Risen creatures have two pools of points affected by damage: health points and energy shield points. How many health points and energy shield points you have is determined by your class and Constitution score. Together, health points and energy shield points form your total hit points. 

Unlike traditional shields, energy shields do not require any heavy lifting on your part. They also do not provide any additional AC against attacks, nor do they inherently provide damage resistances.

However, whenever you take damage, the damage is applied to your energy shield points first. If your energy shield points are reduced to 0, any further damage (including damage left over from the attack that reduced your energy shield points to 0) is then applied to your health points.

Recovering Health and Energy Shields

You recover all your health points when you complete, and benefit from, a long rest. Outside of that, to recover your health points, you’ll need to benefit from a source that specifically recovers health points, such as your Ghost using the Heal action on you.

Your energy shield points are a lot easier to recover. First, you recover all energy shield points when you complete a brief rest. You can also recover your energy shield points with an energy shield recharge roll.

Energy Shield Recharge Rolls 

A shield recharge roll is a measurement of how well you can recover energy shield points with your Power. You only make a shield recharge roll when a feature, feat, trait, weapon perk, or other source says you may make a shield recharge roll. Once you make a shield recharge roll from any source, you must wait until the start of your next turn before you can make a shield recharge roll again.

Each class has its own shield die (see the class table, or your class’s Hit Point Stats section). When you make a shield recharge roll, you roll an amount of shield dice equal to your Power level. Add your Power modifier to the roll, too. You recover that many energy shield points, up to your maximum for energy shield points. 

The amount you roll may only go into your energy shield point pool, unless the source says otherwise.

Shield Recharge Roll = (1 shield die per Power level) + your Power modifier

Recovering Hit Points

When you have the option to recover hit points, the amount you can recover is applied to your health first, and then any remaining amount can be applied to your energy shield points. 

Healing Ghostless Creatures

A Ghostless creature is a creature who is not Risen. Ghostless creatures follow the same rules for hit dice, healing, instant death, and dropping to 0 hit points as regular adventurers in the core 5e rules.

Your Ghost is considered a Ghostless creature.

Overshields

Sometimes you may be granted Overshields, a special condition that gives you a third pool of hit points to take damage for you. You can recover health and energy shield points like normal while you have Overshields.

Overshields (Condition)

• Overshields are a special type of additional shield point pool. The maximum amount of Overshields you can have at a time is equal to 5 times your Power level. If you don’t have a Power level, you cannot gain Overshields. 
• Whenever you gain Overshields, you gain up to your maximum unless otherwise specified.
• When you take damage, it is first applied to your Overshields. If this reduces your Overshields to 0, any leftover damage next goes to your energy shield points, then to any temporary hit points, and finally to health points.
• Overshields always last until spent or until you complete at least a brief rest, whichever happens first.

Energy Shield Alignment

Some energy shields are aligned to a particular damage type, or may become aligned under certain circumstances. If a creature’s energy shields are aligned, and that creature has at least 1 energy shield point remaining, it is considered to have resistances to all damage types except the type that matches their energy shield’s alignment. This overrules any other resistances or vulnerabilities the creature might have, but not any immunities. 

As an example, if a creature has 10 energy shields points and their energy shields are void-aligned, that creature is considered to have resistances to all damage types except void. If the energy shields points are reduced to 0, the creature loses this benefit.

Damage Caused By Movement

When you fall or are shoved, the force of the movement has the potential to severely damage you. 

Falling Damage

If you fall and then hit a solid surface, you take 1d6 kinetic damage for every 10 feet you fell prior. 

Shoving Damage

Shoving damage occurs when an effect has the potential to forcefully move you 10 feet or more in a single direction. When forced to move 10 feet or more, if your movement is halted prematurely by a solid surface such as a wall, you take 1d6 kinetic damage for each 10 feet the effect would have moved you, had your movement not been stopped.

Dropping To 0 Health Points

If damage reduces you to 0 or fewer health points, you die. This death ends if your Ghost resurrects you.

Instant Death

While Risen creatures can, and often do, take an amount of damage that would cause them to instantly die under normal adventuring standards, immediate death does not mean the Risen creature is gone forever. Even if all that remains is a smear on the wall or a pile of ash on the ground, the only way a Risen creature can truly be gone forever is if their Ghost cannot resurrect them. This can happen if the Ghost is killed, or if the Risen creature fails their RTL saving throws.

RTL Saving Throws

Whenever you start your turn with 0 health points, you are dead, and you must make a special type of saving throw called an RTL saving throw. RTL stands for Returned to Light, the term Risen creatures use to describe someone who has died their final death, who can no longer be resurrected by any means. You make an RTL saving throw even if you have no physical body left.

Unlike other saving throws, this one isn’t tied to any ability score: it is just a roll of the d20. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by features that affect all types of saving throws—and your Ghost.

Roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. If the roll is 9 or lower, you fail. 

You make a single RTL saving throw on each turn you are at 0 health points. If you accumulate three successes before you accumulate three failures, your Power becomes stable and you no longer need to make RTL saving throws. Your Ghost can capture your Power at its next opportunity. If you accumulate three failures before you accumulate three successes, your Power fades away and you die your final death. Your Ghost cannot capture your Power, and you can never be resurrected again. 

The successes and failures don’t need to be consecutive. Keep track of both until you collect three of a kind. The number of both is reset to zero when you regain any health points. 

Rolling a 1 or a 20. When you make an RTL saving throw and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20, it counts as two successes.

Damage at 0 Health Points. If you take any damage while dead, nothing happens. 

Capturing Power. If your Ghost performs the Capture Power action on you, your Power becomes stable, and you immediately accumulate three successful RTL saving throws. Though you no longer have to perform RTL saving throws, you do remain dead until your Ghost is able to resurrect you.

Resurrecting. You lose all accumulated RTL saving throw results when you’re resurrected. 

Passive RTL Saves. Some special effects, such as what you might find on a Weapon of Sorrow, may give Risen creatures one or more passive failed RTL saving throws. You accumulate these even if you’re not dead. These passive RTL saving throw results don’t affect you until you die, at which point they immediately affect you.

For instance, if you accumulate three passive failed RTL saves and then are reduced to 0 health points, you die and your Power is immediately lost. 

You lose all passive RTL saving throw results when you complete a long rest.

Damage Types

D&Destiny introduces the following new damage types:

Kinetic. When you physically strike a target, you deal kinetic damage. This applies to striking a target with any physical object such as bullets, a warhammer, or your fists.

Light. As far as anyone knows, only the Traveler can create and control Light in its purest form. Light energy, a lesser form of Light, exists everywhere and can be harnessed by anyone with the technology or magic to do so. There are three types of Light energy:

• Arc: An expression of Light arising from the fundamental forces that bind matter together. At macroscopic scales, arc discharges resemble lightning. Like electrical current, arc energy is used to power advanced technology—including sophisticated weapons.
• Solar: An expression of elemental Light arising from the fundamental forces that communicate energy. Solar bursts large enough to see and resembles fire. Like fire in days of old, solar energy is devastating and all-consuming in its destructive aspect.
• Void: An expression of elemental Light arising from the fundamental forces of the vacuum. When visible, void phenomena are utterly unearthly. Although rooted in apparent nothingness, void energy is fearsome and ravenous when weaponized.

Darkness. The paracausal antithesis to the Light, Darkness damage is most often caused by creatures who worship the Darkness and have been granted the ability to conduct its power in its purest form. Darkness energy is a lesser form of Darkness and can be harnessed by anyone with the technology or magic to do so. There are two types of Darkness energy:

• Stasis: An elemental manifestation of the Darkness related to the reduction of entropy. It takes significant willpower and control to safely utilize stasis energy.
• Strand: An elemental manifestation of the Darkness born from the Weave, the paracausal matrix of psychic energy that connects all things and minds in the universe. Strand energy isn’t controlled so much as it is merely directed.

Explosive Damage

Explosive is a type of damage modifier that indicates a type of damage, such as kinetic or necrotic, is being dealt suddenly and swiftly to a target, and usually in an area of effect. For example, most rocket launchers deal explosive kinetic damage. 

Not all explosive damages affect an area, and not all areas of effect are explosive.

The damage modifier only comes into effect to determine the damage done to a creature that has a resistance, immunity, or vulnerability to explosive damage. For example, if a creature has a resistance to explosive damage, it treats explosive kinetic, explosive solar, or explosive void damage all equally (halving the damage, as one does with all resistances). 

Recoil Damage

A special type of damage which is usually the result of your own actions. Recoil damage cannot be reduced, mitigated, or ignored in any way, you must take the damage. However, recoil damage cannot cause you to lose concentration.

Non-Lethal Damage

Sometimes you will just want to subdue an opponent, rather than kill them. You can choose to do this by declaring your attack a non-lethal attack before you make your attack roll. If the damage of your attack reduces the target to 0 hit points, the target becomes Unconscious, but is stable.