Level Up (A5E) Deadlier combat

[Nebulous]

This is the kind of "modular" stuff I thought 5e was going to introduce officially, so you could tweak your game to the style you wanted. The DMG did not go nearly far enough in playing with mechanics IMO.

 

[Asisreo]

I'd like something new, a new feature or mechanic, that means there are more meaningful lasting consequences. I think the purpose of the project is for crunchier systems.

Just using hit dice as they are isn't doing it for me. And yes, generally my parties are running on less than half hit dice but the prospect of less healing tomorrow doesn't seem to affect decision making much.

Nah, I get that. Since it's crunchy but also modular, I was thinking of having overkill reduce max HP by the amount of overkill taken. The only way to recover these max HP could be an item that the DM has or a higher level spell like regenerate.

It's a bit death spiral-y, though. I'm not sure it would be particularly fun to play in.

 

[Asisreo]

This is the kind of "modular" stuff I thought 5e was going to introduce officially, so you could tweak your game to the style you wanted. The DMG did not go nearly far enough in playing with mechanics IMO.

I've wondered what happens to a game where I put every single one of the suggested "grittier" types for healing so I once ran a one-shot with these gritty optional rules.

Them being Gritty Realism, Healing Kit Dependency, Slow Natural Healing, Lingering Injuries, and Massive Damage.

The result was an almost cruel experience for the players that had them fear every single combat encounter. The process for them was as followed:

They get into combats and usually a character takes the Massive Damage, resulting in them having to make a DC 15 con save which they have a decent chance of failing depending on the character. A character usually gets reduced to 0 hp by the second or third encounter and suffers a lingering injury. In order for them to heal from a long rest and get their spell slots back, they must find civilization to take a week long break. Otherwise, they must have a healer's kit (which I had on limited supply) to heal, taking a whole day to do so.

Once they found civilization that they can rest in, they must use their hit dice to recover their HP, as well as any spell slots.

The PC's were basically brutalized for trying to clear out a goblin lair at level 8.

If you'd like to go even beyond that, we could have taking a long rest not heal exhaustion unless you rest with full HP, or maybe as low as half.

 

[DND_Reborn]

yeah, it's the point. I like it myself, but my players would not. I would get rid of Exhaustion at negative that I use now.

Sure, I would not incorporate negative HP and exhaustion, at least not combined.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I only skimmed through the responses, so someone may have already suggested and i missed it.

How about reducing the PC's Hit Dice? eg Wizards uses d4, Rogue & Clerics d6, Fighter d8 etc

 

[DND_Reborn]

I only skimmed through the responses, so someone may have already suggested and i missed it.

How about reducing the PC's Hit Dice? eg Wizards uses d4, Rogue & Clerics d6, Fighter d8 etc

I'm pretty sure this was brought up before, but never hurts to mention it anyway.

For myself, that just isn't a big deal. In total, you are only talking 21 less HP on average at level 20. shrug

 

[Imaculata]

How about monsters with auras, spells and/or abilities that temporarily prevent healing?

I am reminded of Dark Souls, where there was an item you could use to prevent nearby players from healing for a short while.

Such an effect could be added to any monster by the DM, although I would probably reserve it for powerful foes, like bosses.

 

[Nebulous]

How about monsters with auras, spells and/or abilities that temporarily prevent healing?

I am reminded of Dark Souls, where there was an item you could use to prevent nearby players from healing for a short while.

Such an effect could be added to any monster by the DM, although I would probably reserve it for powerful foes, like bosses.

Great idea, but yeah, it would be such a rare thing. I can see a mean demon or devil or undead with such an ability.

 

[Lanefan]

Makes dying a bit more complex and a bigger drain on party resources. Would you die after reaching a certain negative score (-10 in 3E, - constitution score in Pathfinder)? Healer might need to spend multiple spells slots and multiple actions to bring someone back, stopping that player doing something more fun.

I don't necessarily want to make it harder to get back in the fight. Being unconscious for multiple rounds is not a fun player experience. I just want to see longer term consequences for it.

Being dead isn't a fun player (as character) experience either, but as the point of this thread is to look at how to make that happen more often, I think it's a fair base-line assumption that being out of combat for a while not be seen as a problem.

I think it would be hard to remove ranged healing but keep Level Up compatible with basic 5E, there are too many effects which already exist that would need to be rewritten. Healing Word, Mass Cure Wounds, Celestial warlock healing ability and Divine Soul sorcerer with the reach meta magic to name a few of the top of my head.

Losing any of those, or all of those, would be just fine. If a class is overly affected, there's loads of other options they could be given to compensate.

Staying alive for X rounds sounds less deadly to me, especially rolling 2d6. Most combats don't last long, many are only a couple of rounds. If you rolled to determine how long you last if you roll high the party will know you can just wait out the clock and heal you with 1 round to spare.

Who said the player was doing the rolling? This would be a secret DM roll. The players (and characters) would not know how long they have.

Capping how many hit points you can heal would just encourage more short rests, or if you are on the clock, force you to effectively sit out the next fight rather than risk coming in with 3hp.

Exactly. It forces those hard choices. That's the point.

 

[Lanefan]

How about monsters with auras, spells and/or abilities that temporarily prevent healing?

I am reminded of Dark Souls, where there was an item you could use to prevent nearby players from healing for a short while.

Such an effect could be added to any monster by the DM, although I would probably reserve it for powerful foes, like bosses.

Why stop at monsters?

This would be a great 'silent' curse to put on an otherwise-useful magic item - magical healing of any kind does not function within 10 feet of the item.

Oh, and make the curse undetectable by any means other than sheer trial and error.