D&D 5E Second Wind

[variant]

One way to solve the issue is have Second Wind cost a HD to use.

 

[pemerton]

I seriously think I might just limit this to Fighters above 1/2 hps. (And yes, there is a quote in the rules about under half you are showing physical signs - cuts and bruises - which don't just go away).

if you go by its name, you 'could' go further and say, well, this is not representative of wounds closing. As written, it can do that too.

As written it doesn't make wounds close, nor cuts and bruises go away, even if the fighter is below half hp. It just means that those cuts and bruises don't burden the fighter. Because s/he got his/her second wind.

 

[Connorsrpg]

[MENTION=19998]fanboy2000[/MENTION] Now worries. I did not mean to sound snarky at all. I thought you had made a relevant point about the name. It is just I don't see the same thing when I hear Second Wind. Yep, you get your breath back and dive back in. As [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] stated, it can be ignoring those cuts etc.

I am just uncomfortable with how it is written to be honest. As this thread has proven it can be interpreted differently by different people. A 1st level power that has the potential to be abused and is already on shaky ground (being the whole 'natural healing' slope) should really have been made very clear.

To be honest, I still don't know how to read it or explain it to the newbies I will be running it with. Perhaps I should just play as beneficially as possible to give it a go (meaning totally against our usual gritty style where full heal ups have to be paid for and don't just happen).

So, maybe, I will go with those that argue it can be used as often as the fighter likes (following each 1 hour rest of course ). It still doesn't feel right and I am not sure that is intended, but it is the most generous reading of it and the newbies might just need that.

 

[jadrax]

It still doesn't feel right and I am not sure that is intended, but it is the most generous reading of it and the newbies might just need that.

What is intended doesn't actually matter, it is what you want it to do that counts.

 

[KarinsDad]

I do believe that a player that tried to get 4 short rests in a row would not be invited back to my table.

So, you have a friend that you've known for 40 years and you say "Hey, don't come back", all because he interpreted the rules to mean that he could do multiple short rests and heal up his PC.

Uh huh.

What do you do if he spills his Coke on "your table"?

 

[Pickles JG]

If you think of it more as an adrenal surge that lets him overcome his injuries then the solution most poepl want (ie no chained rests) makes more sense.

This gives a good reason why he can only refresh it in a combat or I suppose other stressful situation rather than just over time. So long as some part of hitpoint damage is not meat then recovering ing some of it by strength of will makes sense.


Alternatively in reality it is vanishingly unlikely that an individual knows exactly how badly injured they are when they get wounded. Second wind is just demonstrating it was not as bad as originally feared.

(Most of my groups have a distate for chaining rests in 4e when it's 5 minutes, there is not way we would in 5e, but that's just "taste" not a rule based decision)

 

[SkidAce]

What do you do if he spills his Coke on "your table"?

Was there rum in the Coke?

That's an important distinction.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Yes, and at an hour the players get their abilities back. Use them, and rest again.

"At least" does not mean "as long as possible". You are being ridiculous.

At least means at least. Hard to fathom but there it is. If you rest for an hour and then continue to rest it counts as the same short rest.

I'm already considering a house rule:

After you take a short rest, you may not gain the benefits of another short rest for 4 hours or until after a long rest.

So if you really want to sit around for half a day to stack two short rests go ahead but the world moves on, and random encounters in hostile territory can happen.

 

[Tony Vargas]

One way to solve the issue is have Second Wind cost a HD to use.

Yep. The structure of a lot of rules in 5e is potentially problematic because you have these renewable resources that recharge with each rest or each long rest. When the pacing of the campaign puts the right number/severity of challenges between rests, everything's fine. If you can 'invest' something from repeated or 'chained' rests, however, you have issues.

If SW activated a HD and added to the hps recovered, it'd be fine. Chaining it would just be increasing the efficiency of your HD, nothing more. Indeed, it could apply to all your HD, giving the fighter a deep reserve of hps a little of which could be tapped in combat, the remainder, if needed, after a short rest.

HD really had some potential to be a modular 'touch point' for healing across the board. Most/all healing effects (SW, CLW, etc) could have expended HD, meaning that all a DM had to do to adjust pacing in his game would be to adjust how often and how many HD are recovered....

 

[drjones]

Thanks @fanboy2000

I am with you on mist things. My group DO NOT play to exploit rules generally, I just feel (and given the varying views here) that this power could be worded better/clearer.

Every rule in the book could be worded in a more complex, precise manner that would remove the majority of rule lawyering that goes on when there is vagueness. But then the 90% of players who are not super argumentative and wheedling for any slight advantage and use the immediate 'common sense' interpretation will be burdened with eighteen caveats and corner case definitions for every rule.

I think Mearls covered this pretty succinctly: Players liked the fighter heal so it is in the default game with other options in the DMG. The rules are not written for the minority who just want to twist them around and find exploits (or worse yet, just want to theorize about how they could be twisted on a message board) they are written for players and DMs who want to play the game with reasonable good sportsmanship.