LONG REST: let's add some realism.

[howandwhy99]

Long Rest healing results and other recuperative effects are largely about exploration preferences. If you don't want exploration, use mechanics that make it less consequential. Or vice versa.

 

[Libramarian]

It's about resource management. Some people like it, some people don't. Some people want to turn the gears on the players and have lots of ways for them to fail the adventure, and some people only want the players to be able to fail in dramatically satisfying ways.

I want stingy healing because I like the idea of the players turning back because they can't heal fast enough to push on. Some people don't want this to be a possibility, because this allows them greater freedom to plan ahead in the plot. They want to be sure that the PCs make it to the boss battle at full strength. I acknowledge the legitimacy of this preference.

Healing to full overnight is kind of a crappy compromise though. Do the people who dislike HP attrition want any kind of daily healing at all? Do they really want full healing after every battle? That would be a very simple and easy rules option. Put that option into the game, and then develop another healing system that is really designed to crank up the tension.

It's always easier to ignore mechanics than to create them. The game should not be easy out of the box, and tell DMs who want more difficulty and tension to create it themselves. It should be hard on the players out of the box, and then tell DMs to handwave some of these factors if the group wants to focus more on the story than the game.

 

[Libramarian]

Realistic? Realism. Really?

WE are playing a FANTASY game just how much realism do we need.

As much as we like.

So just where do we draw the line in the sand regarding REALISM.

Wherever we like.

Sorry WHEREVER we LIKE.

 

[BobTheNob]

But, make it a module. I don't think most people want it. And that's cool. It's not fun for them. It's not interesting to them. It's not realistic to them. And that's fine. To me, healing overnight every time from everything is not fun or interesting. Give me a module to change that, too.

This has to become our position. Im finding alot of these posts becoming quite snarky on a number of points. We need to collectively pull our heads in, act in a civil nature and understand that if...

a) There is a divide
b) The rule CAN be modularised

...then variants to satisfy both side of the divide will be included (WOTC are paying attention, and no, the fact that they may disagree with an observation of yours is not proof that they are not). I dont think anyone disagree's that 2 variants : One with abundant healing and one of limited healing, should be included, with the caveat that groups are free to make up there own variants if they feel free.

On a side note, it would be nice if they included explanations of the pro's and con's of each approach so groups can make informed decisions.

 

[Janaxstrus]

I'd prefer, instead of full healing overnight, you instead heal your hit dice in healing.

4th level wizard recovers all of his "hit dice" for use with healing kits, and also recovers 4d4 hps.
6th level fighter gets back 6d10, etc etc

If you are really low on hps, with no magic healing, you will likely need an extra day. If you are just scratched up, you will be ready come morning.

 

[underfoot007ct]

Yep. Two most powerful inventions for warfare:

1) Canned Food
2) Pencillin/Vaccines


I believe it was WWII that was the first recorded war where more soliders died to actual fighting than to disease and starvation.

I never heard that about WWII, but it makes a lot of sense.

Penicillin wasn't around until the 1920s, Please remember Civil war nurse, Clara Barton. She started following the Northern army with "clean" bandages & other supplies. Maybe "Clara Barton - The RPG" would be interesting?

 

[underfoot007ct]

This has to become our position. Im finding alot of these posts becoming quite snarky on a number of points. We need to collectively pull our heads in, act in a civil nature and understand that if...

a) There is a divide
b) The rule CAN be modularised

...then variants to satisfy both side of the divide will be included (WOTC are paying attention, and no, the fact that they may disagree with an observation of yours is not proof that they are not). I dont think anyone disagree's that 2 variants : One with abundant healing and one of limited healing, should be included, with the caveat that groups are free to make up there own variants if they feel free.

On a side note, it would be nice if they included explanations of the pro's and con's of each approach so groups can make informed decisions.

I hope that there will be an "Old school" module of rules, disappointed it was in the playtest. Then this might be a moot issue, but my whole point is please don't hide behind the term "realism". Modern hospital care because your char slept in a bed at the inn is not "realism".

You don't really need a reason to say, you want "slow healing" for your style of play. That is the concept of D&D Next. I prefer a less book keeping quicker style of play.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

There's perfectly good game-play reasons why you might not want overnight healing. It changes the nature of long adventures, and makes a particular difference in a megadungeon or wilderness hexcrawl.

-O

(Kudos to Firelance for putting his finger on this argument...I am stealing it an rifting off it in my own way.)

We should recognize that the pace of natural healing and spell recovery is arbitrary in a game like D&D. To put it baldly, there is no reason spells should recover more easily than HPs.

If grit and resource management are such awesome things in your mind, then you can vastly "improve" your game by bringing spell recovery down to the same rate as "realistic" HP healing.

From a game balance perspective, this makes a tremendous amount of sense. I am all for slower healing in a game where all kinds of recovery are slower (and we can see this is a great place for a sub-system add-on module). The bottom line is it is a tremendous PitA to have to sturdiness of a party vary wildly based on the class selections. All the key character resources should refresh on a similar pace.

 

[Empath Negative]

What I am proposing adds a single number to the character sheet.

100/100/100

Max/Wounded Max/Current

Frank takes 30 pts of damage total, 12 of which was critical damage. New totals:

100/88/70

Takes 13 more dmg.

100/88/57


See.. Not that complex.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Walking Dad]

What I am proposing adds a single number to the character sheet.

100/100/100

Max/Wounded Max/Current

Frank takes 30 pts of damage total, 12 of which was critical damage. New totals:

100/88/70

Takes 13 more dmg.

100/88/57


See.. Not that complex.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

Oh, something like this:
Vitality And Wound Points
in regard of healing times.