What is an open wound? Sandstorm - Forlorn Husk

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all,

The forlorn husk from sandstorm has an interesting ability.


Water Drain (Ex): If a living target has an open wound, a forlorn husk can drain moisture from the victim by making a successful grapple check. Each such attack deals 2d6 points of dessication damage to the victim. On each such successful attack, the forlorn husk gains 5 temporary hit points that last for up to 1 hour.

The thing is, what counts as an open wound. Given the way my group deals with bleed out when staggered (loose one hp per round unless stabilized when unconscious, or 1 hp if you do more than a single move when staggered) I would say an open wound is any HP loss dealt by a physical weapon or spell/power-borne object. But is that too often?

What are your suggestions?

[OgresAreCute]

First instinct was to just say anyone who has lost HP. Might not make sense with all abilities, but I imagine it should work fine.

[torrasque666]

First instinct was to just say anyone who has lost HP. Might not make sense with all abilities, but I imagine it should work fine.
I can't really think of abilities that deal HP damage without leaving a trace. Maybe Negative Energy, but that's about it. Even that could be represented by some sort of necrosis (in fact, i think they renamed it as Necrotic damage in later editions) Maybe a few psychic powers like Mind Thrust.

[ExLibrisMortis]

At the very least, bludgeoning weapons don't (always) cause open wounds. Neither does negative energy, nor fire damage, nor acid damage, nor cold damage, nor electricity, nor divine energy, nor dessication damage. That's just off the top of my head.

I think "open wound" isn't defined as a game term, and hit points are an abstraction--"hit point loss" does not imply "open wound". Secondly, I'm not sure what the grapple check is supposed to be against. On the whole, the ability is just very badly written, and I would replace it with a homebrew version. Something along the lines of: free action, whenever living enemy within 60' gets hit for >10 with s/p weapon, deal additional 5 dessication damage, gain 5 temp hp.

[Telonius]

I'd probably go with, any HP loss due to slashing or piercing damage. Bludgeoning damage is usually internal, so you could take HP loss from a greatclub (for example) without actually being cut. Damage from spells would have to be case by case.

[heavyfuel]

Since HP is an abstract concept, you'll have to decide what it means to you.

Personally, we play that you're not wounded at all at over half your HP. At half or lower, you have minor wounds. At 0 or negatives you've been actually wounded and you're out of combat.

It's not a perfect system, but works for most cases. I'd allow this ability to work against any creature at half or lower HP.

[Nifft]

I personally like the Bloodied status from 4e -- if you're below half max HP, you're Bloodied, which has no effect in itself but allows other effects (like this, and like the Dragon Shaman's Vigor aura).

[KillianHawkeye]

I personally like the Bloodied status from 4e -- if you're below half max HP, you're Bloodied, which has no effect in itself but allows other effects (like this, and like the Dragon Shaman's Vigor aura).

Yes, this is about the only thing my group took from the 4E rules. It's pretty handy to have a rule for stuff like this.

[Saintheart]

Note that a weapon with the Wounding quality explicitly " deals 1 point of Consitution damage from blood loss when it hits a creature." Something that is suffering blood loss is pretty damn close to something that necessarily has a wound in it somewhere. So if you were to hit someone with a wounding weapon, most reasonable GMs would have to conclude they have an open wound for Forlorn Husk to then operate.

[AnonymousPepper]

Obviously, anything with the Bleed condition on it would be.

Besides that, while I think for accuracy's sake it would be limited to "has been hit by a slashing or piercing weapon, or has taken a critical hit from anything that deals hit point damage, and has not been subjected to Regeneration or magical healing since" (that crit bit to account for "if I punch you in the face hard enough I can absolutely draw blood") the more game-friendly way to delineate it, I think, would be to draw from later editions and make it be at half HP or less. Though personally I'd still have them bleeding cosmetically from a crit unless they have Regen, to be honest. Getting critted in the face with a hammer is the sort of thing that should absolutely be represented by losing teeth.

[Albions_Angel]

Cool, taking all this on board, I think I will progress with "open wound" being any damage from any lethal weapon hit (yes, even bludgeoning. You get hit with a mace and see if it doenst break skin even a little), and any sharp spell projectile. Energy damage, etc, wont cause an open wound. This is already how we determine bleed out in my games anyway so that works.

Healing or regeneration also automatically closes wounds already in my game.

Sounds like what I planned wont be too far from what all of you will do. Ill give it some thought and might also stick "if below 50% hp" in there, but thats as maybe. Thanks guys!