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D&D 5E Why are potions of healing so expensive?

Do you mind clarifying this? In the thread or in a PM. I've made HD more impactful by making long rests only heal HP by the spending of Hit Dice, and I think I did a few sorcerer things with them, but I'm interested in seeing if your system could be adapted for my own use.

Sure. The blue-highlighted section ties HD to Exhaustion in some way.

RESTS

Breather. A period of 15 minutes where a character can attend to Wounds, eat an iron ration, quench their thirst, inspect a map, salvage arrows or bolts from a combat encounter, put out a fire and/or attend to other small duties or desires. A character cannot expend Hit Dice for hit points during a Breather.

Short Rest. A period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to Wounds. A character can expend Hit Dice for hit points during a Short Rest.

Travel Rest. A period of downtime, at least 8 hours in length, during which a character sleeps and may participate in light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. If the Travel Rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity - at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity - the character must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. A character can expend Hit Dice for hit points during a Travel Rest.

A Travel Rest allows a character to remove 1 level of Exhaustion. Should the character not be suffering from any levels of Exhaustion, they may regain spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number of them, rounded down (minimum of one die). For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice and not suffering from Exhaustion, he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice upon finishing a travel rest. A character can’t benefit from more than one Travel Rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

Long Rest. A Long Rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 24 hours in length, of uninterrupted rest during which a character sleeps for a minimum of 8 hours and may participate in light activity: reading, talking, eating or performing some task, be it a craft or otherwise which derives the character pleasure (mental, spiritual or physical).
If the Long Rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

Furthermore two or more requirements, reflected below, must be in effect.

Safety from Threat of Attack ~ This could mean a thorough watch is posted – for example, a well-guarded Elf camp in [their forest] would allow a long rest. Arguably lying rolled in your cloak in a ditch just off the Forest Road, with your [Halfling] friend trying to stay awake and watch for Spiders, would not.
Comfort ~ Sleeping in a Dwarf hall carved from the heart of a mountain is a very different experience than sleeping in a Goblin tunnel. Comfort might mean a bed. It might mean good food. It might mean good company that allows for proper rest.
Tranquility ~ Some locations may simply provide an air of peace that means good rest is available to a company. This could be an ancient Elf ruin that has held onto some of its former glow of goodness. It could be a campsite next to a bright river that raises the spirits. This is very much in line with building the feeling of [the Setting], [if it is one] where characters can find peace in the wildest of places.

At the end of a Long Rest, a character regains all lost hit points and all spent Hit Dice. Additionally a character removes all levels of Exhaustion. A character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

FORCED RECOVERY

Forced Recovery. Forced Recovery is the term used to describe when a character pushes themselves beyond the prescribed safety limits to use their abilities. Performing a Forced Recovery to use a Short or Long Rest ability costs x amount of Hit Dice (as per table below). Hit Dice shortfalls incur Exhaustion levels on a 1-to-1 basis. The important take away is the player decides the power level of the ability being recovered.

Example 1: A 7th-level fighter performing a Forced Recovery to use an Action Point in order to do one additional attack will cost 1 Hit Dice (Level Required 1-4). Using an Action Point to do two additional attacks will cost 2 Hit Dice as fighters need to be 5th level or higher to benefit from the Extra Attack class feature.

Example 2: A 7th-level wizard performing a Forced Recovery to cast a Magic Missile as a 1st or 2nd level spell slot will cost 1 Hit Dice (Level Required 1-4). Casting the Magic Missile as a 3rd level spell slot will cost 2 Hit Dice as it would require the wizard to be at least 5th level to cast 3rd level spells.

LEVEL REQUIRED FOR ABILITY​
HIT DICE COST​
1-4​
1​
5-8​
2​
9-12​
3​
13-16​
4​

RITUALS

We use the above table for rituals as well, deeming rituals to require some sort of physical exertion on the part of the caster so that casters cannot cast rituals all day long.
 
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Dragonsbane

Proud Grognard
Commoner breaks arm, goes from 4 HP to 2 HP. Drinks potion. Back to full health. In our modern day world, treating a broken bone via cast and time costs way more than "50 gp" in modern money. If you could buy something to heal you up instantly, it would cost a ton of money.

In my game, potions are not cheap, and only sold in very large cities. Healing is mostly the town cleric or druid that can heal one or two people a day, usually for a small donation to the church.
 

Commoner breaks arm, goes from 4 HP to 2 HP. Drinks potion. Back to full health. In our modern day world, treating a broken bone via cast and time costs way more than "50 gp" in modern money. If you could buy something to heal you up instantly, it would cost a ton of money.
Except in D&D land that commoner would only take an eight hour nap and the arm would be fixed, because everyone is Wolverine.
 

Oofta

Legend
Commoner breaks arm, goes from 4 HP to 2 HP. Drinks potion. Back to full health. In our modern day world, treating a broken bone via cast and time costs way more than "50 gp" in modern money. If you could buy something to heal you up instantly, it would cost a ton of money.

In my game, potions are not cheap, and only sold in very large cities. Healing is mostly the town cleric or druid that can heal one or two people a day, usually for a small donation to the church.
Breaking an arm would fall under "lingering injuries" which most people don't use. Does HP damage in your game ever mean that an arm becomes useless? Instead of breaking their arm they strain it, enough that if they had to defend themselves they'd be slightly slower and may not defend against that attack that will knock them out or kill them.

Or at least that's how I view it. That, and even though I use the optional rules for a long rest being a week, people really do heal faster than we do. They just don't realize it. People have evolved to use magic in subtle ways without realizing it in my campaign world, whether that's making cookies magically delicious or that herbal remedy really working (minor) miracles.

Most of D&D is a vastly oversimplified reality simulator, I don't see why HP would be any different.
 

Democratus

Adventurer
Commoner breaks arm, goes from 4 HP to 2 HP. Drinks potion. Back to full health. In our modern day world, treating a broken bone via cast and time costs way more than "50 gp" in modern money. If you could buy something to heal you up instantly, it would cost a ton of money.

In my game, potions are not cheap, and only sold in very large cities. Healing is mostly the town cleric or druid that can heal one or two people a day, usually for a small donation to the church.
Aren't 1/2 HP just representative of "scratches and bruises" in the rules? Also, are there even rules for breaking a bone?
 


Vaalingrade

Legend
Commoner breaks arm, goes from 4 HP to 2 HP. Drinks potion. Back to full health. In our modern day world, treating a broken bone via cast and time costs way more than "50 gp" in modern money. If you could buy something to heal you up instantly, it would cost a ton of money.

In my game, potions are not cheap, and only sold in very large cities. Healing is mostly the town cleric or druid that can heal one or two people a day, usually for a small donation to the church.
I don't get how something in our non-magical world takes a lot of time and (artificially inflated) money means the magical equivalent has to also take a lot of money.

What is even the point of magic if it's shackled and brainboxed to mundanity?
 

Commoner breaks arm, goes from 4 HP to 2 HP. Drinks potion. Back to full health. In our modern day world, treating a broken bone via cast and time costs way more than "50 gp" in modern money. If you could buy something to heal you up instantly, it would cost a ton of money.

In my game, potions are not cheap, and only sold in very large cities. Healing is mostly the town cleric or druid that can heal one or two people a day, usually for a small donation to the church.
HP loss doesn't cause broken arms.
 


Democratus

Adventurer
"HP Loss" is so general that it can cause just about anything the DM or player wants - especially when there is access to magical healing to fix up the loss.
Since a character is perfectly 100% functional all the way down to 1 hp, it's hard to argue that they have broken arms or legs.

"Sure I can wield this 2-handed sword with just as much efficacy as ever - but trust me...my arm is broken." :rolleyes:
 

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