Injury Tolerance

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!

Martial Arts

A new form of Injury Tolerance suits some cinematic action heroes:

Damage Reduction: You divide the injury you suffer by 2, 3, or 4 after subtracting DR from damage and applying wounding modifiers. This normally reduces all injury, but the GM should require the Limited modifier (see Limited Defenses) in a Martial Arts game. "Physical Attacks" gives -20%, while "Crushing" or "Unarmed" gives -40%. 50 points for a divisor of 2, 75 points for 3, 100 points for 4.

Powers Book

Injury Tolerance is meant for those with fundamentally nonhuman physiologies. Three forms are of particular interest when creating superscience constructs and supers:

Diffuse: Appropriate for beings made of a loose collection of tiny particles (bees, dust motes, nanites, etc.), liquid, gas, plasma, or energy. Examples include sapient swarms, living flames and tornadoes, liquid-metal robots ("nanomorphs"), and superscience "holograms" that can interact with the material world. In some settings, spirits, magical illusions, and related entities that are tangible but not solid also have this trait.

Homogenous: Use this trait for creatures made out of largely undifferentiated solid matter – living or otherwise. Common examples are dancing swords, golems, unpowered vehicles, walking plants, and anything else made of solid ice, metal, plastic, stone, wood, etc. Very dense supers often have this advantage, despite appearing superficially human.

Unliving: Anything that has differentiated "vital" areas but isn't made of living tissue is Unliving. Powered vehicles and robots, and most other complex machines, qualify – as do vampires, zombies, and similar walking corpses. A total cyborg with few living parts might qualify, at the GM's option.

The GM may invent new forms. Some examples of special importance:

Damage Reduction

You divide the injury you suffer by 2, 3, or 4 after subtracting DR from damage and applying wounding modifiers. Unmodified, this trait reduces all injury – but except in high-powered supers games, the GM should consider requiring the Limited modifier; see Limited Defenses. It would be fair to restrict heroes to "Common," "Occasional," or even "Rare" classes, or to damage types directly related to their powers. 50 points for a divisor of 2, 75 points for 3, 100 points for 4.

Independent Body Parts

35 points

See below. This complex form of Injury Tolerance is intended for undead and fantasy monsters.

Unbreakable Bones

10 points

Your bones are nearly indestructible, or you have alternative structural support that's difficult to damage (e.g., internal force fields). Damage to limbs and extremities still causes injury, subject to the usual maximums, but the injury needed to cripple these body parts is twice normal; that is, the amount usually required to dismember. This represents damage to the covering, not the "skeleton." Crippling is at worst lasting; you never suffer permanent crippling or dismemberment. The GM may rule that injury that destroys your body (-10×HP) breaks your skeleton, but since you're dead, this is a special effect. If this protection extends to your vitals and brain, add No Vitals and No Brain: your vitals and brain are in their usual locations, but your indestructible skeleton encloses them and prevents severe injury effects.

Alternatives

The line between Diffuse and such traits as Insubstantiality and Shadow Form is fine indeed. The deciding factor is whether the character can affect the material world. If he can, take Diffuse. The essence of Homogenous, Unliving, and Damage Reduction is extreme toughness. Alternatives include Supernatural Durability and Unkillable – or just lots of Damage Resistance or Hit Points. Damage Resistance is superior for those who expect never to face high-damage attacks.

New Special Enhancements

Infiltration

For Diffuse only. Your body is a fluid that can flow through the tiniest of holes. In addition to the usual benefits of Diffuse, you can ooze through porous barriers and narrow cracks. You can't shapeshift, stretch abnormally, or sprout new body parts – just seep under doors, through screens, etc. +40%.

Swarm

For Diffuse only. You're a coordinated swarm of tiny creatures. You can scatter by taking a Concentrate maneuver. Your outer perimeter travels at your best applicable Move; maximum radius is 1/2 mile (buy Area Effect to change this). While scattered, only area-effect, cone, and explosion attacks can injure you, and only in proportion to the area they blanket; e.g., an attack that covers 5% of your area does 5% normal damage. You can focus your senses on any point within your area; changing viewpoints requires a Ready maneuver. Otherwise, treat this state as Insubstantiality. To resume your normal form, you must contract to your usual size (at your Move score) and then take a Concentrate maneuver. Swarm includes Infiltration. +80% if you can't affect the material world; +160% if you can.

Powering Up

Elemental powers often grant Damage Reduction (limited to their element), or give access to elemental meta-traits that include Homogenous or Diffuse. Someone with matter-control or spirit powers that let him become a semi-solid specter could also justify Diffuse. With the addition of Infiltration, Diffuse suits shapeshifting powers. The GM might allow shapeshifters with particularly outré powers to buy other forms of Injury Tolerance – No Head, No Neck, etc. – with Switchable.

Talent rarely affects Injury Tolerance, but the GM might permit those with Unliving, Homogenous, or Diffuse to add Talent to HT rolls for structural integrity; e.g., to avoid disintegration or resist Afflictions that cause Insubstantiality. Those with Independent Body Parts or Unbreakable Bones may add Talent to HT rolls for crippling.

Independent Body Parts

35 points

If you have this form of Injury Tolerance, your limbs and extremities are separate entities. When struck there, don't apply injury to your HP. Instead, apply it to that body part's HP score: your HP/3 for an extremity or HP/2 for a limb (round up).

Attacks injure body parts normally with one exception: a cutting attack that would cripple a limb or extremity costs you the use of that part but inflicts no injury on you or it. Instead, it severs the body part, which falls to the ground and fights as your ally! An extremity separates from its limb, while a limb separates from your torso. Body parts have your HT. Size Modifier is your own, adjusted by the part's hit location modifier. Other abilities are as follows:

Arms: An arm has your DX, a Move of your ST/4, and a Dodge of DX/2 + 3. It uses your ST for striking or strangling, ST/2 for grappling or dragging things. If it has a hand, it can punch or grapple (but only the feet or legs of a standing foe), or wield a one-handed weapon at -2 damage. If it lacks a hand, it can club for punching damage.

Leg: A leg with a foot has DX equal to your DX-2. Move is your Basic Move-3, while Dodge is your DX/2 + 3. It can leap up and kick foes for full damage. Treat a leg without a foot as an arm without a hand, but at -2 DX.

Hand: A severed hand has your DX, Move equal to DX/2, and a Dodge of DX/2 + 3. Its only effective attack is to crawl up someone's body (treat this as a grapple) and strangle. The hand has your full ST for this purpose only.

Foot: A foot has DX equal to your DX-2, Move 1, and Dodge 4. Its only useful combat ability is to trip those who try to pass it. A fighter who tries to run past the foot must evade, and falls down if the foot wins.

Round all fractions up. Where combat skills would matter, apply your relative skill level to the body part's DX.

A severed body part suffers injury normally from every attack but the one that severed it. At 0 or fewer HP, it's crippled and can't act. Make the usual HT roll to learn whether this is permanent.

You may reattach body parts by holding them in place for a minute. You can reattach crippled body parts if the injury is temporary or lasting, but they remain crippled. Permanently crippled body parts are destroyed.

One final perk: should you die, the severed part lives on, and continues to attack your enemies!

Special Modifiers

Detachable Head:

Your head uses these rules, too. A cutting attack to the neck that inflicts full HP or more decapitates you without injury. Your head has your DX and HT, HP/2, and Move and Dodge 0. It can bite at full ST in close combat. If your head is your seat of consciousness, your body fights as its ally. If it isn't (for instance, if you have No Brain), it fights as an ally of your body. +15%.

Instant Reattachment: You only have to hold body parts in place for a second to reattach them. +50%.

No Reattachment: Your severed body parts are animated, but you can't reattach them. You can't combine this with Instant Reattachment. -60%.

Reattachment Only: Your body parts are inert when severed. Severing them causes you no injury, and you can reattach them, but they can't fight for you. You can't combine this with No Reattachment. -50%.

Horror Book

Many demonic or other monstrous entities can become (or are composed of) a swarm of something – bats, centipedes, flies, rats, spiders, worms, etc. This is Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) with some specific fillips. For an entirely new form of Injury Tolerance, see Independent Body Parts.

New Special Enhancements

These enhancements apply to Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) only. The Swarm modifier in GURPS Powers is a combination of Infiltration and Scatter.

Body of Swarm:

You can become a swarm of gnat- to rat-sized bodies. This moves at your best applicable Move; can bite, sting, etc. for thrust crushing damage for your ST; and is dispersed by injury equal to your HP. A dispersed swarm is effectively "unconscious" and unable to act in concert. A determined foe might contain and continue to damage your dispersed bodies, though. Should you reach -HP, enough of your bodies have been killed to dissociate your consciousness and kill you! +0% for rat- or bat-sized bodies; +40% for cockroach- or gnat-sized bodies with full Infiltration.

Flying Swarm:

Requires Body of Swarm. While in swarm form, your component bodies can fly. Air Move is twice Basic Speed. +30%.

Humanoid Form:

Requires Body of Swarm. You can assemble your component bodies into any vaguely manlike form, giving you a limited ability to "morph" (although you won't pass close inspection). +50%.

Infiltration:

Your body is a fluid. It can filter or flow through the tiniest of holes. In addition to the normal benefits of Diffuse, you can ooze through porous barriers and narrow cracks and keyholes. You can't shapeshift, stretch abnormally, or sprout new body parts – just seep under doors, or through screens, ventilation grates, clothing (2 seconds), chinks in armor (5 seconds), etc. +40%.

Scatter:

Requires Body of Swarm. You can scatter your component bodies by taking a Concentrate maneuver your outer perimeter travels at your best applicable Move.

Your constituent bodies can communicate instantly and work in a coordinated fashion over a half-mile radius (buy Area Effect to change this). While scattered, only area-effect, cone, and explosion attacks can injure you, and only in proportion to the area they blanket; e.g., an attack that covers just 5% of your area does 5% of its normal damage. You can focus your senses on any point within your area; changing viewpoints requires a Ready maneuver. Otherwise, treat this state as Insubstantiality. +40% if you can't affect the material world while scattered; +120% if you can.

New Special Limitations

These limitations are for Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) only.

Misty:

You can become a fog or a mist. While Diffuse, you cannot affect the material world in any meaningful way. You cannot speak, attack, or even block others' sight-lines. You drift at half your normal Move. Though immune to most attacks, you're still material; you can be affected by strong winds, powerful suction, etc. Misty includes Infiltration. -20% if you can use magic or psi in mist form; -40% if not.

Tenuous Form:

Requires Body of Swarm. You must make a conscious effort to maintain cohesion. Whenever you suffer injury or fail a HT roll, make a Will roll. Failure means your body collapses into a normal swarm of its component creatures. To reform, you must concentrate for seconds equal to the injury taken or the margin of failure on the HT roll. Additional damage to the swarm while reforming adds to the total time needed. -50%.