I imagine it's like this:
Short rest: Spend any number of HD to regain HP.
Long rest: Spend any number of HD to regain HP, then regain X HD.
X might be "Roll whatever type of die your HD is."
More like..
Short rest: Spend HD to regain HP.
Long rest: Regain HD. (You don't need to spend HD then regain them as you can just short rest before or after a long rest).
This is just my guess from my reading of the article, but: after a long rest, a 1st-level fighter regains 1 Hit Dice. When he takes a short rest, he can expend that Hit Dice to regain 1d10 hit points.
At higher levels, it is not clear:
1. What is the maximum number of Hit Dice each character can have. A number equal to level seems likely (i.e. a 9th-level character can have a maximum of 9 Hit Dice), but any fraction or multiple of level (half level, twice level, etc.) could also be possible.
2. How many Hit Dice are regained per long rest. Most likely, it will be a fraction of the maximum Hit Dice (one-third, half) so that it will take a character a few days to completely recover from being brought down to 0 hit points.
Another point that seems very likely at the moment is that the average number of hit points that can be regained from a character's maximum Hit Dice will be less than the character's full normal hit points. This means that a character's hit point reserve, in the form of Hit Dice, will be far shallower than in 4e. So over the course of an adventuring day, you might see a character expending all his Hit Dice to regain 50%, 75%, or (with a series of lucky rolls) 100% of his full normal hit points before he needs rest for at least a few days. That would address the criticism that 4e characters recover hit points too quickly, both in terms of a single adventuring day (where it is theoretically possible, though unlikely, to go from full hp to 0 hp and back to full hp two, three or more times per day) and from a day to day basis (because all hit points and healing surges are recovered after an extended rest).
I hope, if anything, it looks like your first paragraph. I doubt it will (see below about "grittiness").
The only other question I have is what happens if 5e allows multiclassing resembling 3e's? With different classes with different HD values. How will they get HD then? Will they use the highest, or the lowest, or both. What order to they regenerate them? Level fist acquired, last acquired, lowest value first, highest first?
To me it is less about having HD to maintain and record, though that is certainly an issue, but what about the countless unanticipated questions that arise through this system. I don't see HD for non-magical healing to be intuitive enough to be able to resolve these questions any way other way than houseruling or asking the designers.
But what does the difference mean?
On a long rest does a level 1 fighter gain 1d10 HP, 10 HP, or 1 HD which requires another rest to gain HP?
Also..
HEALING HERBS!!!!!
I suspect the reference to healing herbs was the fluff associated with HOW they are regaining HP through HD. Not the actual mechanic itself.
B. Divorcing mundane healing (HD healing) from magical healing is a big plus IMO, first of all the fact that each character don't have a base of 125% of its hp is a good step forward to combat hp bloat, both on the character side and more importantly in the monsters side.
How are they divorced exactly? Now they have a base of 100%+HD instead of 100%+SW[mitigated by HS]
Warlord healing can constantly keep the party at top shape and always at high morale. But morale can't heal wounds and "bloodied" and dying allies can't be heal by the warlord.
I agree on the "can't heal dying" part but not so sure about "bloodied", assuming they can still heal "non-blooded".
This is part of the reason I dislike HP as morale and don't use it that way.
I would argue that if you do not like hitpoints, you should find a different game. They are part of d&d. I am pretty much cool with any method of recovery, as to me it just isn't the key part of the game.
Sent using Tapatalk 2
What about Wound Points? I seem to recall countless people use that variant. I don't think the game should be about excluding people. People can excuse themselves if they don't like the game, but the game should never not like them.
I don't get why is unconsciousness tied to HP? People can be unconscious and healthy, and they can be dying and lucid.
I know all (most?) older editions have this rule, but it never made sense to me.
This is actually a rather large gripe I have with HP as they currently exist and doubly so with this new system. I think a hard look should have been taken at HP, how they recovered, how damage is dealt, what counts towards it and of course looking at how non-lethal and unconsciousness works.
Hit Die recovery rates vary depending on preferred "grittiness":
Gritty game: recover 1 HD/extended rest
Default game: recovery half level (round up) HD/extended rest
Action hero game: recover all HD/extended rest
Option 1 "Grittiness" is exactly what I want to see. I expect to see more along the lines of "Default" and "Action Hero" and that is what really disappoints me.
Its old-schooled healing surges.
They seem to have addressed:
-HP bloat
-Runaway in-combat healing
-Lack of risk in hp loss, including through the need to roll for recovery and slower mundane healing
-World consistency ("fluff") issues
It doesn't address any of those.
- In character creation you can still get X number of HP. All this does is HEAL that HP total. Not manage it.
- It doesn't mention combat healing at all. In fact it is a method to not need a healer. Imagine what happens if you DO have one.
- Once again, it doesn't touch how HP are lost, only how they are recovered. The article was about HP RECOVERY not about loss. The scorpion will still deal 3 damage either way.
- How is it consistent that 3 HP on round one is a barely noticeable scratch but the same 3 HP damage in round two is "looking like you got into a fight"?