WoD Health Levels

Pain Penalties

• Every even-numbered box of Health is designated as a pain-inflicting wound, or "pain boxes."
• If such a box has a point of damage in it, it inflicts a -1 die penalty due to pain.
• If any of those points of damage is either lethal or aggravated, add another -1 penalty to the final total.

Example One: Bashing Damage

• In this example, the character has taken five points of bashing damage, two of which are in pain boxes.
• This inflicts a -2 die penalty to all that character's actions.

Example Two: Lethal Damage

• In this example, the character has taken three points of lethal damage (one of which is in a pain box), and three points of bashing damage (two of which are in pain boxes).
• This inflicts a -4 die penalty (-3 from pain boxes, plus another -1 for serious wounds) to all that character's actions.

Example Three: Aggravated Damage

• In this example, the character has taken three points of aggravated damage (one of which is in a pain box), and four points of lethal damage (two of which are in pain boxes).
• This inflicts a -4 die penalty (-3 from pain boxes, plus another -1 for serious wounds) to all that character's actions.

Final Health Boxes Filled

Different things happen if a character's rightmost Health box is filled.

• Bashing: If that box is filled with bashing damage, a character must roll to remain awake. At the end of each of his actions, he must make a Stamina + Resolve test, to which pain penalties do apply.
  • Dramatic Failure: The character passes out, and upgrades one bashing damage to a lethal.
  • Failure: The character passes out. She remains unconscious until she no longer has a point of damage in her right-most health box.
  • Success: The character remains conscious.
  • Exceptional Success: The character remains conscious, and rallies significantly, reducing her wound penalties by half for her next action.
• Lethal: The character goes unconscious, remaining so until she no longer has a point of damage in her right-most health box. She is critically injured and now dying.
  • The character continues to take a lethal wound once each minute after that point, until she receives medical attention of some kind.
• Aggravated: When a character fills his rightmost Health box with a point of aggravated damage, the character dies.

Beats

• Each time a character's rightmost Health box is filled by a new type of damage, they gain a Beat.