D&D 5E House rule for in combat healing and yoyo at 0 HP

[FrogReaver]

This thread does make me question assumptions; exhaustion for going to 0 is a definite reason to prioritize careful play, to make players really avoid going down (falling back, etc), and to stop players that rely on the Healing Word yo-yo.

BUT what is the problem that's being solved? I guess the problem IS the ridiculousness of the yo-yo.

I expect many players that dislike yo-yo healing also like a higher risk of pc death.

 

[Horwath]

1. Return negative HPs
you die at negative HPs equal to your Con score plus your level.
Auto-crit after being downed might actually kill you this way.

2.
Cure spell,
1st level,
bonus action,
range 60ft,
you heal a target for 10HP. You can split this healing amount between target and yourself,
up-casting: +10 HP per spell level above 1st,

Healing domain:
+3 HP healing per level of healing spell,
Improve Cure spell; you can split healing to all creatures in 5ft from the target of your healing or 5ft from you.

healing being only a Bonus action, will prevent much of the "boring" part as you can still use your Action for offense.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Do nothing for this problem... Have you read them?

Yes.

Perhaps you missed this part:

Strict application of the movement rules can turn a potentially exciting chase into a dull, predictable affair.

Faster creatures always catch up to slower ones, while creatures with the same speed never close the distance between each other. This set of rules can make chases more exciting by introducing random elements.

You still use the exact same movement speeds... [snip]

So... no. Not the intent of the Chase rules.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

So... no. Not the intent of the Chase rules.

it doesn't really matter whether or not someone looks at the intent of a set of rules if said rules don't actually accomplish what they intend to anyway.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Faster creatures always catch up to slower ones, while creatures with the same speed never close the distance between each other. This set of rules can make chases more exciting by introducing random elements.

Their own words - faster will always catch up to slower ones, and their solution is for everyone to have a 50/50 chance of a random complication.

8. A beggar blocks your way. Make a DC 10 Strength
(Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobatics), or Charisma
(Intimidation) check (your choice) to slip past the
beggar. You succeed automatically if you toss the
beggar a coin. On a failed check, the beggar counts
as 5 feet of difficult terrain.

Riveting stuff, for one of maybe a dozen chasers to lose 5 feet of progress.

So... no. Not the intent of the Chase rules.

I can only judge them by what they actually do. Faster will still catch the slower, and more than that, all of the opponents are equal actors in this chase, and they only need to catch one player character for all of the players to consider the escape failed (unless the party is really mercenary and just hands them a new character sheet).

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Their own words - faster will always catch up to slower ones, and their solution is for everyone to have a 50/50 chance of a random complication.

8. A beggar blocks your way. Make a DC 10 Strength
(Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobatics), or Charisma
(Intimidation) check (your choice) to slip past the
beggar. You succeed automatically if you toss the
beggar a coin. On a failed check, the beggar counts
as 5 feet of difficult terrain.

Riveting stuff, for one of maybe a dozen chasers to lose 5 feet of progress.


I can only judge them by what they actually do. Faster will still catch the slower, and more than that, all of the opponents are equal actors in this chase, and they only need to catch one player character for all of the players to consider the escape failed (unless the party is really mercenary and just hands them a new character sheet).

I mean, sure, the rules aren't great. But they are telling us to avoid strict application of the movement rules. To me, that says we're not worrying about movement speeds. That's a solution to the problem of "the monsters are always faster and will always chase us down" - if that's the problem we're trying to solve. Feel free to choose a different interpretation - but choosing an interpretation that causes you angst doesn't seem productive to me.


EDIT: actually... looking at all the "complications", you are most likely right. They do seem to take movement speeds into account. In any case, I guess it comes down to whether a DM is going to have every enemy always chase...

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

But they are telling us to avoid strict application of the movement rules.

But then they keep using those same strict movement rules (measure starting distance, using 5ft of difficult terrain, using prone as an effect, event triggers if you move more than 20 feet, everything about taking the extra Dash actions)... I am not interpreting anything, I am just looking at the rules I was told solve this issue.

If they just said 'when the party decides to flee/chase/race, have them make a group Athletics check (unconscious people too if fleeing) - here's some tables for Success, Mixed, Fail outcomes' it'd take less space and actually be an option.

 

[GMMichael]

BUT what is the problem that's being solved? I guess the problem IS the ridiculousness of the yo-yo.

Yo-yo healing:

1) PC doesn't get healed during combat.
2) PC gets mauled, but stays in the same place to keep fighting.
3) Surprisingly, PC dies.
4) PC's ally uses a cure spell to return the PC to consciousness.
5) NPC, who hasn't moved more than 1 round away from fallen PC, walks over and knocks PC to 0 HP again.

We'll assume this trend continues in a cycle.

There are several solutions provided/available in unmodded 5e, which a lot of posters (seemingly) don't want to accept:

1) Heal your allies before they die.
2) Try not standing underneath an ogre-mage club.
3) Step 3 is warranted/appropriate.
4) Maybe wait until the opponent has moved out of attack range/draw opponent out of attack range?
5) NPC confirms the kill before the healer heals, or NPC attacks the healer.

Yo-yo healing is only ridiculous if you ignore the simple solutions to it. But as one poster said, "attack attack attack." If that's your plan - expect logical consequences.

@fluffybunbunkittens Wanna flee faster opponents? Get a horse. Unicorn. Pegasus. Owlbear. It's D&D - get creative.

 

[overgeeked]

I just do 1 level of exhaustion each time a character drops to 0 or gets killed.

Basically the same. We use the new 10-level exhaustion mechanic from the UA along with one level of exhaustion every time you hit zero HP. We're thinking about adding one level of exhaustion for every failed death save.

 

[overgeeked]

There are several solutions provided/available in unmodded 5e, which a lot of posters (seemingly) don't want to accept:

1) Heal your allies before they die.
2) Try not standing underneath an ogre-mage club.
3) Step 3 is warranted/appropriate.
4) Maybe wait until the opponent has moved out of attack range/draw opponent out of attack range?
5) NPC confirms the kill before the healer heals, or NPC attacks the healer.

Yo-yo healing is only ridiculous if you ignore the simple solutions to it. But as one poster said, "attack attack attack." If that's your plan - expect logical consequences.

Yo-yo healing is ridiculous in-and-of itself. It's also the optimal strategy, which is why it's so common to see. The PC suffers no drawbacks until they hit zero HP, so it's simply more efficient to not bother healing until the PC is dropped to zero. Death saves are cleared and the revived PC operates at full combat capability regardless of their recent near-death experience, so the healer is being more efficient by simply waiting. None of the "solutions" you provide are more efficient for the gamers, which is why gamers reject them.

The only one that might prevent this in future is NPCs confirming the kill. Which will immediately be thrown in the face of the GM as a sign they're bad and a killer GM.