Implementation of Long-Term Damage

[Nytmare]

I am just going to do things like:

Black Mamba Poison:
Physical Ailment
Effect:
Character is immediately reduced to an effective state of negative hit points. If full save is made (rolling a 20), character is reduced to one standard action per round and cannot use healing surges except through magical means. If magical healing is provided, the result is per standard rules. If no saves are made, character dies.

If the character dies, the player's next two characters also automatically die.

If a "1" is rolled for their save, the player must be lit on fire.

 

[robertliguori]

If the character dies, the player's next two characters also automatically die.

If a "1" is rolled for their save, the player must be lit on fire.

What are you talking about? That's the kind of awesome DMing that will no doubt bow before the first scheme to make effective use of black mambas as offensive weapons. Soon, the hells will quail before the might of the Prime and its virulent venomous creatures!!

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

first of all I think that the DMG will have rule for disease and long term poisons

as for damage maybe a nice and in line with 4th ed rules could be

you get a wound when you use a healing surge and you have already used your allotted number of them

light wound (if you have 0 death tokens)
medium wound (if you have 1 death tokens)
grievous wound (if you have 2 death tokens)

 

[vagabundo]

Probably easier to use the sub-systems in 4e and add to them.

- When characters become bloodied they get a -2 to defences, atks, saving throws and damage.

- Once bloodied, you cannot heal beyond bloodied without divine aid, potions or extended rest.

- If you hit negative hps you are mortally wounded. If you survive you are unable to go beyond bloodied until you rest for 1d6+1 weeks. This rest must be uninterrupted by any strenuous activity.

EDIT: Oh instead of the flat -2 I'd probably use one of the conditions from 4e, whatever seems appropriate. As in "you become bloodied, which means you are x"

 

[Danzauker]

I like the "for every time you go to negative HP you decrease your maximum Healing Surges by one. These get back at the rate of 1 per extended rest" that someone suggested, for starters.

At least it will make continuous adventuring over several days make you need to get back to a city and have some curing without complicating too much the system.

Then, I'll evaluate if I want something grittier in my game, like having Maximum Surges decrease even when critically hit or something else.

 

[LostSoul]

However, it does remove the possibility of long-term damage sustained by the party which would encourage them to mingle in town while their wounds closed after an adventure or seek outside help.

It seems to me that this is the type of play experience you want to foster.

Off the top of my head:

• The DM tells the players what he wants to do for the next session. Something like the above would be fine. The DM crafts an exciting adventure - maybe full of social encounters.
• If, after an adventure is comlete, the PCs don't have enough XP to level, you give them PCs some quests to make up that extra XP. These quests revolve around "role-playing" conflicts that the players are interested in. A dwarven fighter might have the quest "Get drunk", and the challenge is that some teetotallers have prohibited the sale of ale. This ties into the Cleric's quest, which is "Discuss matters of faith with the town priest" - this guy is using his authority to run people's lives, and has sided with the teetotallers. etc.

That's all I've got right now.

 

[TPK]

Hitting the healing surges sounds good to me. Imposing conditions that will modify your bonuses to those d20 rolls could be a bit of a pest and could also mess with the carefully engineered math of the game, so sounds bad to me.

For a heroic if not terribly gritty solution:

If you've been knocked to negative HP during the day, you wake up wounded _after_ you rest. You are three healing surges down, but on the upside you get to wear a bloody rag like a badass bandanna. Take off your rag after three days of rest (tended by nuns in a cloister, R&R with the ale and ladies and gentlemen of the night, whatever).

But seriously, even slightly more lasting consequences of injury makes risking it seem rather more heroic.