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Elethril - Rules on Incapaciation & Death
Hit points are a measure of a character's endurance, resiliency, combat training in buffering and avoiding damage, agility, and luck. The first 25% of a character's HP does not represent actual physical damage. These points represent damage done to a character's armor, the fatigue that results from combat, and other weakening of a character's defenses. As combat progresses, and more damage is dealt, the character begins to suffer from minor scratches. This then progresses into more severe wounds. This ultimately ends when the character receives a final, incapacitation injury (0 HP).
When a character reaches zero hit points or lower, he falls unconscious. At this point, the character's body is further traumatized by shock and blood loss, and the character will drop one hit point per round thereafter automatically, in addition to any further damage incurred. It should be noted that at this point the chracter can still take damage from being attacked (with significatn AC penalties), spells, or anything else. The average character can survive to -10, dying the next round. Characters with a high or low constitution modify this number. If the character receives a bonus hit points for constitution, the -10 is lowered by this number, and vice versa. The constitution bonuses are only added once, not per level of the character.
As a character looses hit points below zero, he becomes permanently damage. When a characterreaches -5HP, he permanently looses one hit point from his maximum. When a character reaches -10, he permanently looses one hit point and one constitution point. For every hit point the character drops below -10, he must make two system shock rolls bsed on the character' currently modified constitution, the first to avoid loosing another hit point and the second to avoid loosing another constitution point. At -15, the character permanently looses both a hit point and a constitution point. It is important to note that no matter how much a character's constitution drops, his negative hit point limit for that incident does not change, although it is affected as soon as the character reaches 1HP.
If a character is being treated (discussed soon), and the treatment is interrupted, the character permanently looses one hit point for every five hit points he drops, even if the losses are between interrupted treatments. Also, once a character reaches -10, even if raised to -9 and then allowed to fall back to -10, the character then immediately follows the rules for being at -10. If treatment is continually interrupted, a character can very easily end up in very poor shape.
Experience points and the kind DM
When a character falls unconscious, he begins to have minor divine revelations, and gainst some insight into his past. This equates into 200XP times the lowest negative number the character reached, plust 400XP per hitpoint permanently lost (not including those incidentally lost from constitution loss), plust 800XP for each constitution point lost. If treatment is interrupted, the character will not gain more XP unless he drops below his previous point. If the character does permanently loose a hit point in this way, he does gain the extra 400XP.
This is a way to appease irate characters and allow the DM to rationalize disassembling PC's, but is too costly to be a cheap source of XP.
Treatment and Recovery
Any adventurer is capable of treating a character who has fallen to 0HP or below. If the character has the nonweapon proficiency "Healing", he can do a far more efficient job.
When an untrained character without a healer's kit (clean bandages, splints, herbs, etc.) works on a character at 0HP or below, the wounded character does not loose hit points that round from blood loss. As long as the untrained healer continues to work on the wounded character, that character will remain stable and will not loose any more hit points. If the treatment is interrupted, such as by either a person being attacked, the wounded character immediately looses one hit point, in addition to any damage the character takes if attacked.
If an untrained character with a healer's kit, or a trained character without a kit, attempts to treat a wounded character, the wounded character will stop to loose hit points on the first round of treatment. Each round thereafter, the wounded character will gain one hit point. The wounded character must be brought up to +1HP total to prevent further blood loss. If treatment is interrupted, the above rules are followed.
If a trained healer with a healing kit treats a wounded character, the wounded character gains 1HP on the first round of treatment, and thereafter recieves 1-3HP each round thereafter. A trained healer with the proper supplies can bring a wounded character up to +5HP
When a character is restored to 1HP, he goes into a coma for 1d4 turns for every 2HP lost below 1HP. A character will need one full day of rest for each hit point a character drops below 1HP. The character will not recover hit points normally until after this resting period, and should the character be forced to perform any strenuous activity, that day's rest is voided and all actions the character takes suffer a -4 penalty.
Magical cures work noramlly on a character. If a Cure Wounds spell does not bring a character up to 1HP, the character will continue to take damage as stated above. If a Regenerate Wounds spell is in effect, the character will remain stable as long as the regeneration lasts, and any treatment starts as if on the second round of treatment. Note tht magical healing will not shorten recovery time unless a Heal or Restoration spell is involved. If a Death's Door spell is used, recovery is reduced to 1 hour for every day of recovery normally needed. Note that Death's Door is only effective if the character is at 0HP or lower.
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