Near Death and Healing
As per the standard rules, death is not instant when a player character falls to 0hp; characters who fall below 0 hp can suffer a slow and painful end by bleeding at 1 hp per round until they die at -10hp, subject to the normal chances of their wounds stabilising.
If a character survives from being on negative hit points, complete rest is required before they can resume their adventuring activities normally, and there is a chance that any spells in memory may be lost.
Once a character has fallen in this way, the following rules apply:
- Normal healing can be used to restore them up to 0 hp
- Further healing through 'Cure' spells or skills will only be 50% effective
- The character can only be taken to half their normal hit point total
- The character but suffers from the effects of debilitation:
- all physical stats (STR, DEX, CON) are halved
- movement rate is halved
- mental stats (INT, WIS, CHR) are reduced by one third (round down)
The character may lose any spells or unused spell slots - and they may be limited in spell use by reduction in mental stats (they must fulfil the class requirements for their stats to be able to use any of their normal spells).
The character is free to act, but will not recover from these restrictions until proper rest can be received. It takes one full day (24 hours) of rest to recover from these effects, but care from someone with the healing skill can reduce this time by 1d12 hours – the DC here is 10 + the number of negative hit points the character was reduced to (e.g. if a character went to -8 HP, then the Heal spell DC would be 18).
To decide whether spells or spell slots are lost, the unconscious character rolls 1d10 for each spell or spell slot they have left, and if the result is equal to or less than the lowest negative number of hit points the character finally reached then that spell is lost (similar to a roll to stabilise HP when wounded). This applies equally to 'learn-in-advance' spell users such as wizards and clerics who roll for each spell in memory, and to 'cast-time-choice' spell users such as sorcerers who roll a die for each unused spell slot they have left. Spells and spell slots lost like this are available as normal after one night's sleep. The lost spell slot or learned spell is considered used-up for this day, just as if they'd cast the spell.
The clerical Heal spell does not fall within the half-effect curing system. It will immediately restore all vitality, stats, movement and hit points that were lost due to being debilitated by this damage to the character instantly, with no need for rest. It will not, however, restore lost spells or spell slots (even this powerful spell does not negate the shock of the experience, and the spells are considered lost at the point the wound is inflicted).