D&D 5E On Lingering Injuries

[empireofchaos]

Just wanted to get people's take on the Lingering Injuries optional rule in the DMG (p. 272).

Background to the question: initially, I was well-disposed toward this rule, because I like grittier, AD&D-style combat (and injury recovery rules). Not because I'm mean (well, I am mean), but because I want to encourage non-combat play by making combat risky and dangerous. In the beginning, things worked well because my game was more of an intrigue and social interaction game, and combat was quite rare. Once the characters attained 3rd level, I stopped being quite so cautious about putting them in dangerous situations, and they began to explore a series of caves en route to an underground city. Long story short, combat became more common (at least for the time being), and so did rolls on the Lingering Injury Table as a result of enemy criticals and PCs being knocked to 0 HP.

What I began to find is that "Internal Injury" began to come up in virtually every session, and that I began to ignore the roll. It's not that I mind PCs having internal injuries (which require DC15 to perform an action afterwards) - for all the above reasons. But sometimes, the roll didn't make any sense - they were fighting giant spiders who can kill you with poison, but probably not give you an internal injury by biting you. Sometimes, I ignored it for the sake of expediency - I wanted combat to zip along without reading the table. And during the last session, I ignored it because I had made a minor mistake in calculating the damage, so the character would not have quite gone down from the hit (I figured it was a good compromise - no retroactive actions, but no punishing the character for what was my mistake; as it turned out, the character dropping was immaterial to the outcome of the battle). But it was also becoming increasingly clear to me that if it really comes down to it, I would much rather have them continue to explore this underground realm than to rush home for a cure.

There is an additional issue. The (optional) rule says that this lingering injury heals if the character receives magical healing, but it does not specify which type. As it happens, two of the four characters in the game have the ability to provide magical healing (Cure Wounds), and the party also possesses a few magical healing mushrooms. So if lingering injuries can be addressed through any magical healing, what's the point of bothering, really? If the rule is read to mean that you need a special type of magical healing for what is a special type of injury, it still stands to reason that Lesser Restoration will do the trick, and the 3rd level druid in the party can provide it easily enough, even it costs him a 2nd level spell slot, or a long rest.

I'm not really looking for advice on what to do in this particular situation, because I'm perfectly happy to keep playing it by ear for the time being, and because I haven't brought it up with the players, so they are none the wiser at this point. But I did want to know, generally:

a) whether people use the Lingering Injury options;

b) what their reasoning behind choosing to use it or not to use it is;

c) people's take on whether things like internal injuries come up too often, and how they cope with the frequency;

d) and, how people read the stipulation about magical healing (whether any magical healing removes the injury, or whether it has to be a specific kind of (higher level) spell?

 

[scholz]

I've made them options, when PCs make a death save, they can instead roll on lingering injury chart (once per rest). So far no one has taken the option. But then so far the healers have still been up when people went to 0 hps.

 

[n0nym]

I use them when PCs fall to 0hp and I have mixed feelings about them.

So far my PCs have received mostly internal injuries, minor scars and one PC lost an eye. I think lingering injuries give characters some personality but players usually don't like when something bad happens to their character.

The PC who lost an eye had actually lost a foot, but the player was so annoyed at the idea of his character being lame (he likes charismatic characters and felt it really hurt his character's concept) that I allowed him to reroll and take another result : he was ok with losing an eye because he thinks eyepatches are badass.

I'm still using Lingering Injuries, but I let the player decide which injury his character will suffer. As for Internal Injuries and things that are usually cured by Magical Healing, I chose to ignore that and only allow them to heal with powerful magic (lvl 6) or through downtime rest.

 

[empireofchaos]

I've made them options, when PCs make a death save, they can instead roll on lingering injury chart (once per rest). So far no one has taken the option. But then so far the healers have still been up when people went to 0 hps.

Actually, I really like that. I imagine players won't often take the option of lingering injuries (especially if there are still healers up and active). But if you've failed two death saves (or rolled a critical fail), you will almost certainly opt for an injury if the alternative is a 45% chance of outright death. And that, to me, seems like about the right frequency of occurrence for these kinds of injuries.

What would you set as the level of magical remedy to deal with these injuries?

 

[Sword of Spirit]

a) whether people use the Lingering Injury options;

Technically I do, but it didn't come up in my last stand-alone adventure. I expect it will come up in the campaign I'm starting.

b) what their reasoning behind choosing to use it or not to use it is;

I like the idea of characters being afraid of going into combat and trying to avoid it. Of course, they can't always avoid it, which means they are going to end up with potentially lasting consequences like lingering injuries every now and again (some of which are easy to take care of, others of which require a 7th level regenerate to reverse).

c) people's take on whether things like internal injuries come up too often, and how they cope with the frequency;

This is how I handle frequency in my campaign:

"A creature that drops to 0 hit points as a result of a critical hit must succeed on a DC 10 injury saving throw (no ability modifier applies) or receive a lingering injury."

That looks to me like it will provide the frequency I'm going for.

d) and, how people read the stipulation about magical healing (whether any magical healing removes the injury, or whether it has to be a specific kind of (higher level) spell?

When it just says magical healing, it means any magical healing. Yes, that makes it easy if you have magic in the group, but I think that's intended. It makes magical healing seem more special, since it can heal things that bandages and a snack can't.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I think lingering injuries are a necessity in 5e, else the abundance of healing makes the game too easy (ime). I use lingering injuries when a PC hits zero and fails an "injury" save (an immediate death save on reaching zero hp).

I made an expanded injury and setbacks table however, as the DMG list is far too short, and deadly, imo (see link in my sig below).

so...

(a) yes

(b) I use them to make being reduced to zero hp mean something, and to discourage the "whack a mole" effect of letting a PC go to zero on purpose because it is more efficient, healing wise, to do so, rather than use your healing magic before you hit zero hp.

(c) I only use injuries & setbacks when reduced to zero hp, and fail an injury (death) save. So a truly debilitating injury is very rare. I would definitely not use them on crits - far too common.

(d) In my version of injuries/setbacks, you cannot use cure wounds or healing word to fix injuries. You must instead use lesser restoration, greater restoration or 6th level or higher magic. This is intentional, as I want the player to have to choose between using those slots to mend injuries vs using those slots to regain HP.

Also, full disclosure, I use the slow healing option from PHB. So the PCs only get half their HD back on a long rest, no HPs. I find the combo of slow healing, and potential injuries/setbacks on zero hp, a good balance for a "gritty/realistic" vibe.

 

[Sunseeker]

I don't use it. I'm not a big fan of charts and tables because I'd rather assign the appropriate injury based on the type of attack that was suffered. Lingering injuries are plot devices in my game, lost leg, lost arm, ruined lung, etc... They serve the same purpose you want them to, to encourage non-combat play and also to get people to have motivations beyond getting more gold and killing stuff. Find the Holy Grail to cure your ails, swim in the Lake of Purity, rescue the White Wizard, basically explore and advance through means that aren't just punching stuff until it's dead.

 

[Yardiff]

Here's how I'd handle magical healing for lingering injuries. First I'd break the injury list in minor, moderate, major, and devastating. If I have to increase the list so be it. Then when you use a healing spell on an injury it just heals the injury without healing hp. Next minor injury requires a healing spell that heals at least 1d8 of damage, moderate 3d8, major 5d8, devastating requires the Heal spell, lost limbs of course require regenerate spell.

 

[Shiroiken]

I like the concept, but the chart in the DMG isn't very good IMO (too many bad things happening far too often). I created my own chart which was rolled upon a critical hit, which resulted with no injury 50% of the time and only a minor scar 25% of the time. The rest of the time were more serious issues, and I discovered that using them in an adventure with limited PC replacement possibilities was a bad idea.

In a true 1E style game, where people own more than 1 character and death/dismemberment isn't that uncommon, then using the option isn't a bad thing. Any kind of storytelling or epic campaign, where character continuity is important, I would avoid at all costs.

 

[Azurewraith]

I use them just because 5e is a cake walk if you take a crit injury for you hit 0hp injury for you these are automatic and no save in the 2sessions i have played its not been to bad a minor scar a major scar a limp nothing overly major i allow any magical healing to remove them but you need to specifiy if you are healing Hps or a wound you dont get both at 3rd level this works fine as higher levels come up i can see it working out as well due to the fact your more heroic/magical/hardcore and injury should be less of a set back.

I also use the vitality rules from the unearthed arcana just to show you the kind of meany i am