Goodman Games

Does anyone know if "Iron Heroes" accounts for exaustion in combat? Does anyone have a home rule that does this?

I don't believe the core IH books cover exhaustion -- it's rare that Conan (the archetypal IH-style hero, I think) needs a Gatorade break. My first thought on creating such a system would be to use the hero's CON score as the number of rounds/minutes/desired time increments that they can exert themselves before they need to start making Fortitude saves. Hope that helps.

Hehehehe. Good point.

I don't know how useful this is to you, but 2nd edition AD&D's Player's Option: Combat book had a system for this. My recollection is that each PC could fight for their Constitution score in rounds (I think double that for warrior types) before becoming fatigued. They would then begin the countdown again before becoming exhausted. I don't remember how they defined fatigued and exhausted, but the 3rd edition definitions should suffice.

Hackmaster actually has a good rule for this.

Fatigue Factor is CON/2
Fatigue Check is (CON+WIS)/2; d20 less than or equal to

FF is the # of rounds you can fight without exhaustion. After that, make a Fatigue Check every round. If you fail: -1 STR & DEX

To d20-ize it, I'd make the FF CON/2 and the FC a DC 10 Wisdom Check - the will to keep fighting. CON is already factored in directly as the # of rounds to fight.

OPTION #2
Allow players to make a DC 10 CON check. If they make it, they can gain +1 to Hit, +1 Damage, or move 5' extra, pushing themselves. If they fail, they can't get the bonus and are -1 STR & DEX.

OPTION #3
Look at a game like the Hero System that has an Endurance system built into all actions.