Health, Injury, Death, and Conditions · Core Rules

Hit Points (HP) represent a character's endurance, luck, and will to keep fighting. Wounds can leave them breathless, cut, or battered without reducing their ability to act. At 0 HP, they collapse and begin dying.

Health States

Unharmed / wounded (above 0 HP): the character fights at full capacity. The GM describes their injuries without applying a penalty.
Down and dying (0 HP or less): the character falls unconscious, cannot act, and deteriorates as described below.
Dead (negative HP equal to 25% of maximum HP): a character with 60 maximum HP dies at −15 HP.

Dying

At the beginning of each turn, a dying character makes a DC 15 Fortitude Save. On a success, they stabilize. On a failure, they lose 10% of maximum HP.

An ally can spend a general action to tend the wound. The GM prescribes a chance of success based on the ally's experience, equipment, and the injury. Success stabilizes the character. Healing magic stabilizes them automatically.

A stable character remains unconscious but no longer loses HP from dying or makes these Saves. They need care and rest to recover. They regain consciousness when their HP rises above 0.

Conditions

A condition changes what a character can do or causes harm over time. Its duration and effects are given below or in the effect that causes it.

Prone. Standing costs one tick's movement. While prone, a character takes −5 to Reflex duels and cannot dodge melee attacks through movement, though parrying remains possible.
Grappled. The character's hands are neutralized. They cannot attack with a weapon or cast spells with gestures. Escape is resolved as a grapple movement; see the Martial Combat and Defenses chapter. One attempt is allowed per tick.
Blinded. A character cannot dodge or parry what they cannot perceive. Resolve their attacks with a prescribed chance roll, typically 1 out of 4 to hit the intended target.
Stunned. The character loses their next tick: no action and no secondary action.
Paralyzed. The character can take no action or movement while the effect lasts. Will and Fortitude Saves remain possible when the effect allows them.
Poisoned / diseased. The poison or disease defines its own DC, effect, and frequency. The standard pattern is a Fortitude Save on exposure, followed by one effect per tick or round until cured.
Bleeding. Lose X% of maximum HP per round, typically 5%, until a general action or healing closes the wound.
Gagged / silenced. The character cannot cast spells with verbal components.
Nauseated. The character can take only one action of their choice per tick and no secondary action.

Fear

A frightened character fears one creature: the source named by the effect. They cannot attack it or willingly approach it, but can still fight others.

If the source comes within 30 ft, or the distance specified by the effect, the character must flee. Every tick, they take an action that allows full Speed and spend all of that movement heading away from the source. Casting a spell, taking a general action, or holding a ritual normally allows less movement. These actions are available while fleeing only if a feat such as Mobile Caster or Steady Hands raises their movement to full Speed.

A character who cannot flee—cornered, held, or out of room—automatically loses every Reflex duel against the source. They cannot dodge or parry it, or act before it.

Once the character reaches the required distance, they may attempt a new Will Save each round. The effect that caused the fear sets its duration.

Physical Poisons

A physical poison is a toxic substance with its own Fortitude DC, exposure method, frequency, and antidote. Its potency is independent of caster level. Dispel Magic cannot remove it. The Poison spell can amplify a dose used as its component.

A dose can be administered in five ways:

Exposure	Resolution
Ingestion	Full DC if swallowed.
Injection	Full DC if introduced directly into the blood.
Injury	Full DC, but only if at least 1 damage passes through DR.
Contact	−5 DC or −20%, whichever is the greater reduction.
Inhalation	−7 DC or −25%, whichever is the greater reduction.

Coating a slashing or piercing weapon requires a 2-tick general action and one dose. Application begins in the first tick and finishes at the end of the second. If interrupted, the dose is lost. Quick Application reduces this time for trained characters.

The dose remains on the weapon until it wounds a creature, is cleaned off, or dries after one hour. A parry, dodge, or DR that absorbs all damage prevents injection and does not consume the dose. One dose coats one weapon or three projectiles.

New exposure to the same poison prompts a new Save, but its effects do not stack. Keep the strongest consequence and renew its duration. Creatures without living biology are immune unless otherwise stated.

Harvest and preparation. A toxic gland, plant, or mineral gathered in the field is a raw ingredient. During a rest, a character who knows the recipe and has alchemical equipment can turn it into doses. If the outcome is uncertain, the GM prescribes a chance roll based on experience, the recipe, ingredient condition, time spent, and available equipment, such as an Alchemist's Kit. Failure may destroy the ingredient; particularly dangerous handling may also expose the alchemist.

The four reference preparations are Cerberus Nerve Venom, Drow Sleep, Black Flower Sap, and Suffocating Spores.

Treating poison. An Alchemical Antidote prepared from the correct ingredient immediately grants a new Fortitude Save with +5; success ends the poison. Remove Poison can neutralize the substance directly. Healing HP does not remove poison, but can keep the victim alive while a remedy is found.

Healing

Rest. A night of rest restores a percentage of maximum HP; see Rest and Recovery.
Magic. Each healing spell specifies how many HP it restores at the caster's CL.
Alchemy. A healing potion is the Heal spell bottled. It restores what the spell would restore at the spell level and caster level used in preparation; see the Magic chapter. Drinking a potion is a general action.

Positive and Negative Energy

Positive energy repairs the living and burns the dead. Negative energy consumes living matter and sustains the dead. Neither allows a Save.

DR reduces the damage these energies deal, but does not reduce healing. A healing potion thrown as a grenade burns an undead; its armor reduces that damage.

Undead Bodies gives the traits, healing restrictions, and destruction rules for undead, partial undead, and liches.