Healing Option

[scholz]

In order to de-emphasis the Magical Healing, but not eliminate it. And to make the Healing Skill more useful, especially at higher ranks, I am considering making it more useful.

HEALING : In addition to its other uses, a person with ranks of Healing can:
Stabilize - Rename existing ability "First Aid" to "Stabilize".
First Aid DC15 : Time 1 Minute. A healer can tend the wounds of a injured person immediately after injury or wound (within 10 minutes). The Healer makes a Heal Check. A successful check indicates that 1 HP damage plus 1 per 5 the DC is exceeded is transformed into non-lethal damage. First Aid can only be performed once per injury (or combat).

Ex. A Healer with 10 ranks of Healing and +3 Wisdom bonus (+13) applies first aid to an ally injured in a battle for 12hps damage. He rolls a 14+13=27 thus transforming (15+20+25) = 3 HPS damage to 3 non-lethal damage. That damage heals normally (1/level/hour). The ally is now down 9 HPS normal damage, and 3 non lethal.​

Special: First Aid can be tried again (even if successful), but each additional retry is non-cumulative only the best roll is taken. Trying again take 1 additional minute beyond the previous (2 minutes for 2nd attempt, 3 minutes for the 3rd attempt, 4 minutes for the 4th (no 5th attempt possible since four attempts take 10 minutes). And retries must be made immediately after the previous. You can take 10 on a Heal Check for First Aid, but cannot take 20 (since all healing must take place in 10 minutes from point of injury).

My thought is that this does add some accounting, but more people can contribute to the healing, and that this might be useful at both low level, and high level. Converting Lethal to Non-Lethal is a good compromise, because the healing doesn't just put the character back to norm, but it does give them a buffer. The idea of the retry means that a healer can dedicate his efforts on an individual, but doing so may mean ignoring another injured party.

 

[Herobizkit]

Another option could be to change all healing spells to Regeneration type spells for a limited duration.

Also, (and I think you already have), check out the First Aid description in d20 Modern. That alone is worth its non-magical weight in a fantasy setting.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Having tried my share of stunts and changes intended to make the PC's spend more time and effort upon natural healing methods I'll just say that it's not worth it.

I have accepted the fact that in a D&D world, for the PLAYER CHARACTERS at least, natural healing is - and should be - pathetic when compared to the immediately available and greatly superior magical alternatives. The first spell used by dang near every PC cleric is Cure Light Wounds. It is vastly superior and all but renders moot any form of natural rest, recuperation, and first aid. It's far more immediate and far more effective. PC's have access to this kind of healing right from the start of nearly any D&D game and all other things being equal there's no reason not to leave it at that.

The great bulk of the rest of the game worlds population does not have such healing available to them. Or at least not in the same way. They don't carry around stocks of healing potions, healing items, nor do they travel/live/work with, personally, on a 24/7/365 basis, spellcasters who can provide magical healing that just blows the mother-lovin' crap out of anything that can be done with bandages, splints, and herbal unguents.

In short I would ask: WHY are you making the change? The relevancy of the answer to that preempts further commentary on the change itself.

Addendum: The reason D20 Modern has a better, more comprehensive set of rules covering natural healing is because a d20 Modern setting generally assumes the COMPLETE ABSENCE of faster, better alternatives - like magic.

 

[scholz]

I am not really upset about the existing structure. I just notice that whoever ends up with the Magical Healing power (be it cleric, bard or whoever) tends to get pigeon holed into that roll. As a player I usually push for Wands of Cure Light or something, to take the pressure off the player.

As a DM, I don't generally have megic items for sale at the local S-mart. I try to make items novel, unique, and less 'practical'. So players can't just go and buy such things. So, in my worlds, that puts more pressure on the Magical Healers to reserve their spells for Healing. This I think does not serve the game well.

So, I was trying to think of ways short of changing the very mechanism of damage itself (bad luck doing that in the past), that might alleviate some of the pressure. I think a low end, worse than spell skill check, as I described above, might do some good. Of course, when things are really bad call in the spells, just as you would for a curse, or similar situation. But if especially low level players of all classes could heal 2-3 points every combat, that might be enough (especially for levels 1-4) to make a difference to those playing the ones with the Magical Healing.

Healing and Damage is a bit of a complex game-theory point. What is the purpose of damage and healing. Is damage their to slow the team down, build tension, or just make combats more dramatic? Whatever it's purpose(s), Healing should compliment it, not just erase it.

 

[Herobizkit]

You could also try to put the heroic back into the game by having a kind of "gentleman's honor" rules in effect. That is, for the most part, no one wants to get killed so each combatant agrees to do non-lethal damage as a sort of campaign default.

This works really well in a martial-arty or a modern setting with little access to weapons.

 

[scholz]

You could also try to put the heroic back into the game by having a kind of "gentleman's honor" rules in effect. That is, for the most part, no one wants to get killed so each combatant agrees to do non-lethal damage as a sort of campaign default.
This works really well in a martial-arty or a modern setting with little access to weapons.

In my homebrew system, I use something like this. Inspired by Castle Falkenstein, fights are always win or lose, but the players pretty much decide what "win" and "lose" means. Lingering injuries (or death) were always potential issues, but never the default.

I think in the classic dungeon-dive situation, where attrition and resource management is part of the game, such a system doesn't work well. All monsters are trying to kill yo, and vice versa.