Health

The Health Trait measures a character’s physical condition, from perfect health to Final Death. As characters are wounded or otherwise impaired, they lose health levels, then regain them as they heal. A character’s Health Trait consists of seven different “health levels,” and each level applies a different dice pool penalty to any actions taken by the person in question. A character who is Hurt subtracts one die from her action dice pools, while a Crippled character subtracts five dice from her action dice pools. If health level penalties leave a character with no dice in a given dice pool, the character cannot take that action. However, a point of Willpower can be spent to ignore wound penalties for one turn.

Additionally, a character that is in a Frenzy state (only Garou, Ghouls, Revenants and Vampires are capable of doing so) ignores would penalties while the Beast rages inside of them, although normally they are too busy tearing their friends apart to notice how good it feels to experience such a rush.

A character at the Incapacitated health level is utterly immobilized and can take no action of any kind except healing himself with blood points (if the character is a vampire or ghoul) or swallowing blood that is offered to him. A mortal who reaches this stage is a breath away from death; if she takes any more damage, she dies. If a Kindred suffers an aggravated wound after being Incapacitated, he dies the Final Death. A vampire at the Incapacitated health level with no more blood in his body immediately sinks into torpor.

Note that dice pool penalties from health level loss apply only to actions. They do not apply to purely reflexive dice pools, such as soak dice, most Virtue checks, or Willpower rolls to abort to another action. The health level penalties do apply to damage rolls for Strength-based attacks, but not for mechanical weapons like firearms. Ultimately, this rule must be adjudicated by the Storyteller and common sense.

**Health Levels**

# **Damage and** **Healing**

The good thing about an injury is that, if it does not kill you, you may even have time to heal! Of course, healing is completely different for a human as it is for a supernatural. Generally, the healing times for a mortal are as follows:

Remember that mortals treat any aggravated damage as lethal damage for the purposes of healing. Mark bashing damage as "/", lethal as "X" and aggravated as "\*" for any character.

Unlike supernaturals, mortals cannot heal a lot of health levels at a time, and they must painfully heal each level at a time before starting the countdown to heal the next health level.

If a mortal takes bashing damage that would take him to Incapacitated, he is simply unconscious, and any further bashing damage taken beyond that one is marked as lethal in their health charts. If a mortal takes lethal damage that takes them past Crippled or Incapacitated, they will die soon after if they don't receive any kind of healing or treatment. A successful Wits + Medicine roll (Difficulty 7) should be enough to stabilize a mortal in the Crippled condition, allowing them to survive until they receive proper treatment.

Mages and revenants, much like mortals, will die if they take lethal damage that takes them past the Incapacitated level and their health tracker is full of Lethal damage. Unlike mortals, they can quickly heal, whether by using vitae or magick to close their wounds They are also supernaturally sturdy, making the Crippled health level a temporary inconvenience instead of a death sentence.

Garou taken to the Incapacitated health level by bashing damage will fall unconscious in whatever form they were in, and will heal bashing damage at the rate of one per turn. They can try to roll to wake up once they have healed their Incapacitated level. The roll is Stamina + Primal Urge (Difficulty equal to 4+Crossed health levels). A Lupine that falls to Incapacitated by Lethal damage reverts to their breed form and will die if any further damage is dealt to him. He can roll his Rage to Remain active, this being his only chance to go back to the fight. If no more damage is dealt to them they regenerate at a rate of 1 Health level every 8 hours. This type of regeneration is only achieved in this near-death state. If a Lupine falls to Incapacitated because of Aggravated damage, his only chance of survival is channelling their Rage, otherwise they will die.

Vampires reduced to Incapacitated by bashing or lethal damage will be able to spend blood in order to regenerate and be active again but they cannot take any further action. A vampire reduced to this state by Aggravated damage will die. Any further bashing or lethal damage will send them into Torpor while Aggravated damage would kill them outright. Vampires that lack the blood to regenerate from Incapacitated instantly fall into torpor. Finally, a vampire in torpor that takes a massive amount of bashing or lethal damage (10 after soak) from sources like their body being crushed or decapitation will instantly die as if they had taken Aggravated damage.

### **Healing for Demons**

The Fallen inhabiting a mortal body are capable of sustaining injury like any mortals. Their bodies can soak Bashing damage normally, but they need to manifest their Apocalyptic form in order to be able to soak Lethal damage. The Fallen cannot soak Aggravated damage.

The Fallen can heal their bodies spending Faith. By spending one point of Faith, they can heal all points of bashing damage in their Health tracker. They can spend one Faith point to heal one Lethal level of damage. The Fallen cannot use Faith to heal Aggravated damage unless they are using their Lore.

### **Healing for Ghouls and Revenants**

Ghouls and Revenants are incredibly resilient. Unlike mortals, they can soak lethal damage inflicted by bullets and blades, and Revenants that have the Discipline of Fortitude can go a step beyond and become even more sturdy, being capable of resisting the damage from fire and the teeth and claw of supernatural beings.

Ghouls and Revenants can heal lethal and bashing damage by spending one point of vitae. Unlike ghouls, revenants have a bigger reservoir of vitae and heal lethal damage like a mortal would heal bashing damage. Additionally, a revenant can heal aggravated damage at twice the vitae cost of bashing and lethal damage, otherwise needing to heal it as if they were humans.

Ghouls and Revenants cannot heal dismemberment and organ loss.

Remember that Mages, Fae, Hunters and Lupines can become ghouls by drinking vampiric vitae and not instantly vomiting it, just like humans. Mages can heal lethal damage in this way without fearing causing a Paradox and Lupines could use their vitae to boost their healing powers if they were to botch their Stamina + Survival roll, but like ghouls, they cannot heal aggravated damage using vampiric vitae. Of course, this method of healing carries with it the risk of a blood bond, but both Mages and Lupines have found ways of easily breaking them, creating packs and cabals dedicated to hunting vampires for the miraculous properties of their blood, boosted by unnatural strength and regeneration.

### **Healing for Hunters**

Hunters, unlike most supernaturals, lack of their typical resilience, needing to use man-made products such as body armor and the powers bestowed by their creators to shield themselves from lethal and aggravated damage, which they cannot soak normally. Experienced hunters have learned ways of warding themselves from this type of damage and have found artifacts capable of making aggravated damage more easy to heal.

To add insult to injury, they also lack innate healing abilities, like Revenants or Lupines do. But just like mages, they have the power to heal almost everything. A Hunter can make use of their Numina to close wounds, end diseases and nullify poisons, and if they possess a high enough level, they can even heal damage in seconds. Hunters with the power of True Faith can also perform miracles such as saving someone that would have died otherwise (some people speak of miracles capable of reverting an early death).

### **Healing for Lupines**

Garou can use their Stamina to soak any kind of damage, even aggravated, unless it was inflicted to them using a weapon or projectile made of silver and they were in a shape different to their Breed form. Metis lupines always suffer aggravated damage from silver. Additionally, the damage from Silver counts as lethal if they are in their Breed form, and can thus be soaked and later healed as normal.

If a Garou is in a different shape than their breed form, they will heal one level of Bashing or Lethal damage per turn. If they were to be performing a physically tiring activity, they would need to roll Stamina + Survival (Difficulty 8) to heal during that turn, although there are Gifts that can make healing in combat easier. On a botch, they lose the ability to regenerate until they get some rest. A Garou in their breed shape can heal one Health level per day as long as they are resting. A garou must spend a day resting in a shape different to their breed form to heal one level of Aggravated damage. Metis lupines will always heal at one health level per turn and will heal one Aggravated damage per day as long as they are resting.

Lupines have an amazing healing power, but Gaia's miracles have their limits. Garou cannot regrow any lost parts, and a severe enough injury (like the aberrant harm caused by radiation or balefire) or the complete loss of a body part will not heal fully, while the Garou may regain all their health levels, there will always be something left, maybe a physical alteration or an actual mechanical penalty. Only through the grace of a spirit or a Celestine may a Garou ever get their body parts back.

Remember that Abominations, while still shapeshifters and capable of soaking damage, can only heal through the power of vitae, and thus can regenerate lost body parts and don't suffer Battle Scars.

Additionally, Garou also have Gifts like Mother's Touch that they can use to heal living beings and if applied quickly, they can even prevent Battle Scars from becoming permanent, sure, the lupine will lose their potential renown and recognition, but Gaia needs their warriors to remain in the fight for as much as they can.

### **Healing for Mages**

Mages can normally only soak bashing damage. As an optional rule, mages with 3 or more Stamina may soak Lethal damage at a difficulty of 8. Only through vulgar magick may a mage soak Aggravated and Lethal damage normally.

Mages that have mastery over the Sphere of Life, can heal bashing and lethal and other beings by using coincidental magick (the wound was not as deep as it looks, the bullet just bruised the heart, etc.). A mage with the sphere of Time could also set their body to be under the effects of healing for a prolonged time, causing a slower but constant healing. Finally, a mage can heal aggravated wounds by using the Sphere of Life activating Vulgar magick, spending one Quintessence point per level of aggravated damage healed.

Mages can heal dismemberment and organ loss like aggravated damage. They can also reshape the frame of other creatures, aiding them with ailments that they cannot heal.

Mages that have aggravated damage that they took from the Paradox backlash cannot heal it using magick, and they have to spend the same time a mortal would have to wait in order to heal.

### **Healing for Vampires**

Vampires are incredibly resilient. Since they are a walking corpse, things like internal damage do not affect them like they would to living beings. Additionally, vampires, unlike other supernaturals, take damage from bullets as if it was bashing damage, but like the rest of supernaturals, take lethal damage from blunt force aimed at their heads. Vampires can also try to soak aggravated damage from the fire, sunlight and the teeth and claws of supernatural beings using Disciplines like Fortitude.

Vampires require Blood to heal. A vampire can spend a blood point to regenerate one level of Lethal or Bashing damage. Unlike other supernaturals, Vampires don't heal naturally, after all, they are a corpse. A vampire that has any Aggravated damage must spend a whole day resting and spend a Willpower point. After that, they spend five blood points for each level of aggravated damage they intend to heal. A wise vampire knows to keep blood reserves near their resting place in case that they ever become seriously injured.

There are also Disciplines that can heal the vampire, like Obeah, in which case, the scope of damage that can be healed depends on the Discipline's individual damage. Vampires that use disciplines that could alter their shape do not heal the damage, it only alters their form.

Vampires can regrow limbs as they would heal aggravated damage, and they can virtually grow any body parts as long as they don't have flaws related to those parts (like One Eye).