Injury Tolerance

Variable

You have fewer physiological weaknesses than ordinary living beings. The cost of this advantage depends on the precise frailties eliminated. Note that some forms of Injury Tolerance include others, and that Diffuse, Homogenous, and Unliving are mutually incompatible.

Diffuse: Your body is fluid or particulate, composed of a swarm of smaller entities, or perhaps made of pure energy. This makes you immune to crippling injuries and reduces the damage you suffer from most physical blows; see Injury to Unliving, Homogenous, and Diffuse Targets (also included below). Most foes (GM's decision) cannot slam or grapple you! Diffuse includes all the benefits of No Blood, No Brain, and No Vitals. 100 points.

Homogenous: Your body has no vulnerable internal organs, bones, muscles, or other mechanisms. As a result, you are less susceptible to piercing and impaling attacks; see Injury to Unliving, Homogenous, and Diffuse Targets. Homogenous includes the benefits of No Brain and No Vitals. This trait is intended for entities such as iron golems, trees, and slimes. 40 points.

No Blood: You do not rely upon a vital bodily fluid (like blood) for survival. You do not bleed (see Bleeding), are unaffected by blood-borne toxins, and are immune to attacks that rely on cutting off blood to part of your body. 5 points.

No Brain: Your brain – if you have one – is distributed throughout your body, or isn't your true seat of consciousness. Your opponents cannot target it for extra damage. You may have a head, but a blow to the skull or eye is treated no differently than a blow to the face (except that an eye injury can still cripple that eye). 5 points.

No Eyes: You lack eyes or other vulnerable optics, but can somehow see despite this (unless of course you suffer from Blindness). As you have no eyes, they cannot be attacked. You are also immune to blinding attacks. 5 points.

No Head: You have no head at all. This includes the benefits of No Brain. As well, you lack "skull" and "face" hit locations, and have no need for head armor. You can still see, speak, hear, smell, taste, etc. unless you take the appropriate disadvantages. Specify how you do this (supernaturally, technologically, via organs on your torso, etc.). It is common – but not mandatory – for those with No Head to have No Neck, No Eyes, or both. 7 points.

No Neck: You have no neck. As a result, you have no "neck" hit location, and cannot be decapitated, choked, or strangled. 5 points.

No Vitals: You have no vital organs (such as a heart or engine) that attackers can target for extra damage. Treat hits to the "vitals" or "groin" as torso hits. 5 points.

Unliving: Your body is not composed of living flesh. You take reduced damage from piercing and impaling attacks, but are not quite as resilient as if you were Homogenous; see Injury to Unliving, Homogenous, and Diffuse Targets. This trait is intended mainly for machines and corporeal undead. 20 points.

Injury to Unliving, Homogenous, and Diffuse Targets

The Wounding Modifiers and Injury rules assume a human, animal, or other ordinary living being. Machines, corporeal undead, swarms, and other unusual entities are much less vulnerable to certain damage types:

Unliving: Machines and anyone with Injury Tolerance (Unliving), such as most corporeal undead, are less vulnerable to impaling and piercing damage. This gives impaling and huge piercing a wounding modifier of ×1; large piercing, ×1/2; piercing, ×1/3; and small piercing, ×1/5.

Homogenous: Things that lack vulnerable internal parts or mechanisms – such as uniformly solid or hollow objects (e.g., melee weapons, shields, and furniture), unpowered vehicles, trees, and walls – are even less vulnerable! This includes animated statues, blobs, and anything else with Injury Tolerance (Homogenous). Impaling and huge piercing have a wounding modifier of ×1/2; large piercing, ×1/3; piercing, ×1/5; and small piercing, ×1/10.

Diffuse: A target with Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) is even harder to damage! This includes swarms, air elementals, nets, etc. Impaling and piercing attacks (of any size) never do more than 1 HP of injury, regardless of penetrating damage! Other attacks can never do more than 2 HP of injury. Exception: Area-effect, cone, and explosion attacks cause normal injury.

Example: Edmund Zhang empties his 9mm machine pistol (2d+2 pi damage) at an approaching zombie. He hits three times. After subtracting the zombie's DR 1, he scores 8 points of penetrating damage with the first bullet, 7 with the second, and 10 with the third. The zombie has Injury Tolerance (Unliving), so the usual ×1 wounding modifier for piercing damage drops to ×1/3. Rounding down, the three bullets inflict 2 HP, 2 HP, and 3 HP of injury. The zombie had 24 HP, so it has 17 HP left. Undaunted, it shambles forward. Edmund should have brought an axe or a flamethrower!