Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Death, dying and class balance
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Libramarian" data-source="post: 6864300" data-attributes="member: 6688858"><p>Hmm. good point. We've been using group cyclic initiative, which makes coordination even easier than individual cyclic. I might move to AD&D style of simultaneous initiative, but I think even if that removes most incidences of popup healing in practice, I would still want to get rid of heal-from-zero. When making houserules I try to think through the consequences but I also try to avoid status quo bias.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I liked the look of the exhaustion and lingering wounds at first but I've been disappointed with them in play. It just slows the game down as PCs rest until it clears. Penalties fixable with resting (or resources replenished with resting) slow the game down. Good penalties are either permanent or fixed by accomplishing something rather than just resting early, or longer.</p><p></p><p>A good basic mechanic for penalties would be that you pay them off with XP, or that they last for a certain number of encounters or sessions. Like you can't heal them with spells or by resting, you have to "walk them off". The ultimate example being of course starting a new character at level 1.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I think that improves the game as well. Pop up healing is not just cheesy and too easy on individual PCs, it makes the party as a whole unintuitively resilient, which is bad for sandbox gaming because the players don't really know what their party can handle, what they need to avoid or run away from, and what they might be able to handle with "combat as war" tactics.</p><p></p><p>I think KOed characters should be out of the battle for sure. Then it's just a question of how many KOs should be deaths.</p><p>I was assuming outside interference, ie the chance that the character fails 3 death saves before recovering or stabilizing from any cause. Even if the party ignores the fallen PC until the battle is over, the battle will usually be over before the PC racks up 3 failed saves. As I mentioned earlier I don't like attacking downed characters, it feels antagonistic to me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libramarian, post: 6864300, member: 6688858"] Hmm. good point. We've been using group cyclic initiative, which makes coordination even easier than individual cyclic. I might move to AD&D style of simultaneous initiative, but I think even if that removes most incidences of popup healing in practice, I would still want to get rid of heal-from-zero. When making houserules I try to think through the consequences but I also try to avoid status quo bias. I liked the look of the exhaustion and lingering wounds at first but I've been disappointed with them in play. It just slows the game down as PCs rest until it clears. Penalties fixable with resting (or resources replenished with resting) slow the game down. Good penalties are either permanent or fixed by accomplishing something rather than just resting early, or longer. A good basic mechanic for penalties would be that you pay them off with XP, or that they last for a certain number of encounters or sessions. Like you can't heal them with spells or by resting, you have to "walk them off". The ultimate example being of course starting a new character at level 1. I think that improves the game as well. Pop up healing is not just cheesy and too easy on individual PCs, it makes the party as a whole unintuitively resilient, which is bad for sandbox gaming because the players don't really know what their party can handle, what they need to avoid or run away from, and what they might be able to handle with "combat as war" tactics. I think KOed characters should be out of the battle for sure. Then it's just a question of how many KOs should be deaths. I was assuming outside interference, ie the chance that the character fails 3 death saves before recovering or stabilizing from any cause. Even if the party ignores the fallen PC until the battle is over, the battle will usually be over before the PC racks up 3 failed saves. As I mentioned earlier I don't like attacking downed characters, it feels antagonistic to me. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Death, dying and class balance
Top