House rule for overnight healing: opinions wanted

[TwoSix]

My primary concern with a rule where Hit Dice recover slowly but spells recharge quickly is that it puts even more pressure on the party to have at least one dedicated magical healer, and for that character to prioritize using their spells to heal the party at the end of the day.

That pressure already exists, but why exacerbate it?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

My primary concern with a rule where Hit Dice recover slowly but spells recharge quickly is that it puts even more pressure on the party to have at least one dedicated magical healer, and for that character to prioritize using their spells to heal the party at the end of the day.

Some people don't mind the dedicated magical healer, especially since they have plenty of things to do in combat aside from using up their spell slots.

Some people find that, without any pressure for magical healing, the fun role that they've played in previous editions may have become entirely obsolete.

 

[TwoSix]

Some people don't mind the dedicated magical healer, especially since they have plenty of things to do in combat aside from using up their spell slots.

Some people find that, without any pressure for magical healing, the fun role that they've played in previous editions may have become entirely obsolete.

Sure. Just make sure you know what side you're on when you're thinking about house rules, so you know if it'll impact you or not.

 

[Piratecat]

My requirement for a house rule is pretty stringent: does it make the game world more interesting? Does it solve a mechanical problem? Is it simple to remember? Does it make the game more fun?

In this case, it stops me from being vaguely irked about overnight healing and it's easy to remember, but I don't think it meets my other criteria.

 

[Joddy37]

I am now DMıng the Starter Set to see how healing goes through a short campaign. Until now, after nearly 8 sessions, I can say that full healing after a long rest seems to detach the characters from the environment, the adventure, and generally from the world, a bit. Every day seems to feel like a fresh start, and characters feel like nothing deadly or dangerous happened the day before. After this starter set, I want to experiment on this. I don't want to make a gritty campaign, but I really want some uncertainty on healing issue. So here is my plan:

Short rest: No change here, you can spend hit dice to heal during a short rest.

Long rest:
When you finish a long rest, roll your total hit dice, you gain that much hp. You can't exceed your maximum hp in this way. You regain your spent hit dice up to half of your total number of them.

Long rest outdoors:
Uncomfortable and wild conditions prevent you heal fast and completely. Roll half of your total hit dice round down, you regain that much hp.

In this way, your healing is variable. When resting in a comfortable place, you can roll higher than your hp total, which means you fully heal. Or you can roll bad and need some magical healing or spend your hit dice to get to full hp. Not every morning is guaranteed a fresh start.

That said, another home ruling I was thinking of, was about falling unconcious. Check this:

When you fall unconcious and failed at least one death saving throw, you get 1 exhaustion.

 

[Lalato]

My HP Philosophy

What do you think?

Instead of three + Con rolls, how about just one roll... DC 20 (modified by con). At 1hp. Dc 18 (no modifier) no debility. DC 15 (no modifier) minor debility, DC 10 (no mod) major debility, failure = dying.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I affirm what others have suggested:

1. re-examine your inspiration for starting this thread. Are you irked at HP recovery mechanics specifically, or at pacing generally? Could your irritation be assuaged through other mechanical means than HP & HD?
2. talk with your players. As you know, it's all about the enjoyment of everyone at the table. They may be just as irritated, and may have suggestions.

My specific advice is based on what you wrote here:

The idea is that if you bed down when beaten up... drain your resources somewhat on the second adventuring day, emulating wear and tear on the characters as they stay out being big damn heroes.

I recommend, as others have, you take a good look at the Exhaustion rules in Appendix A. "beaten up", "drained resources", "wear and tear", "stay out" all sound exhausting.

Some mechanics:
1. take one level of exhaustion when crit.
2. take one level of exhaustion when dropped to 0 hp.
3. take one level of exhaustion when spend more than 1/2 HD at once.
4. take one level of exhaustion when spend more than 1/2 HD cumulatively in a day (stacks).

Using all four would be super punishing. But I think it'd be worthwhile to introduce one or two of the above, as a test. See if they provide the feel you're looking for, and deliver more fun for everyone. Maybe adjust by allowing con saves after a fight to mitigate combat-inflicted exhaustion, or some mechanism to spend HD to remove levels of exhaustion.

I know, as a player, I'd *like* a seasoning of non-HP debilitation. Makes combat a bit more scary, as even a kobold can crit. A dash of death spiral, and emulates the efficacy of pack attacks / death by a thousand cuts.

 

[keterys]

I was pondering full hit dice and half hp recovery overnight. Mind you, I was pondering it in the sense that I thought it was a far better solution than the default one, not because I was attempting to fix the pace of healing.

One benefit of emphasizing hit dice more is you make people more willing (and/or reliant) on short rests during the day, which I think is actually better for getting across a pacing mechanic.

 

[Gadget]

It seems that what the OP may be after is the party experiencing a bit more attrition over the course of an adventure, which is a slightly different desire and play style than just the loaded 'realism' term. I can see the appeal of wanting the party to feel more 'warn down' over time adventuring. Others have good suggestions with exhaustion levels that I like, and I think RangerWickett may be on to something with a narrative solution to this 'problem', although I feel his proposal his a bit too bookkeeping heavy for my taste.

Ultimately, I think there may be advice in the DMG on this very subject, but if I were to implement a similar house rule, I would keep the Hit Dice recovery the same as standard, and make the Hit Point recovery for a long rest be up to half of a PC's total HP total. That way a person can be really spent (1 HP at the end of the day, all or most Hit Dice spent) and he will still feel it the next day. But care should be given to make sure that the Hit Point recovery is not shifted to a back pack full of healing potions, or wand of cure (not that they will have that in this edition), etc. Otherwise, you might as well keep it the same. Also, those with magical healing will end up feeling more pressure to spend more of their spell load out on keeping the party going.

 

[LandOfConfusion]

Some mechanics:
1. take one level of exhaustion when crit.
2. take one level of exhaustion when dropped to 0 hp.
3. take one level of exhaustion when spend more than 1/2 HD at once.
4. take one level of exhaustion when spend more than 1/2 HD cumulatively in a day (stacks).

There was another thread talking about using exhaustion levels to represent long term injury. That thread suggested a CON save to avoid the exhaustion level. I think this is what I'll end up using with the added exhaustion threat for spending a lot of HD.

D&D is sort of a weird thing. It's all made up in our minds and we can play it as a "Chose Your Adventure" book, but we feel confined by the rules. This seems to be so ingrained in us that White Wolf felt they had a marketing niche in calling the DM a Storyteller and giving people permission to abandon the rules in favor of telling a good story. When you really think about it that's just bizarre. What I mean is in D&D I won't kill off a party because of weird healing rules. I'll attempt to make the healing rules as believable as possible, but then craft adventures that are exciting, but not arbitrarily lethal to the party. This isn't a computer game. We can create an interesting framework of rules, but then bend the encounters or circumstances to avoid unforeseen complications. So, I say tweak the healing rules all you want, but then use them to make your games more exciting and realistic. Or if you want to play a straight up rules oriented game just play RAW. It's up to you. There is no wrong way to play.