Specific Injuries and Effects

Usually, a critical strike results in a specific injury or penalty for the victim. As noted above, the victim does not gain a saving throw to avoid the special effects of a critical strike since he’s already failed one pretty badly. However, many creatures can ignore the effects of certain strikes just by their nature. Most undead monsters are immune to cold-based attacks and therefore don’t suffer any ill effects from cold critical strikes. Constructs such as golems don’t have a real physiology and can ignore the incapacitating effects of internal injuries. Injuries are divided into six degrees of severity: grazed, struck, injured, broken, shattered and finally severed.

Wounds or injuries are always accompanied by some loss of hit points, and some critical strike results may increase the damage caused by the spell or effect. Many also inflict temporary attack or movement penalties that persist until the character receives medical attention of some kind. The actual damage, or loss of hit points, may be recovered normally, but the injury’s effects linger until it is specifically addressed.

After a few months of recovering from his battle with the dragon, Nonnach is riddled by a high-level wizard’s magic missile spell and receives a critical strike. Magic missiles strike on the impact chart; the location roll is a 10 and the severity roll comes up as a 6, so Nonnach catches a missile in the eye. The spell inflicts 16 points of damage, but more importantly, Nonnach is temporarily blinded. He’ll suffer a –4 penalty to all attack rolls until his injury is treated in some way, although he can recover the loss of hit points through magical or normal healing.

Grazed, Singed, Chilled, Bruised: While the nature of the injury varies with the type of critical strike, all of these minor wounds fall under the category of ‘grazes.’ A graze is not very serious, although it may cause minor bleeding. A cure light wounds or any other healing magic capable of restoring 4 hit points will heal a graze. Grazes also heal naturally as if they were a loss of 1d6 hit points; if a graze is the equivalent of a 2-hit point wound, a single day of rest will cure it and eliminate any penalties. If a character receives healing magic, the graze is healed and he gets to recover hit points from the same spell or effect.

Struck, Blistered: Slightly more serious than a graze, a ‘struck’ result usually entails some kind of attack or movement penalties, such as a –2 penalty to attack rolls. Injuries of this type can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or other healing magic capable of restoring 5 lost hit points. Struck areas heal naturally as if they were a wound of 2d6 hit points.

Injured, Burned, Frostbitten: Wounds of this level can trouble a character for many weeks; they heal naturally as if they were a loss of 10d6 hit points. A cure serious wounds spell, or any other healing magic capable of restoring 10 hit points or more, can repair the injury.

Injuries almost always entail significant combat penalties for the character and may temporarily reduce a character’s maximum number of hit points. Since he’s favoring a painful injury, he is more susceptible to attacks. Injured arms, legs, or tails reduce a character to 75% of his normal maximum hit points, while an injury to the torso, abdomen, or head reduces a character to 50% of his normal. (If the damage done by the spell or effect didn’t bring the character down to his new maximum, he is reduced to the lower number immediately, but if the damage was severe enough to drop the character beneath his new maximum, he doesn’t lose any additional hit points.)

For example, let’s take a look at Lord Nonnach again. As noted in the example, Nonnach normally has a maximum of 109 hit points. If he sustained an injury to his torso, he would temporarily be reduced to a maximum of 55 hit points. Even if the torso injury only did 10 or 15 points of damage, Nonnach is still going to lose half his hit points due to the effects of his injury!

Broken: Most minor breaks are assumed to fall into the previous two categories; hairline fractures or chipped bones are painful, but generally minor, injuries. This category is reserved for severe fractures that render the limb in question useless. Broken bones can be mended by a cure serious wounds spell that is used only to knit the bone; unlike the grazed, struck, or injured categories, this healing spell restores no hit points to the character. Broken bones heal naturally as if they were a loss of 20d6 hit points, so a character with a badly broken leg won’t be running sprints anytime in the next month or two.

Broken arms reduce a character to 75% of his normal hit points, and broken ribs or legs reduce a character to 50% of his normal hit point maximum. Any other broken bones reduce a character to 25% of his normal hit point maximum. Continuing to adventure with a fractured skull or a few broken vertebrae is never a good idea.

Crushed, Shattered, Frozen, or Destroyed: A critical strike of this magnitude simply destroys the affected tissue or limb, rendering it forever useless. The victim of such a devastating injury never recovers his full health, without magical aid. A limb damaged in this way is completely useless, while other areas so affected will leave the victim incapacitated. One to eight months of bed rest will be required before he regains even a semblance of mobility.

An injury of this kind can only be repaired by a cure critical wounds spell or any other magic capable of restoring at least 20 hit points to the victim. In addition, any bones in the affected area are assumed to be broken and may require additional magic to knit.

Destroyed shoulders, hips, or limbs reduce a character to 50% of his normal hit point maximum. Any other injuries of this severity reduce the character to 25% of his normal hit point maximum. At the DM’s option, appropriate ability scores may be reduced by up to 50%; an acrobat with a ruined hip will never perform again.

Severed, Dissolved, or Incinerated: Obviously, a creature that has a limb severed or completely removed from his body can no longer use that limb for movement or combat. A human with a severed leg can’t walk or run and is reduced to crawling until he finds a crutch; a character with a severed shield-arm can no longer employ his shield, and so on. The only way to undo damage of this scale is by use of the regeneration spell or similar effects, or a properly worded wish.

The shock of losing a limb will prevent a character from moving independently or attacking for 2d10 full weeks, although a character who “only” loses a hand or a foot may be able to perform limited activities within 1d6 rounds of the injury, if he passes a system shock roll. Note that creatures with more than four limbs (especially insects or octopus-like creatures) are slightly more resistant to this sort of trauma and may be able to continue the fight after one or two rounds of being stunned.

The loss of a limb will reduce a character’s hit point maximum by 25% for a partial loss, or 50% for a more catastrophic injury. If the character is able to compensate with a prosthesis such as a wooden leg or a hook, the hit point loss may be reduced by one level.

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