5.3 Taking Damage

When you take damage, the damage first reduces your damage resistance. Any damage in excess of your remaining damage resistance causes you to lose that many hit points. Hit points and damage resistance function in the same way, but damage resistance can protect you from debilitating attacks that only work if they make you lose hit points. If you are dealt damage that reduces your hit points below 0, you gain one or more vital wounds.

Monsters typically do not gain vital wounds like player characters do. Instead, they simply die or fall unconscious when they reach 0 hit points.

5.3.1 Negative Hit Points

You can have negative hit points, but only briefly. When your hit points drop below 0, you gain a vital wound (see Vital Wounds). You gain an additional vital wound for each increment of your full maximum hit points that you reach in negative hit points.

If you would regain hit points while you have negative hit points, you first reset your hit points to 0 before applying the healing. In addition, your hit points are reset to 0 at the end of the round if they are still negative. This is checked after applying all healing and damage that takes place at the end of the round. This also resets the vital wound thresholds that you have suffered, so you will immediately suffer a vital wound if your hit points go negative during the next round.

5.3.2 Environmental Damage

Some abilities and environmental effects deal environmental damage. Environmental damage is never dealt as the result of a successful attack roll. Environmental damage works in the same way as normal damage, except that environmental damage is reduced by your damage resistance without subtracting from its remaining value. Any environmental damage in excess of a creature’s damage resistance is causes the creature to lose hit points just like normal damage.

5.3.3 Subdual Damage

Some attacks and environmental effects deal subdual damage. Subdual damage works in the same way as normal damage, except it cannot inflict vital wounds. If an attack that deals subdual damage would inflict a vital wound, the target increases its fatigue level by three instead. Whenever you make a strike, you can choose to deal subdual damage instead of normal damage. If you do, you deal half damage with the strike.