Temporary Damage

[Particle_Man]

Why do you still die with temporary damage? When the effect 'goes away,' you regain those hit points, so wouldn't you come back to life, woundless, with the perception you were just struck by a deadly blow?

I mean, temporary hp can't bring someone back to life, right? Why should temporary damage be able to kill 'em?

This comes down to how you view "temporary damage" metaphysically. Since I was coming from a base of "partially real" illusion magic (old style), the idea was that the partially real illusions, including temp. damage, were an "overlay" on reality that, while there, had real effects, but could be disbelieved, and "went away" later.

Now, the idea behind illusions was that you could be "scared to death" but there is a way to explain this without using illusions, as far as I see it (and remember, this is a house rule idea only -- there is no official stance to take, and thus no right or wrong on this):

A person who is alive is a creature, and can take damage, including temporary damage. A person who is dead is an object (a corpse, to be specific) and cannot be healed by cure light wounds (which normally makes real damage go away), nor "get better" when temporary damage goes away on its own. The soul has already gone to its great reward/damnation/reincarnation/etc. That is the idea I am going with. Now, I hadn't thought of it, but the above post about the dead victims' wounds disappearing, while the victim remains dead, fits this, as the "temporary damage" would be removed from the (now) object, and the object would be "repaired." (no unsightly burns/holes/cuts/etc.) but the person would still be dead, since the soul was gone. Of course, there are other interpretations, but that is my current take on the idea. [Note: If you want to go another route, the "healed souless body" would make a great undetected undead monster, until it started to rot...].

Now if "temp. damage" is related to illusions only, then the dead person's "wounds" would go away immediately, while the dead person remained dead. Why? Because objects always make their saves vs. illusions, and the dead person is now an object. But if "temp. damage" is from a different source than illusion, the temp. damage might stick around for the duration (set by the spell/spell-like ability/effect/etc.)

I too am leaning towards "overlapping" not "stacking" for multiple sources of temp. damage, as it will make bookkeeping a bit easier. Thus a user of temp. damage would likely need a buddy to "finish the job" with real damage on some opponents, but could "spread the joy" by hitting multiple victims with temp. damage. Come to think of it, temp. damage might be great for training exercises/"friendly" duels between spell-users, although accidental death might occasionally occur. (Kind of like the magical equivalent of jousting -- you are not trying to actually kill the other guy, but sometimes accidents happen).

But as for that fun zone between 0 and -10 (exclusive), I have to do some thinking on this. Effectively, if there is bleeding, does the extra hp lost count as temporary damage or real damage (i.e. does it go away if the victim is still alive and the temporary damage effect is no longer in place?). Personally, (and again, to make bookkeeping easier), I would say that if the victim goes to -1 to -9 as a result of temp. damage, then I would have her "out and unconscious" but let her automatically stabilize (I am a softie). [Note: in some campaigns, (and for some monsters in all campaigns) if the bad guys hit 0, they are considered dead/destroyed, in which case this issue would not even arise for (some) bad guy victims, but only for good guy victims]. Now if the victim has (minor) temp. damage, but also has regular damage, and the regular damage would have put her at -1 to -9 all by itself, then she has to roll to stabilize as per usual, since she is not in the negative zone *as a result* of the temp. damage. Of course, if the temp. damage is not minor, it could push the victim all the way to -10, which is death, by my interpretation.

 

[ARandomGod]

You can "die" of temporary damage basically because your soul believes in the damage, and leaves the body. At that point, it's just a very healthy corpse, and would need an appropriate spell to bring the soul back.

The wounds don't dissapear immidiantly upon death, however, as the target of the arrow isn't the target of the spell. Everyone can see the arrow, and the wounds made... until the duration ends.

I've had it so that you don't bleed (auto stabilize) because the wound isn't 'real'. But that doesn't spoil the illusion, becuase there is a chance that any particular wound WOULD stabilize.

Also, I've had it so that multiple effects stack, so that if you're hit with two arrows that's 1d6+1d6. But inanimate objects automatically succeed their save, and so do unconcious objects. The second you fall unconcious the damage from the weapon goes away for you (but the illusion of damage is still there for another), so unless that last hit was a killing blow, you'll wake up later. Or if there's some reason you can stay concious up to the point of death (there are a few reasons out there), which would make the blow that took you down be killing, by definition.

So, effectively, this is just a way to make someone go unconcious... well, at least unless you had enough magic on that illusionary arrow to kill (the average d6 arrow won't take someone below -10 without some impressive natural strength, or magical augmentation of some sort.)

Although there's no reason not to have the illusionary arrows have magical augmentation... either from the bow that fires it (Could a bow do this? up to the GM. The bow doesn't believe there's an arrow there after all.) or from the spell being high enough level to produce the arrows AND add augments (not unreasonable).

 

[ARandomGod]

Now, I hadn't thought of it, but the above post about the dead victims' wounds disappearing, while the victim remains dead, fits this, as the "temporary damage" would be removed from the (now) object, and the object would be "repaired." (no unsightly burns/holes/cuts/etc.) but the person would still be dead, since the soul was gone. Of course, there are other interpretations, but that is my current take on the idea. [Note: If you want to go another route, the "healed souless body" would make a great undetected undead monster, until it started to rot...].

Well, it wouldn't rot as long as it was fed somehow (ring of sustenance) and turned enough not to get bedsores. It would waste away as the muscles aren't being used... but it wouldn't animate as "undead" without some animating spell, of course...
Wait. This would be perfect for a magic jar type possession, as there's no original owner to try to reclaim the body. New way to immortality here we are! (Sure, not a good aligned way. But the system has removed most of those arbitrarily.)