Crippling

Crippling injuries are voluntary in Exalted, and may be taken at the behest of the player controlling a character. While crippling injuries are difficult to mend, they’re not impossible once Exalted physicians or gods with powerful healing miracles enter the picture. Here’s how it works:

Once per story, a player whose character has just suffered physical damage may choose to ablate it by accepting a crippling injury instead. The character must take a minimum of two Health Levels of lethal damage to accept a crippling injury, after the damage negated. If this would leave him Incapacitated or dead, he instead simply marks off his last health box before Incapacitated. "1-2 Health Levels: By negating this much damage, the character suffers maiming that impairs the function of some body part or sense. He might lose half the fingers on one hand, or an eye, or half a foot.""3-4 Health Levels: By negating this much damage, the character loses an entire sense or useful extremity. He might be blinded completely, have his tongue cut out, lose a hand, or suffer maiming of his generative organs.""5 health levels: By negating this much damage, the character loses a limb — most of an arm or a leg, gone."A character’s wound penalties are doubled for the rest of the scene in which he suffers any crippling injury by negating 3 or more health levels of damage. Accepting a crippling injury is basically accepting debility in the name of either producing an interesting plot hook, or attempting to save a character from death. See the Amputee, Blind, Deaf, Mute, and Sterile flaws for the permanent effects of crippling injuries.