Oni
First Post
If they do get rid of them I really hope they don't revert to the old carry around quiver full of wands of cure light wounds thing. That would make me a little sad.
D&D 5E Should 5E have Healing Surges?
- Thread starter Oni
- Start date
If they do get rid of them I really hope they don't revert to the old carry around quiver full of wands of cure light wounds thing. That would make me a little sad.
Sammael
Adventurer
Actually, the road to Hell is paved with frozen insurance salesmen. Young devils sometimes go ice-skating on them.
A cookie for the person who gets the reference...
As for the healing surges, it should be a DM's option. I certainly won't be using them (if I end up running 5e), but it'd be nice for 4e style DMs to have the ability to put them in the game.
Dragonblade
Adventurer
I don't need healing surges per se, but the game should provide for the ability to recover HP after every encounter without magic or bed rest. The semantics matter little.
Self-healing vs. magical healing vs. presence or absence of long term injuries should all be overlapping options built into core.
Self-healing vs. magical healing vs. presence or absence of long term injuries should all be overlapping options built into core.
TwinBahamut
First Post
I'll admit that I can't understand some of the complaints about healing surges that you bring up...
First, healing surges do provide a lasting effect of combat, so I can't see how they reduce the lasting effect of combat. Healing surges remove HP damage, but they themselves serve as an ultimate cap on how much damage the party can take, and thus serve as an absolute measure of attrition that works regardless of class or equipment. They get rid of HP damage, but HP damage was never the real basis of attrition in D&D anyways.
Second, why wouldn't a character "feel it" after spending healing surges? If anything, a character who is down on healing surges is feeling it by definition. It means having been hurt and being down on resources, with bruises and barely-closed wounds. If having low on healing surges (or being down on daily powers, for that matter) doesn't mean that the character is feeling tired or sore, then I don't think any mechanic can provide that feel.
FireLance
Legend
Terry Pratchett,
FireLance
Legend
I certainly think that some way for all characters to effectively recover hit points should be at least an option, although the term "healing surges" need not necessarily be used. Divine characters could have cure personal wounds, for example, while Psionic characters could have cell adjustment.
Martial characters are a bit trickier, but I suggested a VP/HP system for them in another post (reproduced in SBLOCK).
[SBLOCK]Let's say martial characters have a Vigor Reserve equal to the number of healing surges they would normally have. At the start of each adventuring day, and during each short rest, they can spend a point from their Vigor Reserve to gain a number of Vigor Points (VP) equal to one-quarter their normal hit points.
Damage is usually taken off VP first, before being taken off hit points, but the DM may rule that certain types of damage (such as ongoing damage) bypass VP.
When an attack is completely absorbed by a martial character's VP, he may choose for that attack to affect him as if it had missed, apart from the VP loss. Hence, an attack that deals damage and dazes the target would not daze a martial character if the damage dealt was less than his VP and it had no effect on a miss.
A martial character's VP is normally capped at one-quarter of his normal hit points. However, when he is reduced to half hit points or less, his VP cap increases to half his normal hit points. The increased sense of danger inspires a temporary increase in the martial character's ability to dodge attacks - until he runs out of Vigor Reserves and/or hit points, anyway.
A martial character can use the Second Wind action to spend a point from his Vigor Reserve and regain VP equal to one-quarter his full normal hit points, subject to his current VP cap.
A martial character's Vigor Reserve is replenished when he takes an extended rest. Hit points are recovered more slowly, at the rate of (level/2, minimum 1) per extended rest.
The net effect of these changes is that martial characters, when fresh, would have more effective hit points than characters of the other power sources. However, because VP act as a buffer and actual hit points lost can only be recovered slowly, or through magic, the number of effective hit points they have at the start of each fight would tend to go down over the course of an extended adventure. However, their ability to use VP to turn hits into misses (apart from VP loss) means that they are also better at avoiding conditions.
One downside is the need to track a separate pool of effective hit points, especially since martial characters have traditionally been less complicated than arcane and divine characters.[/SBLOCK]
Martial characters are a bit trickier, but I suggested a VP/HP system for them in another post (reproduced in SBLOCK).
[SBLOCK]Let's say martial characters have a Vigor Reserve equal to the number of healing surges they would normally have. At the start of each adventuring day, and during each short rest, they can spend a point from their Vigor Reserve to gain a number of Vigor Points (VP) equal to one-quarter their normal hit points.
Damage is usually taken off VP first, before being taken off hit points, but the DM may rule that certain types of damage (such as ongoing damage) bypass VP.
When an attack is completely absorbed by a martial character's VP, he may choose for that attack to affect him as if it had missed, apart from the VP loss. Hence, an attack that deals damage and dazes the target would not daze a martial character if the damage dealt was less than his VP and it had no effect on a miss.
A martial character's VP is normally capped at one-quarter of his normal hit points. However, when he is reduced to half hit points or less, his VP cap increases to half his normal hit points. The increased sense of danger inspires a temporary increase in the martial character's ability to dodge attacks - until he runs out of Vigor Reserves and/or hit points, anyway.
A martial character can use the Second Wind action to spend a point from his Vigor Reserve and regain VP equal to one-quarter his full normal hit points, subject to his current VP cap.
A martial character's Vigor Reserve is replenished when he takes an extended rest. Hit points are recovered more slowly, at the rate of (level/2, minimum 1) per extended rest.
The net effect of these changes is that martial characters, when fresh, would have more effective hit points than characters of the other power sources. However, because VP act as a buffer and actual hit points lost can only be recovered slowly, or through magic, the number of effective hit points they have at the start of each fight would tend to go down over the course of an extended adventure. However, their ability to use VP to turn hits into misses (apart from VP loss) means that they are also better at avoiding conditions.
One downside is the need to track a separate pool of effective hit points, especially since martial characters have traditionally been less complicated than arcane and divine characters.[/SBLOCK]
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Healing surges are basically just a variant on reserve points. Both of those systems have interesting effects on gameplay, which is beneficial for certain campaign styles. As such, I think they'd both make fine additions to the 5e equivalent of Unearthed Arcana (and the 5e SRD as well).
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