D&D (2024) D&D 6th edition - What do you want to see?

[Kinematics]

On this, however, you have my absolute support and agreement!

And if they don't bring back negative h.p., another answer is some sort of rule or system that severely limits what you can do for the first few rounds after being cured up from 0. Maybe a scaled and unmodified die roll, something like:

1-2 - you remain prone and cannot rise. You are defenseless.
3-5 - you remain prone and cannot rise; you get the benefits of your defenses, and attacks against you have advantage. You can do nothing other than defend.
6-10 - you can move at 1/4 rate, all attacks are at disadvantage, melee attacks against you have advantage, you have no reaction or bonus action this round, and you cannot cast spells of any kind (but can activate or use devices)
11-15 - you can move at 1/2 rate, you can cast a spell or activate or use a device, but you have no reaction or bonus action this round
16-20 - you are fully functional and can act as usual.

So if you got cured from 0 you'd roll against this table each round, at +1 for each previous roll, until you got into the 16-20 range; and a subsequent roll cannot make your situation worse (e.g. if you roll 12 in the first round of recovery then roll 1 in the second round, the 1 is ignored as your situation cannot get worse) until and unless you get hit back down to 0 again, which starts this process over.

Note this is an off-the-cuff shot at this; were I designing it for real it'd be a lot more granular - probably a different condition for each number below 16.

Another idea that may be a little easier to work with would be that dropping to 0 HP puts you at level 6 Exhaustion (ie: dead). This would be a short-term/temporary version of exhaustion, and doesn't overwrite or remove any real exhaustion levels you may have.

Healing effects (spells, potions, Second Wind, etc) reduce the exhaustion level, usually by 1, but possibly more when using high-level effects. And once you're no longer at 0 HP, your temp exhaustion also drops by 1 point at the end of each of your turns.

This means immediately after a simple Healing Word, you're sitting at speed 0 and prone, unable to move or stand up, and at the usual disadvantage. Next round you can move at half speed, but your max HP is halved (potentially also limiting the value of using Heal on a 0 HP person). And so on, down the exhaustion table. You can start getting back into the fight within a couple rounds, but you'll likely be struggling. Having a healing potion on hand is the best way to get back on your feet, as you'd be able to drink that even at exhaustion level 5, and it would be another -1 to the exhaustion level.

A fighter would likely have the quickest recovery, as he could quaff a potion and use Second Wind on the first turn that he's back up (though Second Wind wouldn't be available if he fell to 0 HP again), allowing him to be at exhaustion level 2 (half speed, but no attack disadvantage) on his second turn after being healed from 0.

... Honestly, I kind of like this idea. Might try it as a house rule.

 

[Lanefan]

Another idea that may be a little easier to work with would be that dropping to 0 HP puts you at level 6 Exhaustion (ie: dead). This would be a short-term/temporary version of exhaustion, and doesn't overwrite or remove any real exhaustion levels you may have.

Healing effects (spells, potions, Second Wind, etc) reduce the exhaustion level, usually by 1, but possibly more when using high-level effects. And once you're no longer at 0 HP, your temp exhaustion also drops by 1 point at the end of each of your turns.

This means immediately after a simple Healing Word, you're sitting at speed 0 and prone, unable to move or stand up, and at the usual disadvantage. Next round you can move at half speed, but your max HP is halved (potentially also limiting the value of using Heal on a 0 HP person). And so on, down the exhaustion table. You can start getting back into the fight within a couple rounds, but you'll likely be struggling. Having a healing potion on hand is the best way to get back on your feet, as you'd be able to drink that even at level 5, and it would be another -1 to the exhaustion level.

A fighter would likely have the quickest recovery, as he could quaff a potion and use Second Wind on the first turn that he's back up, allowing him to be at exhaustion level 2 (half speed, but no attack disadvantage) on his second turn after being healed from 0.

... Honestly, I kind of like this idea. Might try it as a house rule.

The only major issue I have with this is that if level 6 Exhaustion means you're dead then no amount of conventional healing is going to get you upright; your best bet is Revivify or something more persuasive along those lines. Or Animate Dead.

What you might want to do is add what amounts to a level 5.5 Exhaustion - it'd be the same as level 6 except you can be cured up from it conventionally (as per your ideas above), and things like Raise Dead or Animate Dead ain't gonna work on you. Not yet, anyway.

 

[Kinematics]

The only major issue I have with this is that if level 6 Exhaustion means you're dead then no amount of conventional healing is going to get you upright; your best bet is Revivify or something more persuasive along those lines. Or Animate Dead.

What you might want to do is add what amounts to a level 5.5 Exhaustion - it'd be the same as level 6 except you can be cured up from it conventionally (as per your ideas above), and things like Raise Dead or Animate Dead ain't gonna work on you. Not yet, anyway.

Hm. OK. Could flip the description around, and instead of saying that you're at exhaustion level 6 when you drop to 0, instead say that when you're healed above 0 HP, you gain the temporary exhaustion effect at level 5. That skips the level 6 scenario, and avoids needing to add a 5.5 version.

It would also mean (at this stage of the design) that the first healing effect will always put you at level 5 exhaustion, regardless of the effect level. So, for example, if Heal might have removed 2 or 3 levels of the temp exhaustion after you'd recovered, it wouldn't have that bonus recovery when first curing you from 0 HP.

 

[S'mon]

I find 'heal from 0' works much better in play than in theory. Like a lot of 5e.

 

[Campbell]

Fourth Edition had plenty of good ideas. It also had a lot of bad ideas, though; and for whatever reason, the designers only brought the bad ideas into 5E.

If I really wanted to make a good 6E, I would go back to 4E, and then build up the good ideas while abandoning the bad ideas. It would be an awful lot of work, though.

I do not view them in turns of good ideas and bad ideas. For the type of game that Fourth Edition was its mechanics were excellent. However I broadly agree for the most part although some of our specifics are probably different (I like proficiency even if I have issues with its implementation). Most of the features of Fourth Edition that Fifth Edition kept like abstract martial resources, abilities that do not describe what is actually happening in the fiction, monsters with bloated hit points when compared to similar level PCs, hit dice, Dexterity to attack and damage, and short and long rests are not things I value outside of the context of Fourth Edition. Things like tight math, clear and consistent rules, strong templating, encounter math that works, rules elements that tie characters to the setting and get them to engage with it more fully, ritual magic as something anyone with the right skills can do, monsters with unique abilities and the like are things I am still very much a fan of.

When I first saw Fifth Edition my response as a Fourth Edition fan at the time was "Wrong half". I have grown to enjoy it for what it was and for the sake of current fans would not want it changed, but "Wrong half" is still the way I broadly feel.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I find 'heal from 0' works much better in play than in theory. Like a lot of 5e.

Does it bother you at all when a fighter says, “No, don’t heal me now. I’ll just take the next big hit, and then the Bard can use a bonus action to get me up. I won’t even miss a turn.”

 

[cmad1977]

Does it bother you at all when a fighter says, “No, don’t heal me now. I’ll just take the next big hit, and then the Bard can use a bonus action to get me up. I won’t even miss a turn.”

That doesn’t happen. IF it does it’s not a rules issue it’s a table issue.

 

[Undrave]

Hello everyone, first post here adding some musing of my own (took me like three weeks to confirm my account...), though I admit I haven't read everything in this thread.

I'd personally prefer if short-rest ressources were the norm and long rest ressources rarer, and possibly more impactful. I know people feel like limiting Spells FEELS more like Magic but it seems to me to just be habit at this point... but whatever.

I would like to see the Social pillar almost completely divorced from your class and concentrated in your background. Your class should be about combat and some explorationabilities (with other backgrounds adding to Exploration more than Social). The Bard and MAYBE some Cleric domains would be the exception.

I think it would help mitigate a lot of issues.

I liked Healing Surges and would like to see them come back because I think they worked better than Hit Dice. They scaled better, were used as fuel for abilities AND, if the math was ajusted, could make combat more dangerous. This thing with Healing Surges is that you basically have only a small portion of your daily vitality available per encounter. If it represents stamina or luck or a combination, then it would make sense for it to run out faster than your overall endurance. Each combat could bring you down close to 0 or to 0, but you wouldn't be out for the day. And it works as a cap on abusive healing (both by requiring the use of surges AND by limiting your max HP at any time).

I liked the concept of Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies. Maybe instead of adding them onto your class and complicating things, maybe your class only provides ability up to a certain level, after which you need to start leveling up in a Paragon Path for a while and THEN into an Epic Destiny. It seems a bit silly that you pick your subclass at lv 3 and it's just what you are until the end of your career (baring multiclassing). Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies were a cool way to express the growth and progression of your character, with a fun variety of perequisite. Some could be simpler than others, with a few just being "Just keep doing the same thing but better" and others adding new aspects to characters like a dip into certain types of magic.

A 6th edition needs just a few more tactical levers to pull so we could bring back the Warlord and more Martial options... but not too much to mess with the sacro-saint "Theater of the Mind" style of play (AUGH am I the only one who think that sounds super elitist?)

And finally: If you're gonna have a HUGE spell list shared by every caster out there, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THE GODS organise it by LEVEL first and THEN alphabetically >< seriously, trying to pick spells in the PHB is a nightmare!

 

[Maxperson]

5e brought from 4e the Dragonborn,, 4e-style Tieflings, Eladrin, and Warlock, the Shadowfell (with the Raven Queen and Shadar-Kai), the Feywild (with mention of a few specifically 4e Fey lords), the Elemental Chaos, Primordials (albeit only one stat block so far), the Dawn Pantheon, and a few of the monsters such as the Archons (renamed Myrmidons) and Star Spawn. You don't like a single one of those? I mean, that's your right, but...

It also brought...

Hit dice
Overnight healing
Encounter powers(short rest abilities)
Daily powers(long rest abilities)
Proficiency
Recharge powers
Average hit points for PCs when they level
And I'm sure a bit more, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

 

[S'mon]

Does it bother you at all when a fighter says, “No, don’t heal me now. I’ll just take the next big hit, and then the Bard can use a bonus action to get me up. I won’t even miss a turn.”

Never heard anyone say that. I'm happy to CDG the fallen (did it tonight, got Cleric to 0 hp & 2 failed death saves) so any player allowing additional CDG attempts vs their PC isn't playing too smart.

I guess something like that could happen with eg a strafing dragon, but no would not bother me.