[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Lifebane and Unhealing

[johndallman]

Lifebane [-10] is a supernatural disadvantage, notionally mental, although that seems to mean that you can't escape it by switching to a new body. You are dangerous to life: small plants and insects die near you, as, presumably, do bacteria and viruses. It appeared in 3e Compendium 1.

Unhealing [-20 or -30] is an exotic physical disadvantage, which prevents you healing naturally, or having Regeneration, although supernatural healing works. It appeared in 3e Fantasy Folk, for ghosts. Both of these disadvantages likely mean that you are "unnatural" in some way.

Lifebane kills grass that you step on (and it will never regrow), and larger plants wilt in your presence. Trees and other very large plants aren't affected immediately, although leaves you touch may die, and if you go near them every day, they'll suffer after a while. Insects and other tiny creatures die on coming with a yard of you, but animals weighing more than a few ounces are not affected. This has no effect on any supernatural creature, or mundane ones controlled or motivated by supernatural means: conjured swarms of insects can happily eat you. Lifebane gives -2 to reaction rolls from (almost) anyone who notices its effects, and if it's due to you being undead, demonic, etc., people who are aware of it it get +2 to rolls to deduce what you are. Anyone trying to track or find you in a natural environment is also at +2, because you leave obvious traces of your presence. This would go well with Frightens Animals, and I wish I'd included it in that posting.

Unhealing means that you get no HT rolls to recover lost hit points, and cannot recover from crippling injuries by yourself. First Aid and Physician cannot restore lost hit points, although they can stop bleeding, splint broken bones, and so on. At [-20] there are rare circumstances where you can heal naturally, such as being immersed in blood, or lava, and you can also steal others' hit points if you have a suitable ability, such as the Leech advantage (Powers, p. 96), the Steal Vitality spell, or Vampiric Bite. At [30], none of those methods work. You may be able to be repaired if you're a machine, or via the Surgery skill, or to be healed via alchemy, magic or psionics, but that depends on your reason for having this disadvantage. If you have no way to regain hit points at all, consider Terminally Ill.

Both disadvantages are extremely rare on published character templates, although most undead, robots and other automata are Unhealing, as are sapient magic items by default. A few Banestorm dark elves have Lifebane, and Bio-Tech has drugs that might cure or cause Unhealing. Boardroom & Curia allows a government to have Lifebane, which Fantasy uses as a side-effect of Mana Damper if life is linked to mana. Magic: Plant Spells has Lifebane implemented as a toxic attack, and Power-Ups 4: Enhancements has a version of Cosmic that makes wounds unable to be healed naturally. Psionic Powers has a perk for controllable Lifebane, and Space allows for aliens that have Lifebane via radioactivity or toxic gasses. Both disadvantages are commonplace in Zombies.

I've never used either disadvantage as player or GM, and don't feel I've missed a great deal. Have they been fun in your games?

[CeeDub]

For me, Lifebane is a common (Temporary) Disadvantage or Aftermath modifier on characters with the Leech advantage or the Steal Vitality spell.

[RogerBW]

I've never picked either, though I've played characters for whom Unhealing was part of the template (AIs).

I think the frequency of the reaction penalty would be very setting-dependent. In your standard fantasy setting where most economic activity is farming or farm-adjacent, sure, you don't want the guy with Lifebane in your village. But in a modern urban environment, would you even notice? (And similarly with the bonus to tracking.) Naturally it's one of the conventions of GURPS that every trait has a fixed cost which applies in every setting, but this is one of the cases that definitely stretches that model.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

I've never picked either, though I've played characters for whom Unhealing was part of the template (AIs).

I think the frequency of the reaction penalty would be very setting-dependent. In your standard fantasy setting where most economic activity is farming or farm-adjacent, sure, you don't want the guy with Lifebane in your village. But in a modern urban environment, would you even notice? (And similarly with the bonus to tracking.) Naturally it's one of the conventions of GURPS that every trait has a fixed cost which applies in every setting, but this is one of the cases that definitely stretches that model.

Oddly enough, I would argue that Unhealing is also highly setting dependent in value. In a setting where healing spells exist and are widely available, it becomes almost irrelevant.

[Anthony]

Unhealing is prone to either being free points (you have another convenient source of healing, or your game doesn't involve combat) or crippling (other). Natural healing is not terribly relevant to most games, and thus not having access to it is also not terribly relevant.

Lifebane is a generic reaction penalty. I tend to toss it on creatures that are toxic to be near for any reason, though sometimes they have additional effects to make them dangerous to larger lifeforms as well.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Unhealing is prone to either being free points (you have another convenient source of healing, or your game doesn't involve combat) or crippling (other). Natural healing is not terribly relevant to most games, and thus not having access to it is also not terribly relevant.

Lifebane is a generic reaction penalty. l.

As long as you ignore how really freaking easy it would be to track a Lifebane in any green setting.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Unhealing is prone to either being free points (you have another convenient source of healing, or your game doesn't involve combat) or crippling (other). Natural healing is not terribly relevant to most games, and thus not having access to it is also not terribly relevant.

Natural healing, enhanced by hospitals, is all there is in a non-magical/supernatural/etc. modern setting. SF settings often aren't much better - they have faster healing from hospitals, but that's often about it. As Unhealing affects healing from hospitals, and also from First Aid, if there are no 'miracle' healing drugs available and no supernatural healing sources, Unhealing is a serious disadvantage.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Natural healing, enhanced by hospitals, is all there is in a non-magical/supernatural/etc. modern setting.

In such a setting the only unhealing characters are machines bought as allies, and they can be repaired, which is usually better than natural healing.

[dcarson]

I ran a short Greek demigod campaign set in bronze age Greece with the PCs being half-god children of Greek gods and goddesses. One of them was a child of Hades and had Lifebane.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Anthony

In such a setting the only unhealing characters are machines bought as allies, and they can be repaired, which is usually better than natural healing.

Ascepaline from UT (p.205) can cause partial Unhealing if over-used. Given that it grants +1 HP/4 hours for one day, and can only be safely used once a week, my players seldom bother with with, and have long since given up going to the trouble of buying it specifically.