The plan is to use this blog to post various RPG related stuff, most likely pertaining some designing, house rules and stuff like that. Basically the same stuff I might as well post on the EN World forum, though with a less tighter focus on D&D only stuff.
You might see material I would usually hide on my hard disk and not bother to discuss on the forums, since it's to specific or not formulated well enough yet.
It's just an experiment, and we'll see if or when I give it up.
You might see material I would usually hide on my hard disk and not bother to discuss on the forums, since it's to specific or not formulated well enough yet.
It's just an experiment, and we'll see if or when I give it up.
Recharge your Health - slower healing rates for "sandboxers"
Posted 7th January 2009 at 08:20 PM by Mustrum_Ridcully
Updated 11th January 2009 at 06:28 PM by Mustrum_Ridcully
Updated 11th January 2009 at 06:28 PM by Mustrum_Ridcully
Some people don't like the fact that lasting injuries are basically not modeled in 4E.
Which can have particular implications in "sandbox" games, as some fellow posters noted (most notably Raven Crowking, with whom I had my edition skirmishes
).
It took me a while to understand it the reasons behind it. Suffice to say that there is always something worth investigating in a sandbox, and just handwaving the rules and say "we rest after this adventure despite no mechanical penalties for not resting more then one night" is not satisfying in such games.
So, here a quick suggestion on how to change healing.
Basically, use something like the recharge rules for monster powers.
So, it takes the same time for everyone to recover all of his healing surges. (Hit points recovery in 3E was always a little "inconsistent" in that wizards could heal faster then fighters.) Of course, there might still be issues - for example, who is more likely to end the day with no surges left? The partys Fighter or the Wizard?
You could do the same for daily powers, if you like.)
Of course, we can't just let such a simple mechanic standing around - we need more game material for it!
So, here it is:
A Feat
Extraordinary Recuperation (Paragon)
Prerequisite: Con 13
Your healing surges recharge on a roll of 5 or 6.
2 Rituals
Blessing of Health (Heal)
You conjure a blessing that helps the regeneration of wounds and fight off disease and poison
Level: 5
Category: Restoration
Time: 10 Minutes
Duration: 24 hours
Component Cost: 25 gp (see text)
Market Price: 250 gp
Key Skill: Heal
Bless up to 8 creatures with a blessing of health. A creature that takes an extended rest in the duration of the spell can reroll is next Endurance check to resist a disease and reroll all failed Healing Surge recharge rolls, taking the better result.
At paragon tier, increase the ritual cost to 250 gp, and at epic tier to 2,500 gp.
Regeneration
After you have finished the ritual, you touch a target to heal even the most severe injuries and debilitations.
Level: 15
Category: Restoration
Time: 60 Minutes
Duration: 24 hours
Component Cost: 1,000 gp (see text)
Market Price: 5,000 gp
Key Skill: Heal
The target can make a Healing Surge recharge roll as if it had spend an extend rest. If the target has lost any appendages or organs (an arm or an eye for example), the caster may choose one to regenerate and it regrows fully. The regrowth is painful to the victim. When choosing to regenerate an injury, roll a heal check.
Check Result 10 or lower: The target dies.*
Check Result 19 or lower: The target takes damage equal to its hit points.
Check Result 20-29: The target takes damage equal to its bloodied value.
Check Result: 30-39: The target takes damage equal to its healing surge value.
Check Result 40 or higher: The target takes no damage.
*) The regeneration still succeeds, so if the target is later raised, its organ or limb is regrown.
Which can have particular implications in "sandbox" games, as some fellow posters noted (most notably Raven Crowking, with whom I had my edition skirmishes
).It took me a while to understand it the reasons behind it. Suffice to say that there is always something worth investigating in a sandbox, and just handwaving the rules and say "we rest after this adventure despite no mechanical penalties for not resting more then one night" is not satisfying in such games.
So, here a quick suggestion on how to change healing.
Basically, use something like the recharge rules for monster powers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Recharge Rolls for Healing Surges
After each extended rest, the player rolls 1d6 for each healing surge expended. On a 6, the healing surge is recovered.
You could do the same for daily powers, if you like.)
Of course, we can't just let such a simple mechanic standing around - we need more game material for it!
So, here it is:
A Feat
Extraordinary Recuperation (Paragon)
Prerequisite: Con 13
Your healing surges recharge on a roll of 5 or 6.
2 Rituals
Blessing of Health (Heal)
You conjure a blessing that helps the regeneration of wounds and fight off disease and poison
Level: 5
Category: Restoration
Time: 10 Minutes
Duration: 24 hours
Component Cost: 25 gp (see text)
Market Price: 250 gp
Key Skill: Heal
Bless up to 8 creatures with a blessing of health. A creature that takes an extended rest in the duration of the spell can reroll is next Endurance check to resist a disease and reroll all failed Healing Surge recharge rolls, taking the better result.
At paragon tier, increase the ritual cost to 250 gp, and at epic tier to 2,500 gp.
Regeneration
After you have finished the ritual, you touch a target to heal even the most severe injuries and debilitations.
Level: 15
Category: Restoration
Time: 60 Minutes
Duration: 24 hours
Component Cost: 1,000 gp (see text)
Market Price: 5,000 gp
Key Skill: Heal
The target can make a Healing Surge recharge roll as if it had spend an extend rest. If the target has lost any appendages or organs (an arm or an eye for example), the caster may choose one to regenerate and it regrows fully. The regrowth is painful to the victim. When choosing to regenerate an injury, roll a heal check.
Check Result 10 or lower: The target dies.*
Check Result 19 or lower: The target takes damage equal to its hit points.
Check Result 20-29: The target takes damage equal to its bloodied value.
Check Result: 30-39: The target takes damage equal to its healing surge value.
Check Result 40 or higher: The target takes no damage.
*) The regeneration still succeeds, so if the target is later raised, its organ or limb is regrown.
Total Comments 4
Comments
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I like the fact that you're trying to address this problem.Posted 9th January 2009 at 03:42 AM by Jack7
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I like that you like it - but you don't like the solution?Posted 9th January 2009 at 11:35 AM by Mustrum_Ridcully -
Problem is when you do need to continue the fight the very next morning, which happens even in sandbox games. Having a string of bad luck could potentially gimp one character completely.
At the very minimum, this proposal needs a buffer controllable by the characters.
Say you give each character three "Recuperating Surges". Each RS could be used at an extended rest to regain all your Healing Surges, no need to roll any dice.
Then you could hand out new RS points as awards for completing major quests, or similar. As long as the players understand these points come far and few between, they wouldn't use them "frivolously", that is, in precisely those non-threatening situations you don't want them to heal quickly... ("you're recuperating back at the farm, safe behind your screen of Ultimate Halfling Patroliers, all thoughts of danger are pushed out of your mind, how long do you stay?")
The point would be that generally, yes, you'd have slower healing, but with exceptions under the players control, so they wouldn't risk becoming helpless when they're forced to rest deep inside Mount Doom.
(And yes, if you think "Recuperating Surges" are reskinned and repurposed fate points, you'd be right :-)
PS. Twas just pure chance that made me look at the "latest blog entries" today. Wouldn't a post about this rule in the Fan Creations subforum be useful, you think?Posted 11th January 2009 at 10:54 AM by CapnZapp
Updated 11th January 2009 at 10:59 AM by CapnZapp - Sure. Alternatively, people could look more into the blogs!Quote:Wouldn't a post about this rule in the Fan Creations subforum be useful, you think?Posted 11th January 2009 at 06:29 PM by Mustrum_Ridcully
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