Healing

There are a variety of things that affect how someone can heal. Just as in real life, people on Al’Akwannon can have allergic reactions, become infected or experience complications. Additionally, there are major differences between having numerous bumps, cuts and scrapes that amount to an overall amount of damage versus an extremely significant single wound. Use the below as basic guidelines regarding the effects of damage and how to heal such damage

Damage Effects

Different types of damage cause different types of effects on the victims of such damage. A large portion of this must be determined by the DM as there can be a huge difference between a character accumulating 50% HP worth of damage over lots of little hits vs taking that damage in one or two hits. The DM must figure out how such wounds behave based on what happens in the combat scene and apply common sense. However, the below guidelines will help you determine the damage level of characters, monsters and NPCs

20% or less of total HP – generally this level of damage is limited to heavy bruising, cuts, major scrapes, burns, etc. none of which impact a vital or sensitive area and are usually the easiest to heal. Additionally, healing magic used on a person will not put them to sleep if they’re at 20% or less damage. A rudimentary 1st^ Aid skill is sufficient to treat such wounds and set them about healing properly

20% to 50% of total HP – generally this is the 20% level plus some sort of fairly significant wound, perhaps some internal bleeding, a cut requiring direct pressure to deal with excessive bleeding, a concussion, etc. Such wounds will generally require a rudimentary Healing skill or a relatively high rudimentary 1st^ Aid skill to treat properly (a rudimentary 1st^ Aid roll at -50% can mitigate most problems; DM)

50% to 80% of total HP – this involves several wounds of the previous level’s variety and require at least a standard 1st^ Aid skill to provide initial care for such wounds. Such wounds truly need the attention of a healer, however but a successful rudimentary Healing skill roll will properly care for such wounds

80% to 100% of total HP – this involves several wounds of the previous levels and either a numerous amount of them or often a near mortal wound such as a deep puncture, damage to vital tissues, etc. Such wounds must have the attention of a true healer at some point, though a successful standard 1st^ Aid skill roll can hold a victim over for a number of days (DM) Even those with rudimentary Healing will likely have some penalties to a treatment roll (PCs can spend action points to make these critical rolls)

Over 100% of total HP – immediate unconsciousness occurs at 0HP and death occurs when a character hits -10HP. When a creature is reduced to -1HP or below, they are bleeding out and take 1HP of damage each melee round until death (PCs can stop this by spending an action point)

Damage Modifiers

Single Hit which does 50% or more damage – creatures hit for this kind of damage must make a save vs Fort or immediately swoon for d4 melees, but will then recover dazed (-2 to all actions) Such creatures can be roused by allies with 1st^ Aid or Healing skills (DM)

Critical Hits which do 50% or more damage – creatures hit like this must save as above at -2 and also take a grievous wound (DM) which will require healing skills to fix properly. Failure to get proper healing of such a wound will cause a permanent negative problem (i.e. – a limp, partial loss of a sense, etc; DM)

Elemental Damage – damage caused by fire, acid, negative energy, etc. causes a -15% penalty to treatment rolls

Toxins

Poison/Venom Damage – damage caused by poison and venom depends on the severity of the toxin. Poisons are ingested in some fashion and are generally meant to kill by themselves. Venoms are generally applied to weapons or traps and meant to aid in killing in one fashion or another. There are always special toxins that might be different, but use the below as a rule of thumb

• Mild Toxin – these poisons and venoms will not generally cause ANY extra damage and are usually the result of a spider bite or some other generally non-lethal (might be lethal to babies, but generally only to small animals or other insects) or a poison that might prompt stomach pains or vomiting. No need to make a saving throw generally (DM) and this will only complicate rudimentary healing rolls with a -5% penalty

• Median Toxin – these poisons and venoms are things for which urban legend exists (brown recluse spider, rattlesnake, deadly nightshade, etc.) and can occasionally cause deaths without the damage of a weapon (or in the case of poisoning, can be built up to death over a time.) The normal DC to save against this type of poison is around 6 to 10 (avg 8) and will cause no damage on a successful save. A failed save will cause a d6 of damage (thus possible to kill a zero level NPC!) and will complicate treatment rolls by -15%

• Major Toxin – these poisons and venoms are thought of as the most deadly in a particular region (box jellyfish, poison hemlock, taipan [snake], etc.) and will generally kill anyone who does not get treatment. In game terms, this means the poison causes damage whether or not the person makes a saving throw. The normal DC for such a save is around 14 to 18 and will cause 3d6 damage even on a successful saving throw. A failed saving throw will cause 6d6+10 damage (proving 100% fatal for zero level persons without treatment) and will complicate treatment rolls by -30% (-70% if rudimentary skill...thus rudimentary treatment is almost impossible to achieve.) A successful treatment roll within 1 hour will allow the person a second saving throw with a +8 to their save and reduce the amount of poison damage by 5 (minimum 1 point)

• Deadly Toxin – these poisons and venoms are usually specialized, cultivated and or mixed by poison masters taking on the most deadly aspects of multiple things and crafting them into something that is nigh impossible to treat. Sometimes this is achieved via magic; however magic can be dispelled which reduces the poison to a major toxin. In all other situations, a deadly poison starts with a normal DC of 20-25 and failure indicates death for anyone below 5th level (PC’s have action points to offset this, but otherwise.) 5th^ level and above will take around 10d8+15 damage (average about 55 points of damage, so will outright kill all but the heartiest of 5th^ level warriors, unless they’re a dwarf) and thus is extremely deadly to just about anyone. A successful saving throw provides a character of at least an hour to find treatment, but treatment rolls can only be made by someone with an appropriate standard skill with a -50% penalty. With a successful save the damage is reduced to 5d6+5 and a successful treatment roll within the hour will allow a second saving throw with a +5 to the save attempt, reducing the damage by 2d6 (minimum 5 points)

There are often other detrimental effects of toxins which can affect targets, such as temporarily reducing an attribute by a d4 points (i.e. – CON can be reduced by a d4 points which also temporarily removes any bonus HP the character might have. These types of damage should be treated with natural healing and grievous wounds rules below based on the type of toxin, saving throws, treatment types, etc. Again the above are meant as guidelines to keep things from being too deadly or too inconsequential

Healing Damage

Certain types of damage cannot heal properly without treatment by someone who knows what they are doing. Natural healing as well as magical healing cannot fix certain damage properly, nor will certain wounds heal properly without regular care. The DM will determine if the below guidelines apply or not

Fighting or other strenuous activity prevents any healing unless you are being actively treated by a healer

Normal travel or normal daily activity (DM) makes people heal at a base 1HP/day

Very light travel (less than half-day normal; DM) or light daily activity (DM) allows people to heal at a base 2HP/day

Complete rest (DM) allows people to heal at a base of 1 +Half Character Level/day (minimum 2HP for zero level NPCs; round up for PCs)

Treatment with 1st^ Aid skill – a successful rudimentary 1st^ Aid roll add +1HP/day to the above bases. Standard 1st^ Aid automatically adds this +1HP/day and specialized will add +2HP/day

Treatment with Healing skill – a successful rudimentary Healing skill roll adds +2HP/day to the above bases. Standard healing automatically adds +2HP/day and a successful roll adds +4HP/day...specialized adds +6HP/day

Grievous Wounds – for each significant wound which requires special healing attention, the DM should assign a d4 days of natural healing under care +1 day per additional grievous wound being tended. This slow healing will be required to get to a point where magical healing can be applied or the normal healing rate will work. When treating a grievous wound, a person heals only 1HP/day and MUST have complete rest (or they do not make any progress.) Once the number of single HP days is reached, the person begins to heal normally and magical healing will work effectively

Healing Sleep

When healing magic is placed on a person, if more than 20% of their HP total is healed, they fall into a healing sleep for a minimum of a d4 hours. If more than 50% of their total HP is healed, they sleep for 8 hours

Impact on Zero Levels

As discussed in the Hit Points document, zero level people generally have between 3 and 6 hit points. Thus for most people, healing them for one point of damage with magic will put them to sleep. By the same token, a priest with Cure Light Wounds and the healing skill can generally fully restore a zero level person overnight unless they’ve been seriously injured (Grievous Wounds)

Effects of Sleep

Similar to sleeping to heal wounds, sleeping in general is needed to operate at peak condition. There are a few races which can resist the need to sleep more than others, but in general everyone needs a reasonable amount of sleep or in game terms, they will suffer penalties. For game mechanics purposes, use the below information as a rule of thumb and adjust based on what is being asked of the character or NPC in question.

CON Base	Hours w/o Penalties	Cumulative Penalties	Maximum Time
-3	12	-2/-10% per 2hrs	24 hours
4-6	24 (1 day)	-2/-10% per 4hrs	48 hours
7-10	48 (2 days)	-2/-10% per 4hrs	72 hours
11-13	60 (2.5 days)	-2/-10% per 6hrs	4 days
14-16	72 (3 days)	-2/-10% per 12hrs	7 days
17-19	96 (4 days)	-2/-10% per day	14 days
20+	144 (6 days)	-2/-10% per 2 days	20 days

Creatures with higher than 20 CON scores should be handled individually based on their build. Keep in mind the longest recorded time a human has been able to stay awake is about 11 days. Being a game world, the span is increase a bit based on high constitution hero effects. The DM should keep in mind the tasks at hand when assigning penalties. It is one thing to simply stay awake, it is another to effectively guard a location, apply deductive reasoning, etc. At the same time, people are generally able to manage certain physical exertions better than expected, just as climbing a cliff or running a marathon. The above are simply guidelines to help you properly adjudicate