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'qualitative' wound system?

Will

First Post
Anyone have a decent system for handling damage mostly like D&D, but incorporating more descriptive/flavored wounds?

Something like various leg injuries causing move penalties, or head-shots causing a round or two of stun, or... that sort of thing.
 

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Kmart Kommando

First Post
IH has some neat stuff, but probably not what you're looking for, most of it is one round penalties, except things like Foe Hammer and the Executioner's attack abilities.
 


jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock
The descriptive damage option for Simple 20 does something like this and can be applied to D&D without any conversion. Get it for free here. Note that it will make your games significantly more gritty in an "injuries actually matter" kind of way.
 
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I made a wound chart for my campaigns, with specific injuries based on damage dealt to specific body parts. All damage to body parts is subtracted from the character's hit point total, in addition to any other effects it may have. If no system for called shots is being used, I roll a d20 to randomly determine where the attack hits.

1-7: Torso
8-11: Left Arm
12-15: Right Arm
16-17: Left Leg
18-19: Right Leg
20: Head

Torso damage has no additional effect (unless you feel like getting truly lethal, and doing something like 1 point of Con damage per 5 or 10 points of Torso damage). Damage to an arm makes it harder to use the arm, damage to a leg reduces speed, and damage to a head either bestows Int, Wis, and Cha penalties or has a chance to stun (or both).

An arm with 0-4 points of damage is fine. An arm with 5-14 points of damage is injured and cannot use a shield effectively, and takes a -4 penalty to attacks involving that arm (-8 penalty on two-handed weapon attacks if both arms are injured). An arm with 15-19 points is crippled, and cannot be used until healed. An arm with 20 points of damage or more is destroyed, and can only be restored by Regeneration or similar magic.

Similarly, a leg with 0-4 points of damage is fine. A leg with 5-14 points of damage is injured, reducing land speed to 50% (25% if both legs are injured). A leg with 15-19 points of damage is crippled, reducing land speed to 5 feet (or to 0, if both legs are crippled. A leg with 20 points of damage is destroyed, and can only be restored by Regeneration or similar magic.

A blow to the head has a 50% chance of dealing damage, and a 50% chance of stunning (unless you want higher lethality, in which case it does both. In the case of a stunning blow, the victim must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the damage rolled on the attack) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. The damage rolled is subtracted from the hit points, but not applied as damage to the head.

In the case of damage to the head, 0-4 points of damage to the head has no penalty. 5-14 points of damage causes a concussion, bestowing a -2 penalty to Int, Wis, and Cha for one week (or until Lesser Restoration is cast). 15-19 points of damage causes brain damage, bestowing a -6 penalty to Int, Wis, and Cha for one month (or until Restoration is cast). 20 or more points of damage to the head induces a coma, which is permanent unless Greater Restoration is cast, and the character could potentially starve to death in the meanwhile.

Obviously, this system makes for more lethal combat, particularly at higher levels when massive damage is feasible. I'm sure you can revise it to your taste, perhaps scaling it based on level or some such, if you like the overall feel of the system.
 

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