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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 6089940" data-attributes="member: 54877">In the original Basic (and Expert), one of the things that made the clerical-only healing work is that the cleric really didn't have that much of it--except maybe at odd points in the progression. (And at first level, the cleric had zero spells.) So it almost was, "no healing" but mundane rest--except the cleric had a few freebies in there to offset bad luck.  Potions are thus relatively more valuable than they later become.  Anyone can use them, you can stockpile them, etc.  It didn't always seem this way because of hit points being so low at first, but up around 5th to 9th, it was really felt. Anyway, relative to his healing, and his total contribution to healing, the cleric hits hard, has a lot of armor, and gets to do stuff other than be the heal-bot.There are a few things required to be able to make healing (or some subset of healing, such as repairing injuries) feel special:1. Routine healing of hit points should typically be, total, some noticeable fraction of the total hit points you normally have.  That means it has to be somewhat constrained or limited, whatever the source.  Routinely, you don't heal more than 25% or 50% or so of your total.2. Characters should have good ways of mitigating or avoiding damage by active actions (or at least active choices made in a timely fashion).  A "block" or "dodge" mechanic is one that many games have used, which perhaps doesn't fit D&D very well but does fit the requirement as an example.3. Some things should only be capable via ritual (or similar slow-acting means) that are easy to constrain via plot (or not, as the group chooses--which means that time should not be the only such constraint).4. Then when some class (or item or whatever) wants to be special, it can exceed the normal limits without flat breaking them.  That is, don't have the heal spell handle all damage instantly.  It might cure half the damage (when normal magic can't do more than a quarter), or it might cure almost all the damage slowly.  This is just as true of Next hit dice, 4E healing, 3E healing, etc.  Next hit dice would be automatically better--not perfect but considerably better--if they were smaller dice and/or less frequent, perhaps with healing kits being a bit more expensive and/or having less charges--and the math was balanced around that.  Consider having a hit die for healing every odd level, and kits only having 3 or 5 charges, and then require one charge per die used.  That's enough to carry on through rough patches, but not enough to really count on for the day.  Finally, design a system where "mundane" healing has a wider range of levels and power in which to work before magical healing totally takes over.  Then not only does the system not depend on any one class or mechanic, but it also means that "healer" classes can have mechanics to use that mundane healing more efficiently without breaking the game.  There's no room left, for example, to change the current Next hit dice/kits to give clerics and other healers something special to do with them.</blockquote>

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