Wounded and Weary
by Michael Rudge and Crispin Bateman
In the never ending search for ways to make an AD&D game better, a lot
of rules find themselves undergoing revisions of differing degrees. One
of the systems of AD&D that has often been the cause of complaint and
adjustment is that of hit points.
It cannot be said that the HP system doesn't work well in the game; it
delivers the necessary detail to run the game and decide upon the state
of the characters but it can find itself in compromising positions in
some situations. To give an example: In a tavern in the centre of a
small town, Arag the warrior decides to get drunk. He is a 7th level
fighter with 68 HP. In walks Tomas - a 1st level fighter with a mere 8
HP - who sits with Arag. As the evening progresses, Arag spends his
time insulting Tomas who becomes more and more angry. Eventually, Tomas
is pushed too far and in a state of fury, he draws his longsword and
impales the older fighter. Due to Arag's surprise and drunken stupor he
counts as a prone target. He is wearing no armour and thus Tomas finds
it very easy to hit him. After rolling his 1d8, Tomas manages to cause
Arag 7 HP of damage. The more experienced warrior with HP lowered to 61
then draws his two-handed sword in retaliation and hits Tomas back
easily, rolling a 9 on his damage roll and killing the younger man
instantly. The point becomes obvious: surely, in this situation, Arag
should be dead and Tomas the victor and yet, due to his high HP, the
aggressive Arag lives and the more realistic situation is reversed.
So the need makes itself clear for a rule which compensates for such a
situation. The first thing to decide is what we think of by hit points.
Originally, these are understood as a measure of the characters health
and energy, combining how he is wounded with his weariness. It becomes
obvious that to make a rule which is more realistic and accurate, the
concept of wounding needs to be separated from that of energy. As the
HP scale is already a very good way of determining character energy; as
a character becomes more experienced and older, his stamina increases
and he can fight for more prolonged periods (although this system may
need to be revised for old aged characters) and so we can immediately
look upon HP as being character energy and stamina.
With the stamina scale decided, the next step is to set an amount for
the character's wounds score, this should be a constant number for, as
the character becomes more experienced and knowledgeable, he does not
suddenly become more resistant to sword blows and mace strikes. As the
character already has a statistic to show his constitution, this can
easily be translated into his body's physical fitness and so we can now
give him a wounds score - that equal to his constitution; as he is cut
and wounded, so this score decreases.
It remains to decide the rules upon which these two scores can be put
to use. It makes total sense for the following to be true:
Death and Unconsciousness
A character dies once his wounds score reaches zero. A character
becomes unconscious when he loses all energy and his HP equal zero.
But how is it we differentiate between his being wounded and his losing
energy? In battle, any really good hit should cut into his wounds score,
as a sharp blade is plunged into his skin, but the small nicks and close
calls should merely drain his energy. A good rule to apply this is to
impose that all attacks which hit the character's AC by five or better
damage him, whilst those which only just hit his AC (between 0 and 4
better than his AC) merely take HP away. After extensively testing this
rule, it was found that the following works best, keeping the realism
whilst making the game balance work and the battles fun and exciting,
rather than an almost suicidal situation to get into:
Melee Combat
- Hits to the characters AC and those which best it by less than 5 do
full normal damage to HP.
- Hits to the character which better his AC by 5 or more do full
normal damage to HP and half damage to Wounds.
- A natural 20 will always hit, although not necessarily to do Wounds
damage.
Continuing the rules for battle, it is important not to forget that
there are other types of damage which occur other than normal melee
weapons. This group includes missile fire (which is assumed to wound an
opponent), magic (which may have many different effects), backstabs
(which, as missile fire, always score damage to wounds) and many varied
types of natural monster attacks. With missile fire and backstabs, a
simple rule can be written which is just a variation on those above.
The following rules apply for missile fire, backstabs and any other
attacks which the victim can take no preventative action against
(such as the tavern scenario above, collapsing ceiling etc.), both in
and out of battle situations:
Missile Attacks, Special Melee Attacks and Unanticipated Situations
- Hits to the characters AC and those which best it by less than 5 do
full normal damage to HP and half damage to Wounds.
- Hits which better the AC by 5 or more do full normal damage to both
HP and Wounds.
- A natural 20 will always hit, in the least doing full normal damage
to HP and half damage to Wounds.
For magic, the DM has to be prepared to make decisions ad lib. For ease
of use, any spells which have a definite physical effect (such as
Fireball and Melf's Acid Arrow) can be seen as making physical wounds
and those which have only indefinite magical effects (including Magic
Missile and Vampiric Touch) drain stamina but have no physical
consequence. With spells that have a definite physical effect, a rule
must be created to restore game balance and order, for otherwise, any
Fireball casting mage can, with ease, kill any party of sixteenth level
characters! Again, many rules have been tried and tested, and a very
simple system covers the problem with ease. It is to take the characters
AC into account, for his wearing armour can often save him from the,
otherwise fatal, effects of the spells. The rules are as follows:
Magic Attacks with a Definite Physical Effect / Breath Weapon Attacks
If the character makes the required saving throw, then he takes half
damage to HP and no damage to Wounds.If the character fails the saving
throw, he takes full damage to HP and damage to Wounds equal to one
third damage minus any AC bonus granted by his armour.
If the character is disallowed a saving throw (he is tied up,
unconscious etc.) then he receives full damage to HP and two thirds
damage to Wounds, again adjusted for his armour AC bonus.
NB: The advantage for armour is only allowed on the first in a series of
successive attacks, after which it is presumed to have absorbed as much
of the effect as is possible.
To show these rules in an example, Frigard the Wizard casts Fireball
upon two evil priests. He rolls 28 damage, the DM rolls saving throws
for the two priests; 19 and 5, the first saves, the other fails. With
HP 20 and Wounds 14, the first priest leaps aside and manages to
continue his assault, now on 6 HP but in full physical health. The
second, with HP 26, Wounds 15 and leather armour, granting an AC bonus
of 2, falls unconscious (0 HP) and is badly burnt, taking 7 (9 minus 2)
damage to Wounds, leaving him on Wounds 8.
With monsters' different and varied special attacks, it is up to the DM
to use his common sense and judgement. With breath weapon attacks, the
rules for magic with definite physical effects should be applied
however, it would be futile to try and make exact rules for all special
attacks and defences of the creatures which roam in the AD&D world. It
should be noted that any poisons that are used by both monsters and
characters should be incapable of causing Wounds damage, the varying
types that exist only affecting HP or causing some other special event.
After all, no poison or similar effect will ever open up a gash in an
adventurer's side!
The characters having become wounded and weary, it remains to decide
upon rules which regain their energy and heal their bodies. There are
two main ways for the healing to occur; natural healing and rest, and
magical healing. It is easiest to deal with the latter first, as any
magical healing should regain both wounds and HP by the same amount, so
a Cure Light Wounds spell would restore 1d8+1 points of wounds and HP to
the character and a Potion of Healing will cure 2d4+2 points of both
wounds and HP. It is also important to note that the reverse spells and
spell-like effects (Cause Light Wounds and similar) drain both wounds
and HP, making the whole are of magical healing a lot more significant.
Natural healing is more complicated. HP are regained at speed, granting
1d3 HP plus any bonus granted for high constitution to be restored for
every hour of rest, but regaining wounds is a slow process, for these
things do not heal up speed, especially when untended.
To decide the rate that wounds points are cured, it is necessary to look
at each character's constitution score, for those with a higher
constitution will heal faster than those without. A character should
regain one wound point for long periods of rest or inactivity, the
period decided by their constitution score as shown by the following
chart:
Cure Rate by Constitution
| Constitution | Cure Rate (Hours] | | 1 | 192 |
| 2 | 120 |
| 3 | 72 |
| 4 - 5 | 48 |
| 6 - 8 | 36 |
| 9 - 12 | 24 |
| 13 - 15 | 18 |
| 16 - 17 | 12 |
| 18 | 8 |
| 19 | 6 |
| 20 | 5 |
| 21 | 4 |
| 22 | 3 |
| 23 | 2 |
| 24 | 1 |
| 25 | 3 turns |
NB: Going into battle or doing any, otherwise strenuous activity, will
reopen the character's healing wounds and thus make him begin his
healing once more, resetting his current cure rate, also, if a character
with a healing non-weapon proficiency tends to a wounded comrade as he
rests, the wounded character's cure rate is increased by one quarter of
the difference between his normal cure rate and that of the next higher
boundary. A character with herbalism and healing, if his herbs are to
hand, can raise a wounded characters cure rate by one half of the
difference between his normal and that of the next boundary. To grant
this bonus, the healer must stay by the side of the wounded character
for the whole time of his regaining the wound point.
Healing
- Magical healing cures both HP and Wounds for the stated amount.
- Rest will restore HP every hour for 1d3 HP plus any bonus granted by
high constitution.
- Wound points are regained after a number of hours of rest and
inactivity as determined by constitution.
- A healer can speed up the time required to heal wounds.
One strange inconsistency in this system is that a character can be
wounded to a huge degree and yet rest and regain his HP to full and walk
around normally. This problem can be alleviate by one simple and
effective set of rules which adjust his ability to fight and cast spells
by his current health:
Balance Between Wounds and HP
If a character drops to below 3/4, 1/2 or 1/4 of his maximum Wounds
score, then he can be on no more that 3/4, 1/2 or 1/4 of his maximum HP
respectively.
When below 3/4 of his maximum Wounds score, the character fights at a -1
penalty to hit and damage, and if affected by a -1 penalty to any saving
throws or ability checks he must make, thieves abilities are lowered by
5% and spellcasters have a 25% chance of spell faliure*
When below 1/2 of his maximum Wounds score, the character fights at a -2
penalty to hit and damage, and if affected by a -2 penalty to any saving
throws or ability checks he must make, thieves abilities are lowered by
10% and spellcasters have a 50% chance of spell faliure*
When below 1/4 of his maximum Wounds score, the character fights at a -3
penalty to hit and damage, and if affected by a -3 penalty to any saving
throws or ability checks he must make, thieves abilities are lowered by
15% and spellcasters have a 75% chance of spell faliure*
*spell failure chance is lowered by 15% for every spell level of
difference between the level of spell attempting to be cast and the
highest level of spell the caster is able to use. It is also lowered by
15% for wizards if the wizard is a specialist in that school of magic
and raised by 5% for specialist wizards attempting to use spells not of
their specialist school, and it is lowered by 10% for priests who are
casting spells which are in the spheres they have major access to.
Any character who falls below 1/4 of his maximum HP and has a currently
low wounds score (1/4 max or lower) has a chance of opening his wounds
and thus dropping in wounds points. The rules for determining how these
wounds points are lost are:
Losing Wounds due to Physical Weakness
Any character with less than 1/4 of maximum HP and a current Wounds of
1/4 max or less must roll a number of checks vs. 3/4 of his constitution
score equal to the negative bonus for HP for a constitution score of his
current Wounds score, these checks are made when the above criteria are
first satisfied, at the rate of one per hour.
If any of these checks are failed, the character loses one point of
Wounds and 1d3 HP.
Any persons tending to the wounded character grant a bonus to these
checks. A character falling to zero Wounds, and thus dying, is granted
a save vs. death to avoid death.
The bonus to the checks granted for being tended are +2 for anyone
tending (no healing proficiency required), +4 if the character tending
has healing proficiency and succeeds in his ability check, and +6 if the
healer has both healing and herbalism proficiency, succeeds in his
healing ability check and has managed to make an ointment by having the
required herbs to hand and succeeding in his herbalism ability check.
The ability checks must be made whenever the patients Wounds score is
at stake.
These rules may seem the most complicated of all, but are easily
understood with an example; Jero the Thief has a constitution score of
11, 14 HP and 11 maximum Wounds. After a battle with some werewolves he
falls to 3 Wounds points and 3 HP; he must start making his checks.
With his friend Nulas tending (a character with healing proficiency) he
needs a roll of 12 or less (8 for his 3/4 constitution and 4 for Nulas's
tending). His first roll is a 4, he must make one an hour later but for
now he survives. One hour later, Jero must roll his second check (the
party has managed to find no priest to heal him) he rolls a 19, dropping
him to 2 Wounds points and forcing him to make a further two checks (for
fulfilling the criteria described above once more). Nulas must also make
another check to make sure that he is still tending to Jero well. He
fails and now his presence is only worth 2 points bonus to Jero's roll.
The DM rolls 1d3 to determine whether Jero keeps awake; a 2, Jero falls
to 0 HP and unconsciousness.
Another hour passes and still the friends have not managed to find
magical aid. Jero makes another check (this time he must roll a 10 of
less, as Nulas failed his healing roll). He rolls a 11, forcing him to
relapse and placing him on 1 Wounds point, dangerously close to death.
Three checks to go, all of which have to be made if Jero is to survive.
For the first two he rolls an 8 and a 3, spirits rise and the chance of
him pulling through looks better, however, on the third check (rolled
due to his low Wounds score of 1) he rolls a 17 and begins the slip to
death; his only chance now a save vs. death. A 16, he pulls himself
back to life and now he has survived the three hours since he slipped
to 1 Wounds originally, he is safe until he has rested enough to heal a
Wound point, after which he will, once more, fill the criteria described
in the rules and will have to make two checks to keep that Wounds point.
Luckily, within the hour, a priest appears and the thief is saved.
The only thing that remains is to make the distinction between wounds
points for monsters and constitution for monsters. The easiest way to
discern monster wounds is by simple DMs discretion, a dragon will have
many (perhaps more than it does HP) whereas a goblin will have few.
With regenerating monsters, it is again totally up to the DM to decide
whether the creature regenerates HP, Wounds or both. Use your sense of
judgement and it will soon become second nature.
Used correctly, these new rules can add a lot of realism and excitement
into your games, and it is always very satisfying to see the first level
character kill the seventh level veteran warrior in the tavern. Just
remember not to start pushing around those little novice adventurers
when you're not wearing any armour - you could be an easy target.
