Book:Adventures
Contents
Health and Healing
As mentioned earlier, a character's life-force is measured in Health Points. Most folks start off with 30 of these at character creation, though some characters and monsters have more or less.
When a character rests at the end of a day, chances are that character has lost some Health Points. A character regains a number of lost HP equal to their Endurance score plus their Vitality score for each night they rest peacefully. Injured characters can also be tended by healers and medics overnight, which yields more HP recovery. The character attempting to administer overnight healing to the wounded one rolls either a Lore: Medicine and Healing, Occupation: Healer or Surgeon or Medic, or other applicable skill check against a DL of 12. For each point of success, the attended character regains an additional HP (in addition to Endurance + Vitality). Healers may tend to themselves overnight in this way, but cannot tend to more than one person per night.
It is important to remember that a character can never regain more HP than he or she has in total.
It is said that there exist elixirs which instantly heal wounds and restore life force. Some elixirs are rumored to enhance the prowess of the drinker or to restore youth. The availability of these elixirs is most certainly rare and they would be pricey at best. Only practitioners of magic or experienced alchemists would have the knowledge of the workings of these concoctions, let alone be able to produce them.
The natural world, as opposed to the magical one, however, is rich with verdant energy. Finding herbs and nectars that can help in restoring a character's health is much easier. If an adventurer is seeking it, he or she should be able to purchase things like herbal salves, ointments, poultices, etc. that can be applied to a wound. Other legends tell of flowers that cure specific illnesses. Some say that the fruit of rare trees can heal in much the same way. Generally speaking, these items assist the process of healing when a character rests overnight. The GM should be the final authority on the availability of healing supplements and their price.
Diseases
In addition to the sniffles and common ailments, there are also many serious bacterial and viral diseases floating around the world. In Elysium, when it comes to disease and plague, nearly anything goes.
Healing diseases requires an overnight healing check and often also requires medicine or drugs.
Damage and Death
When a character suffers hurts, whether from the actions of foes in combat, bad luck, or naturally occurring hazards, they suffer damage. Whereas Hurt is a term used to describe the lethal power of weapons and the like, Damage means the amount of injury a character sustains in the form of lost Health Points. When a character reaches 0 HP, they die. Cry you may, but die you must.
Tainted Damage is a form of damage which cannot be healed in the normal fashion of resting and healing. It is so insidious that it must be healed by magical, supernatural or highly specialized means. Forms of healing will always say if they heal tainted damage. Tainted damage is often caused by dark and destructive magic, the natural weapons of monsters, or cursed items and traps. When a character suffers tainted damage the GM should be sure to point it out. The player may want to jot down somewhere obvious how much tainted damage the character has accrued, since those lost HP will not be recovered in the normal way.
When a character dies, there's no denying, that kind of sucks. The dead character is not playable anymore and the player has to create a new character if he or she wants to continue playing with that group of gamers. Some GMs will allow for things like resurrection, so maybe it isn't the end for your character. Often, however, these magical rites are costly and rarely performed. The main thing to remember is not to get discouraged. This has happened to many of us veteran gamers and it has happened to us innumerable times. There are even some gamers who have come to embrace the fact that their characters never seem to last long. Just draw up a new character and keep playing. The reaper comes for us all, eventually.
See the House Rules section for some more information on injury, healing, and death.
Poisons
Saves
A Save is a roll that a player makes to save his or her character from pitfalls or misfortune. Saves are used when a Defense Roll just doesn't make sense: some dangers can't be ducked or swatted away. Most often, saves are used in opposition to certain skills and spells.
Condition
Sometimes a character can be impaired through other causes than the loss of blood and HP. Often, diseases, poisons, spells, or strong emotions can affect how well a character feels.
The Knock-out Chart
As a character becomes increasingly demoralized, enraged, panicked, exhausted, or ill, that character moves further down the Knock-out Chart. The further down the chart a character is, the more penalties are applied to skill checks, attack and defense rolls, and saves.
| Status | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Stage One | -2 |
| Stage Two | -4 |
| Stage Three | -6 |
| Stage Four | -8 |
| Stage Five | -10 |
| Knocked-Out | N/A |
- Blinded - Unable to see at all. Blind characters automatically fail Spot checks as well as Discern checks that rely only on sight.
- Dazed - Confused or beguiled. A dazed character
- Deafened - Deafened characters
- Grabbed - Currently held in a Grab by another character.
- Paralyzed - Unable to move. A character who is paralyzed may not engage in actions or checks that require physical movement.
- Prone - Off your feet and on the ground. Prone characters suffer a -4 to Defense rolls until they stand up.
- Unconscious - Helpless and unresponsive.
- Wide-eyed - Surprised and unprepared for the action at hand. A character who is wide-eyed in combat adds only their Armor score and Endurance score to Defense Rolls (i.e. no Cunning, Weapon Skill, Agility, or Dodge).
