Health

Overview

A character's health is derived from their Stamina + 3. In general, it is received during physical conflicts with a contest being made. The margin of the winner's roll against the losers is added to the loser's health tracker as damage. If the winner is using a weapon with a modifier, that is added to the total damage with the margin. There are two different types of damage that can fill a character's health tracker, Superficial damage and Aggravated damage.
When tracking damage to their health tracker, Superficial damage is tracked with an "/" on one of the boxes per point taken, with Aggravated tracked using an "X" in each box per point taken. If a character manages to fill their entire tracker, either with one type or a mix of the two, they are now Impaired. Impairment causes a penalty of -2 from Physical pools. Following this impairment, any point of damage they take will convert any Superficial into Aggravated on a one-for-one basis. When a character's tracker is filled entirely with Aggravated damage they are out of the combat, if they are mortal they are either dead or comatose and if they are Kindred they fall into Torpor .

Superficial damage

Superficial damage is bruising and small cuts, but nothing that is life-threatening. Kicking, punching, and any non-lethal weapon do Superficial damage to humans. Standard weapons do Superficial damage to vampires, this includes slashing, stabbing, and piercing weapons. In general, this type of damage is halved before adding it to the tracker and this includes when converting Superficial to Aggravated.

Aggravated damage

Aggravated damage is broken bones, serious wounds, and other life-threatening injuries. Sharp and piercing weapons do Aggravated damage to humans. Generally, only fire, sunlight and the claws or teeth of other supernatural creatures do Aggravated damage to Kindred.

Healing damage

Mortals may remove a number of Superficial damage equal to their Stamina rating at the beginning of a session. With Aggravated damage mortals can have their damage converted from Aggravated to Superficial with an Intelligence + Medicine test. The maximum amount able to be converted is equal to half of the character's Medicine rating rounded up with the healing happening over the course of the night. A mortal being hospitalized removes the need for rolls but takes the amount of Aggravated damage received as the total number of weeks required to heal fully.
When healing Superficial damage Kindred can remove a number of Superficial damage levels from their Health tracker by making one Rouse Check per turn, with the number removed dependent on their Blood Potency. With Aggravated damage, Kindred may mend one level of Aggravated damage by making three Rouse Checks at the beginning of a session in addition to the wake-up Rouse Check. This will only heal one point of damage and will remove any Crippling Injury or similar impairments, this can only be done once per night.