Injury Table In The Dmg 5e
In a typical campaign, characters aren’t driven mad by the horrors they face and the carnage they inflict day after day, but sometimes the stress of being an adventurer can be too much to bear. If your campaign has a strong horror theme, you might want to use madness as a way to reinforce that theme, emphasizing the extraordinarily horrific Nature of the threats the adventurers face.
So a while back I made a post detailing my 'Injury System' for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. It was roughly modeled after the Dragon Age: Origins injuries but without all the unruly book keeping that came with the ups and downs of temporarily changing ability scores. Well, now a new edition of the game. Jul 02, 2015 Variant Table: Expanded Lingering Injury. The table below is meant to expand the injury options from the ones presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Whenever you would roll on the Lingering Injuries table, you can choose to roll on the Expanded Lingering Injuries table instead. Expanded Lingering Injuries. Nov 24, 2018 5e has the Lingering Injuries table in the DMG. I'm really interested in this, but it seems a bit too harsh as it stands. I could easily see the PCs becoming saddled with lots of peglegs, eyepatches, and other deformities between the start of a campaign and getting to a.
Going Mad
Various magical Effects can inflict madness on an otherwise stable mind. Certain Spells, such as Contact Other Plane and , can cause insanity, and you can use the madness rules here instead of the spell Effects of those Spells. Diseases, Poisons, and planar Effects such as psychic wind or the howling winds of Pandemonium can all inflict madness. Some artifacts can also break the psyche of a character who uses or becomes attuned to them.Resisting a madness-inducing effect usually requires a Wisdom or Charisma saving throw.
Madness Effects
Madness can be short-term, long-term, or indefinite. Most relatively mundane Effects impose short-term madness, which lasts for just a few minutes. More horrific Effects or cumulative Effects can result in long-term or indefinite madness.A character afflicted with short-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Short-Term Madness table for 1d10 minutes.
A character afflicted with long-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Long-Term Madness table for 1d10 × 10 hours.
A character afflicted with indefinite madness gains a new character flaw from the Indefinite Madness table that lasts until cured.
| d100 | Effect (lasts 1d10 minutes) |
|---|---|
| 01–20 | The character retreats into his or her mind and becomes Paralyzed. The effect ends if the character takes any damage. |
| 21–30 | The character becomes Incapacitated and spends the Duration screaming, laughing, or weeping. |
| 31–40 | The character becomes Frightened and must use his or her action and Movement each round to flee from the source of the fear. |
| 41–50 | The character begins babbling and is incapable of normal Speech or Spellcasting. |
| 51–60 | The character must use his or her action each round to Attack the nearest creature. |
| 61–70 | The character experiences vivid hallucinations and has disadvantage on Ability Checks. |
| 71–75 | The character does whatever anyone tells him or her to do that isn’t obviously self- destructive. |
| 76–80 | The character experiences an overpowering urge to eat something strange such as dirt, slime, or offal. |
| 81–90 | The character is Stunned. |
| 91–100 | The character falls Unconscious. |
| d100 | Effect (lasts 1d10 × 10 hours) |
|---|---|
| 01–10 | The character feels compelled to repeat a specific activity over and over, such as washing hands, touching things, praying, or counting coins. |
| 11–20 | The character experiences vivid hallucinations and has disadvantage on Ability Checks. |
| 21–30 | The character suffers extreme paranoia. The character has disadvantage on Wisdom and Charisma Checks. |
| 31–40 | The character regards something (usually the source of madness) with intense revulsion, as if affected by the antipathy effect of the Antipathy/Sympathy spell. |
| 41–45 | The character experiences a powerful delusion. Choose a potion. The character imagines that he or she is under its Effects. |
| 46–55 | The character becomes attached to a “lucky charm,” such as a person or an object, and has disadvantage on Attack rolls, Ability Checks, and Saving Throws while more than 30 feet from it. |
| 56–65 | The character is Blinded (25%) or Deafened (75%). |
| 66–75 | The character experiences uncontrollable tremors or tics, which impose disadvantage on Attack rolls, Ability Checks, and Saving Throws that involve Strength or Dexterity. |
| 76–85 | The character suffers from partial amnesia. The character knows who he or she is and retains Racial Traits and Class Features, but doesn’t recognize other people or remember anything that happened before the madness took effect. |
| 86–90 | Whenever the character takes damage, he or she must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be affected as though he or she failed a saving throw against the Confusion spell. The Confusion effect lasts for 1 minute. |
| 91–95 | The character loses the ability to speak. |
| 96–100 | The character falls Unconscious. No amount of jostling or damage can wake the character. |
| d100 | Flaw (lasts until cured) |
|---|---|
| 01–15 | “Being drunk keeps me sane.” |
| 16 - 25 | 'I keep whatever I find.' |
| 26–30 | “I try to become more like someone else I know—adopting his or her style of dress, mannerisms, and name.” |
| 31–35 | “I must bend the truth, exaggerate, or outright lie to be interesting to other people.” |
| 36–45 | “Achieving my goal is the only thing of interest to me, and I’ll ignore everything else to pursue it.” |
| 46–50 | “I find it hard to care about anything that goes on around me.” |
| 51–55 | “I don’t like the way people judge me all the time.” |
| 56–70 | “I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest, and most beautiful person I know.” |
| 71–80 | “I am convinced that powerful enemies are hunting me, and their agents are everywhere I go. I am sure they’re watching me all the time.” |
| 81–85 | “There’s only one person I can trust. And only I can see this Special friend.” |
| 86–95 | “I can’t take anything seriously. The more serious the situation, the funnier I find it.” |
| 96–100 | “I’ve discovered that I really like killing people.” |
Curing Madness
A Calm Emotions spell can suppress the Effects of madness, while a Lesser Restoration spell can rid a character of a short-term or long-term madness. Depending on the source of the madness, Remove Curse or dispel evil might also prove effective. A Greater Restoration spell or more powerful magic is required to rid a character of indefinite madness.
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- 1Injury
- 1.2Condition Descriptions
- 2Behind The Curtain: Injury
- 2.1Healing
- 3House Rule: Slower Magical Healing
- 3.1Special Damage Defenses
- 3.2Special Damage Effects
Injury
The D&D game's hit point system is an easy and effective way of measuring character health - but it's somewhat abstract. This variant eliminates hit points, and simply determines whether characters are hurt or killed every time they're hit in combat.
Determining Injuries
When using the injury variant, characters no longer have hit points. Instead, a character's injuries accumulate until he becomes disabled or dying (or staggered or unconscious, if he has taken nonlethal damage).
When a character or creature takes damage, divide the damage dealt by the attack by 5 (rounding up). The result is the damage value of the attack. For example, if you are hit by an attack that deals 12 points of damage, the attack has a damage value of 3 (12 divided by 5, rounded up).
To determine if you are injured, make a Fortitude save to resist injury. The DC is 15 + the damage value. If you succeed on the save, you suffer no ill effect from the attack.
If you fail the save by less than 10, you have taken a hit. (If the attack dealt nonlethal damage, the hit is a nonlethal hit.) Each hit you take imposes a cumulative -1 modifier on future Fortitude saves to resist injury. If you fail the save by 10 or more, you are disabled. (If the attack dealt nonlethal damage, you are staggered.)
Automatic Success and Failure: A natural 20 on a Fortitude save to resist injury is treated as an automatic success, just as normal. A natural 1 is always treated as if the save failed by 10 or more.
| Saving Throw Result | Lethal Damage | Nonlethal Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Success | No effect | No effect |
| Failed by 1 to 9 | Hit | Nonlethal Hit |
| Failed by 10 or more | Disabled | Staggered |
Condition Descriptions
Use the descriptions below to determine the game effects from a failed saving throw to resist injury.
Hit
A hit means you have suffered some minor injury. Every hit imposes a cumulative -1 penalty on all Fortitude save to resist injury. If a disabled character (see below) suffers a hit, he become dying.
Disabled
A disabled character is conscious, but can only take a single move or standard action each turn (but not both, nor can she take full-round actions). He moves at half speed. Taking move actions doesn't risk further injury, but performing any standard action (or any other action the DM deems strenuous, including some free actions such as casting a quickened spell) worsens the character's condition to dying (unless the action involved healing; see below). If 5 or more points of magical healing are applied to a disabled character, he is no longer disabled.
A character can be both staggered and disabled. Becoming staggered while disabled does not worsen a character's condition to dying. If a staggered and disabled character receives at least 5 points of healing, both conditions are removed. A disabled character who suffers a hit or a disabled result from an attack becomes dying.
Dying
A dying character is unconscious and near death. Each round on his turn, a dying character must make a Fortitude save (DC 10, +1 per turn after the first) to become stable. Penalties suffered from hits apply to this saving throw. If the character fails the save, he dies. If the character succeeds on the save by less than 5, he does not die but does not improve. He is still dying and must continue to make Fortitude saves every round.
If the character succeeds on the save by 5 or more but by less than 10, he becomes stable but remains unconscious. If the character succeeds on the save by 10 or more, he becomes conscious and disabled. Another character can improve a dying character's condition to stable by succeeding on a DC 15 Heal check as a standard action (this provokes attacks of opportunity). A dying character who suffers a hit or a disabled result from an attack is killed.
Nonlethal Hit
A nonlethal hit means you have been battered and bruised and are in less than top condition. Every nonlethal hit you take imposes a cumulative -1 penalty on your Fortitude saves to resist injury from nonlethal damage. Nonlethal hits do not affect Fortitude saves against lethal damage.
For example, a character with 4 hits and 3 nonlethal hits has a -4 penalty on Fortitude saves to resist injury from lethal damage, but a -7 penalty on saves to resist injury from nonlethal damage. A staggered character (see below) who suffers a nonlethal hit or becomes staggered as the result of an attack falls unconscious.
Staggered
Being staggered is identical to being disabled (see above), except that if the character's condition worsens, he becomes unconscious instead of dying. If 5 or more points of magical healing are applied to a staggered character, he is no longer staggered.
A character can be both disabled and staggered. Becoming disabled while staggered does not worsen your condition to unconscious. If a staggered and disabled character receives at least 5 points of healing, both conditions are removed. A staggered character who suffers a nonlethal hit or a staggered result from an attack falls unconscious.
Unconscious
An unconscious character falls to the floor, helpless and incapable of action. Additional nonlethal hits have no effect on the character. When he recovers one nonlethal hit, he becomes conscious.
Behind The Curtain: Injury
This variant reduces the minutiae of combat bookkeeping (since characters don't need to track their hit point total). Still, since the system ties survivability to a character's saving throw, higher-level characters are better at surviving injuries than lower-level characters. That said, creatures or effects that deal large quantities of damage can turn a battle very quickly, since a single unlucky save can put a character out of commission.
In this system, a character's class Hit Die becomes less important than his Fortitude save bonus in terms of his ability to withstand damage. This factor reduces the difference between classes - instead of having five shades of ruggedness (represented by five different sizes of Hit Dice), there are only two (classes with good Fortitude saves, such as barbarians, clerics, and fighters, and classes with poor Fortitude saves, such as bards and wizards).
Bonuses on Fortitude saves become immensely important to characters, making options such as the Great Fortitude feat very attractive. Multiclassing between classes with good Fortitude saves can create abusive situations: you might choose to rule that no character can get the 2-point 'bump' in a good saving throw more than once (after that, a good save starts at +0 and goes up 1 point every even-numbered level), thus limiting the potential for extensive abuse.
Healing
Over time, or through magical healing, a character can reduce the number of hits he has. Some creatures have special abilities that affect the way in which they heal hits.
Natural Healing
With a full night's rest, a character heals 1 hit per two character levels (minimum 1 hit per night). If he undergoes complete bed rest for 24 hours, he heals a number of hits equal to his character level. Any significant interruption during the rest period prevents the character from healing that night.
Nonlethal hits heal more quickly. A character heals nonlethal hits at a rate of 1 hit per hour per two character levels (minimum 1 hit per hour). If the DM chooses, he can prorate this healing so that it occurs more uniformly. For instance, a 12th-level character heals 6 nonlethal hits per hour; instead, the DM can allow her to heal 1 nonlethal hit per 10 minutes.
Magical Healing
For every 5 points of magical healing administered, a character eliminates 1 lethal hit and 1 nonlethal hit.
Special Healing Abilities
Some creatures have extraordinary or supernatural powers of healing.
Fast Healing: A creature with fast healing can remove 1 lethal hit and 1 nonlethal hit per round per 5 points of fast healing (minimum 1 hit of each type). For example, a vampire spawn has fast healing 2; it can therefore eliminate 1 lethal hit and 1 nonlethal hit per round.
A creature with fast healing may add its fast healing value to Fortitude saves made to become stable when dying. A dyingvampire spawn, for example, gets a +2 bonus on its Fortitude saves to become stable.
Regeneration: A creature with regeneration treats all damage as nonlethal, except for specific types of damage, given in the creature's description, that affect it normally (such as a troll's vulnerability to acid and fire). A creature with regeneration can remove 1 nonlethal hit per round per 5 points of regeneration (minimum 1 hit).
House Rule: Slower Magical Healing
Dnd 5e Dmg
The instantaneous nature of magical healing sometimes stretches the imagination a little too thin, even in the highly imaginative world of fantasy roleplaying. I prefer a slightly grittier feel to the game - one that doesn't change things in the long run, but just 'feels' a bit more realistic.
When a character is magically healed, the damage, instead of simply going away, is converted to nonlethal damage. The character can recover from the nonlethal damage normally - usually by just taking a little time to rest. Magic cannot be used to heal nonlethal damage.
This rule slows events down a bit in the game, because characters have to rest between fights. But it also gives the game a more realistic feel, without actually changing the way it works. -Charles Ryan
Special Damage Defenses
Some creatures have special defenses against damage, such as damage reduction or resistance to energy. Certain spells and effects also provide defenses against damage.
Bonus Hit Points
Injury Table In The Dmg 5e Free
Effects or abilities that normally give you bonus hit points (such as the Toughness feat or the aid spell) instead add to your Fortitude saves to resist injury. For every 5 bonus hit points gained by the effect (round fractions up), add a +1 bonus on the save. For example, Toughness gives you a +1 on Fortitude saves to resist injury.
Extra hit points gained by an increased Constitution score don't add to this save bonus, since your high Constitution already gives you a bonus on your Fortitude saves.
Damage Reduction and Resistance to Energy
Damage reduction adds to your Fortitude save to resist injury. For every 5 points of damage reduction that apply against the incoming attack (round fractions up), add a +1 bonus on the save. For instance, a creature with DR 10.magic gains a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves to resist injury from damage dealt by nonmagical weapons.
Resistance to energy works the same way. A creature with resistance to fire 15 gains a +3 bonus on Fortitude saves to resist fire damage.
Dealing Damage to Objects
Objects can suffer the effects of lethal damage just as creatures can. Nonmagical, unattended objects have a base Fortitude save bonus of +0. A magic item has a Fortitude save bonus equal to +2 +1/2 its caster level. An item attended by a character makes saving throws as the character (or, in this case of a magic item, uses its own saving throw bonus if better).
Add an object's hardness to its Fortitude saves to resist injury. Furthermore, for every additional inch of thickness beyond the first, an object gains a +1 bonus on its save. Magic weapons, armor, and shields also add their enhancement bonus to their Fortitude saves against damage.
Injury Table In The Dmg 5e 2
An object that takes any lethal hits has a cumulative -1 penalty on its future saves to resist injury from lethal damage, just as with characters. An object that is rendered disabled is broken or destroyed instead.
Objects are immune to nonlethal damage and thus don't have to make Fortitude saves to resist injury from attacks that deal nonlethal damage.
Creatures without Constitution Scores
Some creatures, such as undead and constructs, do not have Constitution scores. Creatures without Constitution scores have a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves to resist injury. However, a creature with no Constitution score that becomes disabled is destroyed instead.
Creatures that do not have Constitution scores are immune to nonlethal damage and thus don't have to make Fortitude saves to resist injury from attacks that deal nonlethal damage.
Special Damage Effects
This system changes the way some special damage effects work.
Coup de Grace
A coup de grace is handled as a normal attack, except that the result of the Fortitude save is treated as one category worse. (The save DC is usually higher than normal, as well, since the coup de grace is considered a critical hit and thus deals extra damage.) On a successful save, the target takes 1 hit (or 1 nonlethal hit, if a nonlethal attack was used). If the save fails by less than 10, the target is disabled (or staggered); and if the save fails by 10 or more, the target is dying (or unconscious).
Massive Damage
There is no massive damage threshold in this variant, since the greater the damage dealt, the higher the chance that a character will become unconscious or dying.
The DM could rule that a Fortitude save to resist injury that fails by 20 or more results in the character being rendered dying (or becoming unconscious, if the damage is nonlethal damage). This introduces the very real possibility that a single hit (such as a critical hit or sneak attack) can take a character out.
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