Health and Injury

Below are the rules for dealing with a Character's health in and out of Combat. As well as how to deal with injury and death, and how to restore hit points.

Summary

Hit Points are a Character's Health, and a Character's max Hit Points are increased every time they level up, equal to Hit Dice + Conn Mod. Damage done to a Character subtracts from the Hit Points. Once a Character reaches zero Hit Points, they are considered to be unstable and dying. Each round, they are unstable; they get 1d4 of Conn damage. Once their Constitution reaches zero, they are considered dead. Another Character can perform a Stabilize skill check as a Standard action against a DC20 to see if they can stabilize a Character. If successful, the Character's health is back to 1. A Character can gain Hit Points in combat by having another Character perform a Treat Injury DC15 skill check, for more info go here, or someone (including themselves) can use a Healing/Regenerative Concoction. Outside of combat, the Character can rest to gain Hit Points back. Characters who die can be resurrected using various forms of advanced technology, but there are limitations to consider.

Hit Points

Hit Points are what most people commonly think of when they think of a Character's health. Hit Points are removed when a Character takes damage in combat (See the Injury section below) and are used to measure how hard a character is to kill.

Editing Character Sheet: The Player can record the Character Hit Points on the Future Path Character Sheet. It is located just under the "Future Path" to the right of the Ability Scores. Also, above the "SPEED" section, you will notice that there are "DR" boxes. DR will be explained further later. Below the Total and DR section, there are "Wound/Current HP" and, below that, "Non-Lethal Damage" boxes. These boxes are there to make it easier to record combat damage.

Temporary Hit Points

Certain effects can give a character temporary hit points. When a character gains temporary hit points, make a note of his or her current hit points before adding the temporary hit points. When the temporary hit points go away, the character’s hit points drop to that score. If losing the temporary Hit Points causes the Character to go to 0 or a negative number, then the character 'passes out' and has 0 hit points and is now in a 'Dying' state.

Constitution Bonus Hit Points

An increase in a character’s Constitution score—even a temporary one—can give the character more hit points (an effective hit point increase), but these are not temporary hit points. They can be restored through normal healing. When a character’s Constitution drops back down to its previous score after a temporary increase, the character’s full normal hit points go down accordingly.

Health

Normally, the "Health" of a Character is not in question, meaning that the Character is not normally sick with the flu or has some disease. However, there can be campaigns where it would suit the story to have Character's deal with the chance of sickness or disease. Please review both the Conditions page and the Pharmaceutical page for more information on illnesses and conditions. Most of the time when a GM or other Player asks about a Characters Health they are instead referring to the Hit Points.

Hit Dice

Character's Hit Dice or HD is the dice type associated with a Character's Character Path. The dice represent the potential Hit Points of a Character. Hit dice examples are d6, d8, and d10. Each time a Character levels up, they get to roll their Hit Dice for more Hit Points. At level 1, the Character can take max Hit Points without rolling. So at level two, a Strong Hero would have 2 Hit Dice or "2d8 of HD". A Character also adds their Constitution modifier to their Hit Points every level unless it is negative.

Injury

Receiving Damage

When an opponent attempts to attack, they must first do an accuracy check against the Character's AC. If successful, the opponent then rolls the dice according to the weapon he used. The total from that dice roll is the damage that is inflicted on the target. The Character subtracts that number (after considering things such as DR) from what Hit Points the Character currently has. To learn more about attacking rules, go here.

Editing Character Sheet: As mentioned above, there is a box just below the "Total" box, and a "Wound/Current HP" box to record damage sustained during combat.

DR and Extra Damage

DR stacks against Extra Damage dice roles. As a Character levels up, they can access 1 or more Extra Damage stats that, under the right conditions, allow them to roll extra Weapon Damage Dice against the opponent. If DR is applied against this, the damage from extra damage dice is reduced by DR: remove 1/2 (round up) damage per Extra Damage. So if the Character has 4 DR and the enemy hits them with 1 Extra Damage, the DR applied to the total damage is 6.

Nonlethal Damage

Nonlethal damage is dealt by unarmed attackers and some weapons. Melee weapons that deal lethal damage can be wielded to deal nonlethal damage, but the attacker takes disadvantage on attack rolls. Nonlethal damage does not directly affect the target’s hit points. Instead, the attack rolls for damage, and then the defender must roll a Constitution save of DC5 + damage or else suffer 1 + (1 for every 5 points the saving throw failed by) worth of temporary Constitution damage. (This changes the defender's Conn score temporarily, down, and is not the same as Ability Damage to Constitution). Any Temp Damage sustained will disappear after a full rest. Once the defender's Conn is down to 7, the target becomes Shaken. Once the defender's Conn is down to 5, they are Dazed. Once the defender's Conn is down to 3 or below, they are knocked Unconscious.

Notes

A blow that does 3 or more Conn damage in one round causes the defender to be automatically Shaken unless they are already Shaken, in which case they are Dazed.
A blow that does 4 or more Conn damage in one round causes the defender to be automatically Dazed unless they are already Dazed in which they are knocked Unconscious.
A blow that does 5 Conn damage at once instantly knocks the defender Unconscious.

Damage Types

There are 4 different types of damage in Future Path. Chemical, Electrical, Kinetic, Thermal. The default damage type is Kinetic. All damage is Kinetic unless specified. Weapon arch types can change the Damage Type. There are also sub-types for some Damage Types.

Chemical: This includes things like acid, chemical burns, and some types of damage from nature/planet/bio-based weapons.
1. Sub-Types: Acid, Base
Electrical: Any damage associated with direct contact with electricity or magnetism.
Kinetic: Any damage done by the force of energy. shock waves, any sonic damage is considered kinetic.
1. Sub-Types: Peircing, Bludeoning, Slicing
Thermal: Any damage from heat or radiation or the lack thereof.
1. Sub-Types: Cold, Heat, Radiation

Weapons can have multiple damage types. A Target can have a Natural or armor defense specific to a Damage type in the form of Damage Reduction [DR], i.e, [Chemical] DR3 or [ALL] DR1 for all DTs. Max DR possible is 10. The Target can also have a Strength in a Damage type, which halves damage, or even just be Immune. A Target can be vulnerable to a Damage Type called Weakness, i.e, [Thermal] W1, which means all attacks with that damage type gain +1. Targets can also be Vulnerable, which is the opposite of Strength, i.e, all damage dealt with the vulnerable DT is considered x2 Critical.

You can learn more about other special Damage Types and Attributes here.

Death

Zero Hit Points

Once a Character reaches 0 hit points they are considered unconscious, Unstable/Dying.

Unstable/Dying: This special status implies that the Character is about to die. Every round, the Character takes 1d4 of Constitution damage. Any successful attacks on the Character force an additional 1d4 of Constitution damage. Once a Character's Constitution reaches 0, they die. To read up more on what Agility Damage is, please go here. To learn about healing ability, go to the section below: Ability Healing

Stabilizing: With a Medical Kit, another Character will need to assist the dying Character by attempting to stabilize them. This requires a Treat Injury Skill check of DC 20 and a Standard Action. For more information on this review the Stabilize Dying Character action in the Treat Injury skill. Stabilizing does not restore any Constitution damage received by the Unstable/Dying condition.

Death

Once a Player hits Zero Constitution, they are considered dead. This doesn't mean they are permanently dead. Advanced civilizations have different ways of cheating death. A Character can be brought back to life through the means of powerful futuristic science! There are 2 different main forums for bringing a person 'back from the dead'.

Rejuvenate the body. (Usually, this requires that the majority of the body be still intact)
1. This can be done using advanced biology and chemistry, taking what is left of the original body and reviving it to a new condition.
2. Replace the damaged parts with new ones. Usually, this means being part machine, a cyborg. However, this could also mean taking other biological samples from different 'donors.'
Transfer the mind into a new body. (Usually, this requires that just the mind is intact and not too damaged)
1. Physical transplant the brain into a new body.
2. Using advanced technology, download the mind and its thought patterns/memories into a computer that can then be uploaded to another body.
3. Using Psionics to transfer one's consciousness to another body
Lastly, any other Sci-Fi sounding way that the GM (and group) is ok with accepting.

Each of these has its advantages and disadvantages. The GM should create unique negatives for different circumstances. The cost should also be high and probably require the removal of 1 or more credit points.

Examples of consequences for cheating death.

Permanent ability damage. Usually -2 to one ability or -1 to two different abilities.
A reset of experience points to the minimal amount required for the current level. Example: Minimum requirement for level 3 is 5,000 XP. If the character died with 7,000 they go back to 5,000.
The Character loses 1 level.
The Character Permanently loses some Hit Points, or their Hit Die is reduced to a lower value from then on.
The Character gains a Difficulty but gains no points or bonuses for it.
The Character's new body is different. Example: Looks different, different species, different sex.
The Character's body is now 'owned' or is now the property of some corporation or institution. This could be in the form of getting a new lease on life for free, but now the Character must do something in return and cannot be totally free until it is done.
The Character's society or society that they have to interact with shuns or even criminalizes people who 'come back'.

Healing

Please review the Treat Injury skill for more information.

In Combat

Healing in Combat can be done in one of three ways. Either with the Treat Injury skill, Medical Items from the Medical Items section of the General Equipment page, or Medical Items with Treat Injury skill.

Treat Injury: The Treat Injury skill requires a standard action and a Medical or First Aid Kit. The amount of health is determined by the Skill Level. Some Talents provided by Character Classes can reduce the time needed. For more information about the Treat Injury skill review: Restore Hit Points section of the Treat Injury skill.

Medical Items: Again these items are located in the Medical Items section of the General Equipment page. Using a "Concoction," such as Healing Concoction, administered through a Syringe doesn't require a Treat Injury skill check. One can use a Medical device on oneself. The health restored is determined by the item used. There are no bonuses when using a Medical Item without Treat Injury.

Medical Items with Treat Injury: If a Medical Item is used with a Treat Injury, check that the DC is 10. There is no need for a professional kit, as the equipment is provided. There is a risk of failure. A Critical failure simply means nothing happens. Anything below 10 means the target only gets 1/2 of its HP back. A 10 is a success, and the normal rules for using a Medical Item apply. However, for every 5 that the Character succeeds a Treat Injury with Medical Item check the target receives a +1 bonus per Die/Round provided by the Medical Item. The max being +6 or a 40. A Critical Success/Natural 20 means maximum possible health provided, including bonus. This cannot be done upon oneself; it has to be administered by another Character to a target.

Natural Healing

If a Character is stable and not dying (Has at least 1 hit point), then they can slowly heal themselves over time, unless they are sick.

For every 8 hours of rest, the Character gains one Hit Die + Constitution Mod of health. If the Character has multi-base classes, then choose the one with the largest Hit Die. If the Character does a full day of bed rest (The Character doesn't leave the bed all day except to do the necessary) then the Character restores 1/4th there total HP worth in Hit Points. If someone is providing Long/Short term care, then it's 1/2 their Hit Points.

A Player cannot use Treat Injury on oneself.

Ability Healing

24 hours after the Ability damage was dealt, a Character can start healing naturally, as long as they are not sick. Every day, when the Character gains at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, the Character gains 1 point back in all damaged Abilities. (This doesn't include the Treat Injury Skill)

Another Character can help by using the Treat Injury skill to assist in improving the healing of an Ability score. This action cannot be done in combat and has a DC20. The Long/Short Term Care action can also be used to help reduce muscle damage, but only once every 24 hours, including rest. If successful, the Character regains +1d4 in as many as 3 different Ability scores. If a critical success (Natural 20) is rolled, the Character gains a +4 in as many as 3 different Ability scores.

Med-packs and other Items

There are several professional kits that are useful for helping with Treat Injury skill checks. Located here, we have Medical Kit, First Aid Kit, and Surgery Kit. Certain checks require a Kit to be attempted. All kits have a limited number of uses. The default number is 20, while advanced kits have 10. Advanced kits provide advantage bonuses to their associated checks.

Please review Profession Kits for more information on items that can help in both the Treat Injury skill and while in combat.