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Numbers and Wounds

Injuries and wounds are part of the game. Therefore, it is important understand what the numbers mean and how quickly one can recover. The assumption is Body points are a combination of physical toughness, tenacity and luck, but not specifically one of these things. Therefore, a character or monster may be wounded, bruised and bleeding, prior to zero-hp; however, those afflictions are superficial. Mind and Spirit are the same -- just not physical. Perhaps mental stress or the loss of the survival instinct is another way to think of damage or loss of points for these attributes.

Some have questioned how a fighter can be operating at 100% capacity while only having 1 Body remaining. This does seem odd if those points represent damage taken. However, remember they are a representation of damage but also tenacity and luck, which means those wounds only superficial up to that point, real but not vital, not life-threatening. An analogy that might be helpful is these fights are like an MMA bout: competitors are bleeding and bruised from strikes having been landed upon them; however, they are still able to continue at high efficiency until that one blow lands. Those wounds up to that point were real but trivial; yet, those strikes and wounds were lowering the fighter’s Body points when looking at from the perspective of a game system.

Short and Long Rests
Upon Dying
Depleted Mind and Spirit
Exhaustion

Short and Long Rests

When wounded, even if those scratches, punctures and burns are only superfluous, a bit of rest and downtime allows them to heal. The numbers recover a bit; the Body, Mind, Spirit will heal.

A short rest is a period of downtime, at least one-hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds. Through the short rest a character recovers Body points equal to one-half his or her Resilience score. Thus, a character with a Resilience score of 4 would recover 2 Body points during a short rest. Of course, recovered points cannot exceed maximum scores. Furthermore, body recovery from a short rest can only be performed once until after experiencing a long rest.

For Mind-point recovery, it is nearly identical to Body recovery, only using half the Judgment score instead. For the recovery of Spirit points, half of the Muse score is used. Of course, the recovered point cannot exceed the maximums. Like with Body, a short rest can benefit a character once until after a long rest has been taken.

Even though it has not been mentioned, it should be explicitly clear that a short rest will not aid in exhaustion in any way.

A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least eight-hours long but it could be longer, during which a character sleeps of performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch, so long as at least six hours of the rest include sleeping. If a long rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity, defined as an hour or more of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity, then no benefit can be gained from it.

At the end of a long rest, a character regains Body points equal to double his or her Resilience score. Mind points are recovered from a long rest by adding back in one's total Judgment score. Spirit points are healed by adding back the total Muse value. This happens unless the character exists in a near-death state of being zero or negative.

Moreover, a long rest will remove one degree of exhaustion, and only one long rest can be used in a single day (24-hour period). Lastly, if no change occurs in a score between a short rest and a long rest, then the short rest is considered an early payment of the total long-rest points. In other words, if a character is at 4 Body points with a 2 Resilience score, takes a short rest restores 1 point. When taking a long rest later, only 3 points will be recovered because the short rest already granted a point and only 4 points can be recovered in one day base on the Resilience score. The GM may allow an exception to this when a character is hurt between the short and long rest, allowing full points from the long rest in addition to the short rest already gained.

Upon Dying

Only upon reaching zero or negative values is a life-threatening wound inflicted. Death absolutely occurs without exception when body score reaches the negative value of one's Resilience score. Temporary hit points are not considered in any way.

Typically, if a monster reaches zero, the PCs will have no plans to save its life and therefore it can be considered dead for all intents and purposes. However, a fallen comrade is another thing. As stated above, from zero to Negative-Resilience, the character is in a state of dying but not yet truly dead. Below are the steps for resolving how long it takes in game time (and if it happens) before real death happens.

Body Score	DC
0	4
-1	6
-2	8
-3	10
-4	12
-5	14
-6	16
-7	18
-8	20
-9	22
-10	24
-11	26
-12	28

When at zero or negative, on the character’s turn, he or she makes a roll known as a Death Save. This special roll continues to happen each turn until the character stabilizes or the character dies. The Death Save is Resilience preservation save. Don't forget those important bonuses. Further, any active magical items, perhaps a ring of protection, can assist. The DC for the Death Save is 4 plus 2 for each negative point of the current health. Thus, if a character with a Resilience of 4 is at -2 hit points, then on his or her turn a Death Save is rolled against a DC 8. If the Death Save fails, the character suffers an additional body point of damage, delving deeper into the negative values, spiraling towards death from internal bleeding, asphyxiation, shock or whatever the cause. However, if the save is successful, the character stabilizes and stops losing life; however, the severely injured person does not regain consciousness and is still at a negative value.

If additional damage is inflicted while at zero or negative, assuming the blow did not kill the character, it means the new value is used to calculate the DC for the next Death Save. Even if the character were stable, the new damage places him or her back to a dying status.

Other potential harm comes from moving or dragging a negative and still unstable character. This forces an immediate Death Save, inflicting another point on failure. Even if successful, stability is not the result, but rather the injured is merely fortunately not to have been damaged further. The timing of this occurrence is at the action of the person moving the injured character.

The rules for healing by a short and long rest no longer apply to a character with negative or zero scores in body, mind and spirit. Recovery is slowed to one point per day. This recovery rate is true for all attributes even if only one of them falls into this range; thus, when a Body is at or below zero, even Mind and Spirit only recover a single point daily. Typically, negative but stable characters are unconscious; however, with each day’s recovery of another body point, another “Death Save” is made using the same rules for the DC value. If failing, the character remains unconscious but is still stable. If successful, then the injured character becomes conscious, suffering the combined restrictions of being both restrained and stunned. However, pointing, gesturing, one-to-two-word responses for communication becomes possible.

Finally, whenever a character enters a “Death Save” process, one degree of exhaustion is added to the character. This includes re-occurrences into a “Death Save” process from a new injuring while still being negative. Thus, someone reaching -1 Body and stabilizing suffers one degree of exhaustion; however, while still negative another point is inflicted, taking the person to -2 Body, then stabilizes again, a second degree of exhaustion will penalize to the character.

While optional, this is highly recommended, as it is designed for the player experience. Upon reaching zero or negative values is a life-threatening wound inflicted. Death absolutely occurs without exception when one’s Body score reaches the negative value of its Resilience score. Temporary health is not considered in any way. Death occurs at the end of the round, not on the character’s turn. This allows the opportunity for emergency healing; however, mere stabilizing or minor treatment incantations will not be enough to save the dying character.

Once reaching this condition, special “Death Saves” are made at the start of the character’s turn. These saves continue until either the character dies, stabilizes, or is healed. The “Death Save” is a Resilience; plus, any active magical items, perhaps a ring of protection, can assist. However, a “natural 1” will always fail. The DC for the “Death Save” is 4 plus 2 for each negative point of the current health. Thus, if a character with a Resilience score of 4 is currently at -2 Body points, then at the start of his or her turn a “Death Save” is rolled against a DC 8.

If the “Death Save” fails, the character falls unconscious immediately and suffers an additional Body point of damage. This additional point of damage might result in death at the end of the round if the score has reached Negative-Resilience. While unconscious, these “Death Save” continue, resulting in the loss of an additional Body point on a failed save; however, if success while unconscious, then the character stabilizes at the current negative value, and no further saves are made. Of course, new damage to the stabilized character will re-introduce the need for rolling new “Death Saves.”

If the “Death Save” is successful, the character remains conscious and can take limited actions. The character is not considered stabilized at this point; thus, consecutive “Death Saves” are still required. A conscious character will be stabilized only after taking no actions for three turns and making successful rolls on those turns -- or by falling unconscious and rolling appropriately.

As stated above, while still conscious and restricted by the dying condition, the character can take limited actions. Movement becomes crawling speed even though not necessarily being prone; thus, moving one hex will cost 15 feet. Speech is limited to one word per turn. Combat is under a 2d20 penalty. This is like being at disadvantage twice. The character truly is under the disadvantage restriction; so, the loss of d3 in damage is also inflicted. Thus, if normally attack with 3d10, the dice formula becomes 1d20. Attacks that normally have fewer d20s would use the lesser of two dice as the attack. All incantations are called using “silent prayers,” which means the spell costs an extra point of Spirit and also require a successful Muse save. This incantations are also limited to those marked with divine preservation. To cast sorcery axioms, it requires a Judgment save against a base DC:14 plus the cost points of the spell; otherwise, the sorcery fails but still levies the cost. Cantrips require a save using Agility against DC:7 to be successfully used. Wheedlism demands a Muse save against DC:10 and cost the appropriate Spirit amount regardless of success.

Depleted Mind and Spirit

When wounded badly enough that the Body score hits zero or lower, then physical death becomes a real possibility. However, what happens when the Mind or Spirit score reach zero? In the case these scores reach zero, that becomes a potentially as serious as dying from a Body score. In fact, so serious, even though when a one-point axiom or incantation can still be cast, it might not be considered the best option.

When reaching zero but not going negative for either Mind or Spirit, then one degree of exhaustion occurs from the stress of the ordeal. Short and long rests do not restore points, but rather after one day of rest scores will raise by 1 point with the exhaustion still intact. It is inconvenient and requires the loss of a day, but a state of consciousness and mental awareness is still maintained. However, remember when any score is at or below zero, all attributes only recover at a rate of 1 point daily.

Entering the negative values is when things become difficult. For the negative Mind scores, the character exists under the Drowsy restriction until reaching zero points. While in negative for Spirit, the character is under the Shaken restriction. It requires one full day of resting to restore a single point of Mind or Spirit when in such shock. However, at the end of each day, a special save is made before the point is restored. Using the save calculation as the “Death Save” for body, the wounded character must roll against the appropriate DC based on the current negative score. If successful, the point is restored; otherwise, it remains the negative value.

If a character remains in negatives for either Mind or Spirit for over 24 hours, then he or she is considered to be suffering a temporary insanity. The GM will have more details on what that means. If a character remains in negatives for either Mind or Spirit for longer than three days, then an indefinite insanity will set in. A temporary insanity can be cured by restoring points; however, an indefinite insanity will continue even after regaining positive values for Mind and Spirit. In such cases, whenever the GM deems it appropriate, generally ruled by a failed Will preservation save, then the character will re-enter the necrotic state for several hours, possibly days.

Should the negative value become the negative equivalent for Judgment for a Mind score or Muse for a Spirit score, then the character becomes unplayable, inflicted with a permanent insanity, suffering effectively a mental or spiritual death and sanity break from reality, such as a complete cognitive divergence from reality for the mind or an endless coma of fear for the spirit.

To be clear, this only happens when the current score is negative. When resting that final day at zero, there is no save required. Depending on how adversely affected a character might be from this, the GM or player may wish to add to the story by introducing some mental issues, insanity, deliberate misinformation, etc. It should generally not be harmful to gameplay, as the penalty against the attribute’s maximum has already suffered; however, there is no guarantee this misinformation will be safe. It may also be a way to introduce a different story or personality into the game.

Exhaustion

Environmental conditions, such as starvation and the long-term effects of exposure, can lead to a special condition called exhaustion. As mentioned previously, this also occurs when a character approaches death’s door. When a creature suffers a circumstance which exhausts it, a degree is added. If the creature has not been able to recover and another circumstance occurs, a second degree occurs; then a third, and so on.

Degree	Effect
1	Disadvantage on all checks and competitions; saves are normal
2	Movement is halved
3	Disadvantage on all saves
4	Disadvantage on attack rolls
5	Movement becomes zero
6+	One point of max-damage occurs to body, mind and spirit

Upon reaching the 6th degree of exhaustion, when losing a point from an attribute score, this is considered a negative-temporary point. This means that the acting maximum is lowered by the number of negative temporary points. Thus, if the mind score, normally 13 as a max, is lowered by one point, then until that degree of exhaustion is removed, the max-mind score is effectively 12.

When an event or effort removes exhaustion, it does not remove all the exhaustion but rather only one degree, unless the effect explicitly states otherwise. For example, a long rest will remove exhaustion. However, if a character has two degrees of exhaustion, then it will require two separate long rests to be fully recovered.

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