D&D 5E 8 hour Long Rest and total Healing up; change it to Roll All "Hit Dice" and add that to Hit Points

[not-so-newguy]

I like the short rest/long test mechanic because it keeps the game moving. I don't like the idea that a PC can potentially fully heal by simply "eating, drinking, reading, and tending wounds" for one hour.

So i've decided to add a resource cost to healing. The pc's need to use a healers kit per HD of healing for short rest. During long rest, one "use" of a healers kit heals one max HD. Healers kits now cost 50gp, making it 5gp per "use."

The healers kit is now a triple antibiotic with gelatinous cube added to really kill the germs. Acolytes of the local temples pay good money for gelatinous cube in order to create these kits.

I've done one long session with this new rule and the group seems fine with it. Healing without a kit is 1hp plus con bonus per long rest. No short rest healing without a kit.

 

[furysmuse]

I love this idea! I am going to have to run it past my players. The extra piece about the gelatinous cube is especially delicious.

 

[not-so-newguy]

Thanks! Glad to help

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Hey, was thinking about the 8 hour Long Rest and total Healing up, how about we change it to Roll All "Hit Dice" and add that to Hit Points. Rolling the "Hit Dice" does not subtract from your current "Hit Dice" but replaces the Total Heal for a 8 hour rest

I have to agree with Paraxis: What's the goal?

Also, let's consider the statistics, here. For the earliest levels, HD-based healing is extremely swingy and generally falls behind actual HP, because all characters get the max die roll for 1st-level HP. However, by level 8ish, the values become pretty well-constrained around the center of the distribution, e.g. a Fighter with Con 14 regains between 32 and 58 HP with ~95% confidence at 6th level (compared to expected value of 47.5 HP), while that same Fighter at level 10 regains 58-92 HP with ~95% confidence (compared to e.v. of 79.5 HP). The centers of these distributions are within a few points of the mean (usually 5% or less), so a significant portion of the time, players will regain at least as many HP as their total; Con modifier essentially makes no difference, because it shifts both maximum HP and HP regained upward by the same static value, and for large numbers of HD the increase to the ceiling and floor becomes nearly meaningless.

In other words: You'll be creating a significant amount of extra overhead every time you take a Long Rest, for the gain of typically healing slightly or significantly less than a PC's total HP (and occasionally slightly overhealing). What benefits are you getting from this change to offset the extra work (both actually rolling the dice, and remembering to roll them) involved? If you feel those benefits are worthwhile, then do it--statistically speaking, you'll be making your players' lives slightly harder, but the average case isn't terribly far off from just letting everyone heal, except in the early brutal levels.

(That, too, can be a bug or a feature: making nightly HP regain HD-based means levels 1-3ish are extremely perilous for most adventurers, hit by the double whammy of low HP so a lucky crit can kill, and low regen so a single fight can put you at Death's door and keep you there.)

 

[miniaturehoarder]

While I prefer natural healing to be much slower, the damage output in 5E really does feel like it was set assuming HP healed to full each day.

 

[Athinar]

I disagree with anything that Paraxis says, RAW or not

RACS, for Rules As Common Sense beats a bad written RAW any day

 

[SirAntoine]

I would suggest using the 3rd Edition recovery rules, if you don't want to re-use AD&D's. Every day the character regains 1 hit point per level. That sounds reasonable. The spells can return at whatever rate you choose, but hit point recovery simulates wound healing. Natural regeneration wouldn't be anywhere near as quick as the standards established for the current edition. Magic is magic, so it wouldn't affect verisimilitude.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

After the first game we played, I changed healing. The "So, you were down 137hp, with 4hp left...but, you did get completely hammered that night and passed out. You've been sleeping for 10 hours...POOF!...you're all healed!"...well, it totally broke our suspension of disbelief.

My house rule: Everyone gets to heal 1/2 (round up) their normal HD every 8 hours of comfortable, safe, rest. In other words, a 5th level cleric wakes up after sleeping in a nice comfy bed at the inn; the player gets to roll 3d8 to see how many hp's he recovered during the night. No "actual" HD are spent...these are freebies; a simple mechanic to keep healing relatively quick, but not insta-heal. It also allows me to apply simple modifiers to how much healing is done (e.g., "You all slept under a cold, rocky overhang. It was better than sleeping out in the storm, but you couldn't get a fire going, and it was pretty miserable. Everyone has -2hd to your morning heal rolls" [so our cleric would only heal 1d8hp, in the example above]

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[CapnZapp]

The short/long rest thing is also tied to expected encounters. The game assumes 2-3 combat encounters between rests and around 8 combat encounters a day.

So
Wake up
3 encounters
Short rest
2 encounters
Short rest
3 encounters
Long rest

Or something close to that, if you are not using that many encounters in a day than you might want to stretch the time out by changing what is a short rest and what is a long rest. If you make short rests an evening camping in the woods (8 hours) and a long rest a day spent in civilization (24 hours). It all works out if the encounter structure is something like this.

Monday morning leave town.
Get into a random encounter, and one planned encounter.
Monday night (short rest)
Tuesday get into 3 encounters while exploring an old tomb.
Tuesday night (short rest)
Travel for 3 days getting no real quality sleep because of horrible weather. During this time get into another 3 encounters.
Make it to a new town and spend a day shopping and sleeping in a good inn (Long Rest)

You still have 2-3 encounters between each rest, you still get 8 encounters before a long rest. Resource management mostly stays the same. There are long duration spells like hex and hunters mark that get reduced in effectiveness but you could change those up if it becomes an issue.

This way a nights sleep is like a short rest, ie allows you to spend hit dice.

For hex crawling where 1 encounter a day is normal, and other wilderness exploration games this works well. Not so well in a long dungeon crawl which the base system is designed for where you do get into 8 fights or so in an adventuring day, to it depends on the type of campaign you run.

The real solution is to leave rest frequency / duration up to the individual scenario.

It is the idea that all rests must always work the same that is the problem.

Most groups enjoy variety in their adventuring, doing a dungeon one day and trekking across the wilderness the other month.

So instead of saying three encounters, rest one hour, three more encounters and then sleep for the night;

Instead say three encounters, short rest, three more encounters, then a long rest.

You're so very near, then you (as does everybody else) start talking about changing short and long rests to day/week...

With long and elaborate examples. All for nothing. As if that's gonna solve anything. Perhaps you solve the wilderness trek, but instead you break the dungeon.

The truth is that no given value for a rest will work for all or even most adventures (unless all you do is dungeon bashing!), so why bother?

Why not settle for the basic fundamentals: three encounters, short rest, three encounters, short rest, three encounters, long rest...

...and then give general advice that works in all cases? "in dungeons, a short rest taking as little as five minutes could work; during extended and relatively eventless voyages, a long rest per port of call or oasis could be appropriate even if separated by weeks"

And so on.

Man, I wish this stuff was in the DMG.

 

[Sadras]

One of my players came up with this idea (might have been stolen)
Short Rests/Breathers

To expedite game play and to make it less arbitrary, the concept of a 1 hour short rest is done away with entirely. Now when the groups rest, whether it's for 5 minutes or anything short of a full travel/bed rest, this is considered a “breather”. By rights, players should have around two short rest a day. So, twice per day (i.e. between Travel/Bed rests), each individual player can declare that the breather he is currently taking is “recuperative”.

This accomplishes several things:
• Players are no longer tied to other player to recoup short rest powers. Only those that need it, take it.
• Short rest powers are no longer infinite. Players must be careful and tactical as to when to recoup or they could be caught short in a protracted day of adventuring.
• Player can no longer stack back to back multiple short rests to exploit powers indefinitely.
• There’s no longer an arbitrary time stamp of “must rest for 1 hour” to recoup. This is jarring from an RP point of view.
• It stops the Warlock from being able to launch roughly 30 Fireballs in a day at level 5.

As for HIT POINTS

Hit Points are an abstract gaming construct, but consist of Meat, Luck, Vitality and Divine Providence. The first Hit Point however is always considered Meat.

In our game Hit Points are gained via
o Magic (which restores Meat, Endurance, Divine Providence and Luck);
o Expending Hit Dice (which restores Endurance); and
o Expending an Inspiration Point (which restores Luck), PC gains 2 hit point per level.

Expending Inspiration and Hit Dice can only be done when one has 1 Hit Point (Meat) and not during a time of exertion (unless otherwise stated by the rules), so usually during a Rest Period.

An attempt to normalise the I’m up- I’m down- I’m up sequence of combat
Magic has the ability to restore someone to fighting capability.

When an ally who is unconsciousness is healed (via magic), the restored ally loses their action phase on his next turn, the PC still possesses movement and bonus action. This loss of action signifies time taken to awaken, acclimatise to the situation around him. Essentially the PC is able to grab a weapon (bonus action) and stand up and move 15 feet (movement phase)

As for RESTS

Short Rests/Breathers (no time associated) – Recharges the applicable race/class powers/abilities as per normal.
Travel Rests (around 8 hours) – As above, AND restores all your Hit Points (must have 1 Hit Point for this to take affect - Meat)
Bed Rest (around 8 hours) – As above, AND restores 50% of your Hit Dice.
Long Rest = 2 x Best Rests