My take on Wound Levels [Archive] - Wizards Community

My take on Wound Levels [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Me, Myself, & 101 others
06-23-05, 02:16 AM I've been thinking about wound systems over straight hitpoints, and I came up with this system. It's not going to be for everyone, but I thought I'd post it here to see what everyone thinks. If you have any questions, or suggestions as to how to make it better, please post.

D&D Wound System

One thing I want to get clear before I get into this: This system, as written, will make the typical D&D game bloodier and more lethal. I think it makes it more realistic, but if you are in a campaign where people regularly have to roll a save vs. massive damage, this system will drastically increase mortality rates. You can tweak it to make it less lethal, but I did write it with sort of a grim reality in mind. At the end, I have also included some variations to this system to make it better suit different types of game.

I have based this system off of the system used in the Deadlands RPG, with some modifications to make it fit into the D&D world a bit better.

Basic System: Each human-sized and shaped creature has a total of areas they can be hit in: Each arm, each leg, the body, and the head. Each area has a total of five wound levels: Light, Moderate, Serious, Critical, and Maimed. When a limb reaches ‘Maimed,’ the limb is gone. It is either crushed, severed, burned to a crisp, or otherwise taken out of commission, and likely requires the Regenerate spell to repair. If the body or head becomes Maimed, you are immediately incapacitated, and enough damage to those areas to cause a further would means you have died.

Hitpoints are used to calculate fatigue, exhaustion, shock, bleeding, and similar things. For each wound level of damage done, there is also 1d6 points of hitpoint damage dealt.

Nuts and Bolts:

Attacking: Roll two d20’s for every attack, make them different enough to tell apart. One is your attack roll, the other is hit location. This system does away with critical attacks, but a natural 20 still automatically hits, and reroll it as well. Every step of five you beat the AC by, get +/- 1 on the hit location table, so you can adjust to a more advantageous area. For example, if you’re trying to beat AC 16 and your total roll is 21, you may add or subtract 1 from the hit location roll, if you choose.

Hit Location: The second d20 determines where you hit:

1-3 Left Leg
4-6 Right Leg
6-9 Lower Body
10-12 Left Arm
13-15 Right Arm
16-19 Upper Body
20 Head

All wounds to the body (upper and lower) are figured together.

Damage: Roll damage normally, for every full multiple of the target’s size (called a wound threshold) you deal, they take one wound. For every wound, they take 1d6 hitpoints as well. If you do not do enough damage to overcome their wound threshold, they only take hitpoint damage instead.

Size Wound Threshold
Fine 1
Diminutive 2
Tiny 3
Small 5
Medium 6
Large 8
Huge 12
Gargantuan 16
Colossal 20

Wound Penalties: For each wound level, there is an associated penalty to every task, including all checks besides saving throws and attacks. To cast a spell while wounded requires a concentration check, DC 15 (don’t forget the wound modifier).

Wound Modifier
Light -1
Moderate -2
Serious -3
Critical -4
Maimed -5

The modifiers are not cumulative. You use the modifier from your highest wound level. So, if you have a light wound in the leg and a serious wound to the body, you would have a -3 on all actions.

Bleeding: It just keeps getting better. If you get hurt, you bleed, this is represented by hitpoints. If you have a moderate wound, you bleed at a rate of 1 hitpoint per round. Serious wounds 2/round, critical 3/round, and a severed limb costs you 4 hitpoints each round.

Healing: Hitpoint damage is healed, more or less, just like normal. Wounds are healed differently. Within one hour, a Heal check can be made to reduce the severity of the wound by one level, this check can only be made once: if it fails trying again does nothing. If the person is injured in the same location again, another check can be made. The DC is 12 plus double the wound level. Maimed limbs can not be reduced. It takes 7 days to heal a wound level, at the end of that time you make a DC 10 + Wound level constitution check (wound penalties still apply), and you heal one wound level. Use of the Heal skill can aid in your recovery.

A healer makes a healing check as if trying to reduce your wound level. If they succeed, you get a +2 bonus on your constitution check, +2 for every 5 points they beat the difficulty by.

Magical Healing: The various cure spells heal hitpoint damage as per normal. In addition, you’ll notice that each of the “Cure” spells’ names matches a wound level. It takes that cure spell to heal that wound, one spell per wound. The “Heal” spell cures all hitpoint damage and repairs all wounds, but can not repair a Maimed limb (that’s what Regenerate is for).

Feat Changes:
Toughness: Adds 1 to your Wound threshold, cumulative.
Improved Toughness: Adds 2 to your wound threshold.

Undead and Constructs: Undead count as a size category larger, for taking wounds only, and suffer no wound penalties. Constructs have 2 extra wound levels and take no penalties from wounds.

Other stuff: You’re going to have to use some judgment here. Something with more limbs, wings, etc. will heave more hit locations. Other things might feel no pain, and thus have reduced wound penalties. There are just too many varieties of creatures to go into everything.

Called Shot: Using hit location table means called shots should be possible. Otherwise it does not make too much sense. I would say that a called shot is a -4 (maybe -6) on the attack roll, and they either hit the part of the body they are aiming for or miss altogether.

Variations:

Heroic Wounding: The player can, at their option, sacrifice 100 xp/character level to prevent one wound. This allows a ‘last ditch’ protection, which will reduce the overall mortality rate and make for a better sense of larger-than-life heroism.

Soakable Wounds: In this option, a wound is not final. The character rolls a constitution check (DC 15 or 20, whichever you feel more comfortable with) per wound, and if they succeed they ‘soak’ the wound, taking no damage. This allows those who are ‘tougher’ (more constitution) to take less damage. I do not think this is very realistic myself; a human body can only take so much punishment.

Easier Healing: If you want to make it easier for your party to be able to heal up damage, make healing work just like wounding. Every full multiple of the creature’s size healed by a cure spell, one wound is healed. This will allow low level characters to, eventually, heal a critical wound. Which, I think, is not as realistic but it definitely makes things easier on the PC’s.

Armor Reducing Damage: You could do this in two different ways, you can either have each level of armor (light, medium, heavy) add 1 to your wound threshold. Or, you can have each level of armor prevent one wound level. Remember, if you choose to use either option, the armor can only help for areas it covers (a chain shirt can stop no damage to the legs, for example).

That's it. I know it might seem a bit more complicated, but I've played Deadlands a few times (which is what I based this system off of) and it's not hard at all to get the hang of. I just came up with this in the last couple days, so I haven't had a chance to do any playtesting yet. When I do, I might have some changes to make after seeing it work. Let me know what you think, and how you think it might be improved.
Sinaz
06-25-05, 03:30 PM I refer you to this thread:

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=451700

I wish all these wound system threads could be merged... there are some great ideas floating around, albeit a bit peicemeal.
Tjaeden
06-26-05, 12:45 AM You know - your idea is awesome.

BUT, realism is good only if you use *less* dice in an easier system. As it stands, you could play D&D with 2 dice, a d20, and a d"x" (weapon & HD), and that is it. Adding more rolls, more charts, and more modifiers will complicate a system.

As far as wound systems go - nothing was better than Shadowrun. Everyone had to damage tracks of 10 boxes - 1 for stun and one for physical. If damage got through armor (and was resisted/lowerd through Body [= constitution]) then it would be: Light (1 box, +1 DC's, -1 init), Moderate (3 boxes, +2 DC's, -2 init), Serious (6 boxes, +3 DC's, -3 init), or Deadly (10 boxes, Unc.)

It was up to the GM to describe the wound or where it was - IF that even mattered. A light wound was a graze to the leg while a serious wound was grenade shrapnel to the gut.

It worked in that system for two reasons - No Hitpoints, and the ability to reduce damage dealt to you. In order for a Wound system to work (and not that crappy imitation system from Starwars or Spycraft [which make sense]) you have to remove HP's.

And that is just not D&D.

But I do like your idea.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Me, Myself, & 101 others 06-23-05, 02:16 AM	I've been thinking about wound systems over straight hitpoints, and I came up with this system. It's not going to be for everyone, but I thought I'd post it here to see what everyone thinks. If you have any questions, or suggestions as to how to make it better, please post. D&D Wound System One thing I want to get clear before I get into this: This system, as written, will make the typical D&D game bloodier and more lethal. I think it makes it more realistic, but if you are in a campaign where people regularly have to roll a save vs. massive damage, this system will drastically increase mortality rates. You can tweak it to make it less lethal, but I did write it with sort of a grim reality in mind. At the end, I have also included some variations to this system to make it better suit different types of game. I have based this system off of the system used in the Deadlands RPG, with some modifications to make it fit into the D&D world a bit better. Basic System: Each human-sized and shaped creature has a total of areas they can be hit in: Each arm, each leg, the body, and the head. Each area has a total of five wound levels: Light, Moderate, Serious, Critical, and Maimed. When a limb reaches ‘Maimed,’ the limb is gone. It is either crushed, severed, burned to a crisp, or otherwise taken out of commission, and likely requires the Regenerate spell to repair. If the body or head becomes Maimed, you are immediately incapacitated, and enough damage to those areas to cause a further would means you have died. Hitpoints are used to calculate fatigue, exhaustion, shock, bleeding, and similar things. For each wound level of damage done, there is also 1d6 points of hitpoint damage dealt. Nuts and Bolts: Attacking: Roll two d20’s for every attack, make them different enough to tell apart. One is your attack roll, the other is hit location. This system does away with critical attacks, but a natural 20 still automatically hits, and reroll it as well. Every step of five you beat the AC by, get +/- 1 on the hit location table, so you can adjust to a more advantageous area. For example, if you’re trying to beat AC 16 and your total roll is 21, you may add or subtract 1 from the hit location roll, if you choose. Hit Location: The second d20 determines where you hit: 1-3 Left Leg 4-6 Right Leg 6-9 Lower Body 10-12 Left Arm 13-15 Right Arm 16-19 Upper Body 20 Head All wounds to the body (upper and lower) are figured together. Damage: Roll damage normally, for every full multiple of the target’s size (called a wound threshold) you deal, they take one wound. For every wound, they take 1d6 hitpoints as well. If you do not do enough damage to overcome their wound threshold, they only take hitpoint damage instead. Size Wound Threshold Fine 1 Diminutive 2 Tiny 3 Small 5 Medium 6 Large 8 Huge 12 Gargantuan 16 Colossal 20 Wound Penalties: For each wound level, there is an associated penalty to every task, including all checks besides saving throws and attacks. To cast a spell while wounded requires a concentration check, DC 15 (don’t forget the wound modifier). Wound Modifier Light -1 Moderate -2 Serious -3 Critical -4 Maimed -5 The modifiers are not cumulative. You use the modifier from your highest wound level. So, if you have a light wound in the leg and a serious wound to the body, you would have a -3 on all actions. Bleeding: It just keeps getting better. If you get hurt, you bleed, this is represented by hitpoints. If you have a moderate wound, you bleed at a rate of 1 hitpoint per round. Serious wounds 2/round, critical 3/round, and a severed limb costs you 4 hitpoints each round. Healing: Hitpoint damage is healed, more or less, just like normal. Wounds are healed differently. Within one hour, a Heal check can be made to reduce the severity of the wound by one level, this check can only be made once: if it fails trying again does nothing. If the person is injured in the same location again, another check can be made. The DC is 12 plus double the wound level. Maimed limbs can not be reduced. It takes 7 days to heal a wound level, at the end of that time you make a DC 10 + Wound level constitution check (wound penalties still apply), and you heal one wound level. Use of the Heal skill can aid in your recovery. A healer makes a healing check as if trying to reduce your wound level. If they succeed, you get a +2 bonus on your constitution check, +2 for every 5 points they beat the difficulty by. Magical Healing: The various cure spells heal hitpoint damage as per normal. In addition, you’ll notice that each of the “Cure” spells’ names matches a wound level. It takes that cure spell to heal that wound, one spell per wound. The “Heal” spell cures all hitpoint damage and repairs all wounds, but can not repair a Maimed limb (that’s what Regenerate is for). Feat Changes: Toughness: Adds 1 to your Wound threshold, cumulative. Improved Toughness: Adds 2 to your wound threshold. Undead and Constructs: Undead count as a size category larger, for taking wounds only, and suffer no wound penalties. Constructs have 2 extra wound levels and take no penalties from wounds. Other stuff: You’re going to have to use some judgment here. Something with more limbs, wings, etc. will heave more hit locations. Other things might feel no pain, and thus have reduced wound penalties. There are just too many varieties of creatures to go into everything. Called Shot: Using hit location table means called shots should be possible. Otherwise it does not make too much sense. I would say that a called shot is a -4 (maybe -6) on the attack roll, and they either hit the part of the body they are aiming for or miss altogether. Variations: Heroic Wounding: The player can, at their option, sacrifice 100 xp/character level to prevent one wound. This allows a ‘last ditch’ protection, which will reduce the overall mortality rate and make for a better sense of larger-than-life heroism. Soakable Wounds: In this option, a wound is not final. The character rolls a constitution check (DC 15 or 20, whichever you feel more comfortable with) per wound, and if they succeed they ‘soak’ the wound, taking no damage. This allows those who are ‘tougher’ (more constitution) to take less damage. I do not think this is very realistic myself; a human body can only take so much punishment. Easier Healing: If you want to make it easier for your party to be able to heal up damage, make healing work just like wounding. Every full multiple of the creature’s size healed by a cure spell, one wound is healed. This will allow low level characters to, eventually, heal a critical wound. Which, I think, is not as realistic but it definitely makes things easier on the PC’s. Armor Reducing Damage: You could do this in two different ways, you can either have each level of armor (light, medium, heavy) add 1 to your wound threshold. Or, you can have each level of armor prevent one wound level. Remember, if you choose to use either option, the armor can only help for areas it covers (a chain shirt can stop no damage to the legs, for example). That's it. I know it might seem a bit more complicated, but I've played Deadlands a few times (which is what I based this system off of) and it's not hard at all to get the hang of. I just came up with this in the last couple days, so I haven't had a chance to do any playtesting yet. When I do, I might have some changes to make after seeing it work. Let me know what you think, and how you think it might be improved.
Sinaz 06-25-05, 03:30 PM	I refer you to this thread: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=451700 I wish all these wound system threads could be merged... there are some great ideas floating around, albeit a bit peicemeal.
Tjaeden 06-26-05, 12:45 AM	You know - your idea is awesome. BUT, realism is good only if you use less dice in an easier system. As it stands, you could play D&D with 2 dice, a d20, and a d"x" (weapon & HD), and that is it. Adding more rolls, more charts, and more modifiers will complicate a system. As far as wound systems go - nothing was better than Shadowrun. Everyone had to damage tracks of 10 boxes - 1 for stun and one for physical. If damage got through armor (and was resisted/lowerd through Body [= constitution]) then it would be: Light (1 box, +1 DC's, -1 init), Moderate (3 boxes, +2 DC's, -2 init), Serious (6 boxes, +3 DC's, -3 init), or Deadly (10 boxes, Unc.) It was up to the GM to describe the wound or where it was - IF that even mattered. A light wound was a graze to the leg while a serious wound was grenade shrapnel to the gut. It worked in that system for two reasons - No Hitpoints, and the ability to reduce damage dealt to you. In order for a Wound system to work (and not that crappy imitation system from Starwars or Spycraft [which make sense]) you have to remove HP's. And that is just not D&D. But I do like your idea.