Ranes
Adventurer
Yes and that's assuming a full day and night of bed rest, as you say, or the healing rate is half that again.
D&D 5E On the healing options in the 5e DMG
Yes and that's assuming a full day and night of bed rest, as you say, or the healing rate is half that again.
Dalamar
Adventurer
And if someone is providing long-term care (Heal skill), you double the rates. If you only adventure for 8 hours, you still have time for long-term care and a full night's sleep, so 2 HP/level on a regular basis, up to 4 HP/level with full bed rest and long-term care.
The Crimson Binome
Hero
I'll take your word for it. Honestly, it's not something that really came up much - whenever someone would take the Heal skill, it was usually a healer-type character who had plenty of spell slots anyway. We never actually needed to do the "rest in a cave for a week" schtick since the 2E days.
Ranes
Adventurer
Yes, I was only referring to unaided, non-magical healing. [Edit: And just to be clear about your post: the 4hp/day attended healing rate means you're not adventuring at all.]
It came up in a game I was in a few years ago. A badly injured PC was separated from the party in the wilderness with no healing supplies. As the environment did not facilitate a full day's bed rest, the PC's (relatively) slow healing rate became a real issue. We (the rest of the party) were searching for him while he tried to survive. It made for a good half session.
As far as 5e goes, to return to the topic, I'm not mad keen on the default non-magical healing rate but it's not something I couldn't live with as a player or tinker with as a DM.
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Hussar
Legend
A successful Heal check and a full day of rest gives you 4 HP/level/day. The vast majority of times, you would take a day, maybe two to heal most (not all, true, but most) wounded characters. Regardless of whether you actually healed this fast or not, it was always a possibility, meaning that if you want to avoid the Schroedinger's HP issue, you have to take it into account.
Think about it, a 5th level wizard or rogue, running about 20 HP (not unreasonable for either) will heal virtually any wound that doesn't drop them below 0 HP in one day. In fact, many D4 or D6 HP characters will heal most wounds in 1 day. The d8 and d10 characters might take two or three, but, typically, not any more.
The Crimson Binome
Hero
They don't really say what goes into a Heal check, so it's easy enough to imagine away as something like herbal healing. I'm going to bet that there are poultices involved, at the very least. Something suitably fantasy-y.
That's a good point, though. Maybe it's just easy to ignore, since it's a situation that never comes up? If I had to guess, I would bet that a lot of people formed their opinions about HP in AD&D (or earlier), and never noticed how much it was accelerated in 3E, since a superficial glance gave a much more reasonable number and they only mention the doubling if you actually check under the Heal skill.
Hussar
Legend
I'd agree with that. Even take it a step further in that people didn't notice because natural healing was so rarely actually used for any extended healing. By 1e, where you have 1st level clerics with three cure light wounds per day, meant that it would be a pretty rare group that spent more than a few days healing. 3e, with it's greater healing capabilities (clerics, druids, and now bards as well) plus easily obtainable scrolls, wands and potions, meant that natural healing was pretty much out the window. The only real difference in healing between 3e and 4e IMO, is that 4e dropped the pretences. 3e pretended to have slow healing, but, in play, saw healing as mostly automatic. 4e just started from that position.
Sword of Spirit
Legend
I agree. But I think that change took away something for some people. For instance, in my campaign, I view things as existing whether or not the PCs interact with them. In my DM's imagination canvas, them thar hills are full of ogres, even if the PCs never visit. It's a similar thing with slower natural healing. Even if it rarely comes up, it represents the "physics" of the setting.
Daedrova
First Post
Hit Points and Hit Dice mechanics are so simple I am surprised anyone (especially DM’s) struggle with adjusting healing rates to suit the needs of their preferred play style.
I decided to use a simple option for slow healing in my game: Short rest lets you spend Hit Dice to recover some HP, and a long rest only restores Hit Dice. You don’t get HP back otherwise without magic. I wasn’t surprised, but pleased, to see this option appearing in the 5e DMG.
This fits with the narrative that Hit Points usually describe. You have a chance to catch your breath and tend to non-serious hits during a short rest. You can only handle so much before our body needs natural reset and healing through sleep (long rest).
It also helps to think of Hit Points as a resource a PC can use to avoid serious injury. We usually like to describe the manner in which characters SPEND Hit Points – the way a character moves at the last moment in order to turn that would-be-fatal blow into a glancing hit. Only when a PC can no longer spend enough points does a serious injury occur.
We also use a variant others mentioned earlier in this thread, inspired by Unearthed Arcana 3e: Vitality & Wounds. In my current game, for simplicity, I am just calling these “Hit Points & Body.”
This makes it so that the first serious injury inflicted doesn’t necessarily mean the character is immediately, automatically unconscious (0 hp). It leads to more interesting combats.
Serious injuries go to Body, when a creature reaches 0 HP or on a critical hit. (Body points = Constitution score). Body heals at a rate of 1 point per 1d4 days. Injuries last until body damage is healed. (If it is ever relevant, non-heroic characters make a Con check to try to recover without Medicine. Any serious injury can be fatal.)
We also use “lasting injuries” and roll whenever there is damage to Body. This works fantastic for a gritty/realistic game.
I really cannot recommend these options enough for anyone that wants to run a grittier game.
(I should also mention I am running Dark Sun, and there is next to NO magic healing. It is extremely gritty and any small healing makes a huge difference. Our group has really come to enjoy that magic stands out as rare and special.)
If I wanted the grittiness without Vitality & Wounds, I would probably just treat Hit Dice like 3e: they are simply background to determine total HP and aren’t used for healing. Then characters recover 1 hp x level per day (to not run into the ridiculous situation where it takes a high level fighter 10x longer to heal after a battle).
I decided to use a simple option for slow healing in my game: Short rest lets you spend Hit Dice to recover some HP, and a long rest only restores Hit Dice. You don’t get HP back otherwise without magic. I wasn’t surprised, but pleased, to see this option appearing in the 5e DMG.
This fits with the narrative that Hit Points usually describe. You have a chance to catch your breath and tend to non-serious hits during a short rest. You can only handle so much before our body needs natural reset and healing through sleep (long rest).
It also helps to think of Hit Points as a resource a PC can use to avoid serious injury. We usually like to describe the manner in which characters SPEND Hit Points – the way a character moves at the last moment in order to turn that would-be-fatal blow into a glancing hit. Only when a PC can no longer spend enough points does a serious injury occur.
We also use a variant others mentioned earlier in this thread, inspired by Unearthed Arcana 3e: Vitality & Wounds. In my current game, for simplicity, I am just calling these “Hit Points & Body.”
This makes it so that the first serious injury inflicted doesn’t necessarily mean the character is immediately, automatically unconscious (0 hp). It leads to more interesting combats.
Serious injuries go to Body, when a creature reaches 0 HP or on a critical hit. (Body points = Constitution score). Body heals at a rate of 1 point per 1d4 days. Injuries last until body damage is healed. (If it is ever relevant, non-heroic characters make a Con check to try to recover without Medicine. Any serious injury can be fatal.)
We also use “lasting injuries” and roll whenever there is damage to Body. This works fantastic for a gritty/realistic game.
I really cannot recommend these options enough for anyone that wants to run a grittier game.
(I should also mention I am running Dark Sun, and there is next to NO magic healing. It is extremely gritty and any small healing makes a huge difference. Our group has really come to enjoy that magic stands out as rare and special.)
If I wanted the grittiness without Vitality & Wounds, I would probably just treat Hit Dice like 3e: they are simply background to determine total HP and aren’t used for healing. Then characters recover 1 hp x level per day (to not run into the ridiculous situation where it takes a high level fighter 10x longer to heal after a battle).
Emerikol
Adventurer
verisimilitude =/= realism.
Verisimilitude is feel. The reason my PCs keep going is magical healing. In a world of constant sword fights, they wouldn't make it otherwise.
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