How do you explain overnight Healing in your game?

[Mallus]

Actually, can't you still heal someone with powers like Healing Word and Cure Light Wounds even if a character doesn't have any healing surges left?

Yes. For example, Lay on Hands uses one of the paladin's Healing Surges, not the recipients.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Actually, can't you still heal someone with powers like Healing Word and Cure Light Wounds even if a character doesn't have any healing surges left?

Depends. Healing Word requires the recipient to have a Healing Surge left. Cure Light Wounds not. As Mallus mentioned, neither does Lay on Hands.
And there is some healing available entirely independent from healing surges. Regeneration for example. Some powers just recover hit points. (But those powers often require making attacks, so they are not so great to help a commoner get through the night.)

 

[Obryn]

For any creature with statistics, they have 1 healing surge at Heroic tier, 2 at Paragon, and 3 at Epic.

I'd just say a non-statted NPC probably has 1, if it becomes important.

-O

 

[Garthanos]

Garth,

If this were true why come up with the Bloodied Condition? It would have made more sense to come up with a different word. It seems that a lot of the confusion that comes from how the loss of "hit points" comes from "damage" and then reaching a "bloodied condition" is poor wording. Yes, this can be remedied but why continue with such official descriptions if it is a poor representation of what is actually happening in combat?

Differentiation technical terms from descriptions

Bloodied isnt a description its a technical term:

• When my halfling is bloodied...he looks frazzled and distraught, worn around the edges.
• When the ranger is bloodied he is sweaty and breathing heavy, his head is lowered and yup he has a scratch or bruise or two
• When the barbarian is bloodied he has tons of nicks and cuts that blead a little at first but are shortly brown marks.(ok only tons because he is high level)

What term would you prefer? the barbarian would hate it if we called it something else but the halfling would love it.

"Winded" kind of works for some characters.

 

[Naszir]

Yes, but these technical terms lend themselves naturally to certain descriptions. Being "hit" by a weapon/power that does "damage" and makes you "bloodied" all point to physical respresentations rather than a generic reduction of staminia/luck/skill.

It does make sense to try and get more creative with how we describe in game damage. I like the way you have creatively come up with hit point loss for the halfling rogue.

I guess Ailing would be a more generic term but it doesn't seem to have the same kind of umph behind it that bloodied does.

 

[Bumbles]

Your absolutely right that everyone has their own threshold of ridiculous. I've always found it jarring that, according to the rules, you can't break a bone in D&D. No matter how big a cliff you fall off of. Now matter how many times a titan hits you with his mattock. No broken bones, ever. There is no procedure for it.

I wouldn't put it as "according to the rules, you can't break a bone in D&D" but rather, as "the rules don't account for details of injuries such as breaking bones" which puts a different spin on things.

I do recall Tabula Rasa the MMORPG did cover it, at least with leg injuries. Of course, you had a science super-suit to heal it rapidly, but you'd still have a movement penalty for a while. So I suppose if one wanted to develop a procedure to handle it, that could be done.

I shudder at the complexity though.

 

[Lizard]

NPCs don't have this feature. Is almost the distinguishing feature between an heroic adventurer - a PC - and an NPC.

Except they do, if they're with the PCs. I've seen nothing to indicate that if the Human Wizard (4th level Controller from the MM, not one built with classes) who is travelling with you is injured, that he will not be at full hit points at the end of an Extended Rest.

I find the healing system works fine for explaining "adventurer" damage occuring during an "adventure". It's usually easy to describe wounds as less serious, or do the "It was less severe than you thought" routine, and to assume off-stage use of minor magics. It only becomes a problem when you wish to interact with the world and expect something more than "PCs are *special*" as an explanation.

 

[Garthanos]

Yes, but these technical terms lend themselves naturally to certain descriptions. Being "hit" by a weapon/power that does "damage" and makes you "bloodied" all point to physical respresentations rather than a generic reduction of staminia/luck/skill.

It does make sense to try and get more creative with how we describe in game damage. I like the way you have creatively come up with hit point loss for the halfling rogue.

I guess Ailing would be a more generic term but it doesn't seem to have the same kind of umph behind it that bloodied does.

The wizard held up his hand and said he doesnt like "winded" much more than the barbarian and no better than bloodied... as he uses last ditch application of his craft as the key element in his defense and which doesn't involve running about unless you consider slipping partially in to an adjacent plane of existance running --- sigh.

The narrative is ours and the players. We were given explicit permission/recommendation for the players to visualize/skin the offensive elements ... it is barely a house rule that I allow the players visualization rights for there defense.
(even if sometimes they want me to do it for them I am well aware of the pattern and use it on NPC's who have hit points.)

I made bloodieable minion rules specifically to deal with npc's who don't minimize most attacks. Some will even survive attacks which RAW would kill them (one of the effects of applying healing to a minion) and be hobbling around with those real injuries which last for a month.. without ritual treatment. So yeah I made house rules that make interaction with npc's cleaner, they dont seem that big of deal to me.

 

[N0Man]

Actually, can't you still heal someone with powers like Healing Word and Cure Light Wounds even if a character doesn't have any healing surges left?

Well, NPCs and monsters get 1 surge per tier (but generally don't have the ability to spend them on their own).

If a power causes someone to spend a surge, then they can't be healed unless they have a surge left, with one exception. A dying character can be restored to 1 HP with a healing power, however they cannot recover in this manner by rolling a 20 for a dying saving throw.

 

[Flipguarder]

At the end of the day the rules for npcs are actually fairly simulationist. You get one "second wind" (or healing surge) per tier, and you don't heal automatically during extended rest.
If you want simulationist, and still want to go fight in several epic battles a day, you are probably going to die just from the sheer fact that its a decent simulation of what would happen in that situation.