D&D (2024) How to buff healing, make it reliable and discourage whack-a-mole?

[mellored]

overheal from this spell can be THP that lasts one minute(max of 10 THP).

THP keeps allies alive, reliable, and prevents wack-a-mole.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Well, you would want to heal them before they fall unconscious, to prevent your side from losing their turn worth of action economy. If they do fall unconscious, there would be no point healing them until after the fight. That’s kind of the point, it forces healing to be proactive to be useful.

And I can't stand not being able to bring someone back into the fight. It's just an unfun death spiral that makes more spectators than players.

I think the current changes will slow down experiencing the yo-yo effect, but HP-healed-over-MaxHP becoming THP would make it even better.

 

[CreamCloud0]

as a compromise between healing not upping a downed character, you could require a dedicated action to wake them, similar to stabilising someone, there could also be a cantrip to perform the action at range, this would mean you could get characters up before the end of a fight but impacts the action economy making it a sub-optimal choice to let someone go down in the first place.

 

[Shiroiken]

why bother with healing if they do not regain consciousness?

Because Death Saving Throws exist

 

[Charlaquin]

And I can't stand not being able to bring someone back into the fight. It's just an unfun death spiral that makes more spectators than players.

Oh, understandable. I’m just saying, that’s the only way to really stop the yo-yo effect. That, or making healing outpace damage, which comes with its own problems. Unfortunately, it’s a situation where there’s just no perfect option, you just have to pick which drawbacks you’re most willing to accept.

I think the current changes will slow down experiencing the yo-yo effect, but HP-healed-over-MaxHP becoming THP would make it even better.

Yeah, the buffs will probably help, in that a character healed back up from 0 will have a better chance of surviving a hit, instead of being most likely to immediately fall unconscious again. Same phenomenon, just slowed down a bit, which might be enough, at least for some groups.

Over-healing becoming temp HP is a cool idea, but I don’t think it would have a noticeable impact on the yo-yo problem, because it only matters at or close to max HP, whereas yo-yoing happens at close to no HP.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Oh, understandable. I’m just saying, that’s the only way to really stop the yo-yo effect. That, or making healing outpace damage, which comes with its own problems. Unfortunately, it’s a situation where there’s just no perfect option, you just have to pick which drawbacks you’re most willing to accept.

Yeah, the buffs will probably help, in that a character healed back up from 0 will have a better chance of surviving a hit, instead of being most likely to immediately fall unconscious again. Same phenomenon, just slowed down a bit, which might be enough, at least for some groups.

Over-healing becoming temp HP is a cool idea, but I don’t think it would have a noticeable impact on the yo-yo problem, because it only matters at or close to max HP, whereas yo-yoing happens at close to no HP.

Well, I love playing the healer, but I avoid casting higher level Cure spells if I think I could overheal and lose the excess healing. If I felt encouraged to cast higher level Cure spells, that would lessen the yo-yo effect because I can keep folks topped off if I want.

 

[Horwath]

Well, you would want to heal them before they fall unconscious, to prevent your side from losing their turn worth of action economy. If they do fall unconscious, there would be no point healing them until after the fight. That’s kind of the point, it forces healing to be proactive to be useful.

That is only point that can be taken, but there is another much worse.
It is factor of non-fun.
Suffering unlucky crit in 1st round and being bored to death for next 2 hours or so does not sound like a good promotion for the game.

This is why hard CC spells and effects only last 1 round or get a save every round to end.


We had a 3.5e campaign a year or so ago, 3rd level characters, friend failed Will save vs Cause fear, DM rolled 4 on d4 rounds, spend next 4 round running from fight and 4 rounds running back, had zero actions in combat. Luckily, we played online so he spend half the session playing video games.

 

[Horwath]

Well, I love playing the healer, but I avoid casting higher level Cure spells if I think I could overheal and lose the excess healing. If I felt encouraged to cast higher level Cure spells, that would lessen the yo-yo effect because I can keep folks topped off if I want.

that is why Healing spells should or even must have FIXED amount of healing and since this suggestion increases healing by 10HP per spell level, there can be up to 9 HP or overheal, so to round it up, 10 HP of allowed THP for overheal sounds nice.

 

[Horwath]

We also require a Wisdom (Medicine) check to administer a healing potion to an unconscious creature. It just makes sense to me: an unconscious creature can't swallow, after all, and you are literally administering a medicine to a patient. We're using DC 15 right now for this check, but I might back it off to 12 or 13 after a few more gaming sessions. It comes up so rarely that we haven't had a chance to test it much.

we use Bonus action for potions for self application and an Action for applying it to others, that is more than enough of a penalty.
wasting potion, your action and targets next action for not being healed is too much for a single d20 roll that should be trivial.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

1st thing:
combine Cure wound as Healing word into one spell:

Heal
1st level
range 60ft
Bonus action:
heal one target in 60ft for 15HP. Increase amount of healing by 10HP for every spell slot higher than 1st.
Caster can split this healing between target and caster.
(optional) when you are healed by this spell, you can spend an HD to increase healing. You can spend a number of HDs equal to spell level.

Healing domain: increase healing from spells by 3 HP per spell level. (2+ SL is horrible scaling for later)


2nd:
when you drop to 0HP, you gain exhaustion level.
This exhaustion level goes away if you are healed to 100% or after a Short rest. This amount can be tweaked to 75% or 50% of max HP, however you like the game to be gritty.

The idea is sound. The amount is too high. That draws out combats too much.

I'd reduce the base amount and still allow HD to spend.