D&D 5E Homebrew Hit Point Recovery

[Charlaquin]

One time I tried having long rests restore full hit dice but no HP (no change to short rests). It had almost no noticeable impact on gameplay. Players would generally start the day a few HP below maximum, but that rarely made a difference past early levels, and the players took short and long rests with about the same frequency as ever.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Sure, hire some Veterans.

"Of course I'm Good! I'm helping unemployed Veterans!"

 

[Shiroiken]

I've tried to work out a few different methods. The simplest was that you recovered 50% of your Max HP on a Long Rest, instead of 100%. It's a minor change, but significant on those days after getting your butt handed to you.

Another option I've worked on is a medium rest that recovers about half of your long rest abilities, while a long rest requires 24 hours in a sanctuary/haven (such as a town). The problem with this one was figuring out how to refresh long rest recovered abilities.

Oh, and a fun (but annoying) method we used was you rolled your full HD for recovered HP each night. This came out to be about 50% of your maximum, so it had the same benefit as the one I mentioned... but took longer as everyone rolled dice each time.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We play characters get back your character level times your CON bonus (minimum of 1) per short or long rest. So, if you are 5th level with +2 CON bonus, you get back 10 hp after a short or long rest.

 

[Lanefan]

We've a vague equivalent of a Wound-Vitality system, which makes it more complicated; but the short form is that for a "long rest" you get back 1/10 of your full h.p. value, rounding ANY fractions up (so someone whose full h.p. is 20 gets back 2, someone whose full is 21 gets back 3). It's slower if you're into Wound points. We use the fractional version because otherwise is takes high-level warrior types just too long to recover.

That said, if a party in the field does nothing but rest for a day they can benefit from two of these long rests during that day; if in a safe place in town it becomes 3 per day. But they just help hit points; everything else only refreshes overnight.

We don't have short rests like 5e does, but immediately a battle's over (or damage has been taken in other means e.g. you fell in a pit trap) you can take a breather for a couple of minutes* and recover d3 h.p. provided you're not in Wound points. Must be done before any other type of curing, or else the opportunity is lost; and it can't fix damage not just taken.

* - the assumption here is during this time you're tending your scrapes, getting a quick drink, stretching out, catching your breath, and so forth.

 

[CubicsRube]

I'll be using the following in my next 5e campaign:
No hit dice
On long rest regain 50% of max HP
On short rest regain 25% of max HP

 

[Blue]

My house rule is that Hit Dice don't exist, and everyone recovers 1hp per level after a long rest.

I remember this back from AD&D 2nd. It forces at least one PC into a healing role, and requires them to use non-at-will resources on the rest of the party regularly. It's a very thankless, low-spotlight role.

I remember once having no cleric (they were dead?) and we holed up in a cave for weeks to get people up to a point where we through we could survive the trek through the surrounding wandering-monster-encounter-rich area to get to a town.

 

[NotAYakk]

You have HD. You can spend it during a short rest. You get all HP, and half of your max HD, back when you finish a long rest.

Short rests take an hour, long rests a night.

Like, literally out of the rules.

About the only in-combat healing magic that goes off is if we have a high level NPC cleric, or the Ranger using the 1d6 healing per round spell, or healing words to get people back up on their feet, or a lay on hands. (This is because it takes a seriously powerful heal to make it worth losing the action of the player who healed, let alone the spell slot)

Out of combat, topping up occurs if we cannot afford a long rest.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I remember this back from AD&D 2nd. It forces at least one PC into a healing role, and requires them to use non-at-will resources on the rest of the party regularly. It's a very thankless, low-spotlight role.

I remember once having no cleric (they were dead?) and we holed up in a cave for weeks to get people up to a point where we through we could survive the trek through the surrounding wandering-monster-encounter-rich area to get to a town.

I played entire campaigns without a cleric, back in 2E, so they definitely weren't mandatory. It did create a different style of play, though. You wanted to avoid taking damage, since it would add up so quickly.

It may seem like an extreme, but given how far things have swung in the other direction with 5E, I find it much preferable. I hate the idea that you need multiple combats every single day, before anyone starts to feel it. I hate the idea that you can take a few arrows and simply not care, because you were never close to death and you were going to heal up to full regardless.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I remember this back from AD&D 2nd. It forces at least one PC into a healing role, and requires them to use non-at-will resources on the rest of the party regularly. It's a very thankless, low-spotlight role.

I'm struggling to recall if 2e added Cure Moderate, or it was only in 3e that /every single spell level/ could be devoted to healing.

While the band-aid cleric (or any other class that got Cure..Wounds, for those who'll point out they once played in a game without a cleric), was a very real stereotype back in the day, in 1e, at least, the Cleric got a few spell levels at which there were no healing spells, so he was free to devote them to something else. OK, a lot of the time it was Slow/Neutralize Poison, or Cure Disease or Remove Curse or something - and others, maybe the Prayer/Chant combo (effective but still pretty passive).

I remember once having no cleric (they were dead?) and we holed up in a cave for weeks to get people up to a point where we through we could survive the trek through the surrounding wandering-monster-encounter-rich area to get to a town.

Ah, yes, the Good Ol' Days.