Existential Question about Wounded and Dying

[Inhumer]

Hello.

I’m reduced to zero HP (not really, except in the long view, don't call emergency services; also by an attack that is not nonlethal) and I have the Wounded 1 condition.

Because I have Wounded 1, I get Dying 2, right? One for being reduced to 0 HP and 1 for having Wounded 1.

Now I fail my first DC 12 flat(ish) check for recovery, which means that my Dying value increases by 1 (to 3) AND (according to Player Core Remaster page 411) it also increases by +1 because I am wounded, for Dying 4, which means I am dead.

Seems a bit harsh and, more to the point, it seems there is very little point in having levels to the Wounded condition except in the edge cases of a PC having a Dying threshold of more than 4, unless it is to allow you to recover once then fail then recover, which seems...complicated.

Given that you are already adding in the Wounded condition when you first gain the Dying condition, do the rules really require that you add it in again every time you fail a save/take damage or am I misreading this?

I mean, whatever, I’m not doing it, I’m just asking because it seems odd and unnecessarily convoluted if that is the actual intention.

Apologies if this has already been addressed but there are an awful lot of posts on the topic of Wounded and I could not see this addressed.

[Dr. Frank Funkelstein]

Wounded is only taken into account once:
"If you gain the dying condition while wounded, increase the dying condition's value by your wounded value"
see dying rules

[Tridus]

Inhumer wrote:

Because I have Wounded 1, I get Dying 2, right? One for being reduced to 0 HP and 1 for having Wounded 1.

Correct.

Quote:

Now I fail my first DC 12 flat(ish) check for recovery, which means that my Dying value increases by 1 (to 3) AND (according to Player Core Remaster page 411) it also increases by +1 because I am wounded, for Dying 4, which means I am dead.

Seems a bit harsh and, more to the point, it seems there is very little point in having levels to the Wounded condition except in the edge cases of a PC having a Dying threshold of more than 4, unless it is to allow you to recover once then fail then recover, which seems...complicated.

This is something that was errat'd after Player Core came out, as Player Core changed it and apparently that was unintentional.

You only add Wounded once, when you gain Dying again. So in this example, you fail the check and your Dying value goes to 3. The second part doesn't happen anymore.

You're right, it was overly harsh.

Here's the errata:

errata wrote:

Pages 411: The text for the wounded condition was changed for consistency, but became consistent with the wrong piece of text. This would lead to much deadlier encounters! The following changes should ensure that death and dying works the way we intended.

In the Recovery Checks degrees of success, remove all instances of "(plus your wounded condition, if any)"; that's both in the failure and critical failure entries.
Under Taking Damage, remove the final sentence that reads, "If you have the wounded condition, remember to add the value of your wounded condition to your dying value." This reminder should only apply to when you gain the dying condition after getting knocked out.