D&D 5E Should healing magic be based on HD or not?

[aco175]

Same for potions of healing?

• Potion of healing: 1 HD+2
• Potion of Greater Healing: 2 HD+4
• Potion of Superior Healing 4 HD+8
• Potion of Supreme Healing 5 HD+20

It's an interesting idea.

Would you think that the potion uses the drinkers hit dice for the day or is it just to get the type of die to roll? I'm just thinking that if someone is out of hit dice and drinks it. I would like the idea of it being free healing and not to force the drinker to use his dice, but in a gritty game- maybe.

See my last post though and I do not see how a priest making a potion can imbue it with knowing who is going to drink it to determine how much power is in it. I also wonder if it would be gamed and the fighter gets all the potions since he can roll a d10, or the barbarian with a d12. Although it might make the potion be used more in combat.

 

[billd91]

I strongly dislike the idea of expending a target's hit dice when using a healing spell or other healing magic. It's an external source of intervention - it should be based on an external source of power, not the target's internal resources. I didn't like it for 4e healing potions and various powers, I still don't like it.

Basing the amount healed on the target's hit die size is an interesting idea, though. Proportionality was the one thing that 4e's healing did right.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The answer is 'Yes. A thousand times yes'.

Non-scaling healing just feeds the weird misunderstanding of HP people continue to carry with them.

 

[Lyxen]

I strongly dislike the idea of expending a target's hit dice when using a healing spell or other healing magic. It's an external source of intervention - it should be based on an external source of power, not the target's internal resources. I didn't like it for 4e healing potions and various powers, I still don't like it.

I think the weakness of 4e was that it only had one type, which basically was the same situation as before, but reversed. 5e, on the other hand, has both, and it gives greater flexibility and possibilities.

 

[Oofta]

Healing comes from the gods, not the person. We already have HD healing you can use during a short rest, let magic healing be magic.

 

[Lyxen]

The answer is 'Yes. A thousand times yes'.

Non-scaling healing just feeds the weird misunderstanding of HP people continue to carry with them.

It is already scaling per spell level, which is honestly not bad as a solution. The problem about forcing Hit Dice, as mentioned before, is that it creates a single source of healing, internal, rather than having multiple ones, and it prevents the rather nice distinction between healing word and cure wounds, one healing more than the other but the other being ranged and a bonus action.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Healing comes from the gods, not the person.

The bards would like a word.

A Healing Word.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It is already scaling per spell level, which is honestly not bad as a solution.

Let me correct myself: Scaling by the target's HP.

 

[Lyxen]

Let me correct myself: Scaling by the target's HP.

I know what you meant, but natural healing by HD is already working that way, what I'm saying is that it makes is not only poorer (like 4e did) if everything has to use the same resources (i.e. HD), and using the same dices prevents subtleties like different healing spells using different dices because, at the same spell level, they are more or less efficient.

 

[Vaalingrade]

So... we make everything worse so we can get a bloated spell list? Cool.