Vitality and Wound Points

Another possible option for the Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game is to use the vitality and wound point system. Similar to the Hit Points methods, the idea behind this system is to make combat somewhat less lethal. However, where the basic Hit Points system is designed to simply make combat less deadly, this system is a more cinematic way of handling damage. This system allows characters to improve the amount of punishment they can withstand as they go up in level, while still allowing for a single lucky attack to take down a character.​

Listed Hit point Increase By Class	New Hit Dice/Vitality Dice
+1	d6
+2	d8
+3	d10

 

Vitality Points

Vitality points are a measure of a character’s ability to turn a direct hit into a graze or glancing blow with no serious consequences. Like hit points in the standard rules, vitality points go up with level, giving high-level characters more ability to shrug off attacks. Most types of damage reduce vitality points.

Characters gain vitality points as they gain levels. Just as with hit points in the standard rules, at each level a character rolls a Vitality Die and ads his Constitution modifi er, adding the total to his vitality point total. Just as with hit points, a character always gains a minimum of at least 1 vitality point per level, regardless of his roll or Constitution modifier. A 1st level character gets the maximum vitality die result rather than rolling.

Wound Points

Wound points measure how much true physical damage a character can withstand. Damage reduces wound points only after all vitality points are gone, or when a character is struck by a critical hit. A character has a number of wound points equal to his current Constitution score.

Critical Hits – Lethal Damage

A lethal damage critical hit deals the same amount of damage as a normal hit, but that damage is deducted from wound points rather than from vitality points. Critical hits do not deal extra damage; for that reason, no weapon in this system has a damage multiplier for its critical hits.

Most weapons retain their normal critical threat range. If a weapon normally has a critical multiplier greater than x2, the weapon’s threat range expands by 1 point per additional multiplier, as indicated on the table below.

Multiplier	X3	X4	X5
New Threat Range	19-20	18-20	17-20

Critical Hits – Nonlethal Damage

A non-lethal damage critical hit deals the damage using the critical hit multiplier, and that damage is applied to vitality points.

Damage Reduction from Armor

Damage Reduction is applied to damage first whether it is a critical hit or not.

Massive Damage for Vitality/Wounds

Massive Damage in a Vitality/Wounds world would not kill. But it could possibly knock someone out.

Whenever a character takes 30 or more Vitality points of damage from a single attack (after any Damage Reduction is accounted for) he must make a massive damage saving throw in order to stay awake. It does not matter if the character still has 100 Vitality points left after the attack, he still must make the saving throw.

The massive damage save is a Fortitude saving throw, with a DC equal to half the damage inflicted by the attack. If the saving throw is successful, the player deducts the damage done in the original attack from his Vitalitypoint total and play continues. If the saving throw fails, the character is immediately knocked unconscious and falls prone.

In order to impose a massive damage saving throw, the damage must all be inflicted in a single hit.

Telepahy & Vitality

Non-lehtal damage taken from using Telepathic powers is applied to Vitality.