Constitution (CON, MAXCON) defines the durability of a character in Wasteland, Fountain of Dreams, Wasteland 2, and Wasteland 3.
Wasteland[]
Constitution represents the hit points of a character or creature. The higher this value, the more damage they can take before dying. The constitution of other characters and creatures is determined randomly when encountering them, within a given range (eg. a Hexborg can have anywhere from 37 to 187 hit points). Rangers and recruits start with a pre-determined amount of health, but each promotion adds 2 pts to their MAXCON.
Note that Constitution is just one part of the deal. Armor Class is the second, as each point of AC removes one die from the damage calculation. As such, Guardians of the Old Order might have low Constitution, but their high Armor Class confers a virtual immunity to anything but energy and anti-tank weapons.
Finally, all enemy hit points reset if the party leaves combat or the enemies run away, and are rerolled upon encountering them again. So much for hit-and-run tactics.
Injuries[]
If a character is wounded, they lose constitution, but remain awake and functional until their constitution reaches zero. At this point they become unconscious. If the party remains in combat, party members may regain consciousness and rejoin the fight. Unconscious characters are immune to further damage. If all party members are knocked out, the combat ends, and time passes until at least one party member regains consciousness. The party then rejoins combat.
Injuries happen when a single attack or environmental trigger deals enough damage to put the character in a SERiously wounded state or worse. These characters will keep losing constitution unless they are taken to a hospital or a party member uses Medic or Doctor to help them.
There are four stages, ending in permanent death (only the single-use Fat Freddy encounter can revive party members due to a bug). Dead characters can be buried using the Disband party command.
- Serious, can be reliably healed with Medic.
- Critical, can be healed with Medic some of the time.
- Mortal, can be very rarely healed with Medic.
- Comatose, can only be helped with Doctor, which reliably fixes all injury states.
Time does not pass while using skills. As such, prioritize least wounded members to possibly gain a level in a skill and help the more wounded (this goes against triage rules, but oh well).
Diseases[]
Both Medic and Doctor can be used to keep party members alive while going to a hospital if a character contracted a disease, but require periodic checks to ensure they don't get too wounded. Note that Desert Dust and Rabies keep inflicting damage, so this is an even bigger concern.
Diseased characters have a highlighted condition counter.
Healing[]
Constitution is regained automatically as time passes on. Resting (using Escape, a macro, or the Camp option in Remastered) allows for waiting until it is restored. Note that passing time is subject to usual random encounter rules, so pick a safe area (like the hottest spots on the worldmap).
Fountain of Dreams[]
PC's and NPC's health is indicated by two numbers, Constitution (CON) and MAXCON.
CON is the amount of damage your character can take before going unconscious, for example, if your CON is 20, you will crumple to the ground when you absorb damage of 21 or more. But you're not dead yet, just Unconscious (UNC) and you'll be back on your feet in no time. But there are things worse than being UNC, such as Serious (SER), Critical (CRT), Comatose (COM), and Dead (DED). You'll bounce right back from being UNC, but you'll need medical attention if you're SER, and your condition will begin to deteriorate if you don't get it. CRT and COM are the next two steps below SER and also require intervention by a health professional. DED sort of speaks for itself. DED is bad.
While CON is the current number of a character's hit points, MaxCON is the maximum number of hit points he can have at his current level. That is, MaxCON is the number of hit points he possesses when not wounded, diseased, poisoned, or mutated.
Condition is separate from CON, but still affects it. It comes in two flavors, Afflicted and Unafflicted. Unafflicted means you're as normal as you ever were; Afflicted means you're poisoned, envenomed, mutated, irradiated, or diseased, and you should get to a Doctor. Otherwise, your CON will just leak away; being Afflicted drains CON at a steady rate until you are DED. When a party member is Afflicted, his name and Function key number at the top of the main screen will be highlighted, and on the Combat or Encounter screens his MAX CON will be highlighted. To see what a party member's Affliction is, press F1 - F5 to call up his Character Screen and then press V to view the Affliction.
If you want to speed-up the process of healing when one or more characters are wounded or unconscious, press and hold down the ESC key to make time pass more rapidly. Remember, characters or NPC's who are Afflicted or whose condition is SER or worse do not heal normally.
Wasteland 2[]
Constitution determines how much damage a character can take before being knocked unconscious or worse. The starting constitution of a character is determined as follows:
- Base Hit Points = 14 + (Strength*2)
Furthermore, Strength governs how much constitution points the character gains per level:
Strength | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
CON gained per level |
Additionally, a high Luck will give a chance of gaining bonus Con points each level.
Wasteland 3[]
Constitution mechanics are largely inherited from Wasteland 2.
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