Health, Resistance, & Injuries

When a character is subject to a damage-dealing effect, the effect first depletes the character's Hit Points, which are determined by their Hit Dice, Bonus HP and their Constitution modifier. A character's Hit Points restore hourly, of an amount equal to their total Hit Dice plus their Constitution modifier. If a character's Hit Points reach 0, or if the character is subject to a critical hit, they instead take Wound Damage.

Resistances come in a few forms that act to prevent damage from happening or having a full effect. Some of these forms of Resistence 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:

• `1d20 + caster level`
• The result must be equal to or greater than the target's Spell Resistance.

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.

• Only spells and spell-like abilities are subject to SR.
• Extraordinary and supernatural abilities (e.g., enhancement bonuses on magic weapons) are not affected by SR.
• Some spells explicitly bypass spell resistance — see below.

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 standard action (does not provoke an attack of opportunity). Once lowered, SR remains down until the creature’s next turn.

• At the start of the next turn, SR automatically returns.
• The creature can choose to keep it down, which is another standard action.

• A creature’s SR does not interfere with its own spells, items, or abilities.
• SR cannot be shared by touch or proximity.
• Only rare creatures and specific magic items can grant SR to others.
• Spell resistance does not stack — use the highest value.

Each spell has an entry that indicates whether SR applies.

In general, whether SR applies depends on what the spell does.

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:

• Surgery: This is the way nonmagical folk handle their injuries. To perform surgery, you must roll a Heal check against a DC as shown in the table below, and use a Surgery Kit. Surgery takes 5 hours of work, though this takes 1 less hour for every 5 by which you exceed the Heal DC. Performing surgery successfully restores Wounds equal to 2x the creature's Hit Dice. Typically, surgery must be performed by another creature, but the injured creature may perform surgery on themselves by adding 10 to the Heal check DC.

• Magic: Cure Critical Wounds provides a one-off 2d8 restoration of the creatures wounds. This special use of the spell takes 1 hour to cast, and may only be used once per full recovery, meaning that until a creature's Wounds are fully restored, they may not benefit from this spell a second time during their recovery period.
• Rest: Plain old rest is a way to naturally recover Wound damage. For every 8 hours which you rest in bed and do absolutely nothing else, you restore Wounds equal to your Hit Die.

Below are a list of all body parts that possess a Wound pool, their Wound total, and the effects from that part being damaged.

• Head: The Head possesses Wound Points equal to your Constitution score.
  • When under 50% Wounds on Head, Initial: Blinded for one round, afterwards Impaired till healed.
  • If the Head reaches 0 Wounds, the character is Dying. If the Head equals a number of negative Wounds equal to or exceeding the character's Constitution score, the character dies gaining the Dead condition.

• Arms: An Arm has Wound Points equal to your Constitution score.
  • Under 50% wounds on Arm, Initial: Drops any held item in that arm, -4 on any attacks made with just that arm, or -2 on any attacks using both arms till healed.
  • If the Arm reaches 0 or less Wounds, it ceases to function, and the character drops any items held in that Arm. If the Arm equals of a number of negative Wound Points equal to or exceeding the character's Constitution score, the Arm is severed off, or otherwise permanently unusable.

• Legs: A Leg possesses Wound Points equal to your Constitution score.
  • Under 50% wounds on Leg, Initial: Immobilized for one round, afterwards Hindered till healed.
  • If the Leg reaches 0 or less Wounds, it ceases to function, halving the move speed of the creature (if bipedal). If the Leg reaches negative Wounds equal to or exceeding the character's Constitution score, the Leg is severed off, or otherwise permanently unusable. If both legs are 0 or less Wounds, the character may only crawl, at a static 5 ft. of movement per Move Action.

• Body: The Body possesses Wounds equal to twice the character's Constitution score.
  • Under 50% wounds on Body, Initial: Stunned for one round, afterwards Fatigued till healed.
  • If the Body reaches 0 Wounds, the character is Dying. If the Body equals a number of negative Wounds equal to or exceeding the character's Constitution score,they gain the Dead condition

Gaining the Death 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

• Path of the Healer
• Burning a hero point
• Powerful Magic/Divine intervention

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.