating this bonus. When this happens, you also lose all crit possibilities until the distance is kept again. To do so, you must spend one turn to regain the original position. 

HOW STRENGTH FITS IN ALL THIS

HH made criticals deal more damage depending on class (fighters deal x3 damage and other classes x2) but didn't factor strength into the equation. Strength is incredibly powerful in BX, as each modifier increases both the to-hit and damage by one. Normally each extra point of damage is worth about a +2 to hit bonus in power, so each point of strength actually raises the to hit bonus by three. This is also roughly equivalent of increasing the size of a damage die by 1'5 (so a d4 would become a d7, for example) 

I did apply strength like this: For each bonus modifier, you take an extra HD on a critical hit, with the modifier capped at +2 for this reasons. 
I like a lot of things about this rule, the first is that it rewards the strongest guys in the party to use 2-handed weapons, but the benefit is greatly reduced for fighters with average strength, or below average, which makes "gamist" sense and feels genre-appropiate. I also like that the damage output comparison with BX looks very good to me. Even the parts where it departs a little, I like how it does. AC 16 is the point of reference, with extra critical damage mattering more the highest the armor is and viceversa (references provided for 14 and 18)

Enter table:

The three or four numbers in a row mean: damage at str+0 / at str +1 / at str +2 / at str+3 when applicable. Damage is measured in damage dice, converting to hit bonuses into damage equivalents.

Due to strength being so important, I have ruled that PCs can attempt to raise one of their scores by +1 every level up, if they roll over their actual score on 1d20. More on this here.

Fourth: Monster conversion is done by converting all their HD into their number of Hits. Monsters with HP added to their HD just take an extra hit. Their damage dice is converted to a similar weapon if possible (dealing 1d4/1d6 is equal to dagger, for example) or with some creative solutions: A T-Rex dealing 6d6 damage now deals 6 HD damage on a hit, and 7 on a critical hit (as they are d6s, they work as dagger so he crits on a 20 only). 

Monsters may not be able to spread their extra damage amongst the party if they are not martially trained or their type of attack is not suited to. 

Monsters that attack in group do not get a save vs death at 0 if you don't want to, but their leaders or named NPCs might.

The original table from which the above's was calculated. Here for posterity:

fuck, man, I'm so sleepy. I am going to publish this, I am forgetting some small things but this is the core of it