There's no real point to the Strain damage out of combat...
This is partly true, but a trap sprung before combat can make a huge difference...
Really the role of traps is exactly the same when you think about it. Before strain, players either died (and had to be treated) or they treated themselves with potions and wands and spells immediately after the trap if they had time to do so. A GM using traps "effectively" will attack just after the trap springs in order to take advantage of the chaos and confusion.
With strain, the same thing happens, we just don't talk about potions and wands and spells.
People have an instinct to make the game more "realistic" by making it more deadly. This variant rule works by explaining why things like swords and fire are as survivable as they seem in the rules, rather than changing their deadliness. We do that by explaining what action occurs to mitigate the threat. Parry a sword, leap past a trap.
The only part of the RAW that needs to change to make this work is the rate of healing.
Well put.
Fair points, Evil Lincoln. I still feel that it cheapens a number of traps considerably, though I suppose the wand of cure light wounds did that in the first place anyway...
I suppose if I'm really worried, I could convert the attack-roll traps to Reflex-to-avoid traps.
Or throw in something that makes the trap a little nastier than just damage, like throwing in some stat damage poison.
Nothing horrifies unsuspecting players like perfectly innocent furniture that damages their stats.
I want to reiterate my opinion that if something can only deal damage, but cannot deal enough to kill somebody, it's not a threat unless its part of a larger encounter.
Traps can be hilariously deadly, but only if you use them right, strain/injury or no.
I've always liked traps that inflict conditions. Fail a save and suddenly you're sickened for a full minute. Or better yet have some kind of effect.
Ex: you come to a corner at the end of a hall. Failing a Perception check a series of pellets spit out of holes in the wall; Fort save DC 14 or Sickened by a cloud of noxious vapors that now follow you, emanating from your body and creating a fog cloud effect in the area.
This will now hinder your ability to detect other traps, monsters hidden treasure, etc. Also if you throw in a creature such as a plant, undead or construct that is unaffected by the effects this could be highly life threatening.
Fair points, Evil Lincoln. I still feel that it cheapens a number of traps considerably, though I suppose the wand of cure light wounds did that in the first place anyway...
if something can only deal damage, but cannot deal enough to kill somebody, it's not a threat unless its part of a larger encounter.
Looks like I got my point across.
Let's not downplay what strain from a trap is, though. The PC encounters a trap and escapes so narrowly that they might be wise to take a breather before they go on adventuring. That's not really a nerf; as Alice agrees, it is how things already are with a CLW wand.
Just like traps with RAW HP, they only become relevant when something prevents the players from healing it up straight away.
Even so, I think the ability to finally describe narrow escapes (like losing your helmet to the crushing door trap) is perfect for strain. I'm glad we had this talk.
I've always liked traps that inflict conditions. Fail a save and suddenly you're sickened for a full minute. Or better yet have some kind of effect.
Ex: you come to a corner at the end of a hall. Failing a Perception check a series of pellets spit out of holes in the wall; Fort save DC 14 or Sickened by a cloud of noxious vapors that now follow you, emanating from your body and creating a fog cloud effect in the area.
This will now hinder your ability to detect other traps, monsters hidden treasure, etc. Also if you throw in a creature such as a plant, undead or construct that is unaffected by the effects this could be highly life threatening.
And always remember: a poison dart doesn't actually need to crit to deliver its payload. Picture a dart sticking in someone where the actual dart doesn't even slow them down, they can pluck it out and the wound itself doesn't require treatment to heal... but the poison is delivered, and the poison requires treatment.
That's one of the trickiest cases in the entire variant rule. Attacks that end up dealing only strain can have special ability riders on them that require treatment on their own, so can be described as wounds. Bleed is the same way. Don't be afraid to describe how a poison fang attack is a mere pinprick that the PC could otherwise ignore, but the poison makes it a problem.
I'm still having trouble with wrapping my head around how bleed damage interacts with this system. How should a strain attack that deals bleed damage be described? The bleed damage itself is always strain? How is that described?
I always agreed with EL on this point; I would resist the temptation to make traps deadlier than what they are atm, even under this hp variant which makes single, random traps less hazardous (and with a well equipped party, even that can be debatable. Traps then become a gp tax more than a health threat...) They shouldn't get a privileged treatment from your typical ambushed, sneak-attacking ninja.
So yeah, single, random low-CR traps are just as efficient as single, low-CR monsters. Mechanically speaking, traps are opponents; only, opponents with limited abilities and mobility (but usually with the advantage of surprise). In this mindset, their use is to slow adventurers down and/or weaken them with poison or other conditions and/or alarm the evil dungeon lord of their presence. Some creatures such as kobolds will use traps to effectively increase their numbers in combat (basically allies that they can built).
Traps made to kill will use poison or create a situation using a save of some sort (fall in pit, pushed into chasm, crushed by big rolling stone etc). When a save is involved, it's much easier to determine what happened, both in terms of tangible injuries and storytelling.
Otherwise, we get into an Indiana Jones situation; he hero crosses the field of traps; seems out of breath at the other end, takes a breather and keeps going fresh as a rose...
'findel
I'm still having trouble with wrapping my head around how bleed damage interacts with this system. How should a strain attack that deals bleed damage be described? The bleed damage itself is always strain? How is that described?
For one thing, you don't even have to describe bleed damage as loss of blood. And even if you do, you don't have to see it as a wound that worsen every round but an attack that spreads its damage over several rounds.
Metagamingly speaking, bleed damage means that the character took a hit which causes continuous damage, and by damage, I mean that the character loses some of its readiness and ability to avoid a serious injury; he gets strained.
When a character take a hit causing strain damage, his armour might have absorbed the blow, he might have rolled with it, raised his shield, stepped aside, or just got lucky. Bleed ability means that something hurts afterward, continually. Especially if your narrative involves an *avoided* blow, the "bleed" could be conceptualized as something else (armour pinched the character's skin, he might have crushed his elbow dodging the blow, strained his ankle rolling over etc).
The trick is not to think too deeply about it. Character got hit, not enough to create a serious wound but enough to diminish its readiness. Yet, the attack was more viscous and may have side effects (character makes saves vs belled damage). If failed, the character takes the side effects which, from a narrative perspective, does not even have to be liked directly to the first hit even though we, the players, know that it is a direct consequence of the opponent's ability.
Poisons get into a similar situation as far as strain damage vs effects goes, except that poison has no choice but to come from the venomous critter...
'findel
'findel's explanation of bleed works, but mine is simpler I think.
The damage from blood loss is strain... all you would gain from making it injury damage is the mandatory treatment, which is already required.
Think of Bleed as a special type of 1 HP injury that deals continuous strain damage (blood loss). When the injury is healed, the strain damage stops. This jives pretty well with the intended "feel" of bleed, I think. Just as poison can be delivered with a pinprick that requires no treatment itself, bleed can be a slashed vein that needs 3 or 4 stitches — very different from the massive tissue damage reflected by a 25 HP injury.
You could add rules to put a finer point on it. Maybe the first bleed damage roll is Injury and all subsequent are strain to represent blood loss... but in practice I've found that leaving it as-is works just fine. When someone takes bleed damage in my game, I describe it as a spurting artery with blood loss vastly disproportionate to severity of the wound. It needs a heal check or magic either way, so I spare myself the trouble and describe it as a tiny but effluent wound.
I ended up changing was the healing rate of strain. Fully healing within 5 minutes doesn't really give enough time for enemies to take advantage of, and so I changed it so that Characters recover 1/10th of their hp every 6 minutes of rest. In practicality it will often be less than an hour, because they won't always go until they hit 0. They still naturally recover, but it's not so quick that they can fight all day without more than a moment's pause.
Interesting playtest case: our cleric just died at the hands of an evil cleric channeling negative energy.
We're regrouping, but we have a pile of injury damage and, well, no heal skill. No potions.
Ooh! Keep me posted.
Interesting playtest case: our cleric just died at the hands of an evil cleric channeling negative energy.
We're regrouping, but we have a pile of injury damage and, well, no heal skill. No potions.
Have they sought out a doctor? Or is it one of those things, where there's no feasible time / opportunity to find one.
We're cornered.
It's an interesting case because the nature of the wounds from channel negative energy is ambiguous. We've been describing it as something like frostbite.
Even without the heal skill, you can take 20 on an unskilled roll. The problem is, no healing kit. With aid another and one party member's +2 wisdom, we just barely scrape by and get a whopping 4 hp back from treat deadly.
It's paltry, but I'd still say it's fair for no healing kit.
So we're going to have to roll forward into the next round of this fight with a bunch of injury damage still on. It's amusing, this would have been a bad situation in the RAW, too, out of potions and a dead cleric.
We used the HEAL SKILL. When does that even happen?!
That's a rough situation... Its nice to see that this variant does not create a cake-walk. My group has a CHA-optimized Paladin but no Cleric, so Lay on Hands and Channel Positive are their only source of healing. So far, they have not yet been stressed enough to have it be a problem, but I might change that if their retreat path is cut off by Wrathspawn who are curious about the sounds echoing through the corridors...
I cannot actually remember seeing the heal skill get used. I'm it must have happened at some point, but I can't think of any times.
I've seen it used for poison, and caltrops.
This is the first time we've had to do treat deadly wounds though. And it's for the same reason it doesn't come up in the RAW: potions, wands, clerics.
Personally, I wish people had to live with a meaningful wound now and then, but that's not what Strain-Injury set out to fix. So I guess I'm glad that it feels more or less the same as the RAW on this issue.
Still, it's pretty cool that treat deadly wounds gives you a healing method that "feels right" fo non-magic healing when used with Strain-Injury. there's only so much you should be able to do for a 20 hp broken leg without recourse to magic.
...I have just realised that a group I ran for got the hell poisoned out of them and never tried that.
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Just found this & like it very much, I'm going to implement it in my game. Thanks guys & great work! :)
Tim, let us know if you have any trouble implementing it. We're always looking to improve it and make it easier to adopt.
I often wonder if we don't need a specific term to accommodate the delivery of poison or bleed or elemental damage from a non-critical hit. This is definitely one of the trickiest concepts in the variant. Does calling such attacks a "scratch" help? I've also used "pinprick" during gameplay... for example:
"The snake's head whips out at you (roll roll) and hits your AC. You take 6 strain as you throw your arm up to block its attack with your gauntlet, but one fang penetrates! The bite is nothing more than a pinprick (or scratch) and will not require treatment, but it is enough to deliver the serpent's venom."
Can anyone else think of a catch-all term for a wound so negligible it won't require attention, but would rationalize poison, bleed, or even elemental bonus dice?
I had a problem where the Monk grappled something and started pounding it into oblivion. The target was an Imp, I think, grappled by a Dragonborn monk with a lot higher strength. I had a hard time thinking of how to describe this in terms of blocks, dodges, and the final lucky shot... on the other hand, the damage was being done to a Monster\NPC, so the differentiation between Injury and Strain is irrelevant, but if the tables were turned, the question would remain. How do you model being pummeled by someone grappling you (or pouncers for that matter) where you are clearly not on even footing, physically?
Personally, to answer Lincoln's question, I like the "just a scratch" methodology for poison, and it follows that something like a flaming sword's heat would singe you without having to cut you... same principle, and totally dramatically appropriate, I think.
I had a problem where the Monk grappled something and started pounding it into oblivion. The target was an Imp, I think, grappled by a Dragonborn monk with a lot higher strength. I had a hard time thinking of how to describe this in terms of blocks, dodges, and the final lucky shot... on the other hand, the damage was being done to a Monster\NPC, so the differentiation between Injury and Strain is irrelevant, but if the tables were turned, the question would remain. How do you model being pummeled by someone grappling you (or pouncers for that matter) where you are clearly not on even footing, physically?
I'd describe them as if they were hitting and making light bruises, while injury/final blow would be the punches that leave massive bruises or fractured bones.
I had a problem where the Monk grappled something and started pounding it into oblivion. The target was an Imp, I think, grappled by a Dragonborn monk with a lot higher strength. I had a hard time thinking of how to describe this in terms of blocks, dodges, and the final lucky shot... on the other hand, the damage was being done to a Monster\NPC, so the differentiation between Injury and Strain is irrelevant, but if the tables were turned, the question would remain. How do you model being pummeled by someone grappling you (or pouncers for that matter) where you are clearly not on even footing, physically?
Take a looser definition of strain. In the case of grapple, dodging is indeed a suboptimal description. Anything that tires you out or divides your attention causes strain too, because it makes it that much easier for another enemy (or the same enemy) to find an opening the next round, or even a minute later when you're catching your breath. Grappling absolutely causes strain damage under this definition, because grappling is exhausting; probably more so that simply swinging a sword around.
I would describe the application of damage in a grapple as pins, locks, and choke holds, definitely. Those things don't require medical treatment but they sure do compromise your defense in the short term. Like the strain description of the constricting attacks, getting your bloodflow cut off is a great take on strain, because it really undermines you defensively but it only takes a few minutes to recover from. It can also be something as simple as maybe getting your head bashed against a well in the grapple — the stars and tweety birds will clear out with a rest and refit, but in the mean time you're that much more a sitting duck.
If it's something like Behir or another nasty, I would probably fall back on armor damage as a strain description.
You've got to watch out and make sure you're changing things up and using all of the potential strain descriptions at your disposal. This not only makes for more dynamic combat description, it helps to train the players to recognize the meaning of strain damage... it's not always a near miss, it's ANY non-injury thing that makes the ongoing fight harder.
I talk about being winded and catching your breath a lot... I also narrate the strain (and I love to use the actual word here) of parrying a monster's big muscley limb with sword and shield. Make sure to remind the players that they are panting and exhausted when the fight is over, a kind of subtle hint that they should do a rest and refit.
As listed in the write-up for the rule, the list is:
tiring parry or dodge,
armor or shield wear and tear,
superficial cuts, bruises and pricks,
divided attention,
dwindling morale
dumb luck
In light of your comments I may actually divide the first item into physical exhaustion (from parry and dodge), and defending against an overwhelming number of attacks, getting your sword locked up defending against one attack leaves you open for another (divided attention?) For low level characters, simply being attacked twice in one round can be enough to overwhelm your parries and allow a final blow... for higher level characters, well, picture a maralith.
EDIT: "Superficial!" that's the word I wanted upthread! The taxonomy continues...
There can be a bit of a disconnect when figuring out how to describing a superficial wound to someone who is decked out head-to-toe in fullplate.
With a blade or piercing weapon you can say it found a seem in the armor and only the tip of the bade got through, it's a bit tougher with a bludgeoning weapon delivering poison though.
EL: alongside "superficial" you can also use "flesh wound". As in:
"It's only a FLESH WOUND."
"No it's not; your LEG'S off!"
Neep.
There can be a bit of a disconnect when figuring out how to describing a superficial wound to someone who is decked out head-to-toe in fullplate.
With a blade or piercing weapon you can say it found a seem in the armor and only the tip of the bade got through, it's a bit tougher with a bludgeoning weapon delivering poison though.
Are there bludgeoning attacks that deliver poison?
EL: alongside "superficial" you can also use "flesh wound". As in:
"It's only a FLESH WOUND."
"No it's not; your LEG'S off!"
Neep.
I was avoiding that one, specifically. Silhouette (the system used in Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles) used it... but even a hint of a python reference holds the potential to derail a game.
I was avoiding that one, specifically. Silhouette (the system used in Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles) used it... but even a hint of a python reference holds the potential to derail a game.EL: alongside "superficial" you can also use "flesh wound". As in:
"It's only a FLESH WOUND."
"No it's not; your LEG'S off!"
Neep.
Indeed... even if it is only Waffer Theen?
Are there bludgeoning attacks that deliver poison?There can be a bit of a disconnect when figuring out how to describing a superficial wound to someone who is decked out head-to-toe in fullplate.
With a blade or piercing weapon you can say it found a seem in the armor and only the tip of the bade got through, it's a bit tougher with a bludgeoning weapon delivering poison though.
The Magma Ooze (Bestiary 2) has a poisonous variant that has a poison slam attack.
I also don't think there's anything in the rules that prevents putting a contact or injury poison on a bludgeoning weapon.
Are there bludgeoning attacks that deliver poison?There can be a bit of a disconnect when figuring out how to describing a superficial wound to someone who is decked out head-to-toe in fullplate.
With a blade or piercing weapon you can say it found a seem in the armor and only the tip of the bade got through, it's a bit tougher with a bludgeoning weapon delivering poison though.
The Magma Ooze (Bestiary 2) has a poisonous variant that has a poison slam attack.
I also don't think there's anything in the rules that prevents putting a contact or injury poison on a bludgeoning weapon.
You could probably describe those as leaks in the armor.
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In the case of the ooze, describe it as a slime-tentacle sneaking its way inside a hole in the helmet and getting into the person's mouth or eyes.
For a weapon like a mace or club, say that the blow hit their shield or armor but the poison splatters up through an opening in their helmet and got into their eyes or mouth. Or maybe bent a piece of armor out of shape enough to show a bit of skin somewhere, causing a bit of a scrape, or maybe revealing a wound that was already present, and the poison seeped in to that.
@Alice Margatroid: Thanks for the Hentai Moment...
Mine is the Decapus...
The Strain-Injury Variant is an optional rule for Hit Points in the Pathfinder RPG. It was created with the help of more than two dozen regular posters here on the Paizo forums, and it addresses some of the common complaints about the Hit Point mechanic while preserving the combat balance, ease of use, and classic feel that Hit Points bring to the game.
The rule text proper is hosted on GoogleDocs so that we can update it as needed:
If you're curious about how the variant rule was developed, feel free to check out the original discussion. Warning - it is over 500 posts long, contains some dead-ends, and only settles into its current form on page 8 or so.
The basic premise of the rule is to separate the Hit Point damage that represents "physical punishment" from the Hit Point damage that represents various active defenses, or "turning a serious blow into a lesser one" as the Core Rulebook phrases it. In this way, Strain-Injury is very much like Vitality And Wound Points from the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana rules. Unlike Vitality and Wound Points, Strain-Injury requires very little change to the existing rules to use, and creates fewer consequences within the system.
There are two important elements of the Strain-Injury rule that are worth announcing up front:
Firstly, this variant is actually a rule about hit point recovery rates. All it does is set specific rates for the recovery of different types of damage. The rule does not include damage penalties (although that is a popular addition enough to merit...
Read it, not a fan. It gets rid of so much healing requirements, but 1 minute to recover all strain injury? Strains can be serious, and despite it being far less than getting your leg cut off, I've never known them to just wear off after 1 minute. This especially makes no sense after a few levels if you are taking massive amounts of damage, and then just brushing most of it off after 1 minute of loin girding.
I prefer to keep hp and healing as is.
Second, a curious imbalance between weapon type damages. So if you have not been crit (taken out or lost hp due to spells) you just need a minute to heal it all. This makes high crit weapons even better, which I oppose. To an example. If you did 50 damage to a tough foe with maces, flails and arrows, but got no crits, this can evaporate in 1 minute. They only need to get away for a bit and it magically goes away. If they bolt and can pause to recover, they are fine. No magic needed, they walk it off.
If you got stuck in with rapiers, kukris and the like, and did 50/60 hp damage with crits, none of that heals at all by these fast healing rules. So this rewards crits even further (if they escape their hp stays the same after being crit, if they have not been crit it is gone), and punishes rare to crit weapons or slightly bad rolling. Sorry, you did all that damage, but if they get a break, it is all gone, no matter how much you did or with what weapon.
As the rules stand now, taking 50 of 60 hp is serious. That will take days to heal or requires a lot of magical healing to get it all back quickly. Yet by these rules, it may just magically disappear. What did you hit them with, a feather duster mace?
Read it, not a fan. It gets rid of so much...
Okay, so first off - it takes 5 minutes of uninterrupted rest to recover strain, not 1 minute. Stressful circumstances (such as being chased) can prevent strain from being recovered. Additionally, there is another optional rule that introduces a gold piece cost for recovering strain (3 gp/1 hp by default), representing expenditures such as bandages, rations, and gear repairs.
As far as crits go - critical hits are supposed to be particularly devastating hits. And while you may be more likely to crit with a rapier or kukri, a critical hit from an arrow will be even more harmful.
So, let's say you took 50-60 hp of damage, none of which was from a critical hit, failed saving throw, or downing blow. This puts you at least around 8th level, minimum (I suppose sooner if you're a barbarian or have unnaturally high Constitution). This means you likely have access to cure critical wounds. A wand of cure critical wounds heals for 3d8+7. That's an average of 20 points of healing per charge. Which means you can get healed for all of the damage using 2-3 standard actions.
Your mileage may vary, and you don't have to like the variant rule, but I thought I'd point those things out.
Even if you don't like the Strain and Injury rules, I suggest giving this a try - write down whenever your PC suffers damage from a critical hit, failed saving throw, or downing blow - the damage and source. Even after healing, you can keep these as a record of your battle wounds.
For example, my 1st-level PFS cleric recently suffered 15 points of electricity damage from a trap, knocking him unconscious. He recovered, thankfully, and I wrote down 15 electricity on my battle scars list - he now has burnt veins tracing all along his upper body (the trap was triggered from above).
Not a fan of a rule change where less damage with a rapier that crits lasts longer than more damage with a greatclub/tetsubo or giant hammer that does not crit.
The 1 minute, I got from a link provided by Lincoln:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jcp6udyHU-cURn5u7MzunsOfrCruk0ywDkvmdVk 0fGQ/edit?pli=1
Of course it could be 1, 5, 10, whatever you wanted.
We have in the past tracked scars. More a player choice thing, but they can say yeah, that crit or massive amount of damage leaves a mark. Face is half ruined by acid, etc.
For me it goes back right to AD&D, where serious damage always left a mark on a character in the games I was in, and I have latched on to the idea ever since.
This rule doesn't make high crit weapons noticeably better. During a fight, where it actually matters, strain is identical to injury.
After the fight, if you run out of hp you are screwed either way.
Really, the difference is largely there to reinforce a theme.
Strain/Injury is really good for tracking scars, since it tells you when you were actually injured, rather than the standard hp recovery system's more abstracted approach.
Its purpose is to cut down on healing and accounting. Worthy goals but if anyone isn't crit and they escape or have a chance to briefly rest, they magically fully heal in an extremely short time, no matter what happened to them and without actually needing to use magic.
Example on the silliness. A party member steps into a trapped corridor, they take some bolts (oww) get hit by a swinging blade (eee) and fall down a pit trap (noooo). Let's say 30 damage. Whether they get up out of the pit or stay there, by these rules they can heal it all with just a pause and a bit of rest. No magic needed, no regen rings, days of rest with healing checks. Nope, just a pause is all you need. B~!~~!@s I say (but I appreciate it would make tracking hp a lot simpler and most pcs will always be on full hp for a serious fight, their healing after all only has to address crits and some specific forms of damage by these new add-on rules).
So that is why I am against it.
Tracking scars and old wounds is always easy. Any time you take 20-30 damage and it is described (cleaved by a mighty swing of the axe to your abdomen), add a note to your sheet. Ask for more details if the dm didn't give them or insert your own details (the scimitar cut leaves a scar curving around my character's chin, a reminder for him to watch flashing blades and to always protect his face--because he could have lost his whole jaw).
Ok, trouble with that is you can survive a ridiculous amount of wounding if that damage you're taking actually represents being hurt. Think of a movie character going through that trapped corridor and barely making it through. They probably don't get stabbed but they get scraped, bruised, embarrassed and superficially cut. They might lose their hat to an arrow, or even a piece of their ear. That's strain.
Under the normal hp system they apparently get shot, stabbed and then badly wounded when they land, but somehow they haven't broken anything even though they're badly injured. Realistically they should probably be dead. Then they fix it in moments anyway because most parties have easy access to plentiful healing magic.
The 1gp house rule is meant to represent the party supply of healing resources. I don't like that approach myself so I don't use it, but strain/injury can be an abstraction of healing items rather than a replacement for them.
The trouble with tracking a scar based purely on how much damage you were dealt is everything worth worrying about does a ton of damage once you hit a certain level. Attacks even do more damage in relation to the maximum hit points of the characters.
Example on the silliness. A party member steps into a trapped corridor, they take some bolts (oww) get hit by a swinging blade (eee) and fall down a pit trap (noooo). Let's say 30 damage. Whether they get up out of the pit or stay there, by these rules they can heal it all with just a pause and a bit of rest. No magic needed, no regen rings, days of rest with healing checks. Nope, just a pause is all you need. B%%&%%%s I say
OR
"A party member steps into a trapped corridor, some bolts hammer across his magical steel armor, a blade throws him off his feet and dazes him, and he falls down a pit and gets the wind knocked out of him. Lets say 30 damage. Because none of these were critical hits, and as such, did not cause direct injury. A combination of luck, training and amazing magical equipment made it so our intrepid hero just needed a quick rest, whereas a normal person likely would have been skewered."
Not at all how I do damage. If you get struck by bolts, cut or dropped down a shaft by traps, that is real damage. Taken damage from hits does not skip off armour or wind you with no real effect, it doesn't heal in a minute or 5 thanks to a coffee break. You got shot, chopped and dropped, this is serious, lol.
If someone bashes you up, monster or humanoid, your hp reflects that. Pausing for a moment or girding your loins does jack, so yeah, not a fan of these rules.
The sad thing about this, is it trying to add video game regen into pf. Hide in a corner for a bit, you are healed. Wonderful. No thanks.
Example on the silliness. A party member steps into a trapped corridor, they take some bolts (oww) get hit by a swinging blade (eee) and fall down a pit trap (noooo). Let's say 30 damage. Whether they get up out of the pit or stay there, by these rules they can heal it all with just a pause and a bit of rest. No magic needed, no regen rings, days of rest with healing checks. Nope, just a pause is all you need. B%%&%%%s I sayOR
"A party member steps into a trapped corridor, some bolts hammer across his magical steel armor, a blade throws him off his feet and dazes him, and he falls down a pit and gets the wind knocked out of him. Lets say 30 damage. Because none of these were critical hits, and as such, did not cause direct injury. A combination of luck, training and amazing magical equipment made it so our intrepid hero just needed a quick rest, whereas a normal person likely would have been skewered."
"Amazing magical equipment"? The regen applies regardless of what you are wearing. You could be naked and you still shrug it off. lol.
Strains are also serious injuries! If anyone here has ever had a really bad strain. I've seen a boy scream and be immobilised by a strained ligament. Not a fan of the naming either.
When you have over 100 HP, a crossbow bolt doing 4 damage is like someone slapping me in the face. My immersion would be far more prone to breaking if 4% of my hp is described as a direct hit.
Amazing magical equipment is just one of the many ways to rationalize the damage not being terrible.
And yes, a strain can be an injury. But it can also be something that passes. I have pulled a lot of stuff in my time. Sometimes I shrug it off, other times I need days for it to heal. Either way, IN combat, that strain is going to mess you up, and potentially immobilize you.
Also, this is not a kid. It is a player character, a heroic figure that is supposed to be able to stand against the odds. Heck, after a certain level, they cannot be considered mere humans anymore. You don't see Thor or Spider-Man be disabled because they take a fall. And if you do not want your PCs to be superhuman, and you are not playing E6, you are simply playing the wrong game.