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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Herremann the Wise" data-source="post: 5954740" data-attributes="member: 11300">I think care needs to be taken in throwing out the "death spiral" term; too many times I've seen people point to this with a sage nod of the head while saying "it is known". Really though, I'm thinking the potential problem here is easily avoided. The key is fostering the expectation that at any given point most characters will be carrying a wound or two, but because they have pretty much full access to their hit points (the most mechanically real defense for a character), they are both still playable and survivable.Imagine that there are two limits when it comes to wounds:* Incapacitated: [For example 16 wound points] As long as the total wound points received does not equal or exceed this limit, then some wounds will have no penalty while others will have a light mechanical penalty. These are the wounds that are easily treated by a mundane healer and don't overtly hamper the group.However, any wounds received that takes the character to or over this incapacitated limit, incapacitate the character and are more serious. This is the stuff that can impact a character for days or weeks and is typically dealt with through Cure x Wounds Rituals. These are the somewhat rare occurrences where significant resources needs to be spent.* Death: [For example 22 wound points]Any wounds taken that equal or exceed this limit means that the character is dying and healing no longer works upon the character (although some intense celestial intercession, or dark tainted pact may be able to bring a character back from this absolute brink).A character's death limit is affected by their bulk, constitution and race and remains fairly similar across most PCs (perhaps between 18 and 30). A character's incapacitated limit however reflects their toughness and will to go on. A fighter or a monk will have that incapacitated limit quite close to their death limit. A wizard or priest will have a much lower incapacitated limit (between 6 and 10 perhaps).The aim here in terms of death spirals is that those classes who should be more able to avoid incapacitation (and thus bigger wounding) have far more leeway and so the death spiral effect is held off. The end result should be characters who are survivable, thus playable, and all while being believable.Which is why I would just neatly split hit points from wounds so that they can be treated separately.Best RegardsHerremann the Wise</blockquote>

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