Extended Rest HBrules

[Mariadock]

I've always disliked the "heal all hp, regenerate all Healing surges" in 4e, so i implemented this new rule, that emulates in some way the difficulty at healing your wounds only with extended rests. so this is it:

Whenever you take an extended rest, you regain hitpoints equal to your healing surge value times your consitution modifier, to a minimum of one healing surge. and you regain healng surges equal to your consititution modifer, to a minimum of one.

This rule has worked beautifully for me, it makes the game much more faster, because it makes PC's think more before engaging in a combat encounter. It also makes sense, because characters with 18+ CON, fully heal themselves every extended rest, while the weaker characters need magic healing, to maximize their Healing surge value.

It also has some old school feeling.

 

[Ferdil]

Another one that cannot understand 4e's (but also 3.x's and D&D's in general) hit point system.

HIT POINTS ARE NOT WOUND POINTS

Hit point represent a mixture of luck, parrying ability, fatigue, energy, resolve and willpower.

The actual hits you take in 4e are two:

- The first time you become bloodied in a fight you take a minor wound that causes you to lose some blood.
- When you get dropped to 0 hp you take a medium wound and fall unconscious.
If you fail your death saves the wound worsens and you die.
If you win your death saves the wound was «only a flesh wound»

Hit points represent your short term fatigue resources, healing surges represent your long term ones. It is perfectly normal to regain all of them after an extended rest.

The system is designed to be cinematic, but also is abstracted enough to allow for realism in narration.
The idea of healing wounds in role playing games is in fact utterly ridiculous. In fact, if you take some major wound in a weapon fight, you either die or become crippled for life. In D&D you actually never take serious wounds, except when you die.

If you want some more (unnecessary) precision in wound tracking you can set up a disease called «broken rib» or whatever, that you must save against at the end of a fight in which you have dropped to 0HP (disease rules are on the dmg, so I'm not really houseruling anything here). The disease track could be something like:
-1 maxHS -> -1 maxHS and -1 to all attacks -> -2 maxHS ... et cetera

For more reading on 4e fluff and why is it an abstract system read this.
http://www.dyasdesigns.com/roleplay/RoseMagic.

I admit though that WotC could have used better names than Hit Points and Healing Surges, they can really confuse people about the meaning of HP and HS.

 

[El Mahdi]

@Ferdil

Another one that cannot understand 4e's (but also 3.x's and D&D's in general) hit point system...

And another one that cannot, or will not, understand the concept of a Houserules Forum or common courtesy...

This is a Houserules forum. It's a place to explore alternate mechanics, rules, and even concepts. I appreciate you have such a grasp of the official rules and mechanics for rests and hit points, and such a deep understanding of the concepts behind them. However, they are all basically useless as a basis of argument in a Houserules Forum!

You answered a first time poster with an idea in a Houserules Forum, with a post that basically said they don't understand the proper way to play, or the proper concept behind the game.

If you had provided any constructive criticism as to why their houserule wouldn't work, or what problems it might create, I'm sure Mariadock would have appreciated it. I'm sure they also would have appreciated a Welcome to ENWorld. Instead, you decided to slam them for creating an alternate mechanic in a Houserule Forum!

Good show!

 

[El Mahdi]

@Mariadock

Welcome to ENWorld!

Unfortunately I'm currently on vacation in Orlando, and was just taking a moment to skim some threads.

When I get home later this weekend, I'll give your houserule a more thorough reading and vetting. In the meantime, hopefully some of the 4E mechanic monkeys that frequent this forum can give your rule a go-over for any possible pitfalls.

I hope you return and enjoy ENWorld as much as I do. See you around the forums!

 

[Safari]

The idea is Ok, but i think your solution is to depends to much on constitution. Classes that already need Con for combat bonuses will be far more powerful in your game then the rest. This is a bit unfair for the rest of the players.

I would do something like:

Extended rest: You regain all your hp and 1/3 of your max. healing surges.

This way constitution still matters, because it increases max. healing surges, but heroes can survive without it.


In my games i like to keep the action going so i use this rule, but i give the players free rests every 2-3 encounters. For example after a few battles in a dungeon they stumble upon a cache of medicine/fresh food/elixirs and they regain 1/3 healing surges and a daily power.

 

[Wik]

I love the poll options. We go from Brilliant, to Awesome, to Very good, to.... Horrible.

I don't think it's any of those things, personally. I think it's more of an "it's alright" house rule. My big problem with it is this: it doesn't matter.

You either have characters with high constitutions that fully reheal, giving the original game effect... or you have characters that are going to take around three or four days to reheal, and maybe a week to get all their surges back.

Which means the group either goes into the next fight with the low-con guys at low HP (who will get beaten into the ground), or you wait a week before jumping back into the fray. In essence, you are punishing the people for not putting points into constitution. Ultimately, you are rewarding some builds over others - Shielding Swordmages over Assault Swordmages. Certain types of Warlock over other types of Warlock. Warlords that try to beef up their non-fort defences get screwed (as do many fighters).

In short, it's an idea that has heart, and I can see where you're coming from, but this is not a good way to implement it. You're just going to make the game unfun for some players, without changing the fun quotient for the others.

Personally, I think a slightly more fair and easy rule would be to just say "you don't fully reheal at an extended rest". PCs that have no surges when they rest have to spend surges in the morning to reheal up. The rest are rejuvenated after a good night's sleep (since really, HP are more about exhaustion than physical damage anyway).

 

[Mariadock]

@Ferdil



And another one that cannot, or will not, understand the concept of a Houserules Forum or common courtesy...

Couldn't agree more with El mahdi, this is a thread to review and improve home brew rules, not to "spit" all you know about game mechanics and rules.

¿Any more suggestions about healing surges and healing?

 

[Saeviomagy]

While I appreciate what you're trying to achieve, I don't think the rule actually achieves it.

As others have said, the idea makes a powerful stat more so.

The other thing is that the party are just going to say "fine, we rest a week" in the same breath that they would have said "we take an extended rest" anyway.

Finally, it has the bizarre effect that low surge classes with high con will be the fastest to recuperate from combat.

I guess the real question is what are you trying to achieve? You say that you "don't like" that people heal up totally during an extended rest: is it because you think it should be longer than 1 night of rest? Or do you want people to start a new day with less than full resources? Or do you simply want to increase the risk involved with combat?

If you want a longer extended rest OR want people to start out with less than full surges, then some possiblities are

have surges and hitpoints return at some fraction of maximum, depending on how long you think an extended rest 'should' be.

make an extended rest a longer period of time or otherwise introduce restrictions on it (ie - hiding in a room in the dungeon doesn't allow you to take an extended rest OR an extended rest requires 24 hours of resting).

If you want to increase risk, you can either increase the value of surges (ie - implement either of the two above) or go with some other resource (ie - wounding people when they're bloodied or reducing the number of available death saves).

But you really should avoid stacking more benefits onto any stat: they're pretty well balanced right now.