008: DAMAGE AND DEFENSE

APPLYING DAMAGE

The three types of damage (bashing, lethal and aggravated) are cumulative and the gravest checked box on a character’s health chart indicates the character’s status and the penalties she suffers. Each damage type is indicated on the same chart, but in a slightly unique way. Bashing damage is marked with a slash (/), lethal damage with an X, and aggravated damage with a large asterisk (*). This is done because the different wound types heal at different rates. For the same reason, aggravated wounds are always recorded “highest” (that is with the lowest wound penalty) on the chart, followed by lethal wounds and finally with bashing wounds. This is done by “moving down” bashing and lethal wounds as appropriate. This allows the gravest health levels to be healed first.

DAMAGE TYPES

Damage may be of one of three types, Bashing, Lethal, and Aggravated.

• Bashing: Bashing damage comprises punches and other blunt trauma that are less likely to kill a victim instantly. All characters use their full Stamina ratings to resist bashing effects, and the damage heals quickly. Bashing damage is applied to the health boxes on the character sheet with a slash (/).
• Lethal: These attacks are meant to cause immediate and fatal injury to the target, and they include strikes from swords, spears, and other weapons of war. Ordinary humans may not use Stamina to resist lethal effects, and the damage takes quite a while to heal. Unlike bashing damage, lethal damage is applied to the health boxes on the character sheet with an X.
• Aggravated: Certain types of attacks are equally deadly to all denizens. Fire, some magical weapons, and the teeth and claws of vampires, Lupines and other supernatural beings cause aggravated damage. Aggravated damage cannot be soaked except by supernatural means, and it takes a long time to heal. Aggravated damage is applied to the health boxes on the character sheet with an asterisk (*).

Several additional effects take place when a character is subject to massive damage and/ or specific types of attack:

• Dazed: After soaking, if the character suffers several health levels greater than her Stamina (for humans) or Stamina + 2 (for supernatural beings), she is dazed. She must spend her next available action shaking off the attack’s effects. Characters with multiple actions automatically lose all actions remaining in that turn but may act normally in the next combat turn.
• Knockdown: Some attacks (such as tackles or sweeps) are intended to knock a character to the ground, and a massive blow from a more conventional attack may have a similar effect. (This occurs at the Storyteller’s discretion, but several attack successes greater than the target’s Stamina + Brawl is one option.) If his character is knocked down, a player should immediately make a reflexive Dexterity + Athletics roll. If successful, the character may immediately get to her feet, but she suffers a -2 penalty on her initiative in the next turn. If the roll fails, the character must spend her next action getting to her feet in addition to the initiative penalty. On a botch, she must spend the next turn getting to her feet and suffer an automatic level of bashing damage.
  

SOAK

Everyone can endure a certain degree of physical punishment without sustaining significant injury. In game terms, doing so is called soaking damage, and each character has a soak dice pool equal to her Stamina. Normal humans can soak only those attacks that cause bashing damage, (this reflects the body’s natural resilience to such attacks) while a supernatural being is often tougher, and may thus be able to soak lethal attacks. Aggravated damage may be soaked only by supernatural means.

Soaking damage is reflexive, and it neither requires the expenditure of an action nor has its pool reduced by other dice pools (or wound penalties for that matter). The base difficulty of a soak attempt is 6, though weapon and/ or situational modifiers may modify it. Each soak success subtracts one from the total damage inflicted. Like damage rolls, soak rolls cannot be botched.


ARMOR
Armor provides additional protection against injury, adding dice to the characters soak pool. Add the armor’s rating to the character’s base soak for the purposes of reducing damage. Some protective equipment, such as a shield, only adds to the soak pool in certain conditions. Light armor provides scant protection but has negligible impact on the character’s movement. Heavier armor provides greater protection but also hinders the actions of all but the strongest or most skilled characters. Characters with either a Melee rating of 3 or higher, or those with a Strength that doubles what is required to use the armor suffer only half the indicated Dexterity penalties when wearing armor.
Armor can sustain only a certain amount of damage before being rendered useless. If the damage rolled in a single attack equals twice the armor’s rating against that type of attack (excluding any bonus for helmets), the armor is destroyed.