D&D 5E 5E Healing Surges - Do You Use Them?

[CleverNickName]

I know what you're thinking: "Healing Surges? In Fifth Edition!? How can that be?!"

For those who might not know, Healing Surges are an optional rule on page 266 of the 5E Dungeon Master's Guide. And as you would expect from the name, it reintroduces healing surges to the 5E system to allow characters to regain hit points in the thick of combat. This is done by spending hit dice, similar to how they are spent during a short rest. (Unsurprisingly, this 5th Edition rule has very little in common with the 4th Edition rule of the same name.)

Today, there's a lot of discussion about "modular design" of the 5E rules. And coincidentally, I'm right in the middle of planning a new D&D campaign! All of these optional rules and variants are currently on my radar, because I'm trying to suss out what variant rules (if any) should be "plugged in." I'm trying to give my game a different feel, without making it a completely different game. So my question for the forum is:

Have you used the rules variant for Healing Surges in 5E? Do you still use them? How do you feel about them? Choose the option that best fits your experience, and scribble down any notes or feedback that you would like to add in a comment. Thanks for your input!

 

[CleverNickName]

Obviously, my vote is "I've never used them, and never given them any thought," and obviously that's not 100% true since I'm considering them right now. But it's the closest fit.

The reason I'm considering them is that I would like to utilize the Hit Dice mechanic of 5E a little more, and to introduce some new resource management strategies. Right now, my players are overtaxing the cleric for Healing Word, and taking too many short rests in a day (sometimes as many as 6). It's fine enough right now, but the upcoming campaign is going to be faster-paced with lots of time pressure, and that might be a problem for players who have gotten accustomed to spending a week clearing out an abandoned house.

My train of thought is like this:

Allow healing surges --> Players use Hit Dice more in combat --> Players have fewer Hit Dice overall --> Players take short rests less often​

It's a gross over-simplification, sure, but that's kind of the direction I'd like to go.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If I were to use it I would rewrite healing spells. Healing word would let you spend a HD and get a bonus, and cure wounds heal you AS IF you spent a HD

 

[DND_Reborn]

I never played 4E, but we allowed spending a HD during your turn as an Action for a while, but since dropped the house-rule.

 

[CleverNickName]

If I were to use it I would rewrite healing spells. Healing word would let you spend a HD and get a bonus, and cure wounds heal you AS IF you spent a HD

It's a good idea, but ooof. Rewriting, testing, and rebalancing all of the healing magic in the game would be a lot more work than I have time for.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Never used them, never thought about them.

I've made several different house rule systems over the years for the death and dying rules, but the healing rules have never bothered me to the point of trying something different.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

For those who might not know, Healing Surges are an optional rule on page 266 of the 5E Dungeon Master's Guide. And as you would expect, it introduces 4E-style healing surges to the 5E system. In a nutshell, it allows characters to spend hit dice and regain hit points in the thick of combat as well as during a short rest.

To be clear, it does not, in any way, shape or form "introduce 4E-style healing surges to the 5E system".

What it does is something about 60 degrees off from that, which is introduce an ability loosely thematically linked to 4E-style Second Wind to 5E. That's a pretty big difference imo. They only called it "Healing Surge" because they were lacking imagination and had already re-used Second Wind as a Fighter ability.

So in 4E, once per combat, you can use Second Wind, a Standard Action which burns 1 Healing Surge (of which you have a limited number per day which doesn't increase with level), and which heals you for 1/4 of your HP and gives you a defensive buff.

In 5E, the p.266 rule is that once per short or long rest, you can use Healing Surge, which is an Action which allows you to spend up to half your Hit Dice, and just get for whatever they roll (with CON bonus of course). Interestingly it specifies that you can roll each die before deciding to roll the next. Strange but helpful. It also the bizarre and totally unnecessary rule which should have been separate but isn't that you regain all HD on a long rest, and 1/4 HD on a short rest. Why? Because apparently in this chapter of the DMG we're just going to link rules together even though modular design would be better supported by separating them!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's a good idea, but ooof. Rewriting, testing, and rebalancing all of the healing magic in the game would be a lot more work than I have time for.

It's like, literally 7 spells that would be impacted. At the outside. We were discussing it earlier. It's not a monumental project. Especially as the balance on D&D 5E healing is absolutely awful and all over the place, it's one of the areas 5E is least well-balanced on. There's no way the 5E numbers were ever "tested" in a meaningful fashion, don't kid yourself. This is the game where Goodberry exists and never got nerfed, and where that spell which was kinda OP out of combat and mediocre in it got added then nerfed from orbit with extreme prejudice, going directly from OP to "you'd have to be stupid to cast this".

I'm not saying you have to do it, I'm just point out to anyone reading this that it is, not in fact, a huge or complex or risky task. If I was running 5E atm I'd do it myself.

 

[CleverNickName]

To be clear, it does not, in any way, shape or form "introduce 4E-style healing surges to the 5E system"
(snip)
apparently in this chapter of the DMG we're just going to link rules together even though modular design would be better supported by separating them!

I seem to have hit a nerve. I apologize for making a reference to 4E; it won't happen again.

I'm curious if you've used the 5E variant, and what you thought of it, though.

I'm just point out to anyone reading this that it is, not in fact, a huge or complex or risky task. If I was running 5E atm I'd do it myself.

...I'll take that as a 'no.'

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I seem to have hit a nerve.
Really, I'm just curious if you've used the 5E variant, and what you thought of it.

By vaguely and hopefully unintentionally misleading people?

Yes. I don't appreciate it when people are mislead, even just vaguely and unintentionally. I'd like the facts to be present. Shocking I know! You didn't describe the system so they'd have to look it up to know how inaccurate what you were saying was. I have corrected this issue!

I considered them, but like the rest of the alternate healing rules in the DMG, I found them to be a slapdash and obviously untested approach that needlessly grouped a bunch of rules together. Also it's weird because a "Healing Surge" isn't a thing, whereas a "Second Wind" is. Why not give them a proper name? Just more slapdash-ery. HD are a bad mechanic in 5E to start with, they're a half-finished mechanic, which was clearly a nod to 5E-style healing surges, but which doesn't interact with anything (it can get stuff added to it, extremely rarely, that's it). They weirdly stack on top of other healing methods, unlike 4E healing surges. If you go without healers in 5E, HD feel insufficient, but if have strong healers, they seem over the top. This is why we were discussing spells spending HD earlier.

4E-style healing surges would probably be doable in 5E, though. Let's see:

0) Get rid of HD.

1) Each class has 6 healing surges that fully refresh on a long rest (there's little reason to vary this in the way 4E did, and 4E had too many). Definitely do not add CON bonus to this number.

2) Healing surges are worth a fixed value, let's say 1/4 of your max HP, minimum 5HP (so they're a bit more useful at low levels).

3) Once per combat you can activate Second Wind to use a Healing Surge as an Action (so it doesn't work whilst unconscious), which will cause you to regain 1/4 of your max HP. Fighters get an extra use per combat at level 2, and maybe at level 7 and 14 they get an extra Healing Surge per day.

4) If a healing spell/power that heals at least 1HP is cast/used on you, you can use a Healing Surge as a free action once per round. Obviously it still costs you.

5) Outside combat you can you can freely spend healing surges. They still heal you for 1/4 of your HP. If something added a bonus to HD healing, like Bards, add the bonus to EACH HS used.

Tadaa! There I've solved all the world's problems.