Vitality and Wound Points
The vitality and wound points damage system was originally developed for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game as a more cinematic method of handling damage than the traditional hit point system. The system allows for characters to improve the amount of punishment they can withstand as they go up in level, while still allowing for a single lucky attack to take down a character.
Vitality Points
Vitality points are a measure of a character's ability to turn a direct hit into a graze or glancing blow with no serious consequences. Like hit points in the standard D&D rules, vitality points go up with level, giving high-level characters more ability to shrug off attacks. Most types of damage reduce vitality points.
Characters gain vitality points as they gain levels. Just as with hit points in the standard D&D rules, at each level a character rolls a vitality die and his Constitution modifier, adding the total to his vitality point total. (And, just as with hit points, a character always gains a minimum of at least 1 vitality point per level, regardless of his roll or Constitution modifier.) A 1st-level character gets the maximum vitality die result rather than rolling.
Wound Points
Wound points measure how much true physical damage a character can withstand. Damage reduces wound points only after all vitality points are gone, or when a character is struck by a critical hit. A character has a number of wound points equal to her current Constitution score.
When a character gains a level, he can choose to trade some of his new Vitality points for more Wound points. Doing this will make a character less vulnerable to critical hits, but more vulnerable to fatigue.
When a character takes a class level with a Good (+1 each level) Base Attack Bonus gains a new level, he can decide to trade new Vitality points for more Wound points, up to a number equal to her Constitution modifier. e.g. Tordek has a Constitution of 18, Wound Points 18, and Vitality 10. When he attains his second level of Fighter, he can choose to trade up to 4 of his Vitality points for Wound points. He rolls a 6 on his d10 for a total of 10 new Vitality points, and chooses to trade the maximum 4 points. His new Wound Point total is 22, and his Vitality is 16.
When a character takes a class level with an Average (+3/4 levels) Base Attack Bonus, she can trade up to half of her Constitution modifier (round down) of new Vitality points for more Wound points.
A character who takes a class level with a Poor (+1/2 levels) Base Attack Bonus cannot trade new Vitality points for Wound points.
Critical Hits
A critical hit has two potential results. On a confirmed critical hit, the player can choose to use the normal critical hit rules, applied as though an exceptionally damaging normal hit, depleting vitality points and then wound points.
Alternatively, a character can choose to bypass the target's vitality points and instead apply damage directly to wound points. This damage is not multiplied, and any bonus damage dice (such as those from a sneak attack, or from a flaming weapon) each do 1 point of wound damage, instead of their usual die result. Weapons with a critical multiplier higher than x2 also do more damage, equal to multiplier minus 2. e.g. A battleaxe with a x3 critical multiplier does 1 extra point of damage.
Injury and Death
Vitality and wound points together measure how hard a character is to hurt and kill. The damage from each successful attack and each fight accumulates, dropping a character's vitality point or wound point totals until he runs out of points.
Taking Vitality Damage
When a character takes vitality damage, he has managed to turn a solid hit into a grazing one. He is still considered hit for the purposes of effects that rely on inflicting damage, even though the character is more or less unscathed.
Non-lethal damage
Until a character has depleted her vitality points, this system does not differentiate between lethal and non-lethal damage. Once vitality points have been exhausted or on a critical hit, non-lethal damage is accumulated until it equals or exceeds the character's wound point total. Once this happens, the character is knocked unconscious.
0 Vitality Points
At 0 vitality points, a character can no longer avoid taking serious physical damage. Any additional damage he receives reduces his wound points.
Taking Wound Damage
The first time a character takes lethal wound damage - even a single point - he becomes fatigued. A fatigued character can't run or charge and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity until he has rested for 8 hours or until the wound damage is healed. Additional wound damage doesn't make the character exhausted.
In addition, any time an attack deals lethal wound damage to a character, he must succeed on a Fortitude saving throw (DC 5 + number of wound points lost from the attack) or be stunned for 1d4-1 rounds. During that time, any other character can take a standard action to help a stunned character recover; doing so ends the stunned condition.)
Negative Wound Points
When your character's wound point total is between 0 and minus one half his Constitution score (inclusive), he is considered disabled. He can make move actions normally, but any standard, swift, or immediate action results in the loss of an additional wound point. Thus, a character with 10 Con can continue moving until reduced to -5 Wound points.
When your character's wound point total drops below minus one half his Constitution, he is dying. A dying character immediately falls unconscious and can take no actions. At the end of each round on the character's initiative, a dying character loses one wound point until he either dies or becomes stable.
When your character's wound point total drops below minus his Consitution score, he is dead.
Stablizing and Recovery
Each round on his turn, a dying character can make a Fortitude save (DC 15, +1 per turn after the first) to become stable.
Another character can stabilize a dying character by making a DC 15 Heal check.
Any sort of magical healing, even a single point, stabilizes a dying character.
A stable character remains unconscious until his wound point total rises to minus one half his Constitution score or higher, at which point he becomes disabled. A stable character only heals one wound point per 24 hours naturally. If a stable character takes any damage that does not kill him, he becomes dying again.
Healing
After taking damage, a character can recover vitality and wound points through natural healing (over the course of hours or days) or by magic. In any case, a character can't regain vitality points or wound points above his full normal totals.
Natural Healing
Characters recover vitality points at a rate of 1 vitality point per hour per character level.
With a full night's rest, a character recovers 1 wound point per five character levels (round down, minimum 1 per night), or twice that amount with complete bed rest for 24 hours. Any significant interruptions during the rest period prevents the character from healing that night.
A character who provides long-term care (see the Heal skill, page 75 of the Player's Handbook) doubles the rate at which a wounded characer recovers lost vitality and wound points.
Magical Healing
Spells that heal hit point damage work somewhat differently in this system. For spells that heal a variable amount of hit point damage based on a die roll (such as cure light wounds), apply the actual die roll as restored vitality points and any modifier to the die roll (such as caster level, for cure spells) as restored wound points. If there are still heal points left after healing all wound damage, the surplus is applied to vitality.
For example, cure moderate wounds heals 2d8 points of damage, +1 point per caster level (maximum +10). Under this system, a 10th level cleric could cast it to heal 2d8 vitality points and 10 wound points.
Spells or effects that return a number of hit points not based on a die roll, such as heal, apply the healing to lost wound points first, then to lost vitality. For example, an 11th level cleric casting heal has 110 points of healing to apply. If the target has taken 12 points of wound damage and 104 points of vitality damage, the spell heals all the wound damage and 98 points of the vitality damage, leaving the target with only 6 points of vitality damage remaining.
NPCs and Monsters
Vitality points are only granted by the "heroic" classes, such as the character classes in the Player's Handbook and various prestige classes. The various NPC classes grant no vitality points either at 1st level or thereafter. Most monsters have both wound points and vitality points. Small, Medium, and Large creatures have a wound point total equal to its current Constitution score. Creatures smaller or larger than that will have their wound point total multiplied by a factor based on size.
Creatures without Constitution Scores
Some creatures, such as undead and constructs, do not have Constitution scores. If a creature has no Constitution score, it has no vitality points. Instead, it has a number of wound points equal to the number of vitality points it would have based on its HD and type. Such creatures are never fatigued or stunned by wound damage.
Bonus Hit Points
If a creature would have bonus hit points based on its type or temporary hit points (from any source), these are treated as bonus wound points. (For example, a Medium construct gets 20 bonus wound points.) The same holds true for any permanent effect that increases a character's hit point total (such as the Toughness feat, which adds 3 to the character's wound point total).
Fast Healing
Creatures with fast healing regain vitality points at an exceptionally fast rate, usually 1 or more vitality points per round, as given in the creature's description (for example, a vampire has fast healing 5).
If a creature with fast healing has no Constitution score, fast healing restores lost wound points at the same rate instead. The same doesn't apply to creatures that have no vitality points but do have a Constitution score (such as a human warrior or a domestic animal). Such creatures gain no benefit from fast healing.
Regeneration
All damage dealt to creatures with regeneration is vitality damage, even in the case of critical hits. The creature automatically heals vitality point damage at a fixed rate per round, as given in the entry (for example, a troll has regeneration 5). A regenerating creature that runs out of vitality points becomes fatigued just as if it had taken wound point damage. Excess damage does not reduce its wound points.
Certain attack forms, typically fire and acid, automatically deal wound damage to a regenerating creature, though it may attempt a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) to convert this to vitality damage, which it can regenerate normally. Otherwise, regeneration functions as described in the Monster Manual and in individual monster descriptions.