D&D 5E Bouncing heroes and healing tweaks

[Tony Vargas]

Something like that definitely changes the intended difficulty paradigm a lot more noticeably than my proposition.

Well, 'too easy' is a common complaint, but I don't think it's too significant, no. It's just logical, and it evokes the feel of the classic game. The mageslayer feat might need a tweak.

Do you consider spellcasters "overpowered" and in need of a serious nerfing?

Sure, in a mechanical/theoretical sense. But, 5e already leaves balance primarily to the DM by the time the rubber meets the road - and I wouldn't consider OAs for casting in melee a serious nerf, anyway. So not a concern.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Just one point:
There's a fair few people who propose exhaustion as the 'you got dropped' penalty. Personally I think exhaustion is just an awful rule for a bunch of reasons, but in this case it's because it discourages any action that is not combat as it's first level. So in the given examples - not only does the rogue not have a real say in whether he gets healed, now he doesn't get to be the group skill monkey when his group healer chooses to ignore his plight.

So - I'd either change that first level of exhaustion or create some other 'non hit point debuff that is hard to remove with magic' to stand in for it if that is your goal.

 

[S'mon]

As written, 5e doesn't really encourage defensive play. You can't heal more damage than the enemy deals, so combat healing is usually a bad idea.

I see a lot of in-combat healing but usually it's because the PCs form a battle line in a 10' or 15'
corridor/room and have N/PC Clerics behind healing up the front-rank warriors.

You can chew through a lot of orcs that way...