D&D 5E Wounds - when would you give them?

[Shiroiken]

I've tried using the lingering wounds, and found it to be an absolute disaster. If you plan to use them, expect high PC turnover rate, since it takes either a lot of downtime or powerful magic to recover. Even in a gritty game, I'd probably only have them happen on a rare occasion, such as @Doc_Klueless suggested with a Critical Hit that reduces you to 0 HP. I don't like adding them from a failed death save, because to me that's adding the injury retroactively (the narrative has already determined your fall).

If I was going to use it again, I'd have a check happen every time you drop to 0 HP. Perhaps a 1 in 20 or 1 in 100 each time (depending on how vicious you want it to be), then a roll on the lingering injuries table. This would also completely eliminate the problem some have with a character going down each round, only to get back up each turn, before getting knocked back down. Using this, anyone dropped to 0 HP and healed is likely to play dead or withdraw from combat until healed more.

 

[Hriston]

I see woundedness as part of the description of a character so leave it up to the players to describe their PCs as wounded or getting wounded. Such wounds have no mechanical effect. Likewise, I sometimes describe an NPC being wounded when defeated if the player’s goal was to wound the NPC.

 

[Ashrym]

I just follow the DMG lingering injuries.

 

[Lanefan]

Easiest way I can think of would be to track negative h.p. and have wounds trigger based on hitting a certain threshold somewhere below 0.

Then, each DM could raise or lower this threshold point to suit that particular campaign: a DM who wants wounds to be really common could set the threshold at -1; a DM who wants wounds to be rare might set the threshold at -30. A default might be -10 if you want it to be equal for everyone; -[half starting con score] for gritty; -[con score] for not-so-gritty.

However, note that it's all wasted effort unless wounds are made difficult to cure quickly and impossible to cure during combat.

 

[Tonguez]

Ive thought about using a consequences mechanic and HP 0, Death Saves and Critical Hits makes sense as when conquences (minor/major/severe) - then let the Player decide what the consequence actually looks like

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I would set the threshold at 20 damage. If you take 20 damage from a single attack, then you can make a Con save against half the damage taken, with failure resulting in injury.

 

[Ashrym]

Massive damage of half the max hp causes a DC 15 system shock check in the DM optional rules. System shock includes dropping to 0hp as an option on the table would automatically carry over into the lingering issues options following that line.

 

[Charlaquin]

Easiest way I can think of would be to track negative h.p. and have wounds trigger based on hitting a certain threshold somewhere below 0.

Then, each DM could raise or lower this threshold point to suit that particular campaign: a DM who wants wounds to be really common could set the threshold at -1; a DM who wants wounds to be rare might set the threshold at -30. A default might be -10 if you want it to be equal for everyone; -[half starting con score] for gritty; -[con score] for not-so-gritty.

However, note that it's all wasted effort unless wounds are made difficult to cure quickly and impossible to cure during combat.

This isn’t a bad idea. Alternatively, you could do it without tracking negative HP by saying that if you take damage while at 0 HP, you take a lingering injury if the damage equals or exceeds the threshold.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

In my campaign when a character reaches 0 hit points and then fails their first death save (and only the first) they then roll on the table in the DMG. This has meant that when a character goes down the others try to get to them before a death save is rolled - adds to the drama.

So far had a few minor scars - one character has lost 5ft of movement and has a limp. The only bad one was a character having his foot cut - he didn't come into play as on his next death save he rolled a 1 - which sort of fit with the wound. The player was ok with this as he didn't want to play a one legged character (they were 3rd level at the time).

 

[Fanaelialae]

I would set the threshold at 20 damage. If you take 20 damage from a single attack, then you can make a Con save against half the damage taken, with failure resulting in injury.

A fixed threshold is not a good option, IMO. Any such approach needs to scale.

Low level characters rarely take 20 damage from a hit (at level 1, this would be instant death for many characters). On the other hand, at higher levels it isn't unusual for many attacks to deal that kind of damage. If the wet-behind-the-ears squire never breaks his arm, while the legendary Herakles is perpetually walking around with both arms in slings, the system is producing weird and likely undesirable results.

Additionally, if a high level character with 200 HP takes 20 damage, rolls a Nat 1, and loses an arm, I would say that result is downright absurd. He still has 90% of HP remaining. Based on the PHB description of injuries, there should barely be a scratch on him. It would be reminiscent of the black knight from Monty Python. Humorous, but definitely not something I want to see in a serious campaign.