[Rules text…]
All characters possess a number of Wound Points for each part of their body. The Head, Legs, and Arms are all referred to as Limbs, and the Body possesses its own separate Wound pool as well. An attacker may target a specific Limb by taking a -4 penalty on their attack roll. An attack that is not specifically targeted affects the body (this includes damage-dealing effects without an attack roll involved, such as a Fireball). If a character reaches -1 or fewer Wound points on a limb or body they gain the Dying condition
Wounds may only be restored through specific means. Unlike Hitpoints, which are typically healed through all kinds of methods such as Cure spells, Wounds may only be restored in following ways:
| Wound | Heal DC |
|---|---|
| Head | 30 |
| Body | 20 |
| Legs | 15 |
| Arms | 15 |
Critically, all of these methods of restoring Wounds are compatible with one another. A creature resting may also receive surgical attention from another creature, and may likewise receive magical treatment as well, to expedite the recovery process.
Non-Lethal damage works identically to normal damage against an opponent's Hit Points, until reaching their Wounds. When a creature has no Hit Points remaining, track Wound damage and Non-Lethal damage separately. The most Non-Lethal damage which a creature can endure in a given Wounds category is equal to their total Wounds in that category. For example, if your Body has 20 Wound Points, you can take up to 20 Non-Lethal damage in that area.
If a creature hits a tally of Non-Lethal damage in their Head or Body equal to their total Wounds in that area, they immediately go Unconscious. If they take such a tally of Wound damage to a limb, that limb becomes unusable until the creature's Non-Lethal damage in that limb is below their total Wounds in that limb.
Non-Lethal damage decreases hourly, at the same rate as a creature's Hit Points restore.
Resistances come in a few forms that act to prevent damage from happening or having a full effect. Some of these forms of Resistance include: Damage Reduction, Invulnerability, Indestructible, Spell Resistance or Energy Resistance. If two seperate types of Resistant would apply to the same source of damage you do not reduce the damage twice and only apply the higher of the bonuses.
The most common Resistance is Damage Reduction (DR). Damage Reduction reduces all damage taken by the amount listed. Normally specific kinds of damage ignore Damage Reduction. Example: DR 10/Magic would mean any damage taken is reduced by 10 except for magical damage sources. This means a non-magic weapons would be reduced but a enchanted weapon would overcome the DR. Some special Damage Types or Abilities overcome DR innately, such as Force damage or the Smite ability.
Energy Resistance provices flat resistance to specific forms of elemental or aligned energy damage. Example: Fire Resistance 20, would reduce any Fire damage take by 20. (Technically, Resistance can be applied to any damage type but most often it is Energy Resistance. Physical Damage resistence it very rare.)
Invulnerability (or Immunity) makes a character entirely immune to a specified damage type. While very rare there are some creatures that are entirely immune to some damage types. Example: Invulnerability Holy would prevent any damage from a Holy source. (It is often applied to creatures so innately tied to the energy)
Indestructible is the rarest form of Resistance due to how powerful it is. Often it is not innate to the creature or has some kind of “off switch”. A creature with Indestructible cannot be damaged outside of the listed damage type; no amount of damage can overcome Indestructible outside of the weakness. Example: Indestructible Cold, would prevent every time of damage aside from Cold damage type.
Spell Resistance (SR) is the extraordinary ability to avoid being affected by spells. Some spells can also grant spell resistance.
To affect a creature that has SR, a spellcaster must make a caster level check:
SR functions like an Armor Class against magical attacks. If the caster fails the check, the spell has no effect.
The creature does not need to take any action to use SR. It operates automatically, even if the creature is unaware of the threat.
A creature can have some abilities that are subject to SR and others that are not.
A creature can voluntarily lower its SR as a Half Action (does not provoke an attack of opportunity). Once lowered, SR remains down until the creature’s next turn.
Each spell has an entry that indicates whether SR applies.
In general, whether SR applies depends on what the spell does.
Below are a list of all body parts that possess a Wound pool, their Wound total, and the effects from that part being damaged.
Rather then losing a limb when it reaches negative wounds, a character may instead gain a Permanent Injury to that location, or spend a Hero Point to prevent the limbs permanent loss. When either of these options are chosen the limb is restored to -1 wounds and the character loses the dying condition
When a character enters negative wound damage from an attack or effect, they receive Battle Damage and Roll a d4. These are temporary modifiers that can be mitigated by aHealcheck and a Full Round Action. Each Battle Damage is caused by different methods of damage types from Energy to Slashing.
If the attack would reduce the wounds to more than half maximum negative then roll a d6 instead.
Energy Damage
1-2) Singed (DC 15): Character is Winded from pain of the burnt, charred or frozen skin
3-4) Deep Burns (DC 15): Character must make a Will Save of DC 15 or be Staggered as long as the have the Battle Damage from the deep tissue damage caused.
5) Flare Up (DC 20): The energy burst overwhelms the characters senses as their body fuels the very energy maiming them. Flip a coin, on Heads the Character is Deaf, on Tails the character is Blind
6) Beautiful Transcendence (None): The energy does not stop at only one limb, the Character must experience more. Roll another d6 to determine where the crackling energy goes next. 1 Left Arm, 2 Right Arm, 3 Body, 4 Left Leg, 5 Right Leg, 6 Head. That limb then takes 2d6 wounds of the same energy type… if this would result in Battle Damage it is automatically Beautiful Transcendence.
Bludgeoning Damage
1-2) Battered (DC 15): Character is Winded from the pain of the beating
3-4) Bell-ringing (DC 15): Character must make a Fort Save of DC 15 or be Stunned for 1d4 rounds, and then Staggered afterwards from the brutal slam.
5) Knocked Down (DC 20): Character is knocked Prone by the attack and is Fatigued from the immensity of the attack
6) Utterly Broken (DC 25): Sometimes it feel like death would of been a mercy instead of this beating… The Character must make a Will Save DC 20 or be Stunned and Exhausted. If succeeded the Character is still Exhausted from the sheer brutality of the attack
Piercing Damage
1-2) Stuck (DC 15): The Character is Hindered from the deep wound.
3-4) Oozing Puncture (DC 15): Character must make a Fort Save of DC 10 each round or lose 1d4 wounds from the limb.
5) Something is Wrong (DC 25): The wound is massively deep and the damage leaves the character doubting their survival. Each round flip a coin, on a heads nothing happens, on a Tails the character suffers 1d6 damage to any remaining HP or to a random limb.
6) Its Over Guys (DC 30): The wound is just too deep and now a slow death is likely. The character is Stunned and each round suffer 1d6 damage to the Limb until it is destroyed.
Slashing Damage
1-2) Deep Cut (DC 15): The Character is Winded from the pain of the nasty gash.
3-4) Muscles Severed (DC 15): Muscle damage makes every task more difficult, the character is Fatigued
5) Peeling Wounds (DC 20): Sometimes movement is the worst thing you can do for an injury… Each time the character takes any kind of action that results in movement or combat, flip a coin, if Heads nothing happens, if Tails the limb takes 2d6 damage.
6) By a Thread (DC 30): As long as you do nothing you'll be fine… If the Character takes any actions that result in movement or combat, the limb is instantly destroyed
When a character receives a permanent injury there is no way to heal it outside of spending magical or mundane resources and time. This requires aHealCheck DC 25 and a week of effort (Only an hour each day). However keep track of all Permanent Injuries a character receives, as each one (regardless if its been healed or not) increases the DC by 5. Some injuries are more difficult to heal or require special procedures or parts. Each injury will list the average TU required to mend.
When a character receives a Permanent Injury roll a d4 for the respective limb hit.
Head
Body
Arm
Leg
Gaining the Dead condition can spell the end for a character, however depending on the setting it may not truly be the end. There are three ways to remove the Dead condition
The following are optional rules to be used in settings where death is not the end
With these rules the Death condition is removed and replaced with “Down and Out”. Meaning the character now needs extensive recovery time to heal the injuries but is not dead. Treat this just as recovering from negative wounds in healing, however there is no cap on how much negative wounds the character can have. The only time a PC would die is if the GM and Player both agree it is very fitting and cinematic.
Death is absolutely final, no amount of healing or magic can restore a person. This rule set also removes the ability to burn a hero point to avoid death.
A GM should consider how death is viewed in their setting. Is it something that is a minor inconvenience, or something utterly permanent? The base rules of Pathrunner only allow resurrection under strict conditions, normally directly after death. Reviving a long dead person can lead to large scale narrative concerns.
This does not mean that this magic doesn't exist in a setting, but it should be used carefully.Resurrection magic can create interesting stories, but for the mechanics of Pathrunner, it has been largely omitted.
A character gains this condition when their body or head wounds are below 0. The character falls Prone and can take no actions and are unconscious. Each round they must make a Fortitude save DC 10 in order to remove this condition, they take a penalty to this check equal to the amount of negative wounds they have on the Head or Body. After rolling the save, if the Dying condition is still present the character loses 1 more wound. If a character has more then their Constitution score in negative wounds, they gain the Dead condition.
This character has died, they no longer can be healed or take actions. They are capable of taking further damage (limited by limb destruction rules located at Health). A character with this condition is now considered an object for the purpose of talents and spells.