Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Wound Points & Other Fun Damage
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Hawkshere" data-source="post: 721324" data-attributes="member: 2417"><p>Okay, yet another damage system, hehe. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></p><p></p><p>I was inspired to write this up based on some of the house rules cooked up by other contributors to this board. So this is not an attempt to be original, so much as to balance out a mixure of existing ideas for spicing up hit point damage. I will probably play test this system in my next game, but I thought I'd post it here just for fun. So, submitted for your (dis)approval...</p><p></p><p>The following house rules for damage effects are inspired by the VP/WP damage system used in various d20 games (Star Wars, Wheel of Time), and other house rules posted to the ENWorld boards (primarily by Psion and Hong). The <a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?threadid=39072" target="_blank">Critical Effect</a> rules in particular are almost entirely the work of Psion, and are used here with only small changes. Thanks for the ideas, folks!</p><p></p><p>WOUND POINTS</p><p></p><p>In addition to Hit Points, your character also has a number of wound points (WP) equal to his current Constitution score. These wound points are not a substitute for hit points. HP damage is dealt nomally as specified in the <em>Players Handbook</em>. However, instead of the death threshold being -10 HP, under this rule your character does not die until his hit points have been reduced to a negative number equal to your current wound points.</p><p></p><p>Wound points may be lost through Ability damage to Constitution, critical hits, or critical effects (see below). Loss of wound points will shrink the 'death cushion' of available negative hit points, as specified above. Additionally, if a character is reduced to zero wound points, death occurs immediately, regardless of how many hit points may remain. Wound points are never less than zero.</p><p></p><p>Thus, under this house rule, character death occurs under the following conditions:</p><p></p><p>1. Save or Die effects, such as <em>Disintegrate</em>.</p><p></p><p>2. Character HP equal or less than -1 x remaining WP.</p><p></p><p>3. Character WP equals zero.</p><p></p><p>4. Ability damage reduces Constitution to zero.</p><p></p><p>Wound points will be adjusted by any effect that changes Constitution, even temporarily, whether that be a penalty such as Ability damage, or a bonus such as the <em>Endurance</em> spell.</p><p></p><p>Critical hits inflict HP damage as normal. However, the critical hit also inflicts a number wound points equal to the effective critical multiplier. Thus, a critical hit delivered by a weapon with an effective critical of x3 would inflict 3 WP of damage, in addition to the HP damage. An 18-20/x2 weapon would inflict 2 WP on a successful critical hit. Attacks which inflict subdual damage never cause loss of wound points.</p><p></p><p>Critical effects may also reduce wound points, as explained below.</p><p></p><p>CRITICAL EFFECTS</p><p></p><p>Occasionally, even the hardiest of heroes have to grapple with the effects of grievous wounds. If a character loses more than half of his remaining HP from a single attack, there is a chance that there is a lasting effect from the injury. Creatures which are not subject to critical hits are also immune to these critical effects.</p><p></p><p>NOTE: These critical effect rules are intended to replace the Massive Damage rule. Instead of forcing a save or die effect, more interesting (and slightly less lethal) conditions may be placed on a severely wounded character.</p><p></p><p>When a character loses more than half his current hit points from a single attack, spell, or effect (such as falling damage, for example), make a Fortitude save with a DC of 10 + ½ damage dealt. Subdual damage does not count towards this condition, and never causes wounding damage. A successful save indicates no Critical Effect. Failure indicates one of the following Critical Effects, indicated by the unmodified result of the saving throw (the 'natural' roll):</p><p></p><p><strong>Critical Effect Table (d20)</strong></p><p>[code][color=gold]</p><p> Roll Effect</p><p> ---- -------------------------</p><p> 1 Limb maimed, 5 points</p><p> 2 Stunned, 4 rounds</p><p> 3 Impairment, 4 points</p><p> 4 Bleeding wound, 4 points</p><p> 5 Ability damage, 4 points</p><p> 6 Stunned, 3 rounds</p><p> 7 Impairment, 3 points</p><p> 8 Bleeding wound, 3 points</p><p> 9 Ability damage, 3 points</p><p> 10 Stunned, 2 rounds</p><p> 11 Impairment, 2 points</p><p> 12 Bleeding wound, 2 points</p><p> 13 Ability damage, 2 points</p><p> 14 Stunned, 1 round</p><p> 15 Impairment, 1 point</p><p> 16 Bleeding wound, 1 point</p><p> 17 Ability damage, 1 point</p><p> 18 Clobbered</p><p> 19 Clobbered</p><p> 20 Clobbered</p><p>[/color][/code]Limb maimed: roll 1d12 and consult the Damage Location table below. The character is completely unable to use the maimed body part. The character loses 5 wound points due to the maiming. These lost WP may only be recovered with <em>Heal</em>, <em>Regenerate</em>, or an equivalent effect. Sensory organs thus maimed are considered severely damaged. If the character's head is maimed in this fashion, the character is immediately reduced to -1 HP and rendered unconcious.</p><p></p><p>Stunned: a stunned character cannot act and loses any Dexterity bonus to AC. Attackers get a +2 bonus on attack rolls against a stunned opponent. No loss of wound points occur.</p><p></p><p>Impairment: reduce WP by the listed number and roll 1d12 for the Damage Location table below. The wounded character suffers a check penalty equal to twice the inflicted WP for any activites associated with the indicated limb or organ, as listed in the DMG under the Damage to Specific Areas variant (p. 66). This check penalty is reduced as WP are recovered by the same 2:1 proportion.</p><p></p><p>Bleeding wound: a bleeding wound inflicts the indicated number of WP. Additionally, the wound will cause an equal number of HP to be lost each round due to bleeding. Bleeding wound points will not heal naturally (see Healing, below). Once a round, a bleeding character may roll for stabilization (10% on d%) - a successful stabilization roll will stop one point of bleeding, but does not restore lost WP. A successful Heal check with a DC of 15 + current number of bleeding WP will also stabilize one point of bleeding. Stabilized wound points can heal normally.</p><p></p><p>Ability damage: roll d12 and consult the following table. Apply the listed points of temporary Ability Damage. Note that this effect does not inflict WP, and the ability damage is recovered normally, as according to the PHB (p. 129).</p><p></p><p><strong>Ability Affected Table (d12)</strong></p><p>[code][color=gold]</p><p> Roll Ability Score</p><p> ---- ---------------</p><p> 1-3 Strength</p><p> 4-6 Dexterity</p><p> 7-9 Constitution</p><p> 10 Intelligence</p><p> 11 Wisdom</p><p> 12 Charisma</p><p>[/color][/code]Clobbered: a clobbered character may only take a partial action on his next turn, but recovers from this condition and the beginning of the next round. No WP are inflicted.</p><p></p><p>HIT LOCATION</p><p></p><p>Although hit location is entirely irrelevant to hit point damage, some critical effects are based on damage to a specific body part, generally a limb, head, or sensory organ (Variant: Damage to Specific Areas, DMG, p. 66). Roll d12 and consult the following chart to determine what type of location is affected.</p><p></p><p><strong>Damage Location Table (d12)</strong></p><p>[code][color=gold]</p><p> Roll Location</p><p> ---- ----------</p><p> 1 Head</p><p> 2 Head</p><p> 3 Eye</p><p> 4 Ear</p><p> 5 Leg</p><p> 6 Leg</p><p> 7 Leg</p><p> 8 Arm</p><p> 9 Arm</p><p> 10 Arm</p><p> 11 Hand</p><p> 12 Hand</p><p>[/color][/code]In the case that the affected creature entirely lacks the listed body location type, use the nearest analog limb/organ if there is one, or go up the table to the next highest listing until you achieve an appropriate result.</p><p></p><p>In the case that the creature has more than one instance of the listed location type, then roll another die to determine exactly which instance is affected. For simple pairs, any die will suffice, where odd indicates left and even indicates right. For more than two instances of the listed location type, roll a die with sides equal to the number of possible locations, or greater as needed. So, for a head shot against a 6-headed hydra, roll d6 for the specific head. If this hydra only had 5 heads for some reason, d6 would still suffice, but would require a re-roll on the result of 6.</p><p></p><p>HEALING</p><p></p><p>These house rules de-emphasize the lasting effects of hit point damage while maintaining lasting damage effects through wound points.</p><p></p><p>Natural Healing: Characters recover hit points at a rate of 1 HP per level per <strong>hour</strong> of rest. If you undergo complete bed rest, you recover all lost hit points.</p><p></p><p>Non-bleeding, non-maiming wound points can heal slowly over time with rest only. After each full day of rest, make a Fortitude save with a DC of 15 + current number of wound points lost. If successful, one wound point was naturally healed that day through simple rest. If the injured character is resting under the care of a healer, a Heal check may also be made at the end of the day with the same DC. If successful, a number of wound points equal to the injured character's Fortitude bonus (or a minimum of 1 WP, whichever is higher) are recovered that day. Bleeding wound points must be stabilized before they can heal naturally. Maiming cannot be healed naturally.</p><p></p><p>Magical Healing: Healing magic that restores lost hit points may also restore lost wound points as well. This happens simultaneously, so a single casting of <em>Cure Light Wounds</em> will heal both the rolled number of hit points and one wound point at the same time. The following table shows the effect of magical healing on wound points, based on the standard divine healing spells. A hit point equivalency column is provided to measure non-standard magical healing effects on the chart. Thus any magical healing effect that can potentially heal 16 (or more) hit points will also heal 2 wound points, for example.</p><p></p><p><strong>Effects of Healing Magic on Wounds</strong></p><p>[code][color=gold]</p><p> Spell Equiv. Effect on Wounds</p><p> -------------------- ------ -------------------------</p><p> Cure Minor Wounds 1 Stops 1 point of bleeding</p><p> Cure Light Wounds 8 Heals 1 wound point</p><p> Cure Moderate Wounds 16 Heals 2 wound points</p><p> Cure Serious Wounds 24 Heals 4 wound points</p><p> Cure Critical Wounds 32 Heals 8 wound points</p><p> Heal all Heals all wound points</p><p> Regeneration any Special, see below</p><p>[/color][/code]Note that <em>Cure Minor Wounds</em> does not heal any wound points, but will automatically stabilize one bleeding wound point, if there are any.</p><p></p><p>Regeneration: Creatures with natural regeneration do not suffer wound point loss from attacks which inflict subdual damage. Attacks which inflict normal hit point damage to the regenerating creature may also inflict wound point damage. Natural regeneration will not affect these wound points.</p><p></p><p>The spell <em>Regenerate</em> (PHB, p. 244) will heal all maiming and impairing wound points with a single cast, provided that the target is still alive. If no maiming or imparing wound points are present, this spell will still heal a minimum of 1 WP due to its hit point healing feature.</p><p></p><p>A <em>Ring of Regeneration</em> allows the wearer to heal 1 hit point of damage per level every <strong>5 minutes</strong>. Subdual damage is recovered at a rate of 1 hit point per round. If the wearer suffers maiming or impairing wound points, these WP are healed automatically at the beginning the wearer's next turn. Any other wound points inflicted on the wearer are healed by the ring at a rate of 1 WP per hour.</p><p></p><p>Healing Precedence: Natural healing will restore simple wound points first - those points cause by critical hits or stabilized bleeding wounds. Finally, impairment wound points are healed last by natural processes. Magical healing will restore bleeding wound points first, then restore maiming points if possible, then impairment points, and finally any remaining simple wound points. Regeneration effects will heal all maiming and impairing points first, and if the effect continues, bleeding points next, and remaining simple points last.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hawkshere, post: 721324, member: 2417"] Okay, yet another damage system, hehe. :p I was inspired to write this up based on some of the house rules cooked up by other contributors to this board. So this is not an attempt to be original, so much as to balance out a mixure of existing ideas for spicing up hit point damage. I will probably play test this system in my next game, but I thought I'd post it here just for fun. So, submitted for your (dis)approval... The following house rules for damage effects are inspired by the VP/WP damage system used in various d20 games (Star Wars, Wheel of Time), and other house rules posted to the ENWorld boards (primarily by Psion and Hong). The [url=http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?threadid=39072]Critical Effect[/url] rules in particular are almost entirely the work of Psion, and are used here with only small changes. Thanks for the ideas, folks! WOUND POINTS In addition to Hit Points, your character also has a number of wound points (WP) equal to his current Constitution score. These wound points are not a substitute for hit points. HP damage is dealt nomally as specified in the [I]Players Handbook[/I]. However, instead of the death threshold being -10 HP, under this rule your character does not die until his hit points have been reduced to a negative number equal to your current wound points. Wound points may be lost through Ability damage to Constitution, critical hits, or critical effects (see below). Loss of wound points will shrink the 'death cushion' of available negative hit points, as specified above. Additionally, if a character is reduced to zero wound points, death occurs immediately, regardless of how many hit points may remain. Wound points are never less than zero. Thus, under this house rule, character death occurs under the following conditions: 1. Save or Die effects, such as [I]Disintegrate[/I]. 2. Character HP equal or less than -1 x remaining WP. 3. Character WP equals zero. 4. Ability damage reduces Constitution to zero. Wound points will be adjusted by any effect that changes Constitution, even temporarily, whether that be a penalty such as Ability damage, or a bonus such as the [I]Endurance[/I] spell. Critical hits inflict HP damage as normal. However, the critical hit also inflicts a number wound points equal to the effective critical multiplier. Thus, a critical hit delivered by a weapon with an effective critical of x3 would inflict 3 WP of damage, in addition to the HP damage. An 18-20/x2 weapon would inflict 2 WP on a successful critical hit. Attacks which inflict subdual damage never cause loss of wound points. Critical effects may also reduce wound points, as explained below. CRITICAL EFFECTS Occasionally, even the hardiest of heroes have to grapple with the effects of grievous wounds. If a character loses more than half of his remaining HP from a single attack, there is a chance that there is a lasting effect from the injury. Creatures which are not subject to critical hits are also immune to these critical effects. NOTE: These critical effect rules are intended to replace the Massive Damage rule. Instead of forcing a save or die effect, more interesting (and slightly less lethal) conditions may be placed on a severely wounded character. When a character loses more than half his current hit points from a single attack, spell, or effect (such as falling damage, for example), make a Fortitude save with a DC of 10 + ½ damage dealt. Subdual damage does not count towards this condition, and never causes wounding damage. A successful save indicates no Critical Effect. Failure indicates one of the following Critical Effects, indicated by the unmodified result of the saving throw (the 'natural' roll): [b]Critical Effect Table (d20)[/b] [code][color=gold] Roll Effect ---- ------------------------- 1 Limb maimed, 5 points 2 Stunned, 4 rounds 3 Impairment, 4 points 4 Bleeding wound, 4 points 5 Ability damage, 4 points 6 Stunned, 3 rounds 7 Impairment, 3 points 8 Bleeding wound, 3 points 9 Ability damage, 3 points 10 Stunned, 2 rounds 11 Impairment, 2 points 12 Bleeding wound, 2 points 13 Ability damage, 2 points 14 Stunned, 1 round 15 Impairment, 1 point 16 Bleeding wound, 1 point 17 Ability damage, 1 point 18 Clobbered 19 Clobbered 20 Clobbered [/color][/code]Limb maimed: roll 1d12 and consult the Damage Location table below. The character is completely unable to use the maimed body part. The character loses 5 wound points due to the maiming. These lost WP may only be recovered with [i]Heal[/i], [i]Regenerate[/i], or an equivalent effect. Sensory organs thus maimed are considered severely damaged. If the character's head is maimed in this fashion, the character is immediately reduced to -1 HP and rendered unconcious. Stunned: a stunned character cannot act and loses any Dexterity bonus to AC. Attackers get a +2 bonus on attack rolls against a stunned opponent. No loss of wound points occur. Impairment: reduce WP by the listed number and roll 1d12 for the Damage Location table below. The wounded character suffers a check penalty equal to twice the inflicted WP for any activites associated with the indicated limb or organ, as listed in the DMG under the Damage to Specific Areas variant (p. 66). This check penalty is reduced as WP are recovered by the same 2:1 proportion. Bleeding wound: a bleeding wound inflicts the indicated number of WP. Additionally, the wound will cause an equal number of HP to be lost each round due to bleeding. Bleeding wound points will not heal naturally (see Healing, below). Once a round, a bleeding character may roll for stabilization (10% on d%) - a successful stabilization roll will stop one point of bleeding, but does not restore lost WP. A successful Heal check with a DC of 15 + current number of bleeding WP will also stabilize one point of bleeding. Stabilized wound points can heal normally. Ability damage: roll d12 and consult the following table. Apply the listed points of temporary Ability Damage. Note that this effect does not inflict WP, and the ability damage is recovered normally, as according to the PHB (p. 129). [b]Ability Affected Table (d12)[/b] [code][color=gold] Roll Ability Score ---- --------------- 1-3 Strength 4-6 Dexterity 7-9 Constitution 10 Intelligence 11 Wisdom 12 Charisma [/color][/code]Clobbered: a clobbered character may only take a partial action on his next turn, but recovers from this condition and the beginning of the next round. No WP are inflicted. HIT LOCATION Although hit location is entirely irrelevant to hit point damage, some critical effects are based on damage to a specific body part, generally a limb, head, or sensory organ (Variant: Damage to Specific Areas, DMG, p. 66). Roll d12 and consult the following chart to determine what type of location is affected. [b]Damage Location Table (d12)[/b] [code][color=gold] Roll Location ---- ---------- 1 Head 2 Head 3 Eye 4 Ear 5 Leg 6 Leg 7 Leg 8 Arm 9 Arm 10 Arm 11 Hand 12 Hand [/color][/code]In the case that the affected creature entirely lacks the listed body location type, use the nearest analog limb/organ if there is one, or go up the table to the next highest listing until you achieve an appropriate result. In the case that the creature has more than one instance of the listed location type, then roll another die to determine exactly which instance is affected. For simple pairs, any die will suffice, where odd indicates left and even indicates right. For more than two instances of the listed location type, roll a die with sides equal to the number of possible locations, or greater as needed. So, for a head shot against a 6-headed hydra, roll d6 for the specific head. If this hydra only had 5 heads for some reason, d6 would still suffice, but would require a re-roll on the result of 6. HEALING These house rules de-emphasize the lasting effects of hit point damage while maintaining lasting damage effects through wound points. Natural Healing: Characters recover hit points at a rate of 1 HP per level per [b]hour[/b] of rest. If you undergo complete bed rest, you recover all lost hit points. Non-bleeding, non-maiming wound points can heal slowly over time with rest only. After each full day of rest, make a Fortitude save with a DC of 15 + current number of wound points lost. If successful, one wound point was naturally healed that day through simple rest. If the injured character is resting under the care of a healer, a Heal check may also be made at the end of the day with the same DC. If successful, a number of wound points equal to the injured character's Fortitude bonus (or a minimum of 1 WP, whichever is higher) are recovered that day. Bleeding wound points must be stabilized before they can heal naturally. Maiming cannot be healed naturally. Magical Healing: Healing magic that restores lost hit points may also restore lost wound points as well. This happens simultaneously, so a single casting of [i]Cure Light Wounds[/i] will heal both the rolled number of hit points and one wound point at the same time. The following table shows the effect of magical healing on wound points, based on the standard divine healing spells. A hit point equivalency column is provided to measure non-standard magical healing effects on the chart. Thus any magical healing effect that can potentially heal 16 (or more) hit points will also heal 2 wound points, for example. [b]Effects of Healing Magic on Wounds[/b] [code][color=gold] Spell Equiv. Effect on Wounds -------------------- ------ ------------------------- Cure Minor Wounds 1 Stops 1 point of bleeding Cure Light Wounds 8 Heals 1 wound point Cure Moderate Wounds 16 Heals 2 wound points Cure Serious Wounds 24 Heals 4 wound points Cure Critical Wounds 32 Heals 8 wound points Heal all Heals all wound points Regeneration any Special, see below [/color][/code]Note that [i]Cure Minor Wounds[/i] does not heal any wound points, but will automatically stabilize one bleeding wound point, if there are any. Regeneration: Creatures with natural regeneration do not suffer wound point loss from attacks which inflict subdual damage. Attacks which inflict normal hit point damage to the regenerating creature may also inflict wound point damage. Natural regeneration will not affect these wound points. The spell [i]Regenerate[/i] (PHB, p. 244) will heal all maiming and impairing wound points with a single cast, provided that the target is still alive. If no maiming or imparing wound points are present, this spell will still heal a minimum of 1 WP due to its hit point healing feature. A [i]Ring of Regeneration[/i] allows the wearer to heal 1 hit point of damage per level every [b]5 minutes[/b]. Subdual damage is recovered at a rate of 1 hit point per round. If the wearer suffers maiming or impairing wound points, these WP are healed automatically at the beginning the wearer's next turn. Any other wound points inflicted on the wearer are healed by the ring at a rate of 1 WP per hour. Healing Precedence: Natural healing will restore simple wound points first - those points cause by critical hits or stabilized bleeding wounds. Finally, impairment wound points are healed last by natural processes. Magical healing will restore bleeding wound points first, then restore maiming points if possible, then impairment points, and finally any remaining simple wound points. Regeneration effects will heal all maiming and impairing points first, and if the effect continues, bleeding points next, and remaining simple points last. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Wound Points & Other Fun Damage
Top