D&D 5E Hit Point Recovery Too Generous

[iserith]

You got it. There is a good reason to return to town. Or if you're a ranger or a druid to return to your shack in the woods/magical grove/whatever. Encourages the party to have a home base, which is good for hub-and-spoke adventure design.

In a hexcrawl game I joined, the DM wanted the characters to have incentives to go back to town so we worked out a house rule that hit die recovery only happened in a "safe haven," which is a settlement or any special place the DM designated. So there might be "safe havens" hidden in a hex somewhere which provides a nice reward for exploration. It also encourages the players to have their characters create safe havens, a decent gold-sink.

The game's just started, so we'll see how it works out in practice.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Whatever the hit point recovery rules end up being, the players adapt.

In 1e & 2e our group went with the '5 minute workday'. Some groups shifted to the 'minimize fair fight' side, which can be both satisfying and dissatisfying.

In 3e it was Cure Light Wounds wands for groups I was involved in.

In 4e we played by the book. (with regards to healing)

In 5e we're back to houseruling (4e style plus Lingering Wounds). I'm finding that adding Lingering Wounds to otherwise quick Hit Point recovery hits our sweet spot (causes damage to our preference )

Especially since any fight can turn into a serious challenge depending on the dice.

 

[CapnZapp]

Just for healing? Or for everything?

I can tell you that as a player, if I was playing a wizard (just for instance), I could live with only healing after a week in town, but not regaining spells until a week spent in town would probably drive me away from the class, if not the campaign.

This kind of blanket statement isn't helpful, Ari.

It depends, is the correct answer.

If the campaign is spaced in such a way as to spread the default 6-8 encounters over that week, not only is the DM justified in making the change, but your refusal is starting to look very petty indeed.

Cheers,
Z

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Hit points are ambiguous they represent all kinds of things like luck, skill, fatigue, divine intervention, and yes physical injury. But since you can fight, run, climb, swim, dance, and host a fancy party all at 1 h.p and not be at any penalties obviously the physical injury part is very miniscule until you go down to 0 h.p.

Don't describe each arrow hit, or sneak attack as making things bleed or getting punctured and you should be ok.

Character falls off a cliff lands with 1 h.p left he can climb back up the cliff again no problem. There are no broken bones, sprained ankles, torn ligaments, or other issues in regular D&D. I just find it much easier to think of h.p the way they are supposed to be thought of instead of trying to come up with a bunch of house rules.

Taking the view in the bold above doesn't actually help the situation. If damage below 0 HP is "real physical injury", then that means you can recover from a hill giant chucking two gigantic boulders directly at your head while you are unconscious with a simple Medicine check from a buddy and 1d4 hours of rest. After that, you regain 1 HP and are back on "luck points" instead of "physical injury points", so apparently the physical injury of getting your head smashed with giant boulders wasn't a big deal.

IMO it's better to just view HP as having a basis in physical reality all along. It will lead to more coherent play.

 

[the Jester]

Does anyone else think hit point recovery through rests is way too generous in this edition?

By default, anyway, yes.

What I've done is switch the long rest benefits to "recover no hps and regain half your HD, round down, minimum 1". That way lingering injuries can actually.... linger.

 

[Mallus]

So far I like the way 5e handles hit points & recovery. It's very easy for low level PCs to drop to zero, harder for them to completely die, and recovery is quick. I don't find it much different from 3e, actually, since 3e made healing much cheaper & readily available (as default assumptions).

It's also easy to tweak recovery in 5e and/or introduce lingering effects for dropping to zero HP.

Frankly, though, I'll worry about more realistic recovery rates as soon as D&D introduces injury modeling, ie never!

 

[Umbran]

You got it. There is a good reason to return to town. Or if you're a ranger or a druid to return to your shack in the woods/magical grove/whatever. Encourages the party to have a home base, which is good for hub-and-spoke adventure design.

Perhaps. Btu it also means that your game world has a problem supporting long-range exploration. Lewis and Clark would die for lack of a town.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Now we're getting into the difference between using Game Rules as world physics instead of resolution mechanics or narrative tools.

 

[Mallus]

Now we're getting into the difference between using Game Rules as world physics instead of resolution mechanics or narrative tools.

Please dear lord not 'rules as physics'. I canna stand no more !

 

[Ristamar]

I can tell you that as a player, if I was playing a wizard (just for instance), I could live with only healing after a week in town, but not regaining spells until a week spent in town would probably drive me away from the class, if not the campaign.

If my preferred class' primary abilities were tied to a week of rest, I would likely have to rethink my choice. Regardless of DM pacing, the classes with a variety of abilities/bonuses that are potentially always available or keyed to a short rest become far more attractive. The Warlock, in particular, would arguably be much more useful at lower levels in comparison to the Wizard and Sorcerer.

Taking the view in the bold above doesn't actually help the situation. If damage below 0 HP is "real physical injury", then that means you can recover from a hill giant chucking two gigantic boulders directly at your head while you are unconscious with a simple Medicine check from a buddy and 1d4 hours of rest. After that, you regain 1 HP and are back on "luck points" instead of "physical injury points", so apparently the physical injury of getting your head smashed with giant boulders wasn't a big deal.

Being able to bounce back at all after having your head smashed by a couple of boulders seems rather silly. Such a person would likely be dead or permanently disabled.

I don't think there's anything wrong with running a gritty, lethal campaign by reducing the efficacy of healing through rest. However, if the problem with verisimilitude (as it relates to hit points) lies in the severity of injuries and the subsequent healing, it's just as easily fixed by the DM's narration of wounds and damage than fiddling with hit point recovery rates.