INJURY & RECOVERY

Health is an abstract measure of physical durability, grit, and luck. A creature at 50% health or less is Bloodied. At 0 Health, a creature collapses from mortal trauma and begins dying. Characters stop gaining class health dice at 10th level, but continue adding their Endurance modifier to maximum health up to 20th level.

A character proficient in Medicine can treat a number of patients equal to their proficiency modifier daily without a roll, restoring bonus health equal to their Medicine skill modifier.

A buffer that absorbs damage before the true health pool is touched. Temporary health does not stack; if you gain temporary health while possessing some, choose whether to retain your current pool or accept the new amount.

Blinded creatures fail sight checks; attacks against them have advantage, and their attacks suffer disadvantage. Deafened creatures automatically fail hearing checks.

Charmed targets treat the charmer as an ally and cannot harm them; the charmer gains advantage on social checks against the target. The effect ends immediately if the target or its allies are harmed by the charmer.

Some experiences have the potential to damage the psyche. When a character encounters this sort of thing the Storyteller may call for a sanity test — a will save made to avoid loss of sanity. Every character has a pool of sanity points equal to their spirit statistic or character level, whichever is higher.

If their sanity points drop below 50% they suffer a temporary derangement. At 25%, they suffer a second derangement, and at 0% they develop a permanent mental disability that can only be treated by magic or the services of an alienist. The table below reflects the six most common derangements experienced by adventurers in response to trauma.

Delusions

The characters come to believe something untrue, and their decisions and actions reflect this belief. If directly challenged on their delusion, they may panic, become hostile, or turn inward and refuse to speak.

Hallucinations

The character occasionally experiences visions of a disturbing nature, typically related to the source of their trauma. These visions are often confusing or jarring, resulting in outbursts or tense silence.

Mania

The character becomes edgy, energetic, and prone to taking risks. They may chuckle randomly, talk to themselves, voice thoughts out loud, or embrace everything they see with suicidal enthusiasm.

Obsession

The character becomes obsessed with something to the point of distraction: an object, a person, an objective, or an activity. They may become frustrated if prevented from indulging in this obsession.

Paranoia

The character fears everything, constantly jumping at shadows and imagining worst-case scenarios. This eventually leads to being suspicious of nearly everyone.

Schizophrenia

The character hears voices, often indistinct and threatening, which cause anxiety. The character may talk to the voices, become agitated, or act like an imaginary friend (or enemy) is speaking to them.

Sometimes adventurers encounter situations where they risk corruption by spiritual or psychic force. Corruption is measured on a scale of 1 to 10. As a character's corruption level increases they manifest symptoms. Barring special circumstances, these symptoms progress along the list below and are cumulative.

At level 10 a character becomes an NPC under the Storyteller's control. The effects of corruption only subside when a character's corruption level is reduced by supernatural means. Beyond this, ritual treatment by a zealot character and/or taking sanctuary on sacred ground or drinking sacred water will usually reduce corruption by 1 point per day.

Poison inflicts damage plus a Fortitude save to resist lingering penalties: disadvantage on attacks and ability checks, paralysis, or sleep.

After every full rest, the infected victim rolls a Fortitude save. Each failed save inflicts 1 level of exhaustion that cannot be removed by resting. A successful save removes 1 level of exhaustion. The victim recovers completely after two successful saves. If a character reaches eight levels of exhaustion, they die.