Rules Update: Health Conditions & Effects

Most of this is stuff we already know, but it is all being bundled together clearly in one area to make it easier to work with, and codified into a system to make it easier to define rules-wise.  For example, there are at least 4 effects that pin your foot to the ground - they are all now defined by the term "pin" and follow the same rules.

There are some major changes in here.  Please read the whole post carefully, to make sure you understand everything.  At a later date, we'll be cleaning up spells, skills, and other effects that use these new definitions, to make them easier to read.

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Stages of Health & Dying
There are eight general conditions of health in Knight Realms – Healthy, Wounded, Injured, Unconscious, Poisoned, Diseased, Serious, and Critical. It is common for a character to be in more than one condition at a time. For example, a character who is at half of her Body Point total and who has a broken leg is both Wounded and Injured. Each condition is defined in detail below.

The following conditions are health-related, and can be detected on another character by using the skill First Aid:

Healthy
The character has a full Body Point score, is awake, and completely healthy in all other respects.

Wounded
The character has a positive Body Point score that is less than her maximum.

Injured
The character is suffering from a specific injury to a part of her body, such as having a broken limb or being blinded.

Serious
The character has less than a positive Body Point score. The character is beginning to die and will slip into Critical condition in five minutes if she is not brought to a positive Body Point score. Body Points are not tracked as negative numbers in Serious condition; any healing that the character receives is applied to zero.

Critical
The character has less than a positive Body Point score and has advanced past - or been struck by an effect that bypasses - Serious condition. A character can only be healed from this condition with a skill, spell, or ability that specifically heals someone in Critical condition. Unless otherwise specified, a skill, spell, or ability that heals a character out of Critical condition can only be performed on each character once an event; the receipt of healing of this kind must be noted on the character card. Like Serious condition, Body Points are not tracked as negative numbers in Critical condition; any valid healing that the character receives is applied to zero. If a character in Critical condition is not healed within five minutes of entering this condition, she dies.

Unconscious
The character has a positive Body Point score but is not awake. A character that is rendered Unconscious by a skill, spell, or ability cannot be awakened except by a skill, spell, or ability that specifically treats unconsciousness or that renders a character Healthy. A character that is asleep naturally can be awakened by any normal method.

Poisoned
The character is suffering from the effect of a poison. A poison must be neutralized before its effects can be healed.

Diseased
The character is suffering from a disease. A disease must be cured before its effects can be healed.

The following are conditions that are not directly health related (i.e - a character may be Healthy, but can still be affected by one of these conditions), but affect the character's ability to act.

Blinded
The character cannot see and cannot use any skills or abilities other than those that target herself, are delivered by touch, or are latent defenses.  A blinded character cannot move faster than a heel-to-toe rate and cannot use movement skills. While playing a character that is blinded, you should keep your eyes open to ensure safe game play.

Deaf
The character is deaf and cannot hear anything.

Mute
The character is mute and cannot speak or make any kind of sound using her vocal chords.  A mute character may not cast any effects that require verbals or singing.

Paralyzed
The character cannot move at all. A character that is paralyzed is vulnerable to a Killing Blow.

Stunned
The character cannot take any action whatsoever.

Dazed
The character cannot take any offensive combat action.

Knocked Prone
The character falls to the ground and cannot stand for five seconds.

Pinned
One or more of the character’s limbs are pinned to the ground or another surface and cannot be moved. The character can escape from the pin before the duration of the effect has expired if she possesses Strength +2 or greater, but suffers five points of Direct Body damage as a result.

Held
The character cannot move her limbs but is otherwise interactive with her surroundings. A character that is held is vulnerable to normal attack but not a Killing Blow.

Immobilized
The character cannot move, speak, or even think. The character is unaware of her surroundings and possesses no memory of the time spent in this condition.  She is impervious to harm, help or alteration that does not first remove this condition.  A character must possess Strength +6 or greater to be able to move a normal humanoid that is immobilized.

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Heal Mortal Wound will be replaced with the following skill:

Spirit Tether
3rd Rank Mortality, 4 Healing Points
This ability immediately halts the death count of the recipient for up to 30 minutes.  The healer using this ability must remain in direct contact with the recipient while using this ability. If at any time contact is broken, the ability ends and the recipient begins their death count from where they left off when the ability was initiated.  Any damage caused to the healer or the recipient will end this ability.  A healer may not concentrate on any other healer abilities while remaining in contact with a recipient of Spirit Tether.

Blind Fighting has been updated as follows:

Blind Fighting
This skill allows a character to use melee weapon skills while blinded.

Major changes to be aware of:

• "Negatives" has been renamed to "Serious."  This is mostly just a name change to make it sound more In-Game, so when someone asks how a friend is doing, you can say they are in serious condition (mechanically) while remaining In-Game.
• Heal Mortal Wound is gone.  If you get knocked straight to Crit by a skill / spell / killing blow, there is no longer a quick spell that will get you out without using one of the limited use methods of healing someone from Crit.
• The effect of poisons, including damage taken from them, cannot be healed until the poison is removed from the victim.
• Blind Fighting no longer allows you to target invisible creatures while you are blinded.

One thing to note - I am sure someone will ask "Isn't being blind or deaf a medical effect, and can it be healed by effects that restore you to a Healthy state?"  The answer to this one is "No" - it is possible to be blinded without being hurt, such as by the Dark Elf Racial skill Blinding Darkness, the Druid spell Blinding Fog, etc. - healing won't make the effect leave the front of your face.  For ease of use, however, spells & effects that specifically remove a sensory ailment - such as the Healer skill or Purification prayer - will work, regardless of the source of the attack.

Can a blinded person move faster than a heel to toe rate if guided/led by a sighted person?

Unless the rules state an effect is possible, it is not, so the answer would be "No."

As a quick note, I've moved the Resurrection rules out of the Healer section, and into the Health, Life, & Death page - Healers aren't the only ones that can resurrect, and the rules affect everyone at some point.

Confused over the wording on healing someone out of critical:

Healing applied to someone in critical that is not the skill/spell/ or ability to heal such is applied to zero. Does this still mean that any other healing has no effect?

Does the 4th Rank Spirit Prayer "Spirit Stasis" and the new "Spirit Tether" allow one person to maintain two spirits at the same time?

The "Applied to Zero" is meant for effects that bring you out of Critical and heal you so you're not at 0 any more - the intent is "It doesn't matter if you are at -1, -10, or -1,000,000 body, it counts as Zero for the purposes of healing" (Similar to Serious).  However, unless the skill specifically heals you from the Critical state, you will remain in critical (i.e. - Lay Hands Minor won't do it).

You could, in theory, heal someone's broken arm while they are in Critical, and it would work - it would just be silly, given they would still be in the Critical state.