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D&D 5E We have a Legends and Lore this week
- Thread starter Warbringer
- Start date
Warbringer
Explorer
Well personally, I think it should be a very risky proposition resting up in an "ant large wilderness" ... those over sized mandibles are lethal!
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I'm glad they're emphasizing the genre/style aspect of HP with specific modules, or at least approaches to modules. The half hp default is causing some consternation, and I'd go with something like Chris_Nightwing's approach where restful environments allow one to rest better. That allows a trade-off between going to town (or equivalent restful environment) and staying in the field. Returning to town generally has a large minimum time requirement and the PCs risk events occurring in their absence to which they can't respond, but once there hp are gained relatively quickly and reliably. Staying in the field generally has a low minimum time requirement and the PCs can be more responsive to local events, but the hp are gained more slowly and less reliably due to possibility of disruptions. On average neither of those should be the "right" choice, and if one of them obviously is in every circumstance you should probably use a different module.
My preference for how the hp themselves might be gained in this middle-of-the-road default is this: half your currently missing hp (minimum 1 or perhaps level or Con modifier), with adjustments for environment, probably by factors of 10% to keep the math dead simple. This means that after a long rest in a typical environment a character always has at least half hp, while most have more, but the actual hp gained has diminishing returns. In effect the "low" hp return quickly and the "high" hp return slowly. For example, if a character has 100 max hit points, 0 current hit points, heals 50% of missing hp per day, and has minimum healing per day of 1, then they wake up with the following hp totals: 50, 75, 87, 93, 96, 98, 99, 100. In any environment one can rest up to full with enough time. As a rule of thumb a week under normal circumstances will be enough to top off everyone.
This also has an interesting impact on the incentives for healing magic because if a character with 100 max hp and 0 current hp is healed for 10 hp, that 10 hp really doesn't impact the time it takes to get back to full. In contrast, if that same guy is at 90 current hp that same 10 hp spell might save days of healing (90->95->97->98->99->100). That makes healing magic really good at two things: saving a life from imminent danger, and topping off a party to save time. Healing magic is relatively poor compared to natural healing, however, for trying to keep a beat-up party adventuring day after day. That doesn't really diminish the cleric's ability to be a heal-bot (assuming we don't change how cure spells work) but it does mean that natural healing is often the much better use of resources, hopefully reducing heal-bot pressure. It might exacerbate the 15 minute workday, though, to have that first long rest be so valuable, assuming the PCs are in an environment that makes it that valuable.
My preference for how the hp themselves might be gained in this middle-of-the-road default is this: half your currently missing hp (minimum 1 or perhaps level or Con modifier), with adjustments for environment, probably by factors of 10% to keep the math dead simple. This means that after a long rest in a typical environment a character always has at least half hp, while most have more, but the actual hp gained has diminishing returns. In effect the "low" hp return quickly and the "high" hp return slowly. For example, if a character has 100 max hit points, 0 current hit points, heals 50% of missing hp per day, and has minimum healing per day of 1, then they wake up with the following hp totals: 50, 75, 87, 93, 96, 98, 99, 100. In any environment one can rest up to full with enough time. As a rule of thumb a week under normal circumstances will be enough to top off everyone.
This also has an interesting impact on the incentives for healing magic because if a character with 100 max hp and 0 current hp is healed for 10 hp, that 10 hp really doesn't impact the time it takes to get back to full. In contrast, if that same guy is at 90 current hp that same 10 hp spell might save days of healing (90->95->97->98->99->100). That makes healing magic really good at two things: saving a life from imminent danger, and topping off a party to save time. Healing magic is relatively poor compared to natural healing, however, for trying to keep a beat-up party adventuring day after day. That doesn't really diminish the cleric's ability to be a heal-bot (assuming we don't change how cure spells work) but it does mean that natural healing is often the much better use of resources, hopefully reducing heal-bot pressure. It might exacerbate the 15 minute workday, though, to have that first long rest be so valuable, assuming the PCs are in an environment that makes it that valuable.
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I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Requiring one to go to town rather than just getting a bonus for going to town changes the psychology. A bonus is "Towns are nice if you can find one!", a requirement is "We NEED to find a village."
D&D expects you to go to town, visit civilization, interact with other human beings in a non-hostile manner. It's not an extra, it's a prerequisite.
Unless, I'm sure, you're a druid or a ranger or a barbarian or a survivalist of some sort. In which case, I bet you can do that stuff without a town, and maybe help your friends, too.
D&D expects you to go to town, visit civilization, interact with other human beings in a non-hostile manner. It's not an extra, it's a prerequisite.
Unless, I'm sure, you're a druid or a ranger or a barbarian or a survivalist of some sort. In which case, I bet you can do that stuff without a town, and maybe help your friends, too.
Falling Icicle
Adventurer
I imagine our ancestors had to fear being attacked by wild animals in the night (like lions or wolves) that would seem just as dangerous to them as goblins, kobolds, and trolls are to adventurers. That, and adventurers should be used to it. I'm sure most adventuring parties develop enough confidence in their companions who are keeping watch that they can sleep pretty soundly. That, or their fatigue eventually outweighs their fear.
And just how far is this idea going to be taken? Are spellcasters and other classes with daily resources only going to get half of their spells or rages per day back when sleeping in the woods?
Jeff Carlsen
Adventurer
On the whole, I like the default mechanics.
We should keep in mind, Mearls is describing the intent of the mechanics, not the wording we'll see in the packet. I suspect that the rules will require several days of rest in a comfortable environment. This is something a party could probably create in an out of the way cave or reasonably secure camp site. But, if you're near enough to a town, you may as well go there.
On an extended adventure, securing or finding a place to rest for several days will matter, and I think I like that.
In the example of our ancestors, going back to the tribe is what provides enough security to adequately rest, but a lost cave man could likely find a safe enough place.
We should keep in mind, Mearls is describing the intent of the mechanics, not the wording we'll see in the packet. I suspect that the rules will require several days of rest in a comfortable environment. This is something a party could probably create in an out of the way cave or reasonably secure camp site. But, if you're near enough to a town, you may as well go there.
On an extended adventure, securing or finding a place to rest for several days will matter, and I think I like that.
In the example of our ancestors, going back to the tribe is what provides enough security to adequately rest, but a lost cave man could likely find a safe enough place.
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
Several people have touched on this (especially Ainamacar, above), but I'll state it explicitly. Everyone in the Adventuring Party has 40 HP max. Everyone takes 30 points of damage, except me. I only take 10. We all take the same amount of rest. So everyone gets 10 HP back, except me, I get nothing!? This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Sometimes I wonder what kind of beans these guys have for brains? Fortunately, there are other options, so we can just ignore such nonsense. And I quite agree that it will turn the 15 minute adventuring day crowd into the once a week adventuring crowd! Saying that they'll be silly to do so is like saying that the 50% max HP recovery if you aren't in a town makes sense. Good gaming all! 
Majoru Oakheart
Adventurer
My group isn't QUITE this bad. They likely wouldn't tell the DM to "fix it". However, they would complain.
It's likely that they would insist on going back to town nearly every night and heading back to the dungeon or wherever the adventure is the next day. After all, does it hurt them to go back to town? Sure, their characters just walked a week to the dungeon and a week back just so they could get 100% of their hitpoints back. However, it only took the PLAYERS 10 seconds to narrate it. Even if the DM decided to punish them for making this trip by making constant rolls for random encounters and such, they'd justify it by betting on a lack of encounters on the way back...or at least with little enough damage that it's a net gain.
My players know I hate random encounters more than they do. They've used it against me before. If it takes 30 minutes to run a random encounter and I have to roll for one each day and one each night, It's likely we're going to have to spend 1-2 hours in real time just running random encounters each time they go back to town....using up half the session getting "nothing done" in terms of the REAL adventure. They bet on me getting so sick of running random encounters that I'll stop rolling for them and just give them full hp.
I'm still going to test this rule and see what they do....but I'm guessing that without some changes, it'll end up badly.
