Health & Damage
Types of Damage
In this system there are two types of damage to track, Normal and Aggravated Damage.
Normal Damage
Normal Damage, also called Lethal Damage or Superficial Damage in other Vampire the Masquerade systems, is damage that is capable of bringing a vampire to Torpor or even Final Death if they take enough of it. This is damage sustained from the vast majority of mundane sources such as firearms and knives.
Normal Damage is trivial for a vampire to heal, so long as they have a little time, and the blood to heal with.
Aggravated Damage
Aggravated Damage is damage that is typically sustained from sources inherent to a vampires weakness. Common examples are from sunlight and fire. Aggravated Damage can also come from supernatural sources, such as some vampire Disciplines, or from mystical weapons designed to fight vampires.
Unlike other types of Damage, Aggravated Damage is much harder to heal. To heal one health box of Aggravated Damage requires expending 3 dots of blood instead of a single dot. In addition, a vampire can only heal a single box of Aggravated Damage per night without the use of powers that provide healing.
Falling Damage
A vampire takes 1 point of Normal Damage for every 10ft (3m) they fall through the air, delivered when they hit the ground or an appropriately solid object. Falling from a building a couple stories tall is survivable, but falling from a skyscraper would be fatal.
Suffocation Damage
A mortal takes 1 point of Normal Damage once every 3 turns that they are unable to breathe. This damage cannot be reduced or negated through supernatural powers.
Stamina Focus: The mortal takes damage once every 5 turns instead of the default 3.
Staking
If a character possesses a weapon with the Staking quality, they are able to attempt to stake another character, if they are strong enough to do so, or the target is too weak to prevent the staking attempt. To do so, the attacker must use the Pierce the Heart Combat Maneuver and win the Opposed Challenge.
For the target to be eligible to be Staked, there are a few requirements.
The first is that the target is in the Incapacitated, making them a valid target for staking. A vampire in Torpor is also always a valid target for Staking.
The second is a sliding scale based on the attacker's levels in the Potence Discipline. A character who has 4 levels of Potence may attempt to Stake a character in the Injured Wound Track, and a character with 5 levels of Potence may attempt to Stake a character in the Healthy Wound Track.
Tracking Health
Every character has a default of nine health levels, divided into three different Wound Tracks. These health tracks represent how severely the character is injured, and determine what penalties they receive, known as Wound Penalties.
When a character first takes damage, they begin filling their health boxes in their Healthy Wound Track. As the quantity of damage increases, the damage extends into the Injured Wound Track, and eventually into the Incapacitated Wound Track. A character who is Incapacitated loses access to their simple action each turn, unless they have a method to ignore Wound Penalties.
Note that the amount of Health a character has can be as high was 15 before additional armor bonuses, or as low as 7 before other penalties. A character with the Low Pain Threshold flaw has 7 total health levels. A character with the Rugged merit gains 3 additional health levels. A character can also gain an additional 3 health levels if they are Stamina Focused and have at least the first power of Fortitude.