And not only did I find the d20 table in the 5e DMG, but I found a d100 table which I think is clearly much better.
Now, the original rule gave the recommendation that this chart be rolled when a creature takes a critical hit, drops to 0 hit points but isn't killed outright, or fails a death saving throw by 5 or more, but I don't like that.
Instead, it'll work like this:
- Lingering Injuries only affect PCs and named NPCs (followers, boss monsters, etc.)
- Un-named NPCs just get hit with damage to speed things up.
- The table is used only for critical hits or when their hit points fall below zero.
- If a PC suffers a critical hit, they have a choice: take normal weapon damage and roll on the table, or take the increased damage from the crit.
- The choice is made after the critical is confirmed, but before damage is rolled.
- Ultimately it's a gamble, but one that gives the players some agency to avoid character death:
- If they're certain a crit will kill them, they roll on the table and suffer an injury which will hamper them for the rest of the fight (as well as taking regular weapon damage);
- Or they take the damage and hope it doesn't kill them. Maybe the damage dice will roll really poorly?
- If a PC is in negative hit points, they're dying and something had to put them that way, so they need to roll on the table to determine just how messed up they are.
- I may also use this for when I want to mess up PCs for failing to avoid a trap instead of just dishing out hit point damage.
I know that some people will complain that many of the lingering injuries can be cured with magical healing, and my answer is So what? If the PC took a critical hit, that would also be cured with magical healing. It's a resource drain either way.
So here's my version of that d100 Lingering Injury table, converted to Pathfinder:
The Google Docs version can be grabbed here.
Minor scar for the win!!
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