D&D 5E Healing Surges, Hit Dice, Martial Healing, and Overnight recovery: Which ones do you like?

[ForeverSlayer]

Okay, I think I got it this time.

I am going to do an updated poll since I lumped everything together and made it into a crappy one. Hopefully this one is better.

Also, what you can do is discuss each one in detail why you like it and/or why you don't

Poll: Only click the "Yes" or "No" slot, don't click beside the actual name of the healing option.

Please read before participating in poll.

 

[TerraDave]

3rd times a charm

some kind of HDey/reserve point recovery mechanic ok. Oodles of healing from all over the place--magical or otherwise--is not good, and neither is such restricted healing that only a cleric can do it.

 

[Hussar]

I'm not particularly fussed either way to be honest. Full healing overnight is easy and quick. And very easy to adjust. If you want slower healing rates, just adjust to taste. It's not like it's that hard.

Martial healing bothers me not in the slightest. The whole "shout healing" doesn'T faze me at all. For me, it's easy to justify and allows for campaigns where I'm not forced to have a magical healer. Great.

 

[Unwise]

Wow, I think that what this poll shows is that the D&DNext team is in for trouble either way. It is very rare to find an issue or preference split as close to 50/50 as this. Even if they do the very best possible, they will still annoy almost half of consumers.

For mass appeal, I guess the real question becomes which group cares the most. I suspect that most of us could not care that much either way on most of these issues, the people with the strongest held beliefs are likely the ones who prefer a more old-school style system. I have never heard an empassioned defense of healing surges or martial healing even from those that like it, but I have heard from many people violently opposed to either concept. I suspect that makes it the path of least resistance.

 

[tsadkiel]

Wow, I think that what this poll shows is that the D&DNext team is in for trouble either way. It is very rare to find an issue or preference split as close to 50/50 as this. Even if they do the very best possible, they will still annoy almost half of consumers.

At this point, the die is cast. The current approach to hit points and healing has survived multiple rounds of playtesting, virtually unchanged, and I think it is really unlikely that they'll be making any major changes now.

 

[pemerton]

I have never heard an empassioned defense of healing surges or martial healing even from those that like it

In that case . . .

Healing surges, as implemented in 4e, combine tactical and strategic considerations in a fashion that provides strong support for effective pacing:

(i) each combat encounter starts with the PCs at (around) full hp, which allows encounters to be designed around a stable assumption about PC capacity and performance;

(ii) the need for the players to "unlock" their healing surges during the course of combat resolution adds both tactical and dramatic elements to combat, plus supports the dramatic pacing of a combat (as PCs are worn down and then "bounce back");

(iii) the short rest mechanic underpins (i) above - players spend their surges to bring their PCs up to full hp or thereabouts at the end of each combat;

(iv) healing surge depletion over the course of an adventure introduces strategic, "Damocles' sword" pacing considerations into the game, which in turn fosters distinctive and interesting in-game choices made to keep low-or-zero-surge PCs alive.​

As for martial healing, it is the flip-side to making sense of "Gygaxian" hit-points-as-morale-and-luck-and-inspiration. If hit point loss is wearing away your resolve, inspiring people - bards, warlords, clerics (most clerical healing in 4e is also inspirational healing, as it is not surgeless) - can renew vigour and resolution. The ability of inspirational healing to bring back characters from unconsciousness also adds to the game. First, it allows a certain sort of romantic trope to be possible - the hero falls down, but then a memory or vision of a friend/ally reminds the fallen hero of the importance of the cause, and s/he struggles to his/her feet. Second, it reinforces that "unconsciousness" in D&D is typically closer to fainting or swooning than to falling into a coma, which helps make sense of the fact that it happens to PCs quite a bit.

Full healing overnight is easy and quick. And very easy to adjust. If you want slower healing rates, just adjust to taste. It's not like it's that hard.

Agreed. In my 4e game I don't tinker much with the default short rest pacing, but for extended rests I don't allow these every 24 hours. The PCs have to be somewhere safe and comfortable.

 

[Mistwell]

Wow, I think that what this poll shows is that the D&DNext team is in for trouble either way. It is very rare to find an issue or preference split as close to 50/50 as this. Even if they do the very best possible, they will still annoy almost half of consumers.

Look at your name.

Maybe you want to have a look at the site rules again. No such rudeness.

Now look at the number of people answering the poll.

Now re-read your post.

Now look at your name again.

I mean seriously, you're drawing drastic conclusions based on 24 people responding to a fairly wonky poll on EnWorld over a what, 8 hour time frame in the middle of the week?

Unwise indeed.

The smartest thing WOTC started to do, is ignore the message boards and go purely off their much larger poll sampling and paid consultants.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

For those of you who ticked next to the actual mechanic. Please remove it and select only yes or no. Thanks.

 

[Minigiant]

Why not "Yes to X" "No to X" "Yes to Y", etc.

Although I like them all but not at the same time.
Each creates a new type of setting and pacing.

Like movie subgenre.


Some you want the dramatic dungeoneering (surges and martial healing) and sometimes you want super gritty games with lots of down time (slow heal except magic) and sometimes you want a couple scenes then a retreat to repeat a few times (hit dice and overnight healing).

 

[pemerton]

I like them all but not at the same time.
Each creates a new type of setting and pacing.

Like movie subgenre.


Some you want the dramatic dungeoneering (surges and martial healing) and sometimes you want super gritty games with lots of down time (slow heal except magic) and sometimes you want a couple scenes then a retreat to repeat a few times (hit dice and overnight healing).

I would add to this: the game needs other components, both story and mechanics, to support the healing pace. A game that is designed around time-pressure storylines (which can be the case with questing storylines, fairly common in D&D) doesn't work well with long healing times. On the flip-side, introducing long healing times into Tomb of Horrors, where nothing is on a clock, is the merest of colour.

For long healing to be actually meaningful, the plot elements of the game have to be able to accommodate the passage of time, but healing still has to cost something. One possibility is downtime rules, whereby those PCs who aren't healing are able to grow their abilities by way of training/practice.