Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Armitage 11-20-05, 03:09 PM	This material is based on the article "Arrrgh!!! A painful topic for AD&D game characters", by Christopher Wood. Dragon Magazine #118, February 1987. These rules assume the use of the combination of Con-based and HD-based Massive Damage Threshold from Unearthed Arcana, i.e. Con + (2 x HD). A character has a threshold of pain equal to one-quarter their Massive Damage Threshold, rounded up, i.e. Con/4 + HD/2. If damage from a single attack equals or exceeds this threshold the character must make a DC 15 Fortitude Save or sustain a wound. Each wound causes a –2 circumstance penalty to Strength and Dexterity. Each wound after the first reduces speed by 5 feet. When speed is reduced to 1/3 normal or less the character is rendered prone without aid (crutches, supporting characters, etc.). Healing is applied to wounds before any non-wound damage and is divided equally between all wounds, but a touch delivered healing effect can be applied to just one wound if desired. When the damage from a wound is reduced below the pain threshold, the wound disappears and its penalties are removed, although any remaining damage must still be healed. Creatures immune to critical hits are immune to wounds. The original article had an Overwhelming Pain rule, rendering a character helpless after sustaining a certain number of wounds. I considered x+Con bonus wounds with various values of x, but that resulted in characters with no bonus being crippled by a single wound or most characters not suffering OP until they were disabled or dead anyway. So the normal disabled rules would seem to work just fine here.
Xeviat-DM 11-20-05, 03:57 PM	Interesting: I do something similar, but those rules might be easier to incorperate into a standard game. In mine, I use WP/VP, and if you're out of VP or take 1 point of WP damage, you're fatigued (changed to -2 to all scores, though HP is not recalculated unless you're above your new maximum). If you're out of WP, you're exhausted (-6 to all scores, though VP is not recalculated unless you're above your new maximum). This has made wounds not only scary and easier to picture, but they have an actual penalty.