Healing with Fewer Dead Heroes?

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I'm going to be running a quick one-shot with GrimTales tomorrow, and I'll be using Fewer Dead Heroes.

I wanted to give the characters access to some healing, but Core healing spells like Cure Light Wounds cure equal amounts of Lethal and Nonlethal damage. Since D&D doesn't have much in the way of nonlethal damage, usually, this isn't a big deal ... with Fewer Dead Heroes, each CLW will be giving them a double shot healing 1d8+x of the lethal damage they've taken AND 1d8+x of the nonlethal damage they've taken.

Just a little too effective for a 1st level spell.

I'm thinking of making it SECOND level, where it'll be more in line with what Cure Moderate Does (2d8+X), but that's getting into the severe-to-cast range for 4th level PCs and, while effective, I would like to see the spell cast more often for lesser effect.

I've also thought of just ruling that Cure spells only cure NL or L damage at each casting, which is pretty simple.

Or having the spell do 1/2 of each type. Either by letting them roll 1d8+X and splitting it or making it a flat 1d4 Lethal + 1d4 Nonlethal.

Anybody have any ideas? I'm using a bit of a modified Spell Burn system, with a higher (d8) burn die that does HP damage (subdual for Magical Adept) with a Will Save vs. Fatigue tied to it.

I'm also thinking of creating a 0th level divine spell that will function as Long Term Care for 8 hours during the rest period, but the burn isn't applied until AFTER the rest. So the caster could concievably make use of the spell himself, giving everybody 2hp/lvl for the 8 hours of rest but taking a whack at the end of the stretch.

Anybody have any ideas?

--fje

 

[Fenris]

Let heal spells heal non-lethal first, once that is healed it can heal lethal. Puts them back up and fighting quicker, but not nessecarily further from death.

 

[Shieldhaven]

There are spells like Healthful Rest (Complete Adventurer, p 151) that do exactly that. (Bard 1, Druid 1 incidentally.)

Haven

 

[Old One]

Heap,

How about having the healing convert L to NL, then become less effective on healing the non-lethal. For instance, a PC with 5 L and 5 NL damage that receives 2d8+4 (~ 13) would have the 5 L converted to NL, but then the effectiveness of the healing is cut in half, so the last the PC would be left with 6 NL damage (13 - 5 L conversion = 8/2 NL healing = 4 NL healing; 10 NL - 4 NL healing = 6 NL remaining).

The rationale is that the magic can only do so much...then it is up to the body to finish the job. Of course, a second application of the same power spell would finish up the healing or the PC could rest an hour or two.

Another way to do it would be to have the spell convert L to NL first (using up a portion of the healing) and then heal any NL from the balance.

A heavily armored PC that had taken 6 L and 15 NL gets hit with the same spell as above (2d8+4 ~ 13 points). The spell first converts any L to NL (13 - 6 L conversion = 7 healing points left over). The PC now has 21 NL damage, against which the remaining 7 healing points are applied against, leaving the PC 14 NL damage.

The first way may nerf it too much...and both ways involve some extra book keeping.

~ OO

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Yea. Any way I do it, it'll take some extra book-keeping. But FDH involves more book-keeping for the PCs, anyway.

It may be simplest to do it your second way ... healing magic cures NL first and only after NL is gone does it start to heal L. It actually hurts them pretty bad, on the healing end, because the PCs will be wasting themselves casting magic to do instantly what would otherwise only take an hour or two to do outside of combat. Pretty fair, I guess.

(And on the DM end, again, it doesn't really matter. With FDH you can just track the baddies' HP and assume they're down-but-not-dead when the HP are gone ... same way with getting them back via healing, then.)

--fje