D&D 5E Hit Dice and How To Get More From Them

[Cap'n Kobold]

There are some classes in the Eberron Morgrave Miscellany that make use of hit dice.
The one that comes to mind is the Extreme Explorer, a barbarian fuelled by adrenaline.
You can add a hit die to a number of different checks, but also take damage of the amount you rolled - your prof bonus.

 

[Garthanos]

One of the potential repercussions of skill challenges was healing surge losses... hit point losses would be a more appropriate 5e translation.

 

[Garthanos]

There are some classes in the Eberron Morgrave Miscellany that make use of hit dice.
The one that comes to mind is the Extreme Explorer, a barbarian fuelled by adrenaline.
You can add a hit die to a number of different checks, but also take damage of the amount you rolled - your prof bonus.

certainly sounds intriguing... 3pp eh?

 

[Stoutstien]

There are some classes in the Eberron Morgrave Miscellany that make use of hit dice.
The one that comes to mind is the Extreme Explorer, a barbarian fuelled by adrenaline.
You can add a hit die to a number of different checks, but also take damage of the amount you rolled - your prof bonus.

Aye. I wished that this was part of the barbarian chassis from the get go.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I always liked the idea of spending HD to gain a bonus to a roll, even after the fact. The bonus would be equal to your proficiency bonus. This way different sizes of HD won't get more benefit by just rolling the HD itself.

I also like the idea of spending HD to gain a feature such as an additional attack or recover a spell slot (maybe your proficiency bonus -1, so only slots for level 1-5?). The spell thing is probably too powerful, though.

Of course, then you wouldn't have HD to recovery during your short rest, so it's a trade-off obviously.

I was going to post that earlier, but it derails the thread since (as I see it) it has little to do with the OP. Anyway...

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread responses.

 

[Charlaquin]

p266:

As an action, a character can use a healing surge and spend up to half his or her Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character's Constitution modifier. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.​

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A character who uses a healing surge can't do so again until he or she finishes a short or long rest.​

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Under this optional rule, a character regains all spent Hit Dice at the end of a long rest. With a short rest, a character regains Hit Dice equal to his or her level divided by four (minimum of one die).​

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Combine that rule, with the 5 minute Short rest, and you're pretty much there.

That emulates Second Wind (kind of), but again, it does not reproduce the design purpose of 4e healing surges.

 

[Flamestrike]

That emulates Second Wind (kind of), but again, it does not reproduce the design purpose of 4e healing surges.

We already have limited HD. Spell slots and class features are also limited by X/rest uses (and with Spells slots, using them for healing takes away a resource that could be used elsewhere).

Guess I just dont see the point, or how it really adds to the game. It probably just leans people into the 5MWD once they reach the cap on healing for the day.

Without the cap, they could expend a few slots or more HD and push on. Now when they're wounded and out of 'Surges' they're more likely to fall back and rest for the night.

Its just my personal preference I guess. I'd like gut as many long rest/ daily type resources from the game as I could (making everything run more like SWSE/ ToB 'per ecnounter' type stuff. Most abilities you can make per encounter pretty easy, its HP and healing that are the difficult ones.

Im leaning towards 'if you end an encounter with less than half your hit points, but at least 1 HP, your hit points are increased to 50 percent of your max at the end of the encounter'. Thats just me though.

 

[dave2008]

That emulates Second Wind (kind of), but again, it does not reproduce the design purpose of 4e healing surges.

It is a start.

 

[dave2008]

We modified healing surges in 4e and carried it over with HD in 5e. So in our games you can use a Heroic Surge

Heroic Surges. In addition to healing you can spend HD as follows:

• 1 HD, double your speed for 1 round.
• 1 HD double your melee weapon damage die (dice)
• 1 HD recharge a short-rest feature or ability
• 2 HD recharge a long-rest feature or ability

He also use a 5 minute short rest.

Now to get the Healing Surge of 4e you would need to use the alternate DMG rule and then reconstruct healing magic off of HD. A bit more work than I am willing to do as we don't have much healing magic in my group anyway (no cleric, paladin, or druid)

Also, I have started allowing my characters to use 4e "powers" by spending HD: 1 HD for encounter (x 4e tier) or 2 HD for daily (x 4e tier)

 

[Charlaquin]

We already have limited HD. Spell slots and class features are also limited by X/rest uses (and with Spells slots, using them for healing takes away a resource that could be used elsewhere).

Guess I just dont see the point, or how it really adds to the game. It probably just leans people into the 5MWD once they reach the cap on healing for the day.

Without the cap, they could expend a few slots or more HD and push on. Now when they're wounded and out of 'Surges' they're more likely to fall back and rest for the night.

As others have pointed out, healing surges were specifically designed to last the full 4-6 encounter adventuring day. And it is by design that the players would seek to turn in once they reach that cap. The point is to allow the designers to know exactly how many hit points the PCs have per day, thereby allowing them to balance encounters and the adventuring day as a whole to a very fine degree of precision.

Its just my personal preference I guess. I'd like gut as many long rest/ daily type resources from the game as I could (making everything run more like SWSE/ ToB 'per ecnounter' type stuff. Most abilities you can make per encounter pretty easy, its HP and healing that are the difficult ones.

Im leaning towards 'if you end an encounter with less than half your hit points, but at least 1 HP, your hit points are increased to 50 percent of your max at the end of the encounter'. Thats just me though.

That’s fine, and an interesting design in its own right, but it’s not what this thread is about. Quite the opposite, in fact.