Chapter VI: Combat, Damage & Movement
— d amage and h ealIng —
A character can absorb damage up to his Wounds total without penalty. Wounds represent an abstract “buffer level”, and only once this has been destroyed is severe damage incurred. That’s the good news. The bad news is that taking such damage is rather nasty and can, in some cases, lead to permanent disability and the loss of limbs. Wounds will go up and down throughout play, as a character takes damage and then heals up. Characters require medical attention , which includes the use of the Heal skill or the application of healing magic or draughts, when wounded. Depending on how many Wounds a character has left, he is classified as Lightly Wounded or Heavily Wounded. These states are not important during combat, but they do affect the time it’ll take to heal (see Heal in Chapter 4: Skills & Talents ). Characters might also find themselves stunned or helpless. The definitions of these states follow: • Lightly Wounded: More than 3 Wounds remaining but fewer than the character’s Wounds Characteristic. Without medical attention, the character recovers 1 Wound per day through natural healing. Heavily Wounded: 3 Wounds or fewer remaining. Without medical attention, the character recovers 1 Wound per week through natural healing. Stunned: The character cannot take any actions (even free actions like dodge). Opponents gain a +20% Weapon Skill bonus when attacking. Helpless: The character cannot defend himself due to wounds, incapacitation, or some other circumstance. Attacks against the character automatically hit and inflict an extra 1d10 damage. C rITICal h ITs When a character takes more damage than he has Wounds remaining, a Critical Hit is suffered. The attacker rolls percentile dice on Table 6-3: Critical Hits to determine the outcome, known as the Critical Effect. Just like other tests, rolling low is better. Once the Wounds total has been reduced to 0, it never goes below this number—all additional damage results in Critical Hits. Thus there is no such thing as “negative Wounds.” If a character suffers a Critical Hit and survives, he is still at 0 Wounds and still able to fight. To resolve the Critical Hit, two pieces of information are required. First, the hit location (see page 129). Second, the Critical Value, which ranges from +1 to +10 (with +10 representing the most severe injuries). The Critical Value is the amount of damage left over after all Wounds have been lost. If a character has 3 Wounds remaining, for example, and takes 8 points of damage, he suffers a Critical Hit with a Critical Value of +5. The attacking player rolls percentile dice and cross-references his result with the Critical Value on Table 6-3: Critical Hits . The result will be a number from 1-10, the Critical Effect. Consult the appropriate table (Critical Effects—Arm, Body, Head, or Leg) and read the entry for the specified Critical Effect. Example: Jean-Pierre, a Bretonnian Noble, is fighting a band of maniacal Orcs. Despite his best efforts, the Orcs whittle his Wounds down to only 2. Then the Orc boss bashes him in the head with a big mace for 9 points of damage. This results in a Critical Hit with a Critical Value of +7. The GM rolls • • •
percentile dice and gets an 85. Cross-referencing this with the +7 column, the GM sees he’s gotten Critical Effect #7. He then looks at Table 6-6: Critical Effects—Head and reads the result: “Knocked out for 1d10 minutes.” He rolls a d10 and gets a 10! Jean-Pierre will be unconscious for 10 full minutes. Unless he has friends to save him, Jean-Pierre will never see Bretonnia again. Critical Effects have been written without any assumptions as to what type of weapon or spell caused the damage. While the tables provide the basics, it’s always fun to embellish them with details specific to the attack. No one ever had his head sliced off with a flail for instance, but skulls can certainly be split asunder, spattering blood and brains over everyone nearby. s udden d eaTh C rITICal h ITs Sometimes players just want to know if an opponent is dead or not and don’t much care about the details. Where convenient, the GM can speed combat along without adjudicating detailed critical hits. In other cases, grievous wounds have already been inflicted, so it’s just a matter of finishing an enemy off. In these instances, use the Sudden Death option. Roll on Table 6-3: Critical Hits as usual, but ignore the Critical Effects. If the result is a 1-5, there is no effect. If the result is 6-10, the subject is slain. Note that due to the nature of the table, any Critical Value of +5 or greater results in death no matter the dice roll. Example: In the previous example, Jean-Pierre was knocked unconscious. His Critical Effect also noted, “Use the Sudden Death rules for any further Critical Hits on this opponent.” The round after Jean-Pierre slumped unconscious, an Orc stabs the Bretonnian to finish the job. Since Jean-Pierre is helpless, the Orc hits automatically and deals an extra 1d10 damage. The Orc ends up inflicting another Critical Hit on the Noble, with a Critical Value of +4. The GM rolls a 78% on Table 6- 3: Critical Hits , which gives a result of 6. Under the Sudden Death rules, a 6 means Jean-Pierre has been killed. p ermanenT e ffeCTs Some Critical Effects are permanent. Should a character suffer more than one of these effects, it’s probably time to retire the poor fellow and make a new one.
T able 6-3: C rITICal h ITs Critical Value
D100 Roll
+1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
01-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-00
5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1
7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2
9 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 10 10 10 10 10
8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4
8 9 8 8 7 8 7 7 6 7 6 6 5 6
9 10 10 10 10 9 9 10 10 10
8 9 8 8 7 8 7 7 6 7
9 10 10 9 9 10
8 9 8 8 7 8
9 9 8
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