D&D 5e: Injury Special Condition

[TreChriron]

Here's a link to the initial draft. This is a rough draft I hope would start some discussion and input on!

You can skip to the end to see my "design philosophy". I wanted something I could "plug in". I really like the Exhaustion special condition so I emulated that to an extent.

The initial feedback is it's too complicated. I need to simplify, which I will do.

First, I want to have Injury simply limit HP max. It will also apply Exhaustion. This way, I can tie into those existing rules and Injury will then be directly related to the "health" aspect of HP.

I generally like Short Term and Long Term rests (for my grittier game, I'm looking at the HD Only long term rest option). I believe it encourages "in the moment" adventuring gusto. I want there to be something that "sticks" however for getting beat up in combat. Looking at levels and HP, I feel using the 0 HP event brings into consideration the character's level. I want there to be something that reinforces the idea of "you took a beating". Right now it feels like once you heal back up, you're perfect. I want something that represents longer lasting Injury.

Also, I don't like the Lingering Injuries/Wounds option. It's too specific and the consequences are too stark. I want Injury rules that are as "generic" as HP. I want the GM and players to bring the description in using the abstract, which fits the D&D approach (more so in my opinion. .

I welcome your ideas! I would love this to be a "fan-tuned" option.

 

[jodyjohnson]

It seems like anything beyond Injury 1 is an adventure ender. Once a character has disadvantage to all attacks it would likely turn into an escape scenario. Natural healing is very slow, but magical healing will make it irrelevent (much like 1e/2e).

Exhaustion is pretty serious. And might do some of the feel. A roll on the Lingering Wounds table plus 1-3 levels of Exhaustion at 0 would be nearly as serious just from the DMG/PHB options.

My current game house rule is: Lingering wounds are taken when a character is reduced to 0 by a ‘lethal’ attack – roll a Hit Dice appropriate for your class and subtract from your Maximum Hit points until recovered by a long rest or magical healing. If the Die roll is a ‘1’, roll on the DMG chart for a lasting injury.

For our group I want dropping to 0 be more serious than default but not an automatic adventure ender except in rare situations.


The DMG Lingering Wounds option is more serious. Rolling on extremely failed death saves, dropping to 0, and criticals.

 

[TreChriron]

I like the HD option! I will state again, I really don't like the Lingering Wounds option in the DMG. Different strokes and all that. Just too stark and specific for me.

I'm thinking with each level of Injury you take a level of Exhaustion (works the same as the rules, a long rest reduces by one level). Maybe instead of a % of max HP just roll 1 HD per level of Injury and reduce Max HP until Injury is healed? I am pretty sure limiting Injury to Exhaustion + limit Max HP will be simple and give me the effect I'm looking for.

I don't want the condition to be "adventure ending", I just want to reinforce the feeling of Injury without the "back in the game full speed" feeling of the current Short and Long rests.

The more I think about it, I'm pretty sure I like the idea of just recovering HD on long rests. I think that will also increase the "gritty" feel.

EDIT: If the Injury included a reduction to max HP based on one or more HD rolled, then that damage could then be healed outside the normal rest rules. So based on time rested (or time lapsed) you recover Max HP while rests recover current HP? This would have the effect of a "gradual" healing for longer term damage (max HP) vs. the recovery of short term damage (current HP).

 

[TreChriron]

Version 2 is now ready for your reviews, comments and suggestions! Major revision. I think this one is MUCH better thanks to community feedback!

 

[Daern]

Here's what I've been using. I prefer to keep it abstract, though I did just add a possibility of specific injury after reading this. It's worked well in play, and requires a bit of a magic resource decision making. The thing about these types of critical wounds is that they can stack up pretty fast for adventurers. I was in a game last night where my character took a crit and rolled on the ACKS charts. Lost an eye. So much for my crossbow ranger. I agree about wanting to model a slower recovery from wounds, but I think keeping things plausibly deniable in most situations is the way to go.

Grievous Wounds represent the actual big hits.
Whenever you take damage that reduces you to 0 HP, you suffer a Grievous Wound.
That character has Disadvantage on all rolls determined by your Wound roll until it is healed. A Critical Hit or a hit of 50+ dmg that drop a character to 0 HP may incur a double roll. Double rolls refer to the Lingering Injuries table in the DMG p272.
Roll 1d6, unless circumstances dictate a particular condition.
1. Beaten - Strength
2. Broken - Constitution
3. Crippled - Dexterity
4. Disoriented - Intelligence
5. Dazed - Wisdom
6. Scarred - Charisma
Wounds are recovered through Cure Wounds of 20+hp, the Greater Restoration spell, a Medicine roll DC 25 (one check per wound) after a Long Rest, or 3d6 weeks of rest (3d4 weeks if maintaining a “Comfortable” lifestyle).

 

[jodyjohnson]

I think individual tables should go nuts with Lingering Injury charts (I consider the DMG one just an example) if that's what they want to do (I use one, and will modify it).

It seems it is also likely that characters could suffer a strings of these Injury levels in a very short period of time- say the not uncommon situation where they get Crit'd (5% per attack - add Injury level), drop to Zero as a result (add injury level), and then fail their first Death save by 5 (add injury level). All within the same round. Which implies that you want to encourage player's to not have unnecessary fights because any fight will potentially end your adventure flow.

Reminds me a little of a Palladium game where my PC got injured in the first fight and never recovered because the healing rules were gritty, the campaign pace was set to heroic, and the combat level was set to challenging. That campaign imploded before I ever healed back to full - and the DMs goal was to tell an Epic Story.

 

[TreChriron]

...

It seems it is also likely that characters could suffer a strings of these Injury levels in a very short period of time...

That's an excellent point. I wonder if assigning levels of injury at the end of combat would allow us to introduce something like a save for half?

Example: During combat take a "potential injury" for each event (from that list). At the end of combat make a CON save vs. DC 10 + 5 per potential Injury. On a Success, take half the Potential Injury in levels of Injury (rounded down, this CAN reduce levels of Injury to 0!). On a Failure, take one level of Injury per each Potential Injury.

It would add the "stress" of potential Injury while still allowing for the heroic possibility of avoiding some or all of the Injury incurred.

Thoughts?

 

[Daern]

Well, I think any given blow should only deal a single injury. Triggers shouldn't stack.

 

[TreChriron]

I updated to version 3 including a save now that can limit Injury to one level per combat. Let me know what you think!

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_lJhbSwBglnWVctajViTkgyaU0&usp=sharing