[Monster Hunters] What happens when a vampire's head reattaches?

[Michael Thayne]

Here's the scenario: the party corner's a mature vampire in its den. With one mighty swing (and some help from a buffing ritual), the party's Warrior inflicts the requisite 27 points of cutting damage on its neck. The GM rolls some dice behind the screen, reacts in mild surprise, and announces the vampire has been decapitated. The begins debating the minutiae of where exactly they should take the body to burn it, but the GM cuts them off to announce that the characters can suddenly hear police sirens nearby. The party Sleuth asks for clarification, and the GM informs them someone is pounding on the door, claiming to be the police. The party runs out the back and flees, in the name of protecting the Secret.

Now here's the question: the rules clearly state that the vampire's head will eventually be able to role to the body and reattach. When that happens, is the vampire at (1) 0 HP, because the Warrior did 27 damage to a 27 HP vamp, and the monster description says nothing about negating damage if the HT roll for the vamp to keep its head fails or (2) 27 HP, because obviously reattaching a head requires healing the injury that made the head come off? This is particularly relevant if the GM needs to know if the vamp will be thirsty for blood to heal its wounds when it wakes up.

[sir_pudding]

Being at 0 HP but conscious makes the most sense. It would certainly need blood, it lost a lot while decapitated!

[Bruno]

Detachable Head is part of Injury Tolerance: Independent Body Parts. For that advantage, severed limbs (and heads) are reattached by holding them in place for a minute - but this doesn't heal any HP. You just get your head back. Or body back, depending on your point of view.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Detachable Head is part of Injury Tolerance: Independent Body Parts. For that advantage, severed limbs (and heads) are reattached by holding them in place for a minute - but this doesn't heal any HP. You just get your head back. Or body back, depending on your point of view.

Ah, but, that trait also says you don't lose any HP when a limb is cut off. So, if the MH vampire has this form of Injury Tolerance, it's at 27 HP, unless the cops don't put the head in the same body bag as the "corpse." Then your party gets to have some real fun trying to protect the Secret from a very angry vampire in a hospital!

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Ah, but, that trait also says you don't lose any HP when a limb is cut off. So, if the MH vampire has this form of Injury Tolerance, it's at 27 HP, unless the cops don't put the head in the same body bag as the "corpse." Then your party gets to have some real fun trying to protect the Secret from a very angry vampire in a hospital!

Either way, I think the correct answer is "putting your head back on doesn't change the number of HP you have"

[PK]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Either way, I think the correct answer is "putting your head back on doesn't change the number of HP you have"

Right. The vamp would still be down to 0 HP but otherwise completely fine, and would almost certainly race to drain the nearest meat bag.

[Phantasm]

The real issue will be in the morgue, when the coroner stores the head in the same freezer as the body. On top of that, if the head doesn't reattach itself, if there's going to be a funeral involved the coroner may sew/staple the head onto the neck for coffin-viewing purposes. (This of course assumes the vampire had a legal identity and lacked the Social Stigma (Dead) for whatever reason prior to this encounter.)

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by PK

Right. The vamp would still be down to 0 HP but otherwise completely fine, and would almost certainly race to drain the nearest meat bag.

No, Detachable Body Parts says you don't lose HP when a body part is cut off. Thus, if one loses their head to some guy with a sword, you lose no HP. The vampire should be at full HP, minus whatever the party did before somebody made their Targeted Attack: Neck roll.

Originally Posted by Powers p52

A cutting attack to the neck that inflicts full HP or more decapitates you without injury.

The vampire is at 27 HP, not 0.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

No, Detachable Body Parts says you don't lose HP when a body part is cut off. Thus, if one loses their head to some guy with a sword, you lose no HP. The vampire should be at full HP, minus whatever the party did before somebody made their Targeted Attack: Neck roll.

Monster Hunters vampires don't have Detachable Body Parts. They have a limitation on their Supernatural Durability that makes an exception for decapitation. Please note the text under vampire weaknesses:

Originally Posted by MH3: The Enemy (p. 10)

A vampire's neck is also a weak point. Any cutting attack to the neck that does injury equal to the vampire's HP or more has a chance of decapitating it.

Emphasis mine. The vampire takes the injury, and it is that injury which prompts the HT roll to check for decapitation.

The vampire is at 27 HP, not 0.

Nope. Trust me, I have a little bit of inside knowledge regarding the author's intentions. :)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by PK

Nope. Trust me, I have a little bit of inside knowledge regarding the author's intentions. :)

To make it clear for those of you playing at home, PK is the author.

Yes, I know, don't explain the joke, blah blah blah.