Critical Hit Effects

There are several possible effects of injuries caused by critical hits: bleeding, attack penalties, movement penalties, knockdowns, dropped weapons or shields, and possible armor or shield damage. Some of these conditions are temporary—a dropped weapon can be picked up—while others remain until the injury that created the effect is healed. Any damage or other types of effects are marked off during the End-of-Round step if the Player’s Option combat system is also used.

Bleeding: A character with minor bleeding loses an additional 1d2 hp per full turn until the wound is magically healed or bound. In addition, there is a chance that minor bleeding will stop on its own. The character may roll a saving throw vs. death each time he suffers damage from minor bleeding; if he is successful, the bleeding stops.

Anybody can stop minor bleeding by applying a bandage or otherwise addressing the injury. This takes 1d6 combat rounds or a single one-minute round.

Major bleeding results in a loss of 1d2 hp per combat round until the wound is magically healed or bound. Left untreated, major bleeding can easily cause a character’s death. In effect, the –10 rule represents major bleeding; the character loses 1 hp per round when reduced to negative hit points.

Major bleeding can be stopped by a cure light wounds spell (the victim recovers hit points, too), the healing of 5 hp of damage by any other magical means, or by a successful use of the healing proficiency. If the wound is bound by an untrained character, make an Intelligence check for the would-be medic. If he fails, he is unable to help. If he makes the check, the bleeding is reduced to minor.

Severe bleeding causes the victim to lose 10–60% (1d6x10%) of his original hit point total every combat round. For example, if a fighter normally has 43 hit points but receives a severe bleeding result, he loses 4 hp (10%) to 24 hp (60%) in each round of severe bleeding. Needless to say, this is extremely lethal.

A cure light wounds spell (or 5 hp of healing) will reduce severe bleeding to major bleeding; a cure serious wounds spell (or 10 hp of healing) reduces it to minor bleeding; and a cure critical wounds or heal spell stops it altogether. An untrained character has no chance to bind a torso, abdomen, or head wound with severe bleeding, but a successful use of the healing proficiency with a –4 penalty reduces severe bleeding to major bleeding.

Note that once a character drops below 0 hit points, regardless of the number and combination of wounds she is suffering from, she only suffers the effects of major bleeding (i.e., only 1 hit point is deducted per round).

Attack Penalties: Many critical hits hamper the victim’s ability to fight, resulting in an attack penalty. This is noted as applying to all attacks or to attacks with the particular limb that was injured. Other critical hits may prevent the victim from making attacks at all. If a critical hit prevents a character from making attacks, it also prevents him from casting spells or exercising any other combat action except moving or using magical items.

Movement Penalties: Hits to the legs and body may penalize a character’s ability to move. Usually, this is expressed as “1/2 move”, “1/3 move”, and so on. If the character’s movement is limited, he may not charge, run, or sprint; he can only move by using the reduced rate. A character with no movement at all can still ride a mount with difficulty, or drag himself on the ground with an effective movement rate of 1.

Knockdowns: If a critical hit calls for a knockdown, the victim is still entitled to a saving throw to avoid falling down. See Knockdowns in
Chapter One.

Armor and Shield Damage: Some critical hits call for possible damage to a creature’s armor or shield. If the victim of the hit has no armor at that location, the blow is usually assumed to have more severe effects than if the character was protected. The armor descriptions in
Chapter Seven deal with the coverage of each type of armor.

If the creature struck does have a shield or armor to deflect the blow, it may be damaged if the chart calls for it. First of all, the victim gets his normal saving throw roll to avoid the effects of the critical hit; if the roll is successful, there is no special effect for the hit. If the roll fails, his armor or shield must roll an item saving throw vs. normal blow with the number of points of damage (before doubling) used as a negative modifier for the save. If the attacker’s weapon is larger than the defender (for example, a Size L halberd striking a Size M human), the save is rolled against a crushing blow, instead.

For example, remember the ogre’s critical hit on poor Feodor? That result also called for possible armor damage. The ogre’s club is Size L, so the item saving throw is against a crushing, not a normal, blow. Feodor is in metal plate mail, which has a saving throw of 7 vs. crushing blow. The ogre did 6 points of damage before doubling for the critical hit, so Feodor’s armor is safe on a roll of 13 or more on a d20.

A damaged shield is useless. If armor is damaged, only the location struck is useless, and it no longer contributes to the overall AC of the suit. Refer to the rules for Partial Armor in
Chapter Seven. In the example above, Feodor was struck on the torso. If his armor failed its item saving throw, only his breastplate would be ruined. A plate mail breastplate contributes 3 points to his AC, so Feodor’s AC worsens from AC 3 to AC 6. Damaged equipment can be repaired by a skilled armorer or by magical means.

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