D&D 3E/3.5 4e healing in a 3.5 game. please critique!

[Evilhalfling]

Shake it off Rule : After an encounter you can rest 5 minutes and make a DC 10 fort save to regain ¼ of your max hit points. Each additional time this is attempted in a day, it adds +4 to the DC. One minute of first aid (heal dc 15) will add +2 to save. Shake it off cannot not be used to return you to max hit points, in this case it simply fails.

After discussing it with my group I am looking for rules to support the game I want to run.
stealing good ideas from 4e as necessary.
The intention of this is to take pressure off needing a cleric with every party, or needing a cure light wounds wand as a back up.

It is also based on observing the real world, a short break can restore a lot of energy and stamina, but that there is a practical limit on how much energy can be restored. This assumes that hit points are a combination of actual wounds, fatigue, confidence and luck.

Should the time it takes be longer? the DC lower? or automatic and limited in some other way? the healing increased or decreased? Should it be avalible in combat like second wind?

I appreciate your help and ideas.

 

[Voadam]

I've used reserve hp from UA and IH. This basically gives a second set of hp that can be used to heal in between encounters. Therefore no greater hp or healing during fights but can go for twice as many combat encounters in a day without magical healing. At the end of that they still need to flee to rest up though.

 

[CleverNickName]

Have you considered letting characters use Heal checks to emulate [Healing] spells? It wouldn't take very much work to come up with a list of DCs for healing all sorts of things (not just hit points)...just relate the Heal check DC to the spell level.

This table uses a Heal DC of 15 + (2 x spell level). I did this "off the cuff," so to speak, so you will definitely want to test it out for balance.

Cure minor wounds: Heal DC 15
Cure light wounds: Heal DC 17
Cure moderate wounds: Heal DC 19
Cure serious wounds: Heal DC 21
Cure critical wounds: Heal DC 23
Delay poison: Heal DC 19
Lesser restoration: Heal DC 19
Neutralize poison: Heal DC 23
Remove blindness/deafness: Heal DC 21
Remove disease: Heal DC 21
Remove paralysis: Heal DC 19
Restoration: Heal DC 23

For balance reasons, I would rule that this particular skill check requires at least 10 minutes per level of the spell being emulated, and that it cannot be used for spells higher than 4th level. You might also need some sort of rule to prevent 1st level characters from casting 4th level spells with this ability...the character should have at least the same number of hit dice as the caster level required for the spell.

 

[skelso]

I can't think of any reason why your "Shake it off" rule would break the game. If you were my DM and said you wanted to incorporate that house rule, I'd say, "Okay, sounds good." Unless I were the party cleric, in which case I'd say, "Okay, sounds awesome!"

You might need to nail down a few things, though. Since it's based on a fortitude save, a natural 20 automatically succeeds. How many tries do you get? As long as you've got at least 5 minutes to try again?

You might also want to tighten up the rule about not being able to reach maximum. If a PC happens to have 1 hitpoint too many to even try, say he's got 75hp out of 100hp, what's to stop him from giving himself an hp of damage so that he can heal himself to 99hp?

I'm sure you can work all that out. However, I think using the Unearthed Arcana rule that Voadam mentioned would be the easiest way to go.

 

[Gansk]

I'm also thinking of using the reserve hp from UA, but then combining it with the 4e rules.

"Healing surges' = one quarter hp.

Each character gets reserve hp equal to 5 + half level + Con bonus * healing surge value.

Any character can take a second wind once every 5 minutes.

Magic healing and second winds subtract from reserve hp. If you have no reserves left, you cannot accept magical healing. Reserve hp only heal naturally (per PHB rules).

If you have 0 hp or below and reserve hp left, you can only use them to accept magic healing. A DC 20 Heal skill check can trigger a second wind if one is available.

 

[Nifft]

I'm a fan of the SW Saga idea that you get back 1/4 of your HP, or your Con score (not modifier), whichever is higher.

At low levels, this can completely heal you.

(They limit it to once/day, and you must be below 1/2 your regular HP to use it at all.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Evilhalfling]

vodam - don't reserve points heal far more slowly? ill take another look at though.

Nift Im trying the saga version in a PbP game, but we didn't like the fact that it could completely heal you, it violated our suspension of disbelief. Instead we settled on just 1/4 hp, 1/day but that was so little, its barely a factor at low levels.

skelso - I had considered the danger of nicking yourself for more healing, my solution is to tell the player who trys it - "You don't think that will work" and allowing him to reconsider the action.
I had not thought about the automatic success, hmm.

Thanks for the responses! any other ideas?

 

[Nifft]

Nifft Im trying the saga version in a PbP game, but we didn't like the fact that it could completely heal you, it violated our suspension of disbelief. Instead we settled on just 1/4 hp, 1/day but that was so little, its barely a factor at low levels.

In my SWSE experience, it only fully heals you if you suck.

Basically, if your Con score is equal to more than half your maximum hit points, you're very low level, and you're playing a class that isn't particularly robust -- but that's in SWSE, where Soldiers and Jedi start at 30+Con HP at 1st level.

- - -

So, let's work on the suspension of disbelief angle. How about "Second Wind" works once per day, and does one of the following:

1/ As a Swift action, regain HP equal to 1/4 your max HP.

2/ As a 1-Round action requiring a DC 10 Heal check, regain HP equal to your Con score (not modifier). You may make the Heal check yourself (at a -5 penalty), or an ally may make the Heal check for you as a Standard action during your 1-Round action.

... now you've got the quick-fix for the dudes who are supposed to be able to eat damage like toast, and you've got the "OH GOD I'M DYING" fix for the low-level wimps.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Voadam]

vodam - don't reserve points heal far more slowly? ill take another look at though.

1 hp/minute

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/reservePoints.htm

 

[Evilhalfling]

Hmm. reserve points are still too slow. They would ensure that all buff spells are gone by the next fight, and that a dungeon crawl really becomes a crawl - giving opponents far to much time to react between fights. An hour of rest would be needed to heal in midlevel fights.

I do prefer using existing systems instead of making them from whole cloth, and reserve points are simpler than what I came up with.

Would anything be broken by increasing the return rate to 3/per minute?
It would make a 5 min rest worthwhile, and cure nearly everything after 30min.
Yet the finite nature of such healing should avoid abuses.

The only disavantage is that it will take more experianced people longer to recover, which I don't consider ideal, but could probably live with.