? on Injuries [Archive] - Wizards Community

? on Injuries [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
mythusmage
09-13-05, 09:57 AM D&D has 5 types of healing, these being; Cure Minor, Cure Light, Cure Moderate, Cure Serious, and Cure Critical. I ask the folks in this forum, how do you see each injury type? What is the real life equivalent of each, and how do you see each affecting a character in D&D?

I have vague ideas, but I'd like some advice before putting things down on paper (to misuse a phrase).
Rhomphaia
09-13-05, 10:09 AM This is a question I have seen a few times concerning Shadowrun and the injury system in there uses much the same wording as the cure spells do. However, that said, the actual mechanics differ widely.
Hit points are no so much how much actual punishment you can take, but a combination of your toughness and how well your body resists actual debilitating injury and your ability to turn a telling blow into something less serious. This is especially true of classes with larger hit die types.
As for actually 'seeing' the injuries, I do not think the cure spells reflect that so much as they are a restoration of vitality. They restore vigor and close the cuts and scrapes one gets from fighting. Of course they can heal the more telling injuries (critical hits), but their primary function is to restore energy and eliminate the fatigue caused by combat (which hit points largely reflect).
As for spells that are meant to actually heal the body of injury and other maladies, the restoration spells and the Heal spell are better examples.
mythusmage
09-13-05, 10:37 AM True enough, but not really what I was looking for. How do you see each type of injury? The RAW aside, what is your take on the subject?
Nom
09-13-05, 10:57 AM D&D has 5 types of healing, these being; Cure Minor, Cure Light, Cure Moderate, Cure Serious, and Cure Critical. I ask the folks in this forum, how do you see each injury type? What is the real life equivalent of each, and how do you see each affecting a character in D&D?Firstly, that's 5 "levels" of healing, and it's actually 6 if you include heal and 9 if you include the raise dead spells. If we talk "types", then the cure series cure hit points, restoration cures ability damage, neutralise poison cures poison, there are 4 different remove ... spells, and then you have heal which can do multiple of these at once.

That said, I usually see hp as mainly fatigue damage (as distinct from the fatigue game mechanic) until you get below half or even 1/4, at which point I start describing more serious wounds. Critical injuries are usually reserved for blows that take the character to 0 or below. In my games, cure spells provide a combination of physically knitting together wounds and restoring vitality. They do not provide perfect healing; characters who are dropped to 0 or below will have at least some persistent scarring, though rarely serious.
tarkin
09-13-05, 11:15 AM My take on the subject mirrors the RAW.

Anyother "take" makes the game seem totally unrealistic, and worse, leads to very abusive house rules.

But if you instead follow the clear explanation in the RAW, the game seems pretty realistic and you don't try to come up with abusive things like rules for arrows sticking in your body, or cutting off limbs/eyes/ etc.

Wounds above 1 hitpoint are Fleshwounds, even if you started out with 100 hitpoints and are now at 1.

Wounds that take you to 0 hitpoints are debilitating

Wounds that take to -1 or lower are deadly, bleeding wounds.
High Octane
09-13-05, 11:22 AM Cure Minor wounds: "The accountant got a papercut."

Cure light wounds: "Damn arrow scratched my leg!"

Cure moderate wounds: "Damn arrow is STUCK in my leg!"

Cure serious Wounds: "Harpoon....in....shoulder.....just...mis sed....lung....."

Cure critical Wounds: "How hurt are you? "That depends..... how important is one of these?" *holds up indistinguishable organ*
Dougbert
09-13-05, 11:53 AM Everyone has their own style, but...

I'm with Tarkin on this. There is no loss of function or ability between having 1 hp and having 1000 hp. A character is just as effective in either case. If you start doling out graphic, serious injuries for every big attack you may actually cut down on realism. For example, if a Fighter with 50 hp max takes a hit for 30 hp you could describe the wound in the Cure Serious Wounds catagory. Sure, its descriptive, but then the player starts to wonder how the Fighter is still going strong with his left eye hanging out of his skull or his sword arm suffering from a compound fracture.

Also, low level characters never require more than a Cure Light Wounds. Does this mean they are never get seriously hurt? Of course not.

Tarkin has the right of it. Every injury, no matter how many hp it takes off, is just a scratch until a character drops below zero.
ClementWillowbreaker
09-13-05, 09:54 PM You could also create ranges of injury types based on percentage of the character's HP total taken away, or use them as threshholds to cross. So a heaving axe blow that deals 60% of your HP in damage could split your shoulder open, or a swing that brings you down to 40% of your total could do the same thing.

Either way, its a fine line between being creative and unrealistic. I can come up with all sorts of combos and attack types, like a Bone Claw's fingers stabbing through the soft joints of your collar bone (some of them more realistic than others, but since when is a 10ft skeleton with extending claws realistic?). But after a long fight, you end up expecting things to die sooner than their HP reflects. The moral- assign meaning to each attack, since its more than just "damage", but save the long imagery and good adjectives for the creative/desparate attacks, and the ones that drop foes below 0hp.

Its good when your players work on team tactics to deal massive amounts of damage to dying foes, just because they can't wait to see how this killing blow is going to sound like. Is the chest cavity going to collapse with a sinkening crunch, or is the head going to come clean off? That's very important, incidently, when you have players that like using severed body parts as improvised weapons...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
mythusmage 09-13-05, 09:57 AM	D&D has 5 types of healing, these being; Cure Minor, Cure Light, Cure Moderate, Cure Serious, and Cure Critical. I ask the folks in this forum, how do you see each injury type? What is the real life equivalent of each, and how do you see each affecting a character in D&D? I have vague ideas, but I'd like some advice before putting things down on paper (to misuse a phrase).
Rhomphaia 09-13-05, 10:09 AM	This is a question I have seen a few times concerning Shadowrun and the injury system in there uses much the same wording as the cure spells do. However, that said, the actual mechanics differ widely. Hit points are no so much how much actual punishment you can take, but a combination of your toughness and how well your body resists actual debilitating injury and your ability to turn a telling blow into something less serious. This is especially true of classes with larger hit die types. As for actually 'seeing' the injuries, I do not think the cure spells reflect that so much as they are a restoration of vitality. They restore vigor and close the cuts and scrapes one gets from fighting. Of course they can heal the more telling injuries (critical hits), but their primary function is to restore energy and eliminate the fatigue caused by combat (which hit points largely reflect). As for spells that are meant to actually heal the body of injury and other maladies, the restoration spells and the Heal spell are better examples.
mythusmage 09-13-05, 10:37 AM	True enough, but not really what I was looking for. How do you see each type of injury? The RAW aside, what is your take on the subject?
Nom 09-13-05, 10:57 AM	D&D has 5 types of healing, these being; Cure Minor, Cure Light, Cure Moderate, Cure Serious, and Cure Critical. I ask the folks in this forum, how do you see each injury type? What is the real life equivalent of each, and how do you see each affecting a character in D&D?Firstly, that's 5 "levels" of healing, and it's actually 6 if you include heal and 9 if you include the raise dead spells. If we talk "types", then the cure series cure hit points, restoration cures ability damage, neutralise poison cures poison, there are 4 different remove ... spells, and then you have heal which can do multiple of these at once. That said, I usually see hp as mainly fatigue damage (as distinct from the fatigue game mechanic) until you get below half or even 1/4, at which point I start describing more serious wounds. Critical injuries are usually reserved for blows that take the character to 0 or below. In my games, cure spells provide a combination of physically knitting together wounds and restoring vitality. They do not provide perfect healing; characters who are dropped to 0 or below will have at least some persistent scarring, though rarely serious.
tarkin 09-13-05, 11:15 AM	My take on the subject mirrors the RAW. Anyother "take" makes the game seem totally unrealistic, and worse, leads to very abusive house rules. But if you instead follow the clear explanation in the RAW, the game seems pretty realistic and you don't try to come up with abusive things like rules for arrows sticking in your body, or cutting off limbs/eyes/ etc. Wounds above 1 hitpoint are Fleshwounds, even if you started out with 100 hitpoints and are now at 1. Wounds that take you to 0 hitpoints are debilitating Wounds that take to -1 or lower are deadly, bleeding wounds.
High Octane 09-13-05, 11:22 AM	Cure Minor wounds: "The accountant got a papercut." Cure light wounds: "Damn arrow scratched my leg!" Cure moderate wounds: "Damn arrow is STUCK in my leg!" Cure serious Wounds: "Harpoon....in....shoulder.....just...mis sed....lung....." Cure critical Wounds: "How hurt are you? "That depends..... how important is one of these?" holds up indistinguishable organ
Dougbert 09-13-05, 11:53 AM	Everyone has their own style, but... I'm with Tarkin on this. There is no loss of function or ability between having 1 hp and having 1000 hp. A character is just as effective in either case. If you start doling out graphic, serious injuries for every big attack you may actually cut down on realism. For example, if a Fighter with 50 hp max takes a hit for 30 hp you could describe the wound in the Cure Serious Wounds catagory. Sure, its descriptive, but then the player starts to wonder how the Fighter is still going strong with his left eye hanging out of his skull or his sword arm suffering from a compound fracture. Also, low level characters never require more than a Cure Light Wounds. Does this mean they are never get seriously hurt? Of course not. Tarkin has the right of it. Every injury, no matter how many hp it takes off, is just a scratch until a character drops below zero.
ClementWillowbreaker 09-13-05, 09:54 PM	You could also create ranges of injury types based on percentage of the character's HP total taken away, or use them as threshholds to cross. So a heaving axe blow that deals 60% of your HP in damage could split your shoulder open, or a swing that brings you down to 40% of your total could do the same thing. Either way, its a fine line between being creative and unrealistic. I can come up with all sorts of combos and attack types, like a Bone Claw's fingers stabbing through the soft joints of your collar bone (some of them more realistic than others, but since when is a 10ft skeleton with extending claws realistic?). But after a long fight, you end up expecting things to die sooner than their HP reflects. The moral- assign meaning to each attack, since its more than just "damage", but save the long imagery and good adjectives for the creative/desparate attacks, and the ones that drop foes below 0hp. Its good when your players work on team tactics to deal massive amounts of damage to dying foes, just because they can't wait to see how this killing blow is going to sound like. Is the chest cavity going to collapse with a sinkening crunch, or is the head going to come clean off? That's very important, incidently, when you have players that like using severed body parts as improvised weapons...