I am .. unfortunately a new DM with just as new players. Yay - the sacrifices one makes, when your whole band is "sure, I suppose we could do that, but none of us is going to actually be the one to start" -types. It's been going well enough. However, I have come across a dilemma in our most recent session with me and my players, on which I could use some advice or tips with.
As a side note, one of the players is in the medical field, currently working as a nurse. The party consist of a cleric, a rogue, a warlock and a monk, who are all at lvl.4. The whole ordeal takes place in the Sword coast, specifically, Axeholm. (yeah, Icespire.)
This is what happened and led to my teeny tiny problem;
One of my players (Male halfling monk, way of the kensai) character ended up being snacked on by a ghoul before the end of the battle. The first bite managed to reduce their remaininghealth to a 0 (and proceeded to roll NAT20 on Death save.). The same bite also resulted in their thigh now missing a good chuck of muscle. After confirming it with the professional of our group, I ruled that the monk PC could no longer walk properly, would have ton of disadvantages and would have to use a crutch/walking stick to move, without using another party member as an anchor for their balance.
The Dilemma
I am not sure which spell, trick or technique would restore the torn out chunk of the muscle. The player asked me of it after the game too, so I can't, in my good nature, simply ignore it. multiple tries of lesser restoration? or greater restoration? Perhaps there is a potion for it? I suppose I could rule it how I wish, but I do feel quite lost.
I am .. unfortunately a new DM with just as new players. Yay - the sacrifices one makes, when your whole band is "sure, I suppose we could do that, but none of us is going to actually be the one to start" -types. It's been going well enough. However, I have come across a dilemma in our most recent session with me and my players, on which I could use some advice or tips with.
As a side note, one of the players is in the medical field, currently working as a nurse. The party consist of a cleric, a rogue, a warlock and a monk, who are all at lvl.4. The whole ordeal takes place in the Sword coast, specifically, Axeholm. (yeah, Icespire.)
This is what happened and led to my teeny tiny problem;
One of my players (Male halfling monk, way of the kensai) character ended up being snacked on by a ghoul before the end of the battle. The first bite managed to reduce their remaininghealth to a 0 (and proceeded to roll NAT20 on Death save.). The same bite also resulted in their thigh now missing a good chuck of muscle. After confirming it with the professional of our group, I ruled that the monk PC could no longer walk properly, would have ton of disadvantages and would have to use a crutch/walking stick to move, without using another party member as an anchor for their balance.
The Dilemma
I am not sure which spell, trick or technique would restore the torn out chunk of the muscle. The player asked me of it after the game too, so I can't, in my good nature, simply ignore it. multiple tries of lesser restoration? or greater restoration? Perhaps there is a potion for it? I suppose I could rule it how I wish, but I do feel quite lost.
Sounds like a job for Regenerate, which can regrow entire lost limbs. However, it's a 7th level spell, so you're going to have to encounter a high level NPC to gain access to the spell.
That said, I would just rule that it takes multiple passes of Cure Wounds to recover, if only so the spellcasting party members can feel empowered rather than just wait to meet an NPC who can do the job for them. It's not quite how the spell is designed, but lasting injuries like this are fairly uncommon so it makes sense to kind of homebrew your way through it.
Yeah, from the spell list regeneration would be the spell. I'd probably homebrew a magic item and have it be a quest reward(gift from a happy npc, or find a recipe that takes a session or two to gather rare components, I'm thinking the sap of an elm gathered under a full moon type stuff)
Technically that kind of injury doesn’t exist in RAW. Since you homebrewed the effect, you can homebrew whatever cure you like. Since they’re fighting ghouls, I’m going to guess they’re too low level to have easy access to regenerate. At that point, I’d say there’s really two ways to play it. Either say oops, I shouldn’t have done that and just let the cleric casting cure wounds take care of it. Or if you have the time, turn it into a plot point. Have there be a high level cleric who can cast regenerate, but for a price, and I don’t mean gold. And for added fun, make the high level cleric be from a rival god of the party cleric to set up some tension when he calls in the favor.
I'd keep in mind that it (most likely?) isn't going to be "fun" for the player whose character is overly disadvantaged for more than a session (in fairness some players get more fun out of their severe limitations, but I'll make a guess for argument's sake that those folks are the exception rather than the rule). Whatever you do decide that could be reasonably done before too many sessions goes by, probably for the better, to get everyone back on the same level playing field again; especially if everyone is new, and especially if you don't want dibilitating crippling to become the expected norm as a possibility in every encounter for the rest of the campaign/adventure.
I would just allow normal healing spells to fix it.
D&D has a hit point system that is a bit "unrealistic" and being knocked to zero hit points doesn't necessarily imply grievous wounds. Consulting a real world medical professional to apply penalties to a character in D&D will not work well. If a character is pierced by a sword taking them to zero hit points did it just go through their intestines causing peritonitis? Their eye causing blindness and brain damage? Their thigh hitting the femoral artery and causing them to bleed out within a couple of minutes. D&D is a fantasy system that doesn't simulate wounds at that level. In real life, being slashed or pierced with something pointy always risks major injury or death depending on exactly where it hits and it is enough to knock you unconscious (i.e. go to zero hit points) there is a decent chance it could be fatal.
In D&D, if you lose a limb then the regenerate spell is the option to go to. However, that rarely happens. D&D doesn't include shock effects for severe damage. In fact, a long rest will restore all of your hit points as long as you start with at least 1. So if they roll a 20 on their death save, they are at 1 hit point and will completely heal over a long rest. The 20 actually can be taken as an indicator that the wounds were not as serious as first thought since the character woke up within a few seconds of being knocked out.
Finally, imposing lasting negative effects for hitting zero hit points is completely homebrew and outside the scope of D&D.
It's with bearing in mind that HP is not directly analogous to physical health, but is rather a combination of the player character's will to fight, heroism, and luck. That said, a hit on a bite attack doesn't necessarily tear a chunk of muscle out of their leg. A hit that does damage could still be described by saying "the ghoul tries to bite you in the leg, it's teeth grazing your skin through your tough armor as you leap back out of its reach, preventing the blow from being fatal."
I would only rule that a critical injury as you describe it would only result from an critical melee hit on an already unconscious player.
The DMG has optional rules for lingering injuries and massive damage. The effects for those might help you balance it out a bit. My recommendation is to not use lingering effects for every single monster the party fights. Save it for the big/serious enemies to make them more memorable.
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Hello there, Dearies.
I am .. unfortunately a new DM with just as new players. Yay - the sacrifices one makes, when your whole band is "sure, I suppose we could do that, but none of us is going to actually be the one to start" -types. It's been going well enough. However, I have come across a dilemma in our most recent session with me and my players, on which I could use some advice or tips with.
As a side note, one of the players is in the medical field, currently working as a nurse. The party consist of a cleric, a rogue, a warlock and a monk, who are all at lvl.4. The whole ordeal takes place in the Sword coast, specifically, Axeholm. (yeah, Icespire.)
This is what happened and led to my teeny tiny problem;
One of my players (Male halfling monk, way of the kensai) character ended up being snacked on by a ghoul before the end of the battle. The first bite managed to reduce their remaininghealth to a 0 (and proceeded to roll NAT20 on Death save.). The same bite also resulted in their thigh now missing a good chuck of muscle. After confirming it with the professional of our group, I ruled that the monk PC could no longer walk properly, would have ton of disadvantages and would have to use a crutch/walking stick to move, without using another party member as an anchor for their balance.
The Dilemma
I am not sure which spell, trick or technique would restore the torn out chunk of the muscle. The player asked me of it after the game too, so I can't, in my good nature, simply ignore it. multiple tries of lesser restoration? or greater restoration? Perhaps there is a potion for it? I suppose I could rule it how I wish, but I do feel quite lost.
Any advice/ideas are welcome.
- So done with it all.
Regeneration spell.
ring of regeneration magic item.
stuff along those lines.
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Sounds like a job for Regenerate, which can regrow entire lost limbs. However, it's a 7th level spell, so you're going to have to encounter a high level NPC to gain access to the spell.
That said, I would just rule that it takes multiple passes of Cure Wounds to recover, if only so the spellcasting party members can feel empowered rather than just wait to meet an NPC who can do the job for them. It's not quite how the spell is designed, but lasting injuries like this are fairly uncommon so it makes sense to kind of homebrew your way through it.
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Perhaps if you don't want something as high as regenerate, it could take something like greater restoration or multiple uses of lesser restoration.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Yeah, from the spell list regeneration would be the spell. I'd probably homebrew a magic item and have it be a quest reward(gift from a happy npc, or find a recipe that takes a session or two to gather rare components, I'm thinking the sap of an elm gathered under a full moon type stuff)
I would allow an Elixer of Health to do it. Possibly even a Potion of Vitality or Keot. Ointment.
Technically that kind of injury doesn’t exist in RAW. Since you homebrewed the effect, you can homebrew whatever cure you like.
Since they’re fighting ghouls, I’m going to guess they’re too low level to have easy access to regenerate. At that point, I’d say there’s really two ways to play it. Either say oops, I shouldn’t have done that and just let the cleric casting cure wounds take care of it. Or if you have the time, turn it into a plot point. Have there be a high level cleric who can cast regenerate, but for a price, and I don’t mean gold. And for added fun, make the high level cleric be from a rival god of the party cleric to set up some tension when he calls in the favor.
I'd keep in mind that it (most likely?) isn't going to be "fun" for the player whose character is overly disadvantaged for more than a session (in fairness some players get more fun out of their severe limitations, but I'll make a guess for argument's sake that those folks are the exception rather than the rule). Whatever you do decide that could be reasonably done before too many sessions goes by, probably for the better, to get everyone back on the same level playing field again; especially if everyone is new, and especially if you don't want dibilitating crippling to become the expected norm as a possibility in every encounter for the rest of the campaign/adventure.
Boldly go
I would just allow normal healing spells to fix it.
D&D has a hit point system that is a bit "unrealistic" and being knocked to zero hit points doesn't necessarily imply grievous wounds. Consulting a real world medical professional to apply penalties to a character in D&D will not work well. If a character is pierced by a sword taking them to zero hit points did it just go through their intestines causing peritonitis? Their eye causing blindness and brain damage? Their thigh hitting the femoral artery and causing them to bleed out within a couple of minutes. D&D is a fantasy system that doesn't simulate wounds at that level. In real life, being slashed or pierced with something pointy always risks major injury or death depending on exactly where it hits and it is enough to knock you unconscious (i.e. go to zero hit points) there is a decent chance it could be fatal.
In D&D, if you lose a limb then the regenerate spell is the option to go to. However, that rarely happens. D&D doesn't include shock effects for severe damage. In fact, a long rest will restore all of your hit points as long as you start with at least 1. So if they roll a 20 on their death save, they are at 1 hit point and will completely heal over a long rest. The 20 actually can be taken as an indicator that the wounds were not as serious as first thought since the character woke up within a few seconds of being knocked out.
Finally, imposing lasting negative effects for hitting zero hit points is completely homebrew and outside the scope of D&D.
It's with bearing in mind that HP is not directly analogous to physical health, but is rather a combination of the player character's will to fight, heroism, and luck. That said, a hit on a bite attack doesn't necessarily tear a chunk of muscle out of their leg. A hit that does damage could still be described by saying "the ghoul tries to bite you in the leg, it's teeth grazing your skin through your tough armor as you leap back out of its reach, preventing the blow from being fatal."
I would only rule that a critical injury as you describe it would only result from an critical melee hit on an already unconscious player.
Even then, that's a pretty harsh houserule.
The DMG has optional rules for lingering injuries and massive damage. The effects for those might help you balance it out a bit. My recommendation is to not use lingering effects for every single monster the party fights. Save it for the big/serious enemies to make them more memorable.