D&D 5E Playing with Hit Dice

[jimmifett]

Since, in my system, wounds are the "slow heal" resource (or ritual+gp heal), it can make high level play not seem a cake walk. I may have to up the number of creatures that do HD damage for it to balance right, but certainly a way out of my conundrum.

This is interesting, esp if mixed with decreasing hit dice size.

Receive a wound, downgrade 1 hit die by one size until d4, then removed after next wound. Move on to next hit die. Slow rest mechanic to restore lost hit dice and dice sizes.

Recovery of wounds
Every 1d4 days of full rest, recover 1 Max(class hit die) roll worth of wounds on a successful con save, half on failure (min 1).

Perhaps add a multiplier to the step downgrade every 5 wounds...
It's awfully fiddly, perhaps overly cumbersome this way, but it's surely interesting.

So, lets say a Wizard at 20th level:
Wounds/HitDice
1x step per wound
0 / 20d6
1 / 19d6 1d4
2 / 19d6
3 / 18d6 1d4
4 / 18d6
5 / 17d6 1d4
2x step per wound
6 / 16d6 1d4
7 / 15d6 1d4
8 / 14d6 1d4
9 / 13d6 1d4
10 / 12d6 1d4
3x step per wound
11 / 11d6
12 / 9d6 1d4
13 / 8d6
14 / 6d6 1d4
15 / 4d6 1d4
4x step per wound
16 / 2d6 1d4
17 / 1d4

Same class at 5th level
1x step per wound
0 / 5d6
1 / 4d6 1d4
2 / 4d6
3 / 3d6 1d4
4 / 3d6
5 / 2d6 1d4
2x step per wound
6 / 1d6 1d4
7 / 1d4

and at 2nd level:
1x step per wound
0 / 2d6
1 / 1d6 1d4
2 / 1d6
3 / 1d4

 

[Mercule]

I like the hit die drain idea. I wouldn't make it permanent, though. I'd probably word it as reduce "maximum hit dice", which affects healing rate, too. I'd also make them return at anywhere between 1/day and 1/week, depending on source.

The vampire blood drain makes total sense, under this model.

 

[Sadras]

Apologies [MENTION=5100]Mercule[/MENTION], that was a complete misclick on my part for the laugh at your post (shakes head)

Anyways I've loved Surge mechanic from 4e and am glad they kept it in some form in 5e with HD, just because it offers such a vast number ways to use it as can be seen from this thread which is bursting with ideas to be used. It complements 5e's style perfectly with its ability to easily slot mechanics in/out of the basic system without worry down the line how it might affect the game mechanics.