Each character can withstand a certain amount of damage before becoming fatigued, getting knocked unconscious, or dying. This ability to take damage and keep on functioning is represented by the character?s vitality and wound points.
Vitality points represent the character?s ability to turn deadly attacks into glancing blows and near misses. Only some characters (including all heroes) have vitality points. When a character suffers damage, his vitality points are reduced first. This represents a loss of energy as rolling with the punches wears down a character, but it doesn?t cause actual physical damage. When a character?s vitality points are depleted, further damage reduces the character?s wound points.
Wound points represent how much physical damage a character can suffer before dying. Damage reduces wound points only after a character has exhausted his vitality points or when the character is struck by a critical hit.
A character?s class and level determine his number of vitality points, and that number increases with each level gained. A character?s wound points are equal to his constitution score. They do not increase with Level advance-ment unless specified by a class feature or a feat.