Adventuring is likely to get someone shot, stabbed, burned, skewered, frozen, electrocuted, infected with something, had his body used as an incubator, and hit by flying debris all in the same day. This section, then, deals with that particular part of daily adventuring life.

 

I Need Your Natural Healing

Characters may feel invincible, but they’re not. They take hit point damage, and if they take enough, they drop to the ground, bleed, die, and are eaten by whatever bugs feel like laying eggs in their ungrateful carcass. This is an abstraction of fatigue, scrapes, nicks, cuts, and bruises, whereupon the last strike takes you down. The massive damage rules model exceptionally “hard hits,” and the critical system models tougher hits still, however, a character at less than normal hit points still has the combat prowess of someone at full health, even after taking massive damage. So, here are the new rules.

 

            Just a Bruise

            Nonlethal damage works a bit differently. Instead of simply not being tracked, you track the damage. Nonlethal damage effectively “turns off” hit points. When you take enough nonlethal damage to equal your current hit point total, you fall unconscious until you heal enough to wake up again. If you continue to take nonlethal damage, it converts to lethal damage.

 

            I’m Okay, Really!

            Healing is no longer automatic. In order to heal hit point damage as if you had rested for a day, make a Constitution check (DC 20). You can use Treat Injury (DC 15) to add to this check (granting the injured individual a +1 bonus for every 2 points by which you beat the DC), and staying in a facility catering to that sort of thing grants a bonus, from +1 to +10, depending on the ability of the facility. If you fail twice in a row, you contract a disease from your badly healing wounds.

            Nonlethal damage works the same way, but you check every hour of rest instead of every day. Surgery and Treat Injury now just convert lethal damage to nonlethal.

 

            Ow, My Spleen!

            Whenever a character suffers massive damage or a critical hit, whether the critical surpasses the character’s massive damage threshold or the saving throw is made, the character suffers a nasty wound. The chart below runs through the amount of severity of the character’s wounds. Wound effects do not affect Intimidate checks to demoralize opponents.

Wound Level

Effect

0

Feelin’ fine!

1

A little haggard. A -1 penalty to attacks, saves, and skill checks.

2

Cut up. A -2 penalty to attacks, saves, and skill checks.

3

Bleeding like mad. Your clothes are wet and soggy with your own body fluids. You suffer a -3 penalty on attacks, saves, and skill checks.

4

Torn to shreds; base speed reduced by half, flight maneuverability cut by 1 level. You suffer a -4 penalty on attacks, saves, and skill checks.

5

Like yesterday’s chili; a -5 penalty on attacks, saves, and skill checks, base land speed reduced by one fourth. Gain a +3 bonus to demoralize opponents if you’re still fighting.

            You can heal wound levels by succeeding on a Constitution check with a DC equal to 15 + your current wound level – your character level (maximum -5), or by getting surgery (you choose whether to heal a wound level or convert hit points from the surgery).

 

            Wanna see my Mermaid’s Scar?

            If you heal a wound level by making a Constitution check, congratulations, you have a scar. It’s kind of cool and/or creepy looking, depending on your point of view. They don’t have any game effect, but if you want to take advantage of your scars, you can take a feat.

 

Cool Scars [General]

            Your scars make you look like a badass.

            Prerequisite: Must have healed a wound level naturally, Cha 13.

            Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks and Intimidate checks made to change the behavior of a target by drawing attention to the scars you possess.

 

            Freaky Scars [General]

            Your scars look frightening in the right light.

            Prerequisite: Must have healed a wound level naturally, Cha 13.

            Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on checks to demoralize your opponents, and the saving throw DC of the Frightful Presence feat, if you possess it, increases by +2.

 

            Sexy Scarring [General]

            Your scars don’t detract from your personal appearance. In fact, they enhance it, making you look rebellious, mysterious, or otherwise alluring in a dangerous way.

            Prerequisite: Must have healed a wound level naturally, Cha 13.

            Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Bluff checks made to seduce, as well as on checks made to distract a target, and the saving throw DCs of any of your abilities from the Charismatic Hero class increase by 1.

 

            Trophy Scars [General]

            You have spent hours meditating over the mistakes and errors that led to your scars and old wounds, and have vowed never to repeat those errors.

            Prerequisite: Must have healed a wound level naturally, Wis 13.

            Benefit: Choose a creature type. It must be a type that a creature that inflicted at least two wound levels on you that you healed naturally. You gain a +1 bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, and Defense against that creature type.

            Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Each time, you must choose a different creature type.