If the dreaded nerve damage wounds annoy you, just remove [HAS_NERVES] from raw/objects/creature_standard text file under Dwarves.
No more nerve damage!
Of course, you won't be able to walk if you lose your leg...
But I'm pretty sure there's a tag for that, too. Something that keeps limbs from getting disconnected.
or mod nerves to heal slowly. that's less of a "cheat" as without nerves, are they not pain immune?
How can I mod nerves to heal slowly?
EDIT - I'll ask in the modding section.
no need, the answer was in the wiki under "wound"
If you want your dwarves to heal spinal nerve damage, go into the raws, find the tissue_template_default and set [HEALING_RATE:100] to the NERVE_TEMPLATE. Optionally, specify 2000 for a much slower rate; bone has a healing rate of 1000, so this will make nerve damage heal at half the speed of broken bones. However, this does not affect other nerves, as they apparently do not count as "nervous tissue".
edit, i cannot find anything about moter nerves, they are perhaps called something else in the raws, and the wiki gives me no hint about how to mod those to heal.
reminds me, i need to mod my own nervous tissue (and nails) to heal.