D&D 5E (2014) An alternative to eight hour healing

[Tallifer]

In both 4E and now in 5E, I allow recovery of spells, abilities and hit dice after a long rest, but not hit points. I like it also that a short rest is now an hour long.

 

[Gadget]

You know, there are DMG options for modifying the recovery rates so you don't get everything back after a long rest right? And who says that you have "broken bones and sword wounds" when low on Hit Points? Characters are certainly not hindered in any way by these 'injuries'. The problem is that Hit Points themselves are a very 'unrealistic' abstraction. Not to start the whole "hit points are meat or not" argument (I really don't want to get into that again), but--practically speaking--you're just adding another component to the: 'have to have a cleric' or 'a keg of healing potions' or the ever popular "wand of cure light wounds" memes that were so prevalent in earlier additions.

Now, not everyone followed those memes, and some campaigns like a more 'fantasy Vietnam' style, and that's fine. But for campaigns like those, I would think a modified recovery rate (per DMG), liberal use of exhaustion rules, and wounds (per DMG) would be a path to pursue.

 

[Krachek]

You must be mad at the healer kit too.
A mundane non-magical item, that make a dying character to stabilize in 6 seconds.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The eight hour healing thing.

Look, I know D&D has never been about realism. I've been playing in one form or another for over thirty years. I remember holing up in a dungeon room for days on end, healing a point a day.

I remember having at least one cleric in every party.

Which is the same thing, really.

But now, with 5E, you take seriously life threatening wounds, take a nice eight hour rest, and boom, you're back to full! And it's killing me!

Take an 8 hr nap and you'll be fine with it!

Don't get me wrong, I understand why they did it, and I love the fact that it keeps the game moving. There's a lot that's GOOD about the eight hour heal. The problem is, it is the one thing in the game that I just can't see happen without my eyes rolling back into my head. I can rationalize everything else in the game that defies logic and realism. I get that the PC's are Heroes. I get that hit points are not meant to represent just how much pure physical damage you can take.

You want to focus on that last bit, because that's where successful rationalizations for hps & healing can be found.

There's got to be a better way.

Hit points are one of the most abstract things in D&D, perhaps the major mechanic that most clearly illustrates that D&D is not and cannot be made into an actual simulation ('process sim' at the outside), and, yet, they're actually one of the most effective mechanics D&D has ever brought to the table. They model the 'plot armor' that keeps protagonists alive in fiction, without completely eliminating any sense of jeopardy or risk from play. As whacky as it seems when you try to force it into a realistic model of injury, it's a very good sub-system for what it does. The thing is, what hit points do - negate hits - isn't quite as clear from the label 'hit point' as it could be, and that the label 'healing' is entirely at odds with what merely restoring hps would represent in the fiction.

Before I get into my idea, I'd love if anyone else has had this issue and has resolved it, either through coming up with some kind of reasonable explanation, no matter how tenuous.

Hit points are mostly about the capacity to avoid injury, not endure it - a limited last-ditch capacity of luck/fatigue/whatever that gets used up quickly. Unless you're making deaths saves, you haven't taken a remotely serious injury. Once you're no longer making death saves, that serious injury that threatened your life is stabilized and no longer affecting your ability to fight/adventure/etc. You don't have to completely, literally, heal that injury before your capacity for avoiding injury is fully restored. That's all overnight healing represents, re-charging that capacity. Likewise, it's all most healing - Second Wind, Healing Word, etc - represents. 'Healing' is prettymuch a misnomer.

So, narrate appropriately, no serious wounds until 0, then one possibly-fatal wound, until you've made three death saves or been brought back up to 1 hps - at that point, you have a serious-but-stable wound. You can narrate that has taking weeks to fully heal and that it leaves a scar, if you like. Also, don't narrate healing, whether magical or non-magical, as making wounds simply disappear. Spending HD or resting 8 hours is just that, resting, you recover from fatigue, you recover your spirits, you're ready to face battle again. HP-restoring 'healing' spells, especially those like Healing Word should, likewise, be narrated as infusing you with positive energy/divine inspiration/etc, not making wounds vanish. More powerful effect, like Heal or whatever they're calling Regenerate these days, can actually be narrated to make wounds vanish.

So please understand that I'm not out to take away the eight hour heal. I love the fact that it keeps the game moving. What I need is a rational or a mechanic that makes it work. So of course I'm looking into something magical.

Considering that you played in parties back in the day that had no choice but to rest for days on end to recover hps, I think the problem with the magical solution should be obvious: not everyone wants to play a magic-wielding faith-healer.

If you want to 'keep the game moving' you'll still be forced to.

I'm also not looking to cut into those caster's slots, so I'm thinking it would be a cantrip.

Ritual would be the obvious way to go, there, that's exactly what rituals are for: spells that take a long while to cast out of combat and don't use up slots.

 

[cbwjm]

While I don't actually worry about 5e's healing rules, if I wanted to make a change I think I would remove the heal to full on a long rest and instead still require the expenditure of hit dice. You do get half back on a long rest but since you might also have to use some to heal, it would give you less to spend throughout a typical adventuring day. Never being at 100% might give players a reason to weigh up the potential risks of continuing while only having a relative few hit dice remaining or spending additional time to heal up with another long rest than they otherwise would. Of course it could also lead to them blowing all their healing spells and then resting another night to get back to their maximum hit dice with 2 long rests instead of at least 3.

Boop!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I tried going this route in 4E - turning healing surges into a spell - and it didn't work out so well.

I would honestly suggest just changing it so you heal 1hp after a long rest (or 1 hp per level), and getting rid of Hit Dice entirely.

 

[cthulhu42]

Thanks for the replies. Some very good stuff here.

Trust me, I get the abstract nature of hit points. I understand that they are not meant to represent sword cuts and broken bones. BUT... at a certain point you ARE dealing with sword cuts and broken bones. Some damage IS real. If you're getting into combat with swords and maces as frequently as D&D characters do, some of those hits are going to be real damage. I know that's up to me as the DM since the game doesn't differentiate, but I have to believe it's true.

I mean, lets say a PC gets captured by a bad guy and they torture him. While DMing the situation I specifically say that the bad guy breaks the PC's hands, shattering his bones with a club. Then his party charges in and rescues him. They take an eight hour rest and, technically, all those broken bones are back to good! And sure, I am free to adjudicate that encounter more realistically. And I might. But if I want to keep my game moving, I can accept the eight hour rest OR come up with some rational that makes the eight hour rest not so ridiculous.

Also, yes, my idea would require a divine caster of some sort in the party. But hasn't D&D always kind of required that? I think magical healing is what has always made fantasy RPG's work so much better than most other genres.

Many of the suggestions here are helpful if the party does NOT have a caster. I think natural healing should be slower, and my thought is to use the longer healing rules in the DMG, or even one of the suggestions from this thread, should a caster be unavailable. But usually my group does have a divine caster of some sort. And remember, it's not my intention to slow the game down. As someone mentioned in a reply, what I'm looking for is a narrative device that allows us to keep the eight hour heal without it straining reality to the breaking point.

I think having the spell be a ritual rather than a cantrip is a better idea. I had thought of that but I got stuck on the ten minute ritual casting time, but I suppose there's no reason a ritual couldn't have a longer casting time.

Also, as was mentioned before, my idea would certainly make the healing process easier to interrupt, which, as a story device could be useful. It would add a small element of danger when healing in a less than secure place, which isn't a bad thing.

 

[cthulhu42]

Here's a question: So if I make the spell castable as an eight hour ritual spell, how does it work if the caster actually prepares it? I need to keep that eight hour casting time. Basically I want an eight hour spell that doesn't use a spell slot, thus the cantrip.

 

[iserith]

Thanks for the replies. Some very good stuff here.

Trust me, I get the abstract nature of hit points. I understand that they are not meant to represent sword cuts and broken bones. BUT... at a certain point you ARE dealing with sword cuts and broken bones. Some damage IS real. If you're getting into combat with swords and maces as frequently as D&D characters do, some of those hits are going to be real damage. I know that's up to me as the DM since the game doesn't differentiate, but I have to believe it's true.

That's the thing though - you don't. The DM is responsible for describing the environment and narrating the result of the adventurers' actions. If you don't describe broken bones, sword cuts, shattered hands, or other grievous injuries, then the disconnect you're having by imagining characters sleeping those injuries off cannot occur. The problem is not with the rules but with your description.

But if you can't see yourself changing your description, I strongly suggest examining how the rule your propose will actually affect play. What other issues might is create even as it tries to solve the initial problem?

 

[cthulhu42]

That's the thing though - you don't. The DM is responsible for describing the environment and narrating the result of the adventurers' actions. If you don't describe broken bones, sword cuts, shattered hands, or other grievous injuries, then the disconnect you're having by imagining characters sleeping those injuries off cannot occur. The problem is not with the rules but with your description.

But if you can't see yourself changing your description, I strongly suggest examining how the rule your propose will actually affect play. What other issues might is create even as it tries to solve the initial problem?

Right. Yes. This. The last part.

I am very hesitant to tinker with stuff like this as I have been burned before. One of the reasons I posted this is to see if clever players could figure out ways to manipulate the idea in ways that break the game.