Hello all!

In the 1st and 2nd editions of the WFRP there was a limit on the number of wounds a character may had. This limit was given by the starting number of wounds and by the advances provided by your careers. For the later, the maximum number of advances you could get (in the 2nd ed) was +8. Setting the limit to your wound characteristic as starting wounds +8.

In the 3rd edition of the game a character starts typically with a wound threshold between 11 and 15 wounds, I have observed that in the 3rd ed there is no limit in the number of wounds a character can obtain. At least you can increase your number of wounds once per each new carreer (reiklanders can in some cases change careers for free). I am just new in the 3ed of the game, so for me is not a problem at the moment.

My question is, has any "veteran" GM of the 3rd ed found any problem with the amount of wounds their characters are obtaining? I would find extremly wierd that humans /dwarfs /elfs charactars (although they are heroes) would have a similar (or more) number of wounds than a Troll (18 - 19), or a Giant (22).

I think that I will consider following the same spirit of the 2nd ed and increase dramatically the number of wounds of large monsters like trolls, giants, dragons etc. For exemple, in the 2nd ed a Troll had 30 wounds and a giant 48, compared to the 18 - 21 max wounds a character could have.

I will apreciate any feedback.

I personally haven't.

Even with high wounds, the big monsters will still have high toughness and soak to migitate some damage.
I've also not had anybody swap careers just to stack up on wounds.

If they were to swap between careers that often, they would lose a lot of xp compared to the rest of the party (I guess if the human picks his careers very strategically, he could skip by this).

But what would be the point as a character of swapping careers every 2 weeks?

And even if/when this ever would occur, you'd still have the option of "taking him down" with either

- Corruption
- Fatigue
- Stress
- Disease
- regular critical wounds
- major/permanent critical wounds

So from a powerplay perspective, I can't see it be worth much effort either.

Also, mind the lethality of the bigger monsters. Giving them more hitpoints, means making them a lot more dangerous, especially if they have high soak/toughness.

Increasing Wound Threshold is actually one of the least appealing advances to most players. If you think about it, for 1 XP you can either get:

1) A new Action Card, representing a new form of attack/defense or a new way to use one of your favorite skills

2) A new Talent, which will give you bonus dice or other results in special circumstances

3) An extra trained Skill, giving you that *very powerful* Expertise die to ramp up one of your Career Skills

4) Or 1 extra Wound.

In other words, unless you are in a very physically demanding Career, an extra Wound Point here or there isn't all that useful or interesting. It doesn't make that big of a difference in surviving combat, especially if your PC would prefer to stay out of combat in the first place.

Now, with the release of Black Fire Pass and the Dragon Slayer Career, it did get me pondering what the "current" maximum Wound Threshold would look like. A Slayer who's progressed all the way to the end of Rank 3 could have a max of 27 Wound Threshold:

Dwarf Base Wounds: 10

Toughness 5

Troll Slayer: 4 Wounds (1 Fixed + 3 Open Advances)

Giant Slayer: 4 Wounds (1 Fixed + 3 Open Advances)

Dragon Slayer: 4 Wounds (1 Fixed + 3 Open Advances)

One tough little bugger but then, that's what a Slayer *is*! That's why he's given the option to take up to 3 additional Wounds at each Rank! But to do this also means that the Slayer has spent over a third of his available Advances on nothing but more Wounds, giving him access to fewer Actions, Talents, Skills/Specializations and no room to improve Characteristics. Non-combat Career characters will likely have far less interest in spending their XP that way, many only taking the 1 Fixed Advance.

Also, "normal" Wounds aren't all that dangerous really. They recover relatively quickly and don't really hinder the character until they reach the point of being K.O.ed. A single Critical Wound is far more lasting and inconvenient to the PC than even a stack of 10 normal Wounds.

I haven't really seen it be an issue. I feel that more of a significant issue is characters with incredibly high Toughness/Soak, as they can avoid taking most Wounds in the first place. My players have a Dwarf Pit Fighter in the party who decided to go the "Bulwark" (sword & board) route. He wears a mail shirt, carries a tower shield and has several defensive-style Actions/Talents. He's pretty resistant to Wounds as it is and he's looking at pursuing the Ironbreaker Career when possible, which will only make him tougher! That said, as Nisses mentioned above, all the Wound Thresh and armor in the world won't help him against the ravages of Corruption, Disease, Fatigue, Stress and Insanity. This is Warhammer. It's not just about knocking their Wounds to "0". Wounds are easy to heal. Everything else is quite a bit more difficult to treat, especially considering what passes for the practice of "medicine" in the Old World.

18-21 wounds is freakishly high. I play in a game where we all just hit 3rd rank, and even the Mercenary/Thug isn't there.

And if someone wants to devote that many advances to get wounds, they should be getting something for it.