Damage Types
All attacks have specific damage ratings, indicating the number of dice that you roll for the attack's damage (called the damage dice pool). Some damage dice pools are based on the attacker's Strength, while others are based on the weapon used. Damage dice rolls are made versus difficulty 6. Each success on the damage roll inflicts one health level of damage on the target. However, the damage applied may be one of three types (Click on the type to get a better descriptor for Vampire damage):
Bashing: Bashing damage comprises punches and other blunt trauma that are less likely to kill a victim (especially a vampire) instantly. All characters use their full Stamina ratings to resist bashing effects, and the damage heals fairly quickly. Bashing damage is applied to the Health boxes on your character sheet with a "/."
Lethal: Attacks meant to cause immediate and fatal injury to the target. Mortals may not use Stamina to resist lethal effects, and the damage takes quite a while to heal. Vampires may resist lethal damage with their Stamina. Like bashing damage, lethal damage is applied to the Health boxes on your vampire's character sheet with a "/."
Aggravated: Certain types of attacks are deadly even to the undead. Fire, sunlight, and the teeth and claws of vampires, werewolves and other supernatural beings are considered aggravated damage. Aggravated damage cannot be soaked except with Fortitude, and it takes quite a while to heal. Aggravated damage is applied to the Health boxes on your character sheet with an "X."
Note: Damage dice pools can never be reduced to lower than one die; any attack that strikes its target has at least a small chance of inflicting damage, at least before a soak roll is made. Moreover, damage effect rolls cannot botch; a botched roll simply means the attack glances harmlessly off the target.
Soaking
Characters can resist a certain degree of physical punishment; this is called soaking damage. Your character's soak dice pool is equal to her Stamina. A normal human can soak only against bashing damage (this reflects the body's natural resilience to such attacks). A vampire (or other supernatural being) is tougher, and can thus use soak dice against lethal damage. Aggravated damage may be soaked only with the Discipline of Fortitude. Against bashing or lethal damage, Fortitude adds to the defender's soak rating (so a character with Stamina 3 and Fortitude 2 has five soak dice against bashing and lethal damage, two soak dice against aggravated damage).
After an attack hits and inflicts damage, the defender may make a soak roll to resist. This is considered a reflexive; characters need not take an action or split a dice pool to soak. Unless otherwise stated, soak rolls are made versus difficulty 6. Each soak success subtracts one die from the total damage inflicted. As with damage rolls, soak rolls may not botch, only fail.
Example: Liselle the Gangrel has Stamina 3 and Fortitude I. She is attacked with a knife, and the attacker scores three levels of lethal damage. Liselle may soak this attack with four dice (Stamina 3 + Fortitude 1). She rolls 1,9,9,7. The "1" cancels out one of the successes, leaving Liselle with two. She thus ignores two of the three health levels inflicted by the knife, taking only one level of damage.
Had Liselle been merely human, she would not have been able to soak the (lethal) knife wound at all, and would have taken the full three health levels.
- See "Mortal Healing Times" for more information on how long it takes to heal for a mortal.
- See the damage types for descriptors of how Vampires heal the different types.
There are three damage types in Vampire. Bashing damage includes all forms of temporary injury - from punches, clubs, and other blunt trauma. Vampires, and only vampires, consider firearms attacks to be bashing damage as well - unless the bullets are aimed at the head (difficulty 8), in which case they are considered lethal. Vampires can suffer bashing damage, but consider it more of an annoyance than anything else. Lethal damage covers permanent, killing wounds. Humans die easily from lethal injury, and even the undead can be traumatized by massive amounts of lethal damage. Finally, aggravated damage includes those forces even other vampires fear - fire, sunlight, and the teeth and claws of their own kind.
All types of injuries are cumulative, and the combined injury determines your character's current health level. Specifics on each type of damage are provided below.
Bashing and lethal damage differ in their effects, but, for vampires, both types of damage are considered normal. Normal damage is recorded as a slash ("/") in the appropriate Health chart box. Aggravated damage is marked with an "X" for each level inflicted. Aggravated damage always gets marked above normal (whether bashing or lethal). So if you mark a level of normal damage in the Bruised box, and take one aggravated health level later on, "move down" the bashing level to the Hurt box by marking that box with a "/." The aggravated level is then noted by simply drawing another slash through the Bruised box, turning it into "X." Normal levels taken after aggravated levels are simply drawn in on the next open box. Normal damage isn't as severe as aggravated, so it's always marked last and healed first.
Example: Veronica Abbey-Roth, trapped in a witch' hunter s sanctum, has already taken a level of bashing (normal) damage from an Inquisitor's punch (Veronica's Health chart is noted with "I" in the Bruised box). Another witch 'hunter blasts Veronica with a propane torch, scoring three aggravated health levels. Veronica's chart is marked with "X" in the Bruised, Hurt and Injured health levels, and "I" in the Wounded box (essentially moving the punch's damage down the chart). The combined damage puts Veronica at -2 dice to all her action dice pools. On the verge of frenzy, Veronica beats her way through the Inquisitors and stumbles out of the ancient cathedral.
Bashing damage covers all forms of injury that aren't likely to kill instantly and that fade relatively quickly. Most forms of hand-to-hand combat - punches, clinches, kicks, tackles and the like - inflict bashing damage. Bashing damage generally impairs less than lethal damage does, and heals faster.
Vampires are relatively unaffected by bashing damage - a punch to the gut has little effect on the undead. However, massive concussive trauma can send a vampire into torpor.
Mortals may soak bashing damage with their Stamina, while vampires may also soak bashing damage with their Stamina (+ Fortitude, if they have that Discipline). However, any bashing damage applied to a vampire after the soak roll is halved (round fractions down) - the Kindred's corpselike bodies simply don't bruise and break like the kine's.
Example: Veronica has been cornered by her enemy, the Sabbat vampire Kincaid( it's just not Veronica's lucky night!). Kincaid takes a swing at Veronica. He strikes her, and his player calculates damage. Kincaid has a Strength 4 and two levels, of Potence. His damage roll is a very good 8, 6,7,9, plus two automatic successes for Potence - a full six health levels of damage. Veronica tries to soak (versus the standard difficulty of 6), using her Stamina of 2. Her player rolls a 3 and 8 - one success. Kincaid inflicts five health levels of bashing damage - but, because Veronica is undead, she halves the final result and rounds down. She suffers only two health levels of damage.
Veronica, in desperation, swings back, and manages to hit the Sabbat. She has a Strength of I, so only one die is rolled. Luckily, it comes up 9, inflicting one health level of damage, and Kincaid fails his soak roll (Stamina 4 and Fortitude I allow him to roll five dice, which come up 4,5, 1,9, and 3). However, because the damage is bashing, the one health level of damage is halved and rounded down to zero! Veronica flails frantically at Kincaid, who laughs at her pathetic efforts to hurt him.
If your character falls to Incapacitated due to bashing (or lethal) damage, then takes another level of bashing (or lethal) damage, she enters torpor. If your character falls to Incapacitated due to bashing damage but then takes a level of aggravated damage, she meets Final Death.
Lethal damage is just that - lethal, at least to mortals. Even vampires take a sword-wielder seriously - a vampire who is hacked to bits or decapitated will die the Final Death, though not as readily as a mortal. Knives, bullets, swords and the like all cause lethal wounds. At the Storyteller's option, blunt attacks aimed at a vital body part (difficulty 8 or 9 to target) can cause lethal damage, particularly versus mortals.
Lethal damage is intended to cause immediate and grievous injury. For the kine, lethal injuries take a long time to heal and usually require medical attention for any hope of recovery. For well-fed vampires, knife wounds, shotgun blasts and the like are simply.. .annoying.
Mortal characters may not soak lethal damage at all - all such damage is applied directly to their health levels. Kindred characters may soak lethal damage normally with Stamina (+ Fortitude, if they have it). Lethal damage that penetrates the soak roll is applied normally to their health levels. However, lethal damage is considered normal for the purpose of healing, so vampires may easily nullify lethal damage by spending blood points.
When your character's Health boxes fill to Incapacitated, and she takes a further level of lethal damage, she enters torpor (p. 216). If your character is reduced to Incapacitated via lethal damage, and she takes a further level of aggravated damage, she meets Final Death.
Certain attacks are anathema to the undead. Fire and the rays of the sun inflict terrible wounds on the undead, as can the teeth and claws of other vampires (as well as the attacks of werewolves or other supernatural creatures).
As mentioned, each level of aggravated damage should be marked with an "X" on the Health chart. Aggravated damage may not be soaked except with the Discipline of Fortitude. Moreover, aggravated damage is far more difficult to heal. A level of aggravated damage may be healed only with a full day of rest and the expenditure of five blood points (though a vampire may, at the end of the full day's rest, cure additional aggravated health levels by spending an additional five blood points and one Willpower point per extra aggravated health level to be healed). Worst of all, a vampire who loses his last health level due to aggravated damage meets Final Death - his eternal life ends at last, and he goes to whatever reward awaits him beyond the grave.
Mortals may ignore sunlight, but obviously take damage from fire, fangs, and claws. If a mortal is susceptible to a type of aggravated damage (fire, for example), that damage is treated as lethal.
Though the power of their Blood enables vampires to heal most wounds instantly, mortal "licksticks" are not so fortunate. The following systems allow Storytellers to simulate the effects of damage on vampires' mortal foes, friends... and prey.
Like vampires, mortals have seven health levels and suffer dice; pool penalties for wounds. Unlike vampires, mortals can heal their wounds only through time, rest and medical care. Moreover, mortals have no "torpor" state; any amount of damage below the Incapacitated level kills them. Mortals can soak bashing damage, but cannot soak lethal or aggravated damage (though obviously mortals take no damage from sunlight).
Each level of damage to a mortal (whether bashing or lethal) must be healed individually. Thus, if a mortal takes enough bashing damage to reduce him to Incapacitated, he spends a full 12 hours in a delirious state before healing to Crippled. Healing that level takes six hours, and so on.
Healing Bashing Damage
Bashing damage up to the Wounded level can be cared for without medical skill; these wounds heal on their own, without treatment. Bashing damage beyond Wounded may have deeper consequences. A mortal's vision: or hearing may be altered due to a concussion, she may suffer excruciating pain from internal bruising or experience some other extreme discomfort. These effects can be negated if the mortal receives adequate medical attention.
Health Level Recovery Time
Bruised to Wounded - One hour
Maimed - Three hours
Crippled - Six hours
Incapacitated - 12 hours
Once bashing levels reach Incapacitated, mortals fall unconscious, but do not sink below Incapacitated... yet. However, any further bashing wounds are X'd over previous bashing ones, making them lethal. At that point, recovery is handled as lethal damage. In this way, a mortal can be slowly beaten to death.
Healing Lethal Damage
Lethal damage of any sort can be deadly - that's why it's called lethal. Lethal wounds-that go unattended may continue to bleed until the mortal passes out and dies from blood loss. Other dangers can also 'arise from infection, cellular damage or broken limbs.
Any lethal damage past Hurt requires medical treatment to prevent further harm. Untreated lethal wounds worsen by one level of lethal damage per day. When a mortal sustains lethal damage down to Incapacitated, he's one health level away from death. If he takes one more wound (whether bashing or lethal), he dies.
If the individual is at Maimed or higher, he may recover with rest over the times listed below. However, if the mortal is Crippled or Incapacitated, no recovery is possible unless he receives medical attention. Indeed, at Incapacitated the individual is comatose at worse and delirious at best, and could still die.
Health Level Recovery Time
Bruised - One day
Hurt - Three days
Injured - One week
Wounded - One month
Maimed - Two months
Crippled - Three months
Incapacitated - Five months
