D&D with no Healing Magic! Would it work?

[dead]

I was thinking of running a D&D campaign that had NO Healing Magic. Basically, it would kind of be your Dragonlance concept where the gods had left the world and now there was no divine magic.

But would D&D without Healing Magic work? I'm thinking that my PCs would drop like flys as their Hit Points are sloughed off in great waves by monsters, spells and vile weapons.

I know that during it's "Chaos" period, Dragonlance invented the *Mystic*. This was basically a Cleric that produced *divine* magic from *within* -- not from gods.

I'm not looking for such an easy fix, however. I wanna really play the hardline and BAN Healing Magic. I'm not sure if I'd be able to run a very long campaign, however.

What are others thoughts? Is D&D possible without Healing Magic? Would having to heal your wounds the *natural* way be too disruptive to campaign play?

 

[shoplifter]

I think you're looking for Midnight sir.

 

[TroyXavier]

Well assuming your PCs actually survived a few levels(and I have a feeling they probably wouldn't) they would be spending a lot of time doing nothing(timewise, not necessariyl gamewise) as all healing would have to be natural or from the heal skill. And it'd be the pits if anyone got under 0 hitpoints. In shot, yes, you could do it, but I'm not sure anyone would really enjoy having to make character after character as PC after PC bit the dust.

 

[dead]

I think you're looking for Midnight sir.

Really? Does that have absolutely NO Healing Magic and still remain *D&D*?

What's the mortality rate for PCs in a Midnight game? Actually, I better first ask: What do PCs in a Midnight game do? Are they delving into dungeons and fighting fiends like many D&D games?

 

[Crothian]

Of course it will, assuming the PCs are smart enough to adapt. I've always had very little healing in my groups. People just never wanted to play the cleric or the healer. PCs need to adjust and they don't do as much room to room fighting. They learn to retreat and rest and be careful not to get hurt.

 

[Drakmar]

Midnight does technically have healing. It is just... severly limited.

As to no healing bar the Heal skill... It will make the players/characters more cautious.. and you may find that those party members who are HP reliant (ie fighters) will have a hard time. All you really need to to is balance the harshness that you want with whether or not your players (and you) will have fun under this kind of game restriction.

 

[shoplifter]

What's the mortality rate for PCs in a Midnight game? Actually, I better first ask: What do PCs in a Midnight game do? Are they delving into dungeons and fighting fiends like many D&D games?

The mortality rate could be high if your players are foolish. If they play intelligently using guerilla tactics where necessary rather than charging headlong into battle their survival rate increases dramatically.

The gist of the setting is:

Evil deity (BBG) is cast down to the Prime by other deities, said deities sever their ties to the prime. Boom, no clerics other than those of the BBG.

Said evil deity makes several attempts to take over, fails twice (iirc) and succeeds the third try, around 100 years ago. Now he has his clerics hunt all magical items with magic sniffing creatures for fear that those with said items could oppose him.

Weapons are outlawed, and magic users are hunted down and killed. The best way I've seen it described (and what I thought when I got it at release) is "What if Sauron won?" Your players can either fight against it in a nigh-hopeless battle, or for it.


Keep in mind that the whole SETTING is a rare magic setting, in that magical items are rare but can be quite powerful. Certain items can grow in power as their possesor does. I don't know if you really want to go that far with it, or just 'ignore' healing magic in general.

edit: Drakmar is correct in that there IS healing, but it is quite limited.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I'd recommend one of the VP/WP variants then. The players would have to learn how to retreat, but that's a good thing. With a WP/VP variant, they would recover vitality points pretty quickly on their own, but would have to be very careful when they started taking WP damage. Crits would be a lot more deadly, though.

 

[mkletch]

The one option is a vitality/wound point system like in Star Wars d20, or in Unearthed Arcana. The only issue there, though, is the uber damage of most arcane battle spells, sneak attack, etc. We're grappling with that for our next campaign - it's fun, but a lot of work.

-Fletch!

 

[Trainz]

You could go midway about it: remove all divine casters. But you still have the Paladin, Ranger, and Bard that can cure, in effect these 3 classes would become the new mainstream healers (especially a high charisma paladin and lay on hands).

This way, you still have some healing, but remove the PC's reliance on the pletora of healing usually available to them. Of course, very soon you might find that your new healer (pally, ranger, or bard) picks up the craft wand feat to store some wands of cure light so that they can stay longer in a room to room adventure.

HTH, YMMV.