Torpor vs Final Death

Discussion about the game: rules, character descriptions, questions, etc
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duncan
Needs a Guide
Posts: 45
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:24 am

Torpor vs Final Death

Post by duncan »

A question came up a couple games back about whether a character near torpor from lethal damage would "pop" if they took enough aggravated damage to drop them. I hate to be a rules nazi, but in this particular case it makes a huge difference how a character fights in combat, as well as the potential for PC death... So, quoth the rulebook page 173:

When your character acquires a mixture of bashing,
lethal and/or aggravated damage, mark the most severe
damage at the left in his Health chart; it pushes any lesser
damage right. For example, if you mark that your charac-
ter has taken a point of bashing damage in the leftmost
box, and she then takes a point of lethal damage, mark
the leftmost box with an “X” for the lethal damage and
move the bashing damage right one square by putting a “/
” in that box. Any further bashing damage goes in the
third box and keeps going right. Any further lethal dam-
age pushes the entire thing right again until all the boxes
are marked with either an “X” or “/.”

(the same applies for aggravated in another lengthy paragraph)

Also of note:

And that’s the first rule of tracking your character’s
Health: A more severe wound always “pushes” a less se-
vere wound to the right. Wounds that are “pushed off”
the right edge of the Health chart as a result are ignored.

Which means if someone has 7/8 health levels of lethal damage and they take 5 agg, they would be at 5 agg and 3 lethal damage. Interestingly the same result would occur if they took 6 lethal, due to damage "upgrade".

The upshot is, your "status" depends on the rightmost box (your final health box). If it is bashing, as a vamp I think you ignore it. Lethal = torpor. Agg = final death. But damage "sorts" so, torpor only occurs when all health are lethal/agg, and final death, only when all damage is agg.

Unless we're deviating from the book in this matter in some way, which, as an agg-dealing combatant, I would really like to know about.

Duncan
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Joshua
Gibbering
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Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:59 pm

Re: Torpor vs Final Death

Post by Joshua »

Doh, I did forget that damage sorted like that.

Of note: You can heal damage while in torpor. HOWEVER, if you are already in torpor when you heal, you do not awaken.

So, if I have 10 blood, and get my damage filled with lethal (on a round I can't heal, or if I'm being staked), I am in torpor. I can then heal the lethal, but I remain in torpor. This comes up if people are beating a downed vampire to make sure he's in torpor. Note: If you do heal this way it is visible, as wounds continue to close. Again, this can happen if you're in torpor or not.
Healing the damage a stake has done to you does NOT cause the stake to exit the body.

A wits or int + medicine check (or Wits + investigation, or Composure + empathy) should be able to verify if someone is in torpor or just faking. This would be resisted by Stamina + Subterfuge to fool a physical examination or Manipulation + Subterfuge by the faker.

Aura Perception may be used. Torpor looks like a variation of daydreaming, or being controlled (the character is paralyzed and trapped in a reoccurring nightmare). although it's not mentioned, it's possible that someone could specifically check for Torpor.

Spirits Touch can also be used, as it allows for basic memory scanning now. This would be the +0 "recent and intense" event modifier.

Telepathy into the mind of someone in Torpor is not fun... Spirit's touch is a lot safer ironically.
PaladinDave
Mostly Sane
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:24 pm

Re: Torpor vs Final Death

Post by PaladinDave »

duncan wrote:Which means if someone has 7/8 health levels of lethal damage and they take 5 agg, they would be at 5 agg and 3 lethal damage. Interestingly the same result would occur if they took 6 lethal, due to damage "upgrade".
This is incorrect. If a character has 10 Health levels and already has 7 levels of lethal damage on their person and then took 4 levels of agg, they would then be in torpor with 5 levels of Agg and 5 levels of lethal damage due to rollover.

it would look like this: (X = lethal damage, A = Agg damage)
before agg damage: X X X X X X X
after agg damage, but before rollover: A A A A X X X X X X X
after rollover: A A A A A X X X X X X
at this point the PC would be in torpor.

But also, due to rollover, if the same PC with 7 levels of lethal damage, took 7 more lethal damage he would be at 4 agg and 6 lethal and in torpor.

it would look like this: (X = lethal damage, A = Agg damage)
before damage: X X X X X X X
after, but before rollover: X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
after rollover: A A A A X X X X X X
at this point the PC would be in torpor.

If they continued to do 6 more levels of lethal damage the PC would then be 'final death'ed due to lethal damage.
The same rules apply to bashing, but they become lethal when rolled over, and lethal becomes agg when rolled over from being dealt bashing damage after the health track is full of lethal damage. (yes, you can bash a vampire into final death, but it takes a long time.)

-David
Your Friendly Neighborhood Paladin
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