Damage and Healing

Injury and the risk of death are constant companions of those who explore the worlds of D&D. The thrust of a vibrosword, a well-placed blaster shot, or a shock of lightning from a shock power all have the potential to damage, or even kill, the hardiest of creatures.

Hit Points

Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer hit points are more fragile.

A creature's current hit points (usually just called hit points) can be any number from the creature's hit point maximum down to 0. This number changes as a creature takes damage or receives healing.

Whenever a creature takes damage, that damage is subtracted from its hit points. The loss of hit points has no effect on a creature's capabilities until the creature drops to 0 hit points.

Damage Rolls

Each weapon, power, and harmful monster ability specifies the damage it deals. You roll the damage die or dice, add any modifiers, and apply the damage to your target. Modified weapons, special abilities, and other factors can grant a bonus to damage.

When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability modifier—the same modifier used for the attack roll—to the damage. A power tells you which dice to roll for damage and whether to add any modifiers.

If a power or other effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of them. For example, when an engineer casts explosion, the power's damage is rolled once for all creatures caught in the blast.

Critical Hits

When you score a critical hit, you get to roll all of the attack's damage dice twice, including any additional damage dice, and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.

Critical Hit Range. The critical hit range of an effect determines on what d20 results that effect scores a critical hit. Typically, an effect has a critical hit range of 1, meaning it only scores a critical hit on a 20. A critical hit range of 2, however, would mean the effect scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. A critical hit range cannot exceed 5, scoring a critical hit on 16-20.

Damage Types

Different attacks, damaging powers, and other harmful effects deal different types of damage. Damage types have no rules of their own, but other rules, such as damage resistance, rely on the types.

The damage types follow, with examples to help a GM assign a damage type to a new effect.

Acid. Vials of corrosive liquid or the acid splash tech power deal acid damage.

Cold. The chill energy of carbonite and cryogenesis deal cold damage.

Energy. Energy damage is the damage dealt by blaster weapons, lightweapons, and other powers or abilities.

Fire. The concussive damage of an explosion or an open flame deal fire damage.

Force. Certain force powers that channel the pure energy of the Force deal force damage.

Ion. Ion damage is a special damage type that is most effective against droids and constructs. Simple electronics dealt ion damage are disabled until rebooted, unless that damage would destroy them outright.

Kinetic. Kinetic damage encompasses all physical damage commonly dealt by vibroweapons.

Lightning. The electrifying energy of the force lightning power deals lightning damage.

Necrotic. Necrotic damage, dealt by powers like death field, withers matter and even the soul.

Poison. Venomous stings and the toxic poison spray power deal poison damage.

Psychic. The crippling agony causes by powers like feedback deal psychic damage.

Sonic. Debilitating noises cause sonic damage.

True. True damage is not dealt by any specific source. Instead, effects that prevent or redirect damage cannot be used to counter the loss of life caused by true damage.

Damage Resistance and Vulnerability

Some creatures and objects are exceedingly difficult or unusually easy to hurt with certain types of damage. If a creature or an object has resistance to a damage type, damage of that type is reduced by half against it. If a creature or an object has vulnerability to a damage type, damage of that type is doubled against it.

Multiple instances of resistance or vulnerability that affect the same damage type count as only one instance. For example, if a creature has resistance to lightning damage as well as resistance to all force power damage, the damage of a force lightning is reduced by half, not reduced by three-quarters.

Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after passive modifiers to damage, but before active modifiers. For example, a creature with resistance to kinetic damage, a proficiency bonus of +4, and the Defense fighting mastery is hit by an attack that deals 22 kinetic damage. The 22 damage is first reduced by 4 and then halved, so the creature takes 9 damage. The creature also has the Shield fighting mastery, and uses its reaction to further reduce the damage taken by 4, finally taking only 5 damage.

Describing the Effects of Damage

Game Masters describe hit point loss in different ways. When your current hit point total is above half your hit point maximum, you typically show no signs of injury. When you drop below half your hit point maximum, you show signs of wear, such as cuts and bruises. An attack that reduces you to 0 hit points strikes you directly, leaving a bleeding injury or other trauma, or it simply knocks you unconscious.

Healing

Unless it results in death, damage isn't permanent. Rest can restore a creature's hit points (as explained in chapter 8), and methods such as a benevolence force power or a medpac can remove damage instantly.

When a creature receives healing of any kind, hit points regained are added to its current hit points. A creature's hit points can't exceed its hit point maximum, so any hit points regained in excess of this number are lost. For example, a consular grants an operative 8 hit points of healing. If the operative has 14 current hit points with a maximum of 20, the operative regains 6 hit points from the consular, not 8.

A creature that has died can't regain hit points until a power such as revitalize has restored it to life.

Hit Dice

Resting (explained in chapter 8), as well as certain special traits such as the trandoshan's Regenerative, consume Hit Dice to restore hit points. Whenever a creature rolls a Hit Die to restore hit points, they add their Constitution modifier to the roll.

Dropping to 0 Hit Points

When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die outright or fall unconscious, as explained in the following sections.

Instant Death

Massive damage can kill you instantly. When damage reduces you to 0 hit points and there is damage remaining, you die if the remaining damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum.

For example, a consular with a maximum of 12 hit points currently has 6 hit points. If she takes 18 damage from an attack, she is reduced to 0 hit points, but 12 damage remains. Because the remaining damage equals her hit point maximum, the consular dies.

Falling Unconscious

If damage reduces you to 0 hit points and fails to kill you, you fall unconscious (see appendix A). This unconsciousness ends if you regain any hit points.

Death Saving Throws

Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points, you must make a special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life. Unlike other saving throws, this one isn't tied to any ability score. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by powers and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw. Roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. A success or failure has no effect by itself. On your third success, you become stable (see below). On your third failure, you die. The successes and failures don't need to be consecutive; keep track of both until you collect three of a kind. The number of both is reset to zero when you regain any hit points or become stable.

Rolling 1 or 20. When you make a death saving throw and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point.

Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points (for example, by catching fire because your limbs were all chopped off next to a pit of lava), you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.

Stabilizing a Creature

The best way to save a creature with 0 hit points is to heal it. If healing is unavailable, the creature can at least be stabilized so that it isn't killed by a failed death saving throw.

You can use your action to administer first aid to an unconscious creature and attempt to stabilize it, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check, or an Intelligence (Technology) check for a droid or construct.

A stable creature doesn't make death saving throws, even though it has 0 hit points, but it does remain unconscious. The creature stops being stable, and must start making death saving throws again, if it takes any damage. A stable creature that isn't healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.

Monsters and Death

Most GMs have a monster die the instant it drops to 0 hit points, rather than having it fall unconscious and make death saving throws.

Mighty villains and special nonplayer characters are common exceptions; the GM might have them fall unconscious and follow the same rules as player characters.

Knocking a Creature Out

Sometimes an attacker wants to incapacitate a foe, rather than deal a killing blow. When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee weapon attack, or blaster weapon that deals ion or energy damage, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable.