So a character in my group is a Smuggler with Toughness 3 and got the unlucky result of ending a battle with 3 Critical Wounds, everyone of them with a Severity Rating of 3. That seems pretty common by the way, as a broken nose (ok, not exactly something light to heal) has a Severity Rating of 3...

Anyway, they stopped at a farm house for some time to tend their wounds, and there was an old lady there who knew something about healing plants. I let them roll for extended care with 2 fortune dices, and the Smuggler was rolling with Difficulty of 1, again for being taken care of.

Nevertheless, it sure seemed too difficult for him to heal any of the Critical Wounds he had.

So, I'm curious... Am I the only one who thinks Critical Wound healing should have some lighter way to be done? I know Warhammer is a very harsh scenario, and I actually love that. I was one to use half of healing efficiency for second edition... But I got a little worried about this.

I'm thinking about a House Rule in which, if a character rolls just one success short of healing a Critical Wound (thus making it a regular wound), it isn't healed, but it's Severity Rating goes down one point.

First of all, first aid helps a great deal, and remember that each char can assist the one doing first aid. I normally let 2-3 players assist, but they have to explain what they help with. For example holding the target down so he can't move, fetch fresh water etc...

Next medicin helps a great deal to, guess you know though...

Finally the player is free to spend all his fortune points.

A Shallya priest can cure 3 severity crits to.

Critical wounds are surposed to be darn hard to get rid of. In the "real" world an unattended broken nose would take a month or more to "heal", and yet it would never be good again.

The way critical wounds work, has made my players shun battle a great deal. Because even 1 snotling can get lucky and cause a critical wound, which then takes ages to heal. In 2nd edition they had to score ulrics furry and be insanely lucky to do much, and wounds were easy to heal.

maybe you went to fast reading the healing section (p 64 of the base rule book)

With overnight rest, the Smuggler will recover (Toughness) Wounds. He also has a Resilience check (Tougness), thus 3 blue dice (unlikely trained unless Dwarf) which may recover extra Wound(s) and/or a Critical Wound.

You can increase that Resilience check with help : 1st Aid and/or Medicine, you can have both (p. 64 says "One character can provide assistance to another character’s Resilience check by attempting a First Aid check. [...] A character skilled in Medicine can provide assistance to a recovering patient, as well.")

A NPC Specialist in 1st Aid could contribute (after payment of course ) and add bonus dice depending on the result of a 1st Aid check. Your criticaly wounded Smuggler gives a 2 challenge dice to the check, the Specialist probably has 4 Int and uses at least 1 Expertice die + 1 Fortune.

To recover from 3 Critical Wounds of rating 3, on a 3 Tou character, you will need at least a week of rest and care, unless you are lucky

If you are able to consume ressources (cash, favors, etc.), you can have long term care with able help and good conditions resulting in much faster healing

No DD4 healing for sure

I house ruled one thing : you can recover more than 1 Critical Wound per night, the Resilience check beeing the limiting factor. If you get 4 succeses, you can recover from a combinaison of 4 points worth of Critical Wounds, but each individual Critical Wound must have its Rating covered fully by that check alone : 1/1/1/1, 1/1/2, 1/3, 2/2, 4. If you have a severity 2 and a 3, only one of the 2 is recovered, the second one will need a new check another day and be fully covered by that new check.

I have not seen a problem.

Generally about 3 nights minimum rest between major fights is a good marker I think.

I think the severity actually clusters at 2 and 3, as opposed to 3.

As noted, First Aid (though I don't let others really help on that if they aren't trained, and I tell the person giving First Aid to person resting that means they're not resting completey themselves that night, -1 to Wounds healed automatically and a black die on their own Resilience check for more). Note that PC's can give First Aid untrained of course (perhaps only try if smart and with fortune points to spend). Towns will have barber-surgeons, doctors and healing women even if not a Shallyan hospice.

I let Players use their Fortune Points on their Resilience check (don't really see anything yea or nay about that in rules, so sure) and Favoured By Fortune human trait.

Players quickly see that training Resilience is very handy, just like training Discipline. Maybe a fortune die on Toughness is a good idea, check out which careers have that as Primary stat.

Before all that, well you're novice starting heroes, yup lots of bed rest after near death experience.

I throw in the odd "bone" at times to help. In Stromdorf, Keila Cobblepot’s meals are so tasty and good that anyone enjoying a premium meal (cost 5 silver pieces) automatically recovers 1 stress and gains a fortune die on Resilience for that night. However, they are also so tasty that sleep is sound and misfortune die is imposed on any actions on sudden waking in night (brief condition, 3 rounds) - not that anything bad ever happens at night in the Stewpot. This has become a favourite with my PC's (one immediately translates any financial reward into "x many pies", and they are willing to spend more on pies than the funerals of dead comrades - oi, it's warhammer).

I should add, as noted above, yes they're supposed to be hard to cure.

It's not unusual to be labouring under the difficulty of some impairment. Under two or three at once, that's nasty, but under one - count yourself lucky if you're not dealing with at least one such.

Alright, thanks for you answers!

Cwell2101, juts because I've got my pride hurt ;] : yes, I've read the rules of healing meticulously. I've applied every aspect you explained, as well as long-term care, in which a Critical Wound becomes one die less difficult to heal with Resilience.

In the case, the Smuggler wasn't being tended by a professional physician, just by an old lady with a good understating of First Aid and herbs, so she was giving long-term treatment and a fortune die to the check. Also another of the characters was helping with First Aid.

I guess I just thought the rules too harsh because the character was suffering from three Crits at the same time. Yes, I also think Critical Wounds should be hard to heal, I'm just trying to balance it with the pace of released adventures.

I'll try and run my next sessions with the official rules to see how they come for me and my group. If they keep seeming to harsh, I'll add the House Rule I explained, giving a progressive heal edge to a Critical Wound through almost successful rolls.

sorry, i guess i'm writing badly, wasn't meant in anyway to offend

I actually have the same trouble as you it seems, and i have to change the timeline of TGS a bit so i let my players heal (after recovering the swamp Lighting Stone, one si 17 wounds with 4 Crits , he's a Dwarf with Tou 5 and 16 Wounds and others are also badly hurt with 2 or 3 Crits).

I'll give them access to NPC Specialists with good conditions (at least 1st Aid, not too hot about the Medicine one because he's not really good), the town will cover (minor) expenses. I'll give them 2 days rest instead of 1 before starting the 2nd part. Depending on rolls, i'll probably allow Father Godsomething to one healing Benediction each.

It'll be hot for them, they stil have to escape the swamp but i'll be gentle and try not to kill them