Damage & Injury
From D20advanced
Combat usually results in damage to one or both parties. The potential damage of an attack is represented by its damage bonus, with the target’s resistance to the damage represented by his Toughness skill. An overcome Toughness skill results in some amount of damage.
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Toughness
An attacker who scores a successful hit on a target then rolls his damage and checks his result against his target's Toughness skill score. Consult the Toughness skill's Degrees of Success to determine the results of a damaging attack. See Damage Conditions below for more.
| TABLE 7.2: INJURED (STAGED) | Condition | |
| Succeed | Injured | –1 on future Toughness checks (ranked) |
| Succeed by 5 | Dazed | lose one action on your next turn |
| Succeed by 10 | Staggered | one action only, knocked unconscious if damaged again |
| Succeed by 15 | Unconscious | knocked out, no defense |
| Recovery | Recovery | 1 hour check (injured, staggered) / 1 minute check (unconscious) |
Pulling Your Punches
Attackers can choose to use less than their maximum damage bonus with an attack. The attacker chooses how much of the damage bonus applies before making the attack roll. Attackers with the Full Power drawback cannot pull punches with that attack or power.
Critical Hits
A critical hit increases an attack’s damage bonus by 5. A critical hit against a minion automatically knocks out or kills the minion, no Toughness resistance allowed.
Damage Conditions
One or more of the following damage conditions apply to a damaged character.
Injured
Injured means the character has been battered and bruised and is in less than top condition. Each injured condition imposes a –1 penalty to your Toughness score against nonlethal damage, putting the character closer to being taken out of the fight.
Dazed
If your Toughness score is exceeded by 5 or more, in addition to the normal effects of the condition, the character is dazed, losing one action on his next turn. A character who suffers two or more dazed results loses both of his actions for the next turn and cannot act. This lasts until just before the attacker’s turn in the initiative order on the following round.
Staggered
A staggered character has been badly beaten, barely holding on to consciousness. He can only take a single action each round until he recovers.
Unconscious
An unconscious character is knocked out and helpless. What befalls an unconscious character depends on the attack's descriptor and the tone of the game.
 Option: Descriptor-Based DamageThe default assumption in d20 Advanced is that characters who fall unconscious in battle are just that: unconscious. It's somewhat unrealistic, but it's appropriate for cinematic battles where the heroes survive impossible odds. Different attacks should do different kinds of damage. While a blow from a quarterstaff might only leave a character unconscious, dropping a foe with a slash from a sword could very well kill them. The only time when this matters is when a character is dropped. Check the descriptor of the attack: if the attack is believed to be a definitively lethal one, then the blow leaves the character bleeding and dying. Lethal Damage, Death, and Dying Maiming, or "I'm Not Dead Yet!" |
Recovery
With rest, characters can make Recovery checks (DC 10) to recover from their damage conditions. The frequency of the checks is based on the severity of the condition. The Regeneration FX speeds up a character's recovery checks.
Injured
Once per hour of rest, characters can make a Recovery check (DC 10). If successful, they erase one injured condition. If the check fails, the character can make another in one hour, with a +1 bonus for each failed check. All characters recover at least one injured condition per day.
Staggered
Once per hour of rest, characters can make a Recovery check (DC 10). If successful, they erase the Staggered damage condition. If the check fails, the character can make another in one hour, with a +1 bonus for each failed check.
Unconscious
Once per minute, characters can make a Recovery check (DC 10). If successful, they erase the Unconscious damage box. If the check fails, the character can make another in one minute, with a +1 bonus for each failed check. Dying characters must first stabilize before they can recover from unconsciousness.
Knockback
Powerful attacks can send opponents flying. A character who is dazed (or worse) by an attack may be knocked back. The distance is based on the power of the attack. A character is knocked back a number of five-foot squares equal to the damage modifier of the attack he was struck with (minimum five feet). A character whose Toughness resistance is overcome by 10 or more (being Staggered, as above) is knocked back ten feet for every point of the damage modifier he was struck with instead of the normal 5. Characters with the immovable FX reduce an attacker's effective Damage modifier for each rank they have in immovability. FX with with the knockback feat are treated as having a higher effective damage modifier for the purpose of determining knockback.
A character knocked back into an obstacle (or another character) suffers damage equal to the Toughness of the obstacle or the Damage modifier of the attack that knocked him back (whichever is lower). The character deals damage to the obstacle equal to the Damage modifier of the attack. If this damage is enough to destroy the obstacle (or knock another character struck by the careening victim back), the character continues to move out to the maximum distance and then falls prone.
| Option: To Knockback or Not to Knockback
Whether your use knockback in your game or not really is a matter of personal style and preference, and one which largely depends on genre. For more mundane games, knockback tends to be pretty over-the-top, when an ordinary punch from a relatively strong but decidedly human Strength of 3 can knock somebody back fifteen feet! Knockback works best for more epic games, where the characters are truly powerful and can really send one another flying with attacks. It also works best when you are tracking movement tactically. You have a few options concerning how (or how not!) to use knockback in your games:
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Ability Damage
Certain FX cause a temporary lose of ability score points. FX such as Drain specify how quickly characters recover from this loss, usually 1 point per round, modified by things like Slow Fade.
Cases where characters lose ability score points due to things like environmental conditions, illness, or similar effects is called ability damage. Ability damage is temporary; once the condition causing it is removed, the character recovers lost ability score points at a rate of 1 per day. The Healing FX can speed this recovery, as can ranks in Regeneration. If an ability score is lowered below -5, it is considered debilitated.
Damaging Objects
Nonliving objects are affected by damage somewhat differently than characters. Each object has a Toughness score representing how well it resists damage. An object’s Toughness works like a character’s Toughness resistance bonus. To determine how much damage an object takes from an attack, roll against its Toughness resistance as normal.
| TABLE 6.3: SUBSTANCE TOUGHNESS | |
| Substance | Toughness |
| Paper | 0 |
| Soil | 0 |
| Glass | 1 |
| Ice | 1 |
| Rope | 1 |
| Wood | 3 |
| Stone | 5 |
| Iron | 8 |
| Steel | 10 |
| Titanium | 15 |
| Super-Alloys | 20+ |
Damage to Objects
An “injured” object is damaged and suffers the normal –1 penalty per condition further Toughness resistances.
A “staggered” object is badly damaged. Staggered equipment and devices no longer function, while staggered barriers have holes punched through them, and other disabled objects may be bent, deformed, or otherwise damaged.
An “unconscious” object is destroyed.
Damaged objects can be repaired. It’s up to the GM whether or not a destroyed object is repairable; if it is, the difficulty of the check is the same as creating an entirely new item.
Ineffective Attacks
The GM may decide certain attacks just can’t effectively damage certain objects. For example, it’s very difficult breaking down an iron door with a knife, or cutting a cable with a club. In these cases the GM may rule an attack inflicts no damage to the object at all (the object effectively has Immunity to that form of damage).
Effective Attacks
The GM may likewise rule certain attacks are especially effective against some objects. For example, it’s easy to light a curtain on fire or rip a piece of cloth. In these cases the GM may increase your damage bonus against the object or simply say the object is automatically destroyed by a successful attack (the object effectively has a Vulnerability to that form of damage).
Heavy Objects
The Toughness scores given on the Substance Toughness Table are for approximately one inch of the material. Heavier objects lower their thresholds on the Toughness Resistance Table by 1 per increase in thickness on the Time and Value Progression Table. So one level of increase means the object is “disabled” if the check overcomes their resistance by 11 or more and destroyed if the check succeeds by 16 or more. So a foot-thick stone wall has Toughness 8, but the attack must succeed on a Toughness resistance by 13 or more to disable the object, 18 or more to be destroyed. This means heavy objects can generally suffer more hits and heavier damage before they’re disabled or destroyed.
Damaging Devices
Devices have a Toughness of 10 + the device’s rank for damage purposes.
Breaking Objects
If you want to attack an object that you have in-hand or that no one is preventing you from attacking, such as smashing down a door, bending a metal bar, snapping bonds, or cutting through a wall with a Damage FX, you can apply force more effectively. This requires a two actions. Instead of rolling, assume the object’s Toughness save result is equal to (5 + Toughness). Might adds +1 per rank to your normal Strength bonus for damaging objects in this way (and only in this way). If your damage bonus is equal to the object’s Toughness, you break it, 5 or more than the object’s Toughness, you destroy it automatically.
Condition Tracks
Your character's status is noted across a small number of condition tracks. These tracks are separate, but also work in conjunction with one another, especially those involving FX like Inflict (Condition). Your injuries are monitored on one such track, as described above. Your other condition tracks are as follows:
Combat Advantage Track
A track to follow what advantages your foes might hold over you in combat, the combat advantage track shows how vulnerable you are at any given moment to different sorts of attacks. Enemies with Combat Advantage over you have an easier time attacking you. You must often spend an action and make an opposed check to reclaim combat advantage.
| COMBAT ADVANTAGE | Condition | |
| Succeed | Off-Balance | -2 Defense against your attacks, Susceptible to Your Surprise Attacks |
| Succeed by 5 | Vulnerable | Lose Defense Bonus against your attacks, Susceptible to Your Surprise Attacks |
| Succeed by 10 | Flat-Footed | Lose Defense Bonus against all attacks, Susceptible to everyone's Surprise Attacks |
| Recovery | Automatic | 1 round |
For details on how you gain and lose combat advantage, see Combat Advantage.
Action Condition Track
In order to track how able your character is to move and fight normally, the action condition track monitors how many actions your character is alloted in a given round. Effects which alter the flow of time or disorient your character might deny him actions, and recovering from those effects is the only way to regain those normal actions. It is normally a free action to attempt to recover from such a condition each round.
| INFLICT (ACTION) | Condition |
| Succeed | -1 Action |
| Succeed by 5 | -2 Actions |
| Succeed by 10 | Helpless |
| Recovery | Same resistance, +1 cumulative |
For more on this condition track, see Inflict (Condition).
Check Condition Track
Characters often find themselves suffering from conditions which affect their ability to use their skills normally. The check condition track monitors how much of a penalty you may be suffering to certain checks, and which skills are being penalized. It is normally a free action to attempt to recover from such a condition each round.
| INFLICT (Check) | Condition |
| Succeed | -2 Penalty to Check |
| Succeed by 5 | -5 Penalty to Check |
| Succeed by 10 | Helpless |
| Recovery | Same resistance, +1 cumulative |
For more on this condition track, see Inflict (Condition).
Movement Condition Track
Finally, some conditions might affect your character's ability to move freely. The movement condition track checks to see how mobile your character is. It is normally a free action to attempt to recover from such a condition each round.
| INFLICT (Movement) | Condition |
| Succeed | 1/2 Movement Speed |
| Succeed by 5 | Immobile |
| Succeed by 10 | Helpless |
| Recovery | Same resistance, +1 cumulative |
For more on this condition track, see Inflict (Condition).
