Injury
Injuries are physical traumas that surpass the ordinary loss of hit points. Caused by accidents, falls and unusually heavy blows in combat, an injury indicates that the character is seriously hurt. The result accounts for broken bones and bone fractures, ligament and tendon injuries, organ failures, amputation, dismemberment, lung scarring and effects from disease or poison, among other things. The injury rule encapsulates traumas to the body that would take much longer to heal than ordinary hit points.
When a character suffers 15 or more hit points of damage in a single blow, the character receives an injury. In addition to the lost hit points, the character also suffers 1 injury point. For each additional 5 points of damage suffered in a single blow
Should this happen, then 1 of those 15 damage is an injury point. For each additional 5 points of damage experienced in one blow, an additional injury point is added.
- For example, Caleb the Druid falls 30 feet and suffers 25 damage reducing him from his normal 23 maximum to -2 hit points. In addition, he receives 3 injury points. With so many possible ways to receive an injuries, and possible injuries that might result, it's recommended that the DM assign a credible injury in these situations, rather than imposing a random injury chart. A standardised chart is likely to produce irreconciliable results too often to be really useful.
Healing an Injury
Characters that have suffered an injury may heal injury points in the same way as healing hit points, except that injury points must be healed first, and it requires 10 points of healing before an injury point is removed. So, for example, after Caleb's fall, he would need 30 points of healing to remove his 3 points of injury; and then another 22 points of healing in order to restore him completely from the fall. Until such time as the first point of injury is fully healed, Caleb will remain at -2 hit points. Removing the first point of injury will heal him to -1 hit points. Once all three injury points are removed, Caleb will be at 1 hit point and thereafter can begin to heal normally.
This will mean that Caleb is quite vulnerable during this time; if he has been sufficiently reduced in hit points, according to the negative hit point rules, he may be unconscious for a lengthy time, so that his body will need to be carried until he is sufficiently healed.
