DMs - How do you treat Healing Word?

[Psikerlord#]

I've seen people complain about how hard it is to kill characters in 5e. I kind of disagree (but not completely).

It's actually pretty easy to kill characters in or out of combat. It's just even easier to save them if other characters are willing to make the effort.

Between the Healer Feat, Healing Word, Lay on Hands, Healing Potions, and the various healing spells from Clerics, Druids, Bards, Rangers, Paladins, etc, healing can come from any other character in the group, or even from their familiar. (My warlocks often have their imps carry a few healing potions).

This bothers some people, others really don't see a problem.

I like a dangerous game where PC death is a legit option anytime you get reduced to zero hp. Similar to for example 2e. 5e doesnt replicate this at all, it is quite the opposite. You have to use houserules to make the game dangerous ime. HW is a major culprit in removing danger bec it's ranged, bonus action, auto heal, and only level 1 so can be spammed if need be.

I understand however that if you want a heavy story arc game, you dont want PCs dying off willy nilly. It's just that I want the opposite - a game where victory is earned and uncertain, not just a matter of how we prevail.

 

[CapnZapp]

Oh, you meant stop counting, not die at -10...

Yes, I mean that when you are at -9 and take two points of damage you end up at -10, not -11.

PS. Actually, if you think it is easy to misinterpret me in general, please tell me, and I shall endevour to be more precise the next time I casually mention my fix (for whackamole healing).

 

[CapnZapp]

I think attacking dying characters is bad form when there are acive threats.

I agree. GMs resorting to attacking downed players, in order to give 5e a modicum of risk of PC death, is a symptom of 5e's flawed death and dying rules, combined with the ranged bonus action healing word, that gives us... whack-a-mole. The "counter" is the GM attacking downed foes, which in many cases wont make any sense whatsoever imo and ime.

Exactly this.

I don't want to have my monsters attack downed player characters. I hate the way this breeds resentment at the table. ("Why should we spare the goblin - he and his friends actively kept attacking Sir Bobsalot even when he lay defenseless on the floor!"). Attacking fallen heroes should be something only dastardly enemies do, the ones you love the players hating.

But I feel I have to. It simply is playing the game on a carebear setting if you're safe from harm (short of incidental area effects) as soon as you fall; and if reviving you is only a level 1 slot and a bonus action away.

 

[CapnZapp]

So yes, the solution is to fix the disease, not the symptoms. Make it so the game does not mechanically encourage monsters to kill off fallen heroes. Make it so the game does not reward whackamole by making monsters waste significant amounts of damage (in some case the "saved damage" is more than the actual healing!!) when attacking low-hp heroes.

The solution to both problems is: don't stop tracking hit points at zero. I suggest counting down to -10 before "bottoming out".

Why -10?

a) A nice friendly number that's easy to remember
b) Enough to invalidate the level one slot Healing Word strategy
c) Enough for the average monster to stop wasting most of its damage

You're welcome

 

[Oofta]

So let me get this straight. Attacking someone when they're down is bad form, but someone dying when they hit 0 is perfectly OK?

As far as the -10 rule, I thought it was dumb when it was the rule of the day. The problem I have with it is that the higher level you are the more likely you are to go from totally OK to dead. A 1st level character is rarely going to take more than 10 points of damage in a single hit, while high level characters 30-40 in a single round (or more) is not uncommon. HP are some sort of nebulous measure of luck, endurance, etc that increases as you level. Except for the death threshold which decreases as a percentage of your total HP every level you gain.

As far as the argument "hitting people when there down can lead to resentment". Well boo-hoo. Either you've come to an agreement with your group that death is possible, even likely in which case the gloves are off or you haven't. If players want that sense of danger, kill their PCs if the situation arises. People double tap in the real world to make sure enemies stay down and in our world people don't pop back up like a bop bag. If people are going to be upset that their character died and you've all agreed to play it safe, do your best to not kill characters. Done and done.

How lethal the campaign should be should be determined during a session 0. People want lethal? Kick 'em when they're down, it's not hard to kill PCs if you really try. The DM can always turn the danger level up to 11.

 

[CapnZapp]

Since Tony reminded me:

No Gyor, nobody (at least not me) is talking about returning to the bad old days of dead at -10.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Yep, this to me is the answer. Injuries or wounds when you hit 0 hp regardless whether or not you are stabilized.

The injuries in the DM's Guide, however, are a bit too extreme for my tastes. I'd like there to be a range from mild to severe rather than all of them being severe.

Yeah, there's only so many pieces a character can lose before the adventuring party ends up as a pirate cosplay group.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Do people play it is such a way that monsters don't notice that the target has been healed and only realise that when he/she stands up, or do they give him another whack, which would instantly put the target back to zero, defeating the purpose of HW (although I acknowledge that it would at the very least delay the onset of death saves by a round).

I usually play my monsters so that they go for the closest or most obvious threat, but they also learn over time.

They won't attack unconscious characters as long as they can attack another PC that can potentially hurt them.
They won't attack a healed target while it's still prone either.

HOWEVER. If they notice unconscious characters standing back up, they will from them on prioritize attacking the healer and also start to hit unconscious targets. So players actually using healing during combat actually comes with a risk. If they don't want a PC dying, they might not actually heal during combat but instead just stabilize them to make sure they don't die unless it's TPK.

 

[CapnZapp]

Running monsters as if they have never encountered a cleric before is exactly what I mean by playing the game at carebear (very easy) setting.

 

[Rossbert]

Running monsters as if they have never encountered a cleric before is exactly what I mean by playing the game at carebear (very easy) setting.

I feel that depends on the setting. In my friend's world, and Faerun itself high power characters (classed or equivalent) are a dime a dozen. In my world a temple in something less than a major population center may go generations without seeing a cleric.

Many towns only vaguely know of them as the local legend of the godly man you solved X problem, built a church to his God and went off to fight a greater evil, sending word for a priest to come and teach the people.