D&D 5E An alternative to eight hour healing

[The Crimson Binome]

Also, yes, my idea would require a divine caster of some sort in the party. But hasn't D&D always kind of required that? I think magical healing is what has always made fantasy RPG's work so much better than most other genres.

I played AD&D for years (in college) and we got by just fine without a divine caster. Natural healing is plenty sufficient, as long as it takes a few weeks to travel anywhere, and if you avoid getting into unnecessary fights.

 

[iserith]

Right. Yes. This. The last part.

I am very hesitant to tinker with stuff like this as I have been burned before. One of the reasons I posted this is to see if clever players could figure out ways to manipulate the idea in ways that break the game.

So I take it altering your description of things to bring it more in line with what hit points represent is right out? Because that neatly avoids both the realism problem your current descriptions create and the concern that someone will take advantage of your house rule that purports to deal with said problem.

To me it's like the old lady who swallowed the fly, if you know what I mean.

 

[Jaelommiss]

1) Trolls exist in most D&D settings.
2) Humanoids have a habit of breeding with just about anything with an orifice.

Is it really so unreasonable to assume that most humanoid races have a bit of troll's blood in their heritage? It would grant an immense evolutionary advantage over any 'pure' humanoid. Thanks to that ancestry, it now makes sense that PCs can heal up fully in eight hours.

 

[cthulhu42]

Well, I'm NOT actually describing broken bones and such in combat. For that matter the rules as written have worked just fine and in all probability we'll keep things as they are, especially since we're 11 levels into a campaign and I am loath to change things in mid stream.

I realize that this is largely a solution in search of a problem. That said, it is an issue, for me at least, in that the current rational is unsatisfying. It totally works. I just don't like it, and if I could come up with a better one it would help me sleep at night.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I think having the spell be a ritual rather than a cantrip is a better idea. I had thought of that but I got stuck on the ten minute ritual casting time, but I suppose there's no reason a ritual couldn't have a longer casting time.

Sure. Or the ritual could last 8 hours, and over that time restore hps & HD. Heck, it could last 24 hrs, and allow spending HD after a short rest, too...

I mean, lets say a PC gets captured by a bad guy and they torture him. While DMing the situation I specifically say that the bad guy breaks the PC's hands, shattering his bones with a club. Then his party charges in and rescues him. They take an eight hour rest and, technically, all those broken bones are back to good!

Not even an 8 hr rest. A one hr rest and a single HD, or anything else that brings him up to 1 hp and he's functioning normally. HPs simply doesn't model breaking bones, severing limbs, or other severe injuries that bring lasting (even permanent) disability.

You can narrate the broken bones, and when the PC is back up to fighting trim and full hps, perhaps it's been splinted, or he has his weapon & shield tied on or something - and, through the usual heroic effort, he can fight and adventure at full effectiveness - at least, when it matters. The player can RP the injury in less critical situations, and you can narrate some results in terms of the injury, a failed check is because he's hampered by it, a '1' he's stopped short by the pain, an enemy's critical hits mercilessly hammers the injured limb, etc...

Or, you can add to the rules to cover it. Inflict a penalty on the PC - he can't use that broken hand, so no two-handed weapons, no casting while holding something else, etc - that takes time or more than just hp-restoration to remove. You could do that ad-hoc, or you could create a whole sub-system for it.

Also, yes, my idea would require a divine caster of some sort in the party. But hasn't D&D always kind of required that?

Not always, no, depending on where you draw the line on 'divine.' If you consider the Druid 'nature' rather than 'divine,' you could get by with one instead of a cleric in 2e (when it got CLW at 1st level instead of 2nd). In 3e, a party might just scrape by with a non-divine Bard as their healer, or even a collection of WoCLW & a rouge with a high UMD, or just bushels of healing potions, once the costs became trivial, anyway. In 4e, 'Divine' was explicitly a Source, and all the Sources, even Martial, in the form of the Warlord, could restore hps (among other support functions originally done by the Cleric). In 5e, the Cleric is a divine healer (as is the Paladin), Druid debatably divine, and Bard a non-divine healer.

As it stands now, 5e /does/ 'need' a caster of some sort to provide in-combat healing, or PCs that drop stay down for the rest of the fight, and that can spiral towards a TPK. What your variation would do is extend that need to daily healing. IMHO, that's not a big impact: any competent party should have a support caster or few, already.

I think magical healing is what has always made fantasy RPG's work so much better than most other genres.

In-combat healing, yes. It needn't be from magic, though that's a ready recourse for FRPGs. For instance, Champions! combat works very well, and everyone more-or-less regenerates in D&D terms, via 'Recoveries' every Turn - but the combats are mostly about getting a KO, rather than a kill, so it's all 'STUN' instead of of hps...

 

[cthulhu42]

I'm certainly not saying you can't play without a healer, but it sure helps, and I think it's kind of assumed that a cleric will be on hand.

 

[Bawylie]

Instead of that spell/ritual, how about a zone? An 8 hour rest in a sanctuary can restore all HP, etc. But outside a sanctuary, an 8 hr rest only restores hit dice or something like that. In practice you would control the placement of sanctuaries and therefore be able to adjust to any weird issues.

You could also have sanctuaries in flux. Once used they might need time to regain their mojo. Like a magic fountain that restores you but not more often than once a week. Or a cave that glows in the light of the full moon. Perhaps some sanctuaries are permanent (temples and churches, perhaps hospitals and the like - which is why those things were built there in the first place). And maybe they can be corrupted, so you can get some quests out of them if you want.

But the one big effect they'd get you is the one you seem to want - no 8 hr rest to full as a matter of routine.


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[Raith5]

I have always seen hp as being more related to stamina than blood and bone. So I dont have any personal disconnect with rapid recovery. Indeed, I dont even see a short rest as requiring the imagery of bandages etc.

That said I think the Bard's Song of rest ability may provide some guidance how an quasi magical ability can give a rationale for rapid recovery. Maybe make it a broader ability for other classes.

 

[ClaytonCross]

You could just get ride of 8 hour healing and have long rests restore all hit die instead, then let them use 1/4 there hit points over every 6 hours (the first at the end of their long rest). Then players don't heal fully unless they get lucky roles or aid there healing some how (encouraging healing kits and abilities before long rests so faster healing has a cost). Additionally, you will average about 50% healing total a day so it takes 2 days instead of one making it twice as believable, lol. Unless your really hitting your players every day with combat they will take twice as long to heal adding a bit of dynamic of not always being at there best but it shouldn't be that often that it should slow the whole game down. It also encourages that they fight lesser enemies with some level of fear once in a while. If they fight then travel for 2 or more days they will be fine when they get to the next fight. Just my thought.

 

[Sunseeker]

I'm certainly not saying you can't play without a healer, but it sure helps, and I think it's kind of assumed that a cleric will be on hand.

I think it's important to note that having a cleric, and having a healer are not the same thing. Certainly clerics may be more inclined towards easily healing allies over other classes, but there are plenty of ways to minimize the healing-side of being a cleric. But you can be a battler, buffer or tank cleric just fine with nary a thought to healing.

Beyond that, the "sleepless cleric" concept strikes me as a bit odd. I mean what, Joe the Cleric just never sleeps because he's casting an 8 hour spell every night, maybe every other night?