Health

Exhaustion, Vitality, Wounds, and your Life

 

Vitality Points (VP) are created using the same dice as Hit Points.  They do not represent much physical damage but more the amount of effort required to survive the onslaught.  Damage to Vitality includes scrapes, bruises, and muscle strain.  Hence a person with 50 hp hit by a fireball for 30 points of damage is not burned over 60% of his body but it takes over half of his reserves to keep from getting utterly fried.  He is still singed, but not devastated.  When you are out of Vitality points you begin to take only wound damage.  A man who loses 60% of his wounds is burned over a significant portion of his body.  If you run out of VP you fall unconscious

 

Exhaustion points (EP) represent little more (if anything) than being tired.  Anytime you are dealt non-lethal damage you build up exhaustion points.  If the exhaustion points exceed your hp you go unconscious.
            For every hour of activity without rest you gain 1 exhaustion point or 1 points per twenty mins of strenuous activity.  You can get rid of exhaustion at a rate of 1 point per 10 min or rest.  A full night’s rest gets rid of all exhaustion.

When your EP exceeds your VP you become staggered unable to make more than a single move or standard action each round.

 

Wounds are more serious, a wound is a broken bone, pulled or torn muscle, or even punctured organ.  You have a number of wound points equal to your constitution score.  Magical items and spells which increase your constitution do not increase your number of wounds, unless the bonus is inherent. 

Once out of wounds you are conscious but unable to take any action other than limited speech; unless you also have exhaustion points exceeding your vitality in which case you still go unconscious.

Falling can cause significant damage, in addition to the normal damage you take from falling.  You take 1 wound for every 10ft you fall.  You get a reflex save for half.  The DC is 10+1 for every 10ft fallen.  Thus, if a character fell 40 ft, the save would be DC14.  Evasion does not apply to this save.

 

Life points (lp) are the most important points; they represent your life force: your body’s will to live.  When they are gone you are dead.  For each hd you get 1 lp.

 

Injured, Dying, and Critical Hits

 

Once all your hp has been lost and you have lost one or more wp then you are dying. Every round while dying you lose one wound point unless you can stabilize.  See PHB p. 145-6 for stabilizing.  Once you are out of wounds, anytime you would normally lose wounds you instead lose Life Points. 

 

Upon a critical hit you are dealt a number of wounds equal to the multiplier of the weapon minus 1 in addition to the extra damage.  Thus, a long sword deals 1 wound damage on top of the damage of a critical hit damage, and a scythe deals 3 wound damage in addition to the normal critical hit damage.  Magical weapons that deal extra damage on a critical hit like flame bursting deal 1 point of additional wound damage per multiplier.

 

When you have even 1 wp damage, you are injured.  Injured you can not perform more than one standard action per round without risk of causing more wound damage.  You must make a Fort save DC 10+1 for each wound you have taken+1 for each action you have made since your last turn, including attacks of opportunity.  Ex. a double move action plus 4 wounds would have a DC of 16; a run action would have a DC 18 (the standard move action is free of penalty but the other 3 moves); a full round of attacks, a whirlwind attack, or a round of cleaving attacks would incur +1 per additional attack made in that round.   The DC is increased +1 for every 50lbs you are carrying. 

Depression is a disease of the life force, if your character is suffering from despair or depression it can cause direct lp damage.  You can die of a broken heart.

 

 

Healing

 

Magical Healing

Cure spells only Heal health not wounds or Life.

Lesser Restoration heals 1d4 Wounds.

Restoration heals a number of wounds equal to ½ caster level to a max of 10 wounds.

Greater Restoration and Regenerate heal all wounds.

Heal heals 1 wound per caster level to a max of 15 wounds.

Mass Heal heals 1 per caster level to a max of 25 wounds to each creature.

 

Natural Healing

You heal all Non-Lethal damage with one night of rest.  You heal one point of hp per level per night (8hrs) of rest.  With full day of rest you can double this.  Wounds are a little harder to heal. 

 

It takes one week of full rest per wound point you have yet to heal to heal one point.  All vitality points must heal before wounds will heal. Wounds will not heal naturally with out full rest.

 

 

Creatures with fast healing heal wounds equal to their fast healing plus one at the same rate most creatures heal one wound.  Thus a creature with fast healing 3 and 10 wounds would heal 4 wounds over 10 weeks (1 wound per 2.5 weeks), then another 4 wounds over the next 6 weeks, finally healing the last two wounds over the next 2 weeks, becoming completely healed over 18 weeks. 

 

Creatures with regeneration heal wounds equal to their fast healing plus one at the same rate most creatures heal one wound except at 10,080 times the normal rate or in other words in minutes instead of weeks.  Thus a creature with regeneration 3 and 10 wounds would heal 4 wounds over 10 minutes (1 wound per 2.5 minutes), then another 4 wounds over the next 6 minutes, finally healing the last two wounds over the next 2 minutes, becoming completely healed over 18 minutes. 

 

Healing Life Points

When you have Life Point damage you are in mortal peril.  No magic can heal Life point damage.  After a full night’s rest you make a will save DC 20+the number of Life Point damage + the number of wounds + 1 for every 10 points of vitality damage (round down), in order to restore 1 life point.  Ex. a man with 49hp, 2 wounds, and 3 life point damage would have a DC of 29.  The endurance feat grants a +5 resistance bonus.  The feat Die Hard grants a +10 moral bonus.  Depression and emotional turmoil can add to the DC, this is a DM ad hoc. 

 

 

PS.   This is just a note on judging a fight.  Generally a human can be expected to gain one level per 2 years over 15 until 35, and lose 1 level for every 3 years over 35 to a minimum of 1 class level.  This can be applied proportionally to other races; humans just make the best examples.  This is not a hard and fast rule but for an average commoner or warrior, probably.  This is based on the idea that people are leading healthy fairly active lives and then with age the body just begins to fail them.  If they lead a very active life or a fairly sedentary life it could be significantly different, but there should be no epic level barbarians running the local bar (don’t laugh I have seen it done).