kadakism
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Post by kadakism on Jan 15, 2015 17:53:42 GMT
Moved here because I realized I had put it in the wrong section earlier. Don't make posts while sleep-deprived, kids.
[re]Posting this here to see what you guys and gals think of it, and also to let people use it if they want. I like the players having license to be badasses without just straight up giving it to them. I also like them to be reminded that adventuring is a dangerous profession. To that end, I created my Injury System.
The choice is up to the players entirely. If a hit would reduce the PC to 0 Hit Points, the damage is negated, and the character instead given a special level of exhaustion (PHB p.291) that is called an Injury.
Injuries act like and stack with levels of exhaustion, except in how long they take to remove. Where as a long rest removes one level of exhaustion, it takes a number of days equal to the damage mitigated to remove an injury. Each injury takes its own number of days to heal, so multiple injuries could heal at the same time.
A character can take as many injuries as they want, even from one round of combat to the next. But they should keep in mind the penalties associated with exhaustion/injury and remember that if a cumulative 6 levels are gained, that they die.
Example: Our Fighter, Bjorn, has had a rough time fighting this owlbear. He's pretty low on Hit Points, only 6 in fact. The beast's turn comes around and it tears at him with its claw attacks. The first misses thankfully, but the next one connects. 11 damage, ouch. But instead of just dropping to 0 Hit Points and being out for the count, Bjorn takes an injury. He defeats the owlbear, and limps back to the village with his spoils. Now, he'll have to let that wound heal up for the next 11 days, or 5 or if he stays in bed and does nothing else, or even 2 days if he stays in bed and has someone taking dedicated care of his wounds.
It's not terribly realistic, but I figure that no one would want to be bedded up for weeks at a time after every excursion into the woods. Besides, they're heroes, who says that they can't spring back from the brink of death?
Thoughts? Ideas to improve the system? Got a House Rule of your own that you'd like to share? I'm all ears, Brew Masters.
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Post by Sheena on Jan 20, 2015 17:57:57 GMT
I like it! I always thought the D&D system of handling injuries was sort of lame, barring the somewhat realistic treatment in 1E. This looks good enough to implement!
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imnvs
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Post by imnvs on Jan 20, 2015 21:32:18 GMT
I'm just thinking about later in their careers when players' chracters have lots of HP and take lots of damage at a time...
"Take 57 damage."
"That would take me to negative 5, so I guess I'll take an injury."
"Okay... you're out for two months without some serious rest."
Could it be based on how far negative they would have gone and only mitigate that much?
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kadakism
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Post by kadakism on Jan 22, 2015 5:26:46 GMT
the things that do a ton of damage in 5e are really big and powerful things. like a dragon. It makes sense then that a character who gets mauled by a dragon would have to spend quite a lot of time recovering from that.
likewise the most important thing to remember about this system is it taking an injury is entirely up to the player. If they feel that they can handle having several weeks of downtime to let their character heal up, and possibly playing a temporary character during that time if the adventure is continuing, then that is the decision that they have to make.
they are fully capable of deciding to just take the damage, get knocked down zero, and start making those death saving throws.
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imnvs
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Post by imnvs on Jan 22, 2015 11:14:34 GMT
Hmmmr...
I suppose I don't know 5e, but even without knowing anything except that it is still a possibility? It seems like a good way to muck up a campaign. A two month hiatus while one person heals? What is everyone else doing, sitting on their butts? So either you have to figure out what everyone else is doing, determine results, etc... or they do nothing while time passes between sessions while the one guy that got mauled is healing.
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kadakism
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Post by kadakism on Jan 23, 2015 4:32:41 GMT
First, unless you're on a time limit, your characters can (and should) have downtime between adventures. Powering through an entire campaign in just a few in-game days/weeks is going to cause player and character burnout. Downtime is necessary to really flesh out characters and allow them to interact with each other and the world around them in a non-life threatening manner.
Second, I think that you're missing a second, also key point to the injury system. If you take complete bed rest, your time to heal is halved. If you have someone else take care of your wounds (like, dedicated care like a nurse or cleric would do), you halve the number of days needed to heal. Both of these factors stack. So that 57 damage that you avoided will amount to 14 days total. Two weeks. If your characters can't wait around two in-game weeks, then there had better be a good reason, like the bad guy getting closer to completing a ritual.
If you don't want to role play out some of that downtime, just have it pass as a fade to black. The world can change pretty drastically in two weeks. The contact they might have been going to meet might have been accosted by bandits on the road in that time. Or any other number of things. If the players give you an opportunity to make the world more interesting, do it.
Finally, the affected player could just power through the injury. You know, like a big damn hero. It's a detriment, yeah, but who doesn't like the story of a group powering through struggle and strife to achieve victory?
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imnvs
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Post by imnvs on Jan 23, 2015 10:30:13 GMT
Well, most of the campaigns I have run or played in... there isn't any down time unless the players ask for it because their characters have things to do. Sometimes they don't have things to do except save world... because those other things require a world in which to do them, you know? Yes, downtime is important, but when downtime should happen is usually decided by the players... because it's their characters deciding whether to go adventuring or take a break and spend their money. When magickal healing is an option, healing up can usually go pretty quick.
Speaking of that, what about magickal healing? Having a healer taking care of the person halves the time, and complete bed-rest halves the time... but what about having someone with healing magicks? How does that affect the time for recovery?
Believe me, I understand how downtime can be worked, and that it doesn't all have to be played out. (We usually go for broad strokes unless someone has something specific to accomplish.) I'm just not a fan of nearly forcing downtime by giving severe penalties.
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kadakism
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Post by kadakism on Jan 24, 2015 2:10:50 GMT
Well, Hit Points aren't a measure of your actual health. They're an abstraction of combat prowess and endurance, showing how long you can keep going before you collapse. A second level fighter can't just arbitrarily take more daggers to the gut than his first level counterpart. He can however dodge more swings to make them less lethal cuts and scrapes until he gives out to exhaustion and a final stab gets him.
And as for saving the world, nonstop adventuring, that's all fine and good. This system doesn't stop you from doing that. If you want to power through your injuries to defeat the archetypical stereomage (or is that the other way around?) and save the world, go on ahead. In the first game that this system was play tested in, the Cleric took two Injuries the first boss fight. He didn't stop to take bed rest at all and continued to kick ass and take names until his wounds had fully healed, at which point he kicked even more ass.
As for magical healing, since my first paragraph was more about hit points in general, I'd say that the spells Heal and Regenerate work to remove all injuries that a character has sustained. They're higher level magics, but they talk about regrowing limbs, and I think that that fits.
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imnvs
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Post by imnvs on Jan 24, 2015 11:39:32 GMT
So incorporate it.  I'm not trying to diss your idea, really. I'm asking questions to better understand and giving honest critique to see if you can/want to work to improve it.  |
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kadakism
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Post by kadakism on Jan 24, 2015 18:21:15 GMT
And I'm sorry if I've come across as rude or overly defensive, it wasn't my intention. I just wanted to make sure that my reasoning for the house rule was known, to make it more clear why I chose the design elements that I did. Discussion is good and can really help improve upon an idea. That's why I posted it here to begin with. I'll definitely implement the rules for the spells in. Other than that though, are there any other glaring problems that you see?
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imnvs
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Post by imnvs on Jan 25, 2015 15:37:53 GMT
Not problems, per se...
...but something still doesn't sit quite right with me. I'll think about it.
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