Hit points per encounter, perhaps?

[Shadeydm]

I'd rather that you didn't need a cleric (or dragon shaman, for that matter) to power that effect.

I hope that they move to something like a vitality/wounds system in which vitality refreshes at the end of an encounter, and wounds come in levels, not numbers, applying increasing penalties over time. It'll still be a system based on attrition, but if you take care to protect yourself, you can stay in the dungeon for a long time before you get too beat up to safely continue. It'll also mean that character death will be mostly based on poor decisions rather than on random effects.

I see your point however if they are indeed placing the emphasis on party roles then the need for a "healer" is unlikely to go away.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I could certainly see just letting HP refresh completely between encounters; healing spells would only be useful to refresh you during an encounter. In that way every encounter is potentially climactic and the only resource ablation is in "per day" abilities.

I'm not sure I like that ... but it is a potential approach. Though VP/WP is a good system I think it runs counter to the intent of the revision in streamlining the system as it requires more bookkeeping (as does armor-as-DR).

 

[XCorvis]

I hope so.

I doubt it very very much.

The problem with this idea is that chracters won't be hurt. They'd be exhausted (low on hp) or fine (high hp) or dying (negative hp). Taking away the relatively-slowly healing of hp (without magic) puts the final nail in considering them as in any way related to wounds.

Edit: I like the idea of having wound conditions. SWSE seems to do this - if you lose enough hp in one blow, you are wounded. Unlike hp, wounds would require a long time to heal (or magic). I like this idea, but it seems to leave us back where we started - resource depletion.

I think reserve points are fairly likely. They're in Iron Heroes, and 4e seems heavily influenced by it. I actually prefer unlimited hp rejuvination, though. Don't artificially limit the number of encounters per day.

I agree that Reserve Points are fairly likely. Since Mearls worked on IH, it seems a logical way to go. I think HP are one of the sacred cows that are here to stay, so whatever they choose will have to work with HP.

On the topic of resource management, I suspect that's going to have a MUCH smaller role in the game. Ep 14 of the D&D podcast talked about designing so that level-appropriate monsters were actually consistently challenging and specifically avoiding the 3-easy encounters 1-hard type adventuring day. With that in mind, plus most PCs having per-encounter abilities, the remaining resources will (potentially) be HP, per-day abilities and consumables like potions and scrolls.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I see your point however if they are indeed placing the emphasis on party roles then the need for a "healer" is unlikely to go away.

Well, they've said a few times that the roles are more there to tell a new (to the edition) player what the character is "supposed" to be doing, and what all the abilities are geared towards. A cleric is a "leader," not a "healer," so that might indicate that they're doing something other than just being the HP recharger. I'm really hoping that healing becomes less important in 4th edition, so that you can actually do without a cleric for the most part. A vitality/wound system like the one I describe would probably accomplish that, since it would make potion-based healing easier to get by on. Currently, you need to devote a not insignificant quantity of resources to the job of healing: either one character, or a moderate amount of gold. If serious wounds become more rare, and HP recover on their own quickly, a single potion that reduces wounds could keep you going for two or three additional encounters.

 

[FireLance]

I think some kind of VP/hp system would be good. Say you get some percentage (maybe half) of your base hp as VP which refresh between encounters or after a short period of rest. If you keep your hp loss in each encounter to less than this VP buffer, you could keep going indefinitely, but a string of tough encounters or a streak of bad luck can still drain your hp.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Something like the Saga 'Condition Track' is actually a neater way of bypassing any concerns people might have about vitality/wounds, while still providing much of the benefit.

Specifically, all kinds of stuff can drive you down the condition track, but in most cases you can bring yourself back up the condition track too... but some things (poison, disease, maimed limb) give you persistent condition track penalties which can't be removed until they are healed/fixed.

Thus you could have hp regenerating at a fast rate out of combat, as would condition track... apart from persistent conditions, which need healing of one kind or another (whether time or magic).

I think it's an idea that would probably work well.

 

[mmadsen]

I think D&D should embrace the notion that hit points have nothing to do with toughness and everything to do with plot-protection -- so that tough opponents would have a higher Fort Save, or whatever one uses to take a hit, but important opponents would have hit points, which they could use more like action points, to avoid being hit, to take a hit, to avoid falling to a magic spell, etc.

This avoids the wackiness of constant magical healing and provides a game mechanic for making save-or-die spells more like powerful attacks.