Martial Healing

[nightwyrm]

umm....D&D pretty much invented the whole use of hp. Even in the earliest edition DMGs, hp was described as an abstraction "a combination of lucky, morale, divine grace etc." rather than physical injury.

 

[Kingreaper]

I'm totally for hit points being an abstraction. How can they be anything else? They are numbers.

I just don't want that abstraction to not include damage at all. That's totally illogical and screws up my sense of verisimilitude. I think the D&D community over the decades has mostly shifted from hit points mostly meaning damage to hit points hardly meaning damage at all. I prefer somewhere in the middle.

If it's somewhere in the middle, why can't inspiration give HP back? The person stays wounded, but gets more of that... drive, that HP partially represents.

Inspiration giving temp HP makes no greater sense than giving actual HP, because temp HP absorb hits just as well as regular HP do.

 

[Zaran]

If it's somewhere in the middle, why can't inspiration give HP back? The person stays wounded, but gets more of that... drive, that HP partially represents.

Inspiration giving temp HP makes no greater sense than giving actual HP, because temp HP absorb hits just as well as regular HP do.

Sure it does, but at the end of period of inspiration the added boost goes away. It really wouldn't change much in the game although it would stop someone from yelling at an unconscious ally and they miraculously get back up. It would also give the warlord the ability to inspire allies BEFORE they took damage.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Sure it does, but at the end of period of inspiration the added boost goes away. It really wouldn't change much in the game although it would stop someone from yelling at an unconscious ally and they miraculously get back up. It would also give the warlord the ability to inspire allies BEFORE they took damage.

The problem with THP is exactly what you said, that you can give it to them before they take damage. In fact, you can buff them up, and keep it buffed up, such that they never take a lick of damage during a whole fight. Mind you, that was after the Dragon hit them with his breath weapon, clawed him four times and then tried to bite his head off...

Martial Healing as THP instead of HP works no better, and in fact, it's probably a little worse since it's very easy to make sure that the person receiving it never loses surges. Remember the old Battlerager? You could attack and attack and attack, but never really "hurt" him. I suspect this is what they were trying to avoid. (And yes, I realize that the old Battlerager was a THP machine, and could stack them, and this was the problem...but it also illustrated why THP's need to be limited in scope and availability, otherwise they can add up over time to make players nigh invulnerable)

Secondly, many of you (including the OP) are forgetting about the other component of HP: Healing Surges. Healing Surges really do a much better job of representing that "realistic damage" mechanic. You have a set number at the beginning of the day, and there's pretty much almost no way to increase them or gain some back. That's your "limit" for a character, representing the combined grit/damage threshold.

Now, when it comes to magic healing of course, you can give back some HP and it costs a surge. But there's also a lot of surgeless magic healing (Cure X Wounds), and the Pally can even essentially donate a surge to an ally (which could be represented as him magically transferring your wound to him). But perhaps magic healing has certain limitations? Sure, it can set that broken leg, or heal close that massive bleeding gash, but maybe it doesn't repair some of the internal damage? Perhaps it doesn't stop infection and shock? This would explain why someone can be getting healed constantly by the Cleric all day long, but still be unable to be healed anymore when they have 1 HP remaining (barring of course the surgeless healing, which is much more powerful and mostly limited to dailies).

When you frame the "magic" healing in this perspective, then Martial healing can make more sense. Yes, the Warlord can now shout "Get up and keep fighting you maggot! I'm not gonna die here because your lazy butt needs a nap!!!" and revive an ally. Or perhaps instead he says "Jerry, that last blow knocked your pauldron loose, cinch it back up or you're liable to lose an arm next time he comes after you!" (BTW, that would be a sort of damage prevention measure, but can be abstracted as you shoring up your defenses so you're not as vulnerable to the next attack) or tells an ally he needs to put pressure on that neck wound to avoid blood loss.

Once you get away from the idea of "Magical Cleric guy magically reattaches your arm" sort of healing, it becomes easier to deal with this. You have to dial down the magic healing a bit though, cuz otherwise, surges are just meaningless anyway. It's just like in the older editions then, where your healing is only limited by how many potions of healing or wands of cure light wounds you can fit in your bag of holding. We already did that edition, and if you want the all powerful magical healing engine back, then play 3.x again.

Oh, and as for healing between encounters, that's easy enough to explain even with real damage. Ever heard of field medicine? A Warlord would naturally be trained in this, and between fights he can go around and pop the Fighter's shoulder back in it's socket, attach a splint to the Rogue's hand and lash his dagger to it because of the fractured finger, apply pressure to the Wizard's gash along with a poultice to promote healing, etc... There are basic things that all adventurers know how to do (since you can spend a surge without a leader), but Warlords just got more in depth training, and thus can administer to their allies better.

 

[DracoSuave]

You don't actually lose your arm in combat. That makes it mighty easy for a warlord to sew it back on. See, I just sewed your arm back on in the same way. Because you never actually lost your arm.

Martial Power!


Also, Martial power can include actual medical knowledge.