HOMEBREW: CREATURE STATS

I'd like to have a bit more variety in my bestiary than the traditional 5E fair; I've always liked the more granulated size ranges of Pathfinder, and I've found that some of the simplifications of the system are a bit too simple. At the same time, I'd like my Homebrew creations to be easily ported to others games.

Here are my modifications:

Size Categories are the same as Pathfinder: Fine, Diminutive, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, Gargantuan, and Colossal. Creatures smaller than Fine cannot be interacted with individually, while only portions of a creature larger than Colossal can be interacted with at a time. I also further subdivide Size Categories from 1-8; Mass 1 creatures can sometimes be the size category smaller, while Mass 8 creatures can sometimes be the size category larger. Each Class is equivalent to the full category below it: Small is up to 60 lbs, so each Class in Medium is a 60 lb step. For example, a Medium human is a Class 2 (120 - 180 lbs) creature, while a Medium wolf is a Class 1 (60 - 120 lbs) creature. A tiger would be a Class 7-8 Medium sized creature, depending on the tiger. Class sizes don't matter too much except for some background mechanics.

Perception is more specific, and includes ranges for different senses. For example, a Human has Diurnal Sight 60 ft, Hearing 30 ft, Minor Smell, Sensitive Touch, Moderate Taste. The ranges for a Sight and Hearing have a -1 accumulative penalty for each additional step, so trying to see something 100 feet away has a -1 penalty, and trying to hear something 100 feet away has a -3 penalty. Other senses can be Poor, Minor, Moderate, Good, and Sensitive. If they are more powerful than Sensitive, they will have a range. Poor has a -5 to notice, Minor has -4 to notice, Moderate has -3 to notice, Good has -2 to notice, and Sensitive has -1 to notice. Also, creatures don't have Darkvision as much; instead, they have other types of perception which don't rely on sight.

Habitat refers to the natural niche or preferred biome a creature or character inhabits. It can be urban, rural, plains, forest, jungle, mountains, coasts, deserts, tundra, arctic, arctic seas, deep sea, river, coral reefs, kelp forests, and others. Creatures get a +2 bonus on Nature and Survival checks within their preferred biome or habitat.

Environmental Effects are

Health is how much damage you can take before you fall unconscious, and has an average based on Race and Constitution. Health can be healed through the Medicine skill, magic, or rest and nutrition. It takes about a week for most creatures to heal 1/6th their Health; this Recovery Rate will be noted. Some injuries, such as broken bones, will not heal correctly without medical attention, and take 4x the normal Recovery Rate to heal. These are called Serious Injuries. A serious injury has a 1d10 chance of happening any time a character takes a Critical Hit or Massive Damage, bypassing Hit Dice; any time a character falls unconscious, they have suffered a serious injury.

Hit Dice are plot armor, and represent luck, skill, and story importance. They are determined by Class. When a character goes up in level, they gain a Hit Die. Hit Dice are recovered by a Short or Long rest, and are unresponsive to healing magic. Hit Die can also be used like Action Points. When using a Hit Dice in this way, you can add one of your Hit Die to an Ability Check, Attack Roll, or Saving Throw. You don't have to decide to use the Hit Dice until you learn if you make the roll and learn if you succeeded or failed. You can also spend a Hit Die activate a class ability, to boost defense up to the number rolled, to gain an extra attack, to add damage to an attack, to increase the level of a spell by 1, or to recover Mana, You can only spend one Hit Dice per round of combat.

Hit Dice are reduced before Health is touched. If a 3rd Level Human Fighter has Con Modifier +2, they will have 16 Health and 3d10 Hit Dice. For ease of use, Hit Dice confer their full score as Hit Points, and you must subtract full Hit Dice from your Hit Points to use it. This human fighter started off with 46 HP at the beginning of the day, but has to spend 1 Hit Dice to burst through a locked door, and takes 18 damage when the troll attacks her. She now has 18 HP, and will most likely start taking Injuries on the next hit, requiring Medicine or healing magic. If she manages to survive this fight, she can take a Short or Long Rest to recover some Hit Dice.

Short Rests for humans are 30 minutes, but must have at least 3 hours between them to be beneficial; long rests are 8 hours and include at least 6 hours of sleep. Where a creature has a different rest cycle from humans, it will be noted. On a Short Rest, a character regains 1 Hit Dice, while on a Long Rest, a character regains full Hit Dice.

Mana determines how many spells a creature can cast in a day, as well as how many magic items they can attune to. It is based on Race and Intelligence. Mana is recovered through rest and nutrition as well as some magic items and rituals. Mana can be expanded through the use of spell-casting focus items, material components, magical language, and magical symbols. When a character gains a level, you can choose to gain Mana instead of Hit Dice.

The Grid System for Weight: Encumbrance determines how much you can carry. Take a piece of grid paper; each square is equal to about a pound of weight. On the short side, mark a line for your 1/2 your Strength score - 4 squares for a strength score of 8, 9 squares for a strength score of 18. Next, how much does your character weigh? This is their ideal weight, without any extra padding. Use the random height and weight tables for your character's race to determine this number. Then divide that number by 20, rounding up. That's how many pounds your character can carry without being Encumbered.

Now when you keep track of inventory, you can draw pictures of each item, showing its size based on how many squares it takes up. If you want to adjust the

Smaller creatures can carry more relative to their weight. For Small characters divide the weight by 15, for Tiny characters divide the weight by 10, for Diminutive characters divide the weight by 5, and for Fine characters divide the weight by 2.

Larger creatures carry less, relative to their weight; for Large characters divide the weight by 40, for Huge creatures divide the weight by 80, for Gargantuan creatures divide the weight by 160, and for Colossal creatures divide the weight by 320.

For myself, my ideal weight (not my real one!) is about 140 lbs, and I have a Str of 11; slightly better than average, but nothing remarkable. Therefore, I should be able to carry roughly 5x7 squares, or 35 lbs, without strain. Doubling that number (by putting another rectangle next to the first one on my grid paper) shows how much I can carry before being Heavily Encumbered (70 lbs). Quadrupling that number (140 lbs) is my Carrying Capacity.

Compare that to a Strength 10 human in traditional 5E rules, who would be able to carry 50 lbs, up to 100 lbs while encumbered, up to 150 lbs while heavily encumbered, and 150 lbs as their carrying capacity.

A horse with a Strength of 16 and weighing about 960 lbs can carry up to 8x24 squares, or 192 lbs, without being Encumbered. This compares favorably to the 240 lbs maximum recommended weight for a horse of that size to carry. A horse (Strength 16) in 5E rules can carry 480 lbs at a maximum, and 160 lbs without being Encumbered. A Huge elephant, meanwhile, with a Strength score of 22, can carry 1,788 lbs without strain, or the equivalent of about 10 regular humanoids. Sources on how much an elephant can carry at a time without strain vary, but this seems reasonable.

Further rules for Encumbrance. 

You can only have two items in your hands at a time; everything else needs to be stored in something. Anything large enough to cause encumbrance all by itself requires both hands.

Being Encumbered while swimming halves your swim speed; swimming while Heavily Encumbered causes you to sink 5 ft per round. Swimming while carrying over your Carrying Capacity causes you to sink 10 or more feet per round, depending on what you are trying to carry.

You cannot be Encumbered while flying without losing altitude 30 ft per round, and you cannot be Heavily Encumbered while flying without falling 60 ft per round; if you are carrying over your Carrying Capacity, you fall precipitously fast, and take damage as if you did not have a fly speed once you hit the ground.

For every 6 hours you are Encumbered, you must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or take a level of Exhaustion. For every additional 6 hours, the DC goes up by 1. For every hour you are Heavily Encumbered, you must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take a level of Exhaustion. For every additional hour, the DC goes up by 1.