healing HP's by resting

[hoyerhan]

I'm sorry if this has been brought up several times before.

I was surfing the web and saw a comment about day to day healing. And it made me think about the official rules for healing, I believe it is something like this; a character heals HP's equal to his total character level.

For me this seems really stupid. This means a 5th level wizard with 10 HP-total heals at the same rate as a 5th level barbarian with 50 HP. I think healing should be calculated by a certain percent of the HP-total, ie 20%, or 10% + Con bonus (if any).

If some of you have another solution to this problem, I would like to hear it.

 

[IceBear]

House rules

BTW - the old method got you back 1-3 hp a day REGARDLESS of your level, so the new method is at least better

IceBear

 

[hong]

I'm sorry if this has been brought up several times before.

I was surfing the web and saw a comment about day to day healing. And it made me think about the official rules for healing, I believe it is something like this; a character heals HP's equal to his total character level.

For me this seems really stupid. This means a 5th level wizard with 10 HP-total heals at the same rate as a 5th level barbarian with 50 HP. I think healing should be calculated by a certain percent of the HP-total, ie 20%, or 10% + Con bonus (if any).

In 1E and 2E, you got back a fixed number of hit points per day, regardless of level. This was particularly stupid, so 3E introduced a first-order correction: you get back hit points proportional to your level. This fixes the problem where a 10th level character with 10 times the hit points of a 1st level one also took 10 times as long to recover to full health.

This still leaves the _second_ order problem, wherein a 10th level fighter has more hit points than a 10th level wizard, and so still takes longer to heal up. The solution would be something like what you propose.

Personally, I don't think this is a big enough problem to worry about. In the presence of healing magic, most PCs are going to be up and running after a couple of days at most, regardless of class. If you wanted to be 100% technically correct, you might implement a house rule, but I doubt you'll see any big effect on your campaign.

 

[Taloras]

One of the groups i play in has the PCs get back level + con bonus for resting. So a 10th level PC with a +2 con gets 12 hit points back per night of rest. works great for wizards.

 

[Archade]

checky3

I have no personal problem with the variable points based on level healing system. I makes sense that higher level characters shouldn't take longer to heal.

However, I do have a problem with the fact that a man near death will heal completely within 10 days, 5 if total bedrest is taken and 3 if someone with Heal attends them.

I use the existing rules for healing, at one-quarter the healing rate.

Archade

 

[Kae'Yoss]

However, I do have a problem with the fact that a man near death will heal completely within 10 days, 5 if total bedrest is taken and 3 if someone with Heal attends them.

*sigh* This is one of those things that only make sense if you remember that hit points don't equal wounds.

Star Wars d20 has Vitality Points and Wound points instead, and Wound Points only heal at a rate of 1 per day (VP heal class level per hour)

 

[nharwell]

But unfortunately they DO equal wounds in D&D, regardless of the "rationale" used. To have the mechanics reflect the explanation, one would have to implement something similar to the Star Wars system (as KaeYoss mentioned).

 

[Kae'Yoss]

But unfortunately they DO equal wounds in D&D,

Let's look at that with an example:
A wizard gets hit with a longsword. The attacker rolls 1d8+4, getting 10 points. A 1st-level wizard (let's say, with 5hp) will drop after that hit, but the same wizard, with the same constitution, will survive that hit 10 levels later (having 40 hp). Now is has the wizard become more resistant to a sword through your lungs, or has he learned to change the blow into a lesser one?

Star Wars just uses a system that makes that issue more obvious

 

[Datt]

If I remember right we house ruled it so that Fighters/Pallys get 2 x Total Level + Con Bonus per night while others just get Level + Con Bonus. Let's the fighters heal up a bit faster.

 

[Staffan]

One quick-and-dirty fix to healing times would be to have people heal hp equal to their BAB (minimum 1 hp) per day. Classes with big HD also tend to have high BAB, so it would at least partially fix the issue "Why does the wizard heal back from death's door in 3 days while the fighter needs 8?"