D&D 5E (2014) Innovations I'd like to keep in 5E

[Naszir]

Easier than fractions may be 1d8 per level or d8 x level.

Or 1d6 per level plus constitution bonus of character being healed?

 

[Guest 85555]

Or 1d6 per level plus constitution bonus of character being healed?

Yeah, it can be rigged the best way tp make the numbers plausible and appropriate....but the key is keep the fractions out of it (my experience is some people can figure out 1/4 of 67 quickly, others take a bit, so they tend to slow down the game.

 

[BobTheNob]

I agree that healing should (at least to a degree) be based on the recipient. Never liked that the proportion of healing against a fighter was worse than everyone else. Just an odd result that. 4e did give us the concept of amount healed based on the target and I believe that to be one of its better innovations (hell I even once played a character based around HS value with self heals).

 

[Mattachine]

The power of the healer can be put in thus:

low level healer can only heal 25% hp with best healing effect

medium level healer gets an effect that can heal 50%

high level healer gets and effect that can heal 90%


Or something like that. Perhaps healing spells/effects could also have riders that also removed conditions or afflictions.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

If you want the amusing spectacle of all kinds of cherished illusions crashing into brick walls at high speeds, try this out for size:

HP healing spells all do (1d6+Con Mod) per character level, where Con Mod is of the recipient and character level is either the recipient or the caster, whichever is lowest. Naturally, related items and abilities will have similar limits, though perhaps different mods.

Mack the Fighter has 30 hit points, fully healed. He is 3rd level, with a Con Mod of +2. A healer of 3rd level or higher, using an appropriate spell (perhaps 3rd level or higher), can heal for 3d6+6. A 1st level healer can only manage 1d6+2 on Mack.

The max Mack can be healed is thus 24. As long as his hit points stay north of 6, he can be completely healed, though good luck on rolling max on that 3d6+6 under duress.

Of course, to really put the bite in that, you'd want to limit stacking entirely. That gets tricky to track in ways that are worth doing. But even without that restriction, it still makes it tough for some arbitrarily high level caster to effortlessly fully heal. To do that, a healer needs some kind of special ability rider that changes the mod.

 

[Libramarian]

This is what I would like to see kept:

Healing based on the character being healed not on the character doing the healing.

Never felt right that 1st level cleric could heal the common man from 1hp to full health with a cure light wounds but the 5th level fighter only got a scratch healed from that same cure light wounds spell.

Honestly not a huge fan of this.

The way I see it is more like, the cure light wounds heals the same amount of damage whether it's the first level or fifth level fighter. What the Fighter gains for being fifth level is the ability to fight at full strength after having sustained more damage. So they ought to take more time/magic to heal.

I like the idea of a big pool of hitpoints being a bit of a double-edged sword -- you're harder to kill, but if you actually dip really low into it it takes more to heal yourself all the way back up afterwards.

And then I also don't like the fraction because it's hard to calculate, and just feels kinda "gamey".

I don't mind the idea of higher level characters being more able to take advantage of healing in itself though. I would like higher level characters to be harder to heal fully but it doesn't need to be a huge effect.

You could probably adjust a healing factor (based on the level of the character being healed) to satisfy both of our preferences.

 

[Doug McCrae]

The spell Heal has always worked this way. The more hp the recipient has, the more it heals.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Healing surges, I'll keep healing surges thank you. And the ability to inspire your allies. Thx.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I had an average of seven players for those sessions, and sometimes as many as 10. That's the thing about changes like this. If things are bogged down because players are not paying attention, this kind of change will only help around the edges (by getting them rolling more). But with lots of players, anything that takes work off of the DM is helpful and magnified.

Seriously considering the idea came about a year into 3rd's life. I was working at a FLGS and I was the RPG (and comic) specialist. So 3rd was huge, I liked the rules, so I ran a game in the store for about 6 months, anyone could come in and play (as it was a promotion). Some days I had 12 people. And I agree with your opinion there completely.

As an aside the owners 8 year old son wanted to play. And as we had just had the NPC show up, we handed him Meepo. He loved it, and played every week. And he was perfect. He still plays now.

 

[CroBob]

I have not read the whole thread yet, but I figured I'd build my own list and amend it upon further reading/thought;

1; Equality of classes. I also noticed people seemed against homogenization of classes, though I can't claim I think the classes were homogenized out of unique flavor. I can understand how it appears that way upon a cursory overview, as illustrated by one of my friends claim that a wizard was as good at fighting as a fighter if they both had an equal strength. However, each class does have unique mechanics which differ them from one another, the only homogenization happening in power and feat acquisition on the XP chart. But I won't begin to argue, as that's not the point of the thread, and I'm sure this horse has been dead a while, somewhere around here.

2; Magical items should be useful, but should not be necessary to keep up with the game's math. For example, if magical swords gave no bonus at all, but instead simply provided a cool effect, or provided a bonus only under certain circumstances (+2 to trip attempts, +1 to attack and damage undead, etc).

3; Since skill checks are essentially just modified stat checks, I would like to see the elimination of skills as they are, and instead make them straight stat checks, and each character can choose from a list of specialties which making any stat check to do that kind of thing provides a bonus.

4; No daily limits on anything. Get rid of the Vancian abilities altogether. Except for expendable items, the characters should be able to use all of their abilities in every combat. There's no reason to limit a character's ability to heal in-between combats. If they can heal three times every encounter (which is the same as five minutes, so three times every five minutes), then let them. There's no reason to limit that. "Sorry, you ran out of blood, my magic doesn't heal you any more" is an arbitrary limitation. The PCs will rest as long as they need to in order to recover either way, but my way doesn't force the PCs into a corner when they're almost done with the dungeon, but they ran out of their cool spells or ability to heal back up.