Discovering Onara

VITALITY AND WOUND POINTS

Characters using this system should be wary in combat, which can turn deadly in the space of a few lucky rolls. But they can also bounce back from a fight much more quickly. For that reason, this variant is an ideal system for low-magic campaigns or games where healing is otherwise rare.

Creatures capable of dealing a large amount of damage on a single hit become significantly more deadly in this system, since a lucky attack roll can give a deadly blow to almost any character. For critical hits, the additional damage from bonus damage dice (such as a flaming sword or a rogue’s sneak attack) is reduced to only 1 point per die.

Constitution damage is especially deadly under this variant, since every point of Constitution damage reduces wound points by 1 and every 2 points of damage reduces vitality by a number of points equal to the character’s HD. If a character’s Constitution is reduced to 0, he dies even if he has wound points remaining.

VITALITY POINTS Vitality points are a measure of a character’s ability to turn a direct hit into a graze or a glancing blow with no serious consequences. A 1st-level character gets the maximum vitality die result rather than rolling, as shown on Table: Vitality Points below.

Table: Vitality Points

Class	VP at 1st level	Vitality Die
Barbarian	12 + Con mod	d12
Bard	6 + Con mod	d6
Cleric	8 + Con mod	d8
Druid	8 + Con mod	d8
Fighter	10 + Con mod	d10
Monk	8 + Con mod	d8
Paladin	10 + Con mod	d10
Ranger	8 + Con mod	d8
Rogue	6 + Con mod	d6
Sorcerer	4 + Con mod	d4
Wizard	4 + Con mod	d4

Wound Points Wound points measure how much true physical damage a character can withstand. Damage reduces wound points only after all vitality points are gone, or when a character is struck by a critical hit.

Critical Hits A critical hit deals the same amount of damage as a normal hit, but that damage is deducted from wound points rather than from vitality points. Critical hits do not deal extra damage. Any critical hit automatically overcomes a creature’s damage reduction, regardless of whether or not the attack could normally do so.

INJURY AND DEATH Vitality and wound points together measure how hard a character is to hurt and kill. The damage from each successful attack and each fight accumulates, dropping a character’s vitality point or wound point total until he runs out of points.

Taking Wound Damage The first time a character takes wound damage — even a single point — he becomes fatigued. A fatigued character can’t run or charge and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity until he has rested for 8 hours (or until the wound damage is healed, if that occurs first). Additional wound damage doesn’t make the character exhausted.

In addition, any time an attack deals wound damage to a character, he must succeed on a Fortitude saving thow (DC 5 + number of wound points lost from the attack) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. (During that time, any other character can take a standard action to help the stunned character recover; doing so ends the stunned condition.)

0 Wound Points At 0 wound points, a character is disabled and must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude save. If he succeeds on the save, he is merely disabled. If he fails, he falls unconscious and begins dying.

HEALING After taking damage, a character can recover vitality and wound points through natural healing (over the course of hours or days), or by magic. In any case, a character can’t regain vitality points or wound points above his full normal totals. Natural Healing

Characters recover vitality points at a rate of one vitality point per hour per character level.

With a full night’s rest, a character recovers 1 wound point per character level (minimum 1 per night), or twice that amount with complete bed rest for 24 hours. Any significant interruption during the rest period prevents the character from healing that night.

Assisted Healing A character who provides long-term care doubles the rate at which a wounded character recovers lost vitality and wound points.

Magical Healing Spells that heal a variable amount of hit point damage based on a die roll (such as cure light wounds), apply the actual die roll as restored vitality points, and any modifier to the die roll (such as caster level, for cure spells) as restored wound points.

For example, cure moderate wounds heals 2d8 points of damage, +1 point per caster level (maximum +10). Under this system, a 10th-level cleric could cast it to heal 2d8 vitality points and 10 wound points.