D&D 5E 5e Homebrew Rule Comments or Recommendations Sought

[Quickleaf]

In 5e, short of permanent death PCs are completely healed in just 8 hours no matter how much punishment they received and totally without magical interventioni. It almost seems laughable, especially to those of us who played AD&D back in the day. Even with the proposed rule, no injury takes longer than 5 days to heal. Actually a pretty liberal standard when you think about it.

Yeah, that was my sense of the healing rules too. My players like them though, and I'm of the philosophy that the rules/house rules should usually be collaborative, not created top-down by the GM.

One minimal "change" would be to use the standard 5e rules, but only when there's a magical healer available, such as a cleric, bard, or druid PC. That sort of models how most healing happened back in AD&D, at least AFAIR, with the cleric spending time healing everyone, and then taking a long rest so the cleric could prepare spells.... Functionally, it's pretty close to what 5e does.

 

[Xeviat]

Anyone else do something similar?

Thanks as always.

My gritty rule of choice would be WP/VP instead of HP, but your idea works well I think. I'd definitely use it for a less combative game, possibly where all fights are classed at "deadly", with longer rest variants. It would make the players think twice about engaging in combat.

In an L5R game I played in, since dice exploded and HP grew a lot slower than damage, we were very careful with fights. If that's what you're going for, it could work. It will definitely make sure healers try to keep people up rather than letting them hit 0 before healing them.


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[epithet]

There is a difference between being "at 0" and "dying." Many intelligent monsters will subdue, so that the PC will immediately become "stable" and can then be sold as a slave, sacrificed to something nasty, or eaten fresh. I would only apply the penalty if the PC was dying.

I personally like the lingering wounds table more than exhaustion. I like to use exhaustion as a scarce resource, but there's nothing particularly interesting about it. The lingering wounds tend to be more amusing and memorable. The optional rule I like best to add a little grit, though, is slow natural healing. All natural healing comes from using hit dice, and you only recharge half your hit dice on a long rest, so you could need to take a day off. A day is long enough to force a break in the action without being so long that the flow of the adventure is completely wrecked. That also make the healer feat and Song of Rest much more valuable abilities.

 

[Springheel]

I use these rules: http://www.mindplaces.com/pictures/wound doc.pdf

 

[Over the Hill Gamer]

I use these rules: http://www.mindplaces.com/pictures/wound doc.pdf

Nice. We are going to try these out.

 

[the Jester]

In 5e, short of permanent death PCs are completely healed in just 8 hours no matter how much punishment they received and totally without magical interventioni. It almost seems laughable, especially to those of us who played AD&D back in the day. Even with the proposed rule, no injury takes longer than 5 days to heal. Actually a pretty liberal standard when you think about it.

Well, you could use some kind of slower healing variant- for instance, I use the following:

On a long rest, you recover half your expended HD, rounded down, and no hit points at all.

Spend them HD to recover!

 

[the Jester]

One minimal "change" would be to use the standard 5e rules, but only when there's a magical healer available, such as a cleric, bard, or druid PC. That sort of models how most healing happened back in AD&D, at least AFAIR, with the cleric spending time healing everyone, and then taking a long rest so the cleric could prepare spells.... Functionally, it's pretty close to what 5e does.

What do you do if the group doesn't have a healer?

What about when the only one who can heal is the fighter with Second Wind, and he can only heal himself?

 

[Quickleaf]

What do you do if the group doesn't have a healer?

What about when the only one who can heal is the fighter with Second Wind, and he can only heal himself?

If you wanted a grittier game without a healer, then yes, a more involved house rule would be needed.

I was just intending to provide a quick explanation for the at-the-table reality for the groups I've been in. We experienced gamers can look back and say "AD&D was grittier/deadlier", and while that's true, healing magic (which most groups I played in had) ended up making the slow natural recovery a moot point.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I've got a houserule that is similar if someone drops to zero and is brought back they get a special form of exhaustion that only lasts until the end of the fight.

Once the battle is over they can take a breather and shake off the effects, but during combat they get worse and worse if they keep dropping and coming back.

Unfortunately, I've never had a chance to use it, as the group hasn't had a dedicated healer for a while and they also rarely end up dropping more than once a fight.

 

[Over the Hill Gamer]

someone shared an interesting house rule on dndbeyond.com -- death saves do not refresh until a long rest.