Infection, anyone?

[Ancalagon]

I'm very slowly working on a gritty homebrew setting based in pre-Renaissance western Europe using a heavily house ruled C&C as the system. One of the many house rules is that all characters will be human so three prime attributes for all.

I'm toying around with the idea of introducing an option for the possible infection of wounds suffered in combat so as to reflect more closely the danger of combat as opposed to simply marking off hit points. Here is what I've come up with so far:

When a piercing, slashing, or thrusting weapon hits for max damage, the victim must make a CON saving throw to prevent the wound from becoming infected. The challenge level to the CON save depends on the damage die in question.

Damage die < d4 = challenge level 0
Damage die d4 = challenge level 1
Damage die d6 = challenge level 2
Damage die d8 = challenge level 3
Damage die d10 = challenge level 4
Damage die d12 = challenge level 5

Weapons which use multiple dice for damage determination will use the a higher challenge level for the CON save. E.g. A broadsword (2d4) scoring 8 pts is equivalent to a d8 for a challenge level of 3. A bearded axe (3d4) scoring 12 pts is equivalent to a d12 for a challenge level of 5.

Thoughts and/or suggestions?

[Lurker]

Nice, I like it.

I tend to lean toward a less high magic setting so I can see myself using it. Sad to say I never thought about something like that despite my military experience and working hand in hand with some of the medics and knowing how dangerous infections are (a friend on the team cut his hand and with in 3 days it was red and swollen and we had to evac him off the mountain)

My question, what is the effect of the infection? A loss of HP or CON or what?

Oh yeah, how does cure (L, M, H) combat the infection? Do they increase HP, but the character still have the infection (and the effects from the above question) or does a cure fix it all?

Off the top of my head, I'd say it takes a cure to return HP, and then another (not sure of the level - L, M, H) to remove the infection. Of course, a heal takes care of it all.

[Treebore]

Since infections are essentially a "disease", to not have to worry about them, much, the party would have to have access to "Cure Disease". Until then I can see infections being a constant issue. You may also want to allow modifiers to the CON save based on what they are able to do shortly after the wound occurs. If they have access to things like Honey (natural honey is actually a GREAT natural anti biotic), mosses, clean water and bandages, etc... you may want to figure out what modifiers you will give to their roll.

[Ancalagon]

Nice, I like it.

I tend to lean toward a less high magic setting so I can see myself using it. Sad to say I never thought about something like that despite my military experience and working hand in hand with some of the medics and knowing how dangerous infections are (a friend on the team cut his hand and with in 3 days it was red and swollen and we had to evac him off the mountain)

My question, what is the effect of the infection? A loss of HP or CON or what?

Oh yeah, how does cure (L, M, H) combat the infection? Do they increase HP, but the character still have the infection (and the effects from the above question) or does a cure fix it all?

Off the top of my head, I'd say it takes a cure to return HP, and then another (not sure of the level - L, M, H) to remove the infection. Of course, a heal takes care of it all.

I'm still working on those details. Once I come up with something I'll post it here for review.

[Ancalagon]

Since infections are essentially a "disease", to not have to worry about them, much, the party would have to have access to "Cure Disease". Until then I can see infections being a constant issue. You may also want to allow modifiers to the CON save based on what they are able to do shortly after the wound occurs. If they have access to things like Honey (natural honey is actually a GREAT natural anti biotic), mosses, clean water and bandages, etc... you may want to figure out what modifiers you will give to their roll.

Emphasis mine.
Access to folk remedies, "educated physicians" and apothecaries not constrained by dogma in the common Church views at the time wherein God sent disease as a form of punishment so prayer was required to cure it would be some possibilities for preventing / treating infections. Priests / clerics who can pray for miracles (aka spells) will be pretty few and far between due to widespread corrupt practices of the day.

[Treebore]

According to a documentary I watched on the history of beer/mead, they were also apparently a good source of anti biotics. Never saw religion successfully wipe out the drinking of beer. Religion couldn't even stop it, in fact it even flourished, during the 13 years of US prohibition. Plus it is much easier to prove honey works far better than empty prayers of desperation. (You have to have FAITH for that to work. To steal a great line from a certain movie.)

[Dracyian]

I would change when the roll is done or adjust the modifers to reflect the enemy and condition of the weapon, if you are fighting an experienced warrior such as a well trained Knight, or a knight with a squire that knows his stuff the chance of the initial sword swing infecting someone is lower because they tend to care for their equipment and make sure its clean because a dirty sword becomes a dull sword and not all attacks break the skin, like taking a ax swing to midsection while wearing full plate may not cut you while it will bruise and damage you. While a goblin or a kobold may take crap care of their sword and while since it is rusted worn and damaged causing 1d4 of damage it may be just full of infection and disease
I would also think about adding in saves for each day it is not properly treated increasing the challenge level by say 1 per day left untreated.
Just some thoughts