D&D (2024) Hit Dice as an alternate resource?

[Chaosmancer]

I'm ambivalent about hit dice being used as a resource to power more things.

I agree with @Kobold Avenger and @codo that it would fit the fiction of expending life force or pushing beyond normal limits to do something, which is cool, but I don't think that kind of feature would work very well with the current implementation of hit dice and resting.

In my mind, the biggest issue with hit dice is the way they fit into the resting rules. They have no value during long rests, since long rests fully recover HP, and can only be spent on short rests, which most classes don't much care about and a lot of groups don't take very often. As a result, they're a mechanic that, depending on party composition and playstyle, is pretty forgettable, "vestigial" as others have said. That means that new functionality for hit dice is gonna be inherently kludgy--and will also vary a lot in usefulness by party composition and playstyle.

Ideally, I think, PCs should be able to spend hit dice to recover HP whenever they're out of combat to keep their HP topped off (which necessitates you to think of HP as luck points or not getting hit points, but no need to rehash that debate). And, since that would functionally eliminate short rests for several classes, it would be best if paired with short rest classes transitioning to proficiency times/day, at will, and/or encounter features (a direction WotC sometimes seems to be moving toward anyway).

I solved the "fitting into resting" issue by removing restoring to full hp by long resting and replacing it with rolling hit dice. In theory, this creates a big chance for me to grind people down and drain resources over time, and make Hit Dice THE most valuable resource.

In practice, after a dungeon people often have 2 to 3 days of resting, so they effectively end up at full anyways. But I think of that as a strength, as if you have a few days of downtime, then you should be back up to full. It is only battle day in and day out that saps you towards exhaustion.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So I was just flipping through the Tome of Heroes, by Kobold Press, including some neat options for Hit Dice, like a Feat that gave Monks the following benefit:

"If at the start of your turn, you have 0 ki points, you may spend and roll a HIt Die, adding your Constitution bonus. You recover ki equal to half the result (minimum 1). You cannot ever have more ki than your maximum."

Huh, I've seen that as a homebrew mechanic. Never knew it came from Kobold Press

 

[squibbles]

I solved the "fitting into resting" issue by removing restoring to full hp by long resting and replacing it with rolling hit dice. In theory, this creates a big chance for me to grind people down and drain resources over time, and make Hit Dice THE most valuable resource.

In practice, after a dungeon people often have 2 to 3 days of resting, so they effectively end up at full anyways. But I think of that as a strength, as if you have a few days of downtime, then you should be back up to full. It is only battle day in and day out that saps you towards exhaustion.

Cool.

I've thought about similar resting houserules in the past, and am curious to hear more about how it worked for you.

So is it: PCs regain all hit dice on a long rest and can spend them during long rests and short rests? Do you change other things too?

Do the players do anything significantly differently, i.e. more risk averse, more short rests, more conservative using other resources, etc? Do you design encounters or adventures differently as a result?

And, more germane to the OP, how do you think spending hit dice to power PC abilities work with your resting houserules? (with, for example, the "heroic effort" rules provided by rules.mechanic)

 

[Chaosmancer]

Cool.

I've thought about similar resting houserules in the past, and am curious to hear more about how it worked for you.

So is it: PCs regain all hit dice on a long rest and can spend them during long rests and short rests? Do you change other things too?

They still only regain half their HD on a long rest. The only big change to that is that they can choose to gain that half at the start of the rest (to have HD to spend) or at the end of the rest (after spending them) depending on their HP needs.

In terms of health, healing and rests, I don't think I have changed anything else.

Do the players do anything significantly differently, i.e. more risk averse, more short rests, more conservative using other resources, etc? Do you design encounters or adventures differently as a result?

I haven't noticed any major differences in design, and they don't seem to be more risk averse. An actually amusing point is that most of the time, especially past low levels, it doesn't seem to matter. The party will often have multiple days of travel and rest between adventures, allowing them to fully heal back up.

One "big" change I noticed is that before I did this, everyone always wanted to take a long rest. Long rests meant being restored to full hp, while short rests just meant recovering a little. Even warlocks and fighters would prefer the guarantee of a long rest, every time. Once that guarantee went away, I stopped having to argue about how taking a long rest in the middle of a dungeon was dangerous, because they quickly realized it was unnecessary, since it didn't affect PC healing.

That plus them feeling like long treks through dangerous territory are dangerous even over multiple days, are the only real changes I can think of.

And, more germane to the OP, how do you think spending hit dice to power PC abilities work with your resting houserules? (with, for example, the "heroic effort" rules provided by rules.mechanic)

This is something I go back and forth with. Because HD now represent ALL natural healing, it makes me nervous to adopt these sort of rules without consideration. I wouldn't want to have something that was a HD for a minor bonus, because this is a significant resource.

That said, I also feel like it makes more sense as well. Spending a HD to maybe succeed on a save now feels like something long-term and significant, delaying damage now in the hope you won't need that healing later. The more rules-saavy my players are, the more comfortable I am too. Because players who can weigh the cost-benefit and say "yes, using this resource now is worth it" tells me that it is a good option. Whereas with long rests healing all wounds, it wouldn't even be a question, because no one would use those HD anyways.

So, something like "re-roll all 1's on your spell damage"? I don't think that is worth the resource.
"As a reaction roll the die and add the result, you may succeed on a failed save"? This feels very much worth the resource, because the power is more potentially balanced by the opportunity cost.

But I have issues getting most people to utilize homebrew rules and systems, so I haven't tested everything fully.

 

[rules.mechanic]

And, more germane to the OP, how do you think spending hit dice to power PC abilities work with your resting houserules? (with, for example, the "heroic effort" rules provided by rules.mechanic)

@Chaosmancer 's resting rules (or similar) are very helpful for things like Heroic Effort. To my mind, some form of slower hp & HD recovery is essential to make the system work. Hit Dice need to have enough value for there to be a meaningful trade-off.

They still only regain half their HD on a long rest. The only big change to that is that they can choose to gain that half at the start of the rest (to have HD to spend) or at the end of the rest (after spending them) depending on their HP needs.

Although we use something a bit different, it is very similar. No automatic hp recovery, all via HD, and we won't be allowing all HD to recover if the OneDnD UA sticks to that. With HD and not hp recovery, that allowance to be able to gain-and-spend or spend-and-regain is also important.

A second key consideration for systems that use HD as an alternate resource is ensuring some limit on the number of uses per rest/day. This makes it much easier to balance, avoids potential interactions with access to HD recovery, and most importantly removes the risk of rapid resource depletion and the "death spiral". For Heroic Effort (or Heroic Exertion), you are limited to one use per short rest but could arguably be long rest. We've found it a great additional resource to mix things up a bit, and it generally functions as an explainable form of plot armor.

Lastly on the topic of balance, we wanted to keep the uses broad (so all classes can make use of it) but it can be hard to keep the different uses well-balanced while also keeping the effects simple and directly tied to the Hit Die. For each of the options, we tried to match against some existing effect that could do something similar (which has actually meant that the Level Up A5E version has about half the effect).

(Heroic Exertion is super easy though - essentially spending exhaustion to gain Inspiration - and plays much better than the various OneDnD "roll-a-20" or "roll-a-1" options)