Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Will" data-source="post: 3732966" data-attributes="member: 5566">Ok, been considering this for a while now, and think I have a conceptual breakthrough to make it work.The goal is to have a 'descriptive' element to combat: I'm much happier saying something like 'the mace clips your knee -- your eyes water from the pain, and it's going to be hard putting weight on that leg for a while.'But called-shot or random damage systems for D&D never quite felt right, or had issues integrating with the rest of the system.Then it hit me... I also like Action Point systems and other ideas where you can 'buy off' bad effects to survive. Why not combine the two?(Pardon limited formatting, I haven't been on ENWorld in a while)Injuries Buy-Off Damage SystemInjury rank x character level = amount of damage you can 'buy off.'Long-term injuries have a rank 5x as high as short-term versions, so buy off 5x as much.Short-term Injury rank : Injury : Translation to game : Long-term effectSystemic/conditional effects:1 : Fatigue : A crushing blow to the vitals, bleeding damage : chronic pain1 : Knocked prone :  heavy blow : (don't use for long-term)2 : Stun for 1 round : sudden extreme pain, head-blow : comatose (with Immobile)2 : Bleed 1 hit point per round : Slashed open, lacerations : As long-term, bleeding is one point per minuteAbility scores:Ability damage, # of points = rank, Dex - joints, arm, leg; Con - abdomen, head; Str - head, pain; Int/Wis/Cha - head injuriesAbility drain, permanent, # of points x 5 = rank. This damage is crippling/scarringMobility:Mobility stacks. Each level of mobility injury increases severity, so someone with a Limp can take another rank 1 injury and becomes Lame. Another person might go from normal to Lame as a rank 2 injury.If mobility damage is long-term, short-term injuries stack on top. So someone with permanent Limp (injury rank 5) might take a rank 1 injury and become Lame; it then takes relatively little time to heal from Lame to Limp.1 : Limp, 3/4 speed : Hips, lower back, knee, legs2 : Lame, 1/2 speed3 : Crippled, 1/4 speed4 : Immobile, 5' step only : Often knocked prone as well, if only temporarilyArms/torso:1 : -4 to off-hand : Slashed open arm, bruised arm, shoulder or back injury : Tendons cut, broken arm3 : off-hand useless : (same, more severe)2 : -4 to on-hand4 : on-hand useless (If -4 to one hand, other hand is fine, and using 2hand weapon, penalty is -2. A useless hand can't hold anything)Injuries should be listed, like:5 Strength damage (painful back injury)5 Limping 3/4 speed (long-term, lower back injury)When a PC takes damage, the player may elect to use an Injury to reduce damage. If the minimum Injury rank necessary to eliminate damage has any 'left over' points, these points can be used to heal prior damage (but the player may not pick a higher injury rank just for the sake of healing).Injuries are either short or long term. Short term injuries require a Heal check, DC 15 + injury rank, per injury after combat. After successful treatment, the injury will disappear after hours of rest equal to the rank of injury. An hour of rest applies to all injuries sustained, not just one at a time.Treating an injury can only be attempted once per day.Healing magic can be used to treat injuries; most injuries are equal to Injury Rank x character level damage. Ability damage is treated like any other ability damage, and requires Restoration spells to treat.Long term injuries require a Heal check, DC 15 + injury rank, per injury after combat. After successful treatment, the injury will disappear after days of rest equal to the rank of injury. In this case, a day of rest only helps one injury at a time.Treating an injury can only be attempted once. If it fails, only magic will heal the damage.Generally, permanent injuries require Regenerate to treat. Permanent ability damage is treated with Restoration or Greater Restoration.It is up to the player to call for an injury, and she should have a lot of say into which injury occurs. The DM is, however, responsible for it making some sense. For example, a lightning bolt is unlikely to cause Bleeding damage, but the player might argue that the bolt struck her left shoulder and came out her right leg, leading to -4 off-hand, stun, and Limping injuries. If the DM agrees, that's 3x her level in absorbed damage.The DM may also refuse injuries that wiggle out of anything meaningful. A character who can fly at will should ignore movement injuries, unless those injuries apply to her flight. Ability drain should usually be accompanied by some other effect -- loosing a point of Int, Cha, and Wis is fine, but should probably come with Stun or Prone or something similar.The player is expected to be told how much damage is done before deciding on injuries; the major purpose of injuries is to allow players to survive longer, but to trade that survival for considerable handicaps.HELP NEEDED:Ok, so I have a pretty good start, but I'm a little unsure if the numbers work out. Also, my main focus is on E6 and other 'low fantasy' games. I'm wondering if, in games that go higher-level, the availability of spells like Restoration make the whole injury system meaningless.The other area of consideration is NPCs. At a first pass, it seems leaning on the mook/named idea might work: mooks just take damage and fall down, but that named kobold necromancer/sorcerer is going to be saving his scaly tuchus with injuries as much as possible.Constructive feedback would be grand.Edits:Dropped the 'twist'... it distracts from the core premise of 'buy off damage.'Changed Stun from 1 > 2 ranksClarified rank and what it does.Clarified Ability damage.Organized types of injuries.</blockquote>

Verification