Ch-ch-changes, Part 1: The Injury System

Okay guys, this post is to inform you about two things: the injury system I discussed implementing, and a discussion about speeding up combat. I'll be breaking this up into two posts for easier reading.

First of all, the injury system. Here are some of the main points:

- There are two types of injuries: minor injuries, and major injuries.
   * Minor injuries can be inflicted when the character is reduced to a negative hit point value, and, while they do hamper the character, they do not impose a major handicap on their capabilities. When the circumstances required for a minor injury to be sustained are met, the player rolls a saving throw: on a success, no injury is sustained, but on a failure, a minor injury is sustained. If a character succeeds on this saving throw, but meets the requirements for an injury to be sustained a second time, they roll another saving throw, this time with a -2 penalty. If these circumstances are met a third time, the character sustains a minor injury, and is not allowed a saving throw.
   * Major injuries are inflicted when the character fails 3 death saving throws, or is reduced to their bloodied value in negative hit points. These injuries impose major handicaps on a character's capabilities. When the circumstances required for a major injury to be sustained are met, the injury is sustained; the player is not allowed a saving throw.

- A character can have multiple injuries at once, but can only sustain one type of injury in each encounter. The type of injury sustained will be either determined randomly (in most cases) or assigned (in cases where it would be the only injury to make sense).

- The process for recovering from an injury depends on the type of injury. If it is a minor injury, the character must make an Endurance check during an extended rest; if the check is a success, the injury is healed, and if the check is a failure, the injury remains. Major injuries are more difficult to recover from, and the character must succeed on a more difficult Endurance check to reduce the injury to a minor injury, and another for the minor injury during their next extended rest. Optionally, a single ally trained in Heal can make a Heal check in place of this Endurance check; such an activity requires constant vigilance on the ally's part, therefore this particular ally can only do this for one of their allies per extended rest.

- Though this injury system will be used in most cases, it will not entirely replace death. A character whom an opponent moves specifically to kill, by delivering a coup de grace for example, is dead. Situations a character would not be able to survive, such as being melted, disintegrated, etc. will still kill the character.

My intent with implementing this system is twofold. One, it will add an element of realism to encounters by inflicting demonstrable damage to characters in a way more significant than simple Hit Point loss. Two, it will greatly reduce (though not eliminate, as stated above) the possibility of character death, while still making the prospect of dropping into negative hit points, failing too many death saves or hitting negative bloodied value a palpable threat.

Please let me know what you think when we come together on Sunday.