D&D 5E Low level healing to stay up in a kids game

[Blue]

Thanks for all the feedback! I realized I need to emphasize some of the points I may have been too light on.

This is explicitly a teaching game - I will not be using alternate rules, and the only "variant" are allowing multiclassing, feats, and the variant human (which no one took). Sorry, many of you had really good ideas involving those and I'm sorry I wasn't clearer about that up front. Though the "bonus action to drink a potion" is so ubiquitous that I may adopt it anyhow, thanks for reminding me of that.

As a teaching game, I don't want to load them down with magic items more than they would get in a normal game, which includes the subclass of defensive magic items to boost their AC.

I want them to get an accurate feel for how things go, so while I am lightning the XP budget for encounters a touch, I am also rolling in front of them.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

When you say "kids" I'm thinking "under 10 years old"...so with that in mind...

I'd go with perhaps showing them, via an NPC, how other spells/methods or PC classes are there to mitigate damage. You mentioned that you told the Bard about Mantle of Inspiration, but he never uses it. Have a fellow "musician" with them when they get attacked by thugs/giant rats/corrupt guardsmen/whatever...and that Bard uses it. Children often learn best by the "tell and show" over "just tell". It's why we, as parents, are always trying to get our kids to at least TRY something first before deciding "I don't like it"...because they are so young they don't really even know what they 'like' or don't.

For older kids (re: 10 or older), maybe a mix of the Tell and the Show and Tell methods. I learned B/X when I was 10, and added AD&D 1e when I was 11 (as did my friends, who were my age or 1 year younger...I've always been the 'old greybeard' of the group!), so I know "kids can handle the complexity"...but they do have to try doing new stuff.

I wouldn't try and "change the game baseline for healing expectations", because that's going to harm their "gaming expectations" in the long run... in my humble opinion. Better to do a slight 'house rule modification' at worst, but best would be to show them effective healing methods or methods of avoiding damage in the first place.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Mistwell]

Let them find magic items which are triggered when the wearer hits 0 hit points. The wearer instead stays conscious but misses the turn stunned but they can spend hit dice in that turn to heal themselves.

 

[Oofta]

Well, if you want to run it strictly by the rules (do people actually play D&D that way? ) I'd reinforce that dropping to 0 is not the end of the world.

I mean, I'd have other suggestions for minor tweaks, but a lot of decisions have been made. I rule that a rogue thief can use a healer's kit as a bonus action. My wife's PC does this and in some fights she's the main healer.

But maybe they just have to learn via the school of hard knocks. You can make suggestions and give hints but you can lead a horse to water but if he refuses to drink he dies of thirst.

 

[Stormonu]

Perhaps let them use HD to self-heal as a bonus action or half their movement (basically, giving them second winds at cost of their HD in combat). Healing potions then restore HD, instead of direct healing.

 

[Charlaquin]

I've pointed out several times the tHP from the bard's Mantle of Inspiration to the player, but it's never seen use.

You might want to examine why it isn’t seeing use. Is the player simply forgetting they have it? Regularly using their bonus actions for something else? Overvaluing Bardic Inspiration or undervaluing Mantle of Inspiration? Is it possible they don’t fully grasp temporary hit points and are avoiding the ability because they’re not sure when/how they should use it? These might be things to consider.

Of course, even if you convince the bard’s player to use Mantle of Inspiration more often, it doesn’t really fix the underlying problem that the players are too reluctant to let their characters go down and pressuring their one player with healing to act as a heal bot instead of getting to do cool bard things. Have you tried “popping open the hood” so to speak? Explaining that, mathematically, spending a turn of combat healing actually puts them behind in the damage race unless that healing brings an unconscious character back into the fight?

An alternative angle might be to sit down with the players and talk about the problem with them directly. Tell them you’ve noticed [bard’s player] seems a little frustrated with having to heal everyone else and not getting a chance to do other things they’d like to do. Suggest that maybe the other players invest in some healing abilities, like the Healer feat, the Chef feat, or even a level in a class with healing spells, so that they can spread out healing duty among the whole party instead of forcing it all onto one player.

 

[Iry]

Change Cure Wounds:

• Duration: 8 Hours.
• A creature you touch regains a number of hit points equal to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier immediately upon reaching 0 HP within the duration of this spell. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.

Much less stress for children if they have an insurance policy so paranoia healing isn't an issue. But it still requires tactical thinking, because it commits the spell slot to a single person.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

My 4 cents:

1. Give them a sidekick healer. With a group of kids, I would make it an animal that can somehow magically heal. If a real care-bear is too cuddly, then make it look meaner. And give it enough HP to take a hit, and level it up (at least its HP) with the party. Maybe a mean looking parrot with a peg leg that sits on the sorlock's shoulder and screams healing words? Or a St. Bernard dog with a cask around its neck that contains a (greater) healing potion?
2. Make sure that the sorlock and/or bard learn how to make healing potions, and make them realize that the ingredients are easy to come by. With nearly unlimited supply of (regular) healing potions, drinking potions is only a problem of action-economy, not availability
3. A magic item that can heal
4. A magic items that can cast the Aid spell (but on 4 creatures instead of 3).

 

[loverdrive]

Healing surges!

 

[Oofta]

One other option - use the optional rules from Tasha's and change subclass. For example the sorcerer could become a divine soul instead of wild mage. You can always justify it as wild magic. Or the rogue switches to thief and does the magic bandage thing (which does require the healer feat).

Of course I never want to force someone to play a support PC if they don't want to, it's just another option.