Recharge NWN2 style- with some mods

[Sadrik]

To recharge characters must spend 5 minutes of down time resting, studying meditating or doing some other substantial time consuming activity that relates to their class, race etc.

Hit Point Recovery
All hit points are recovered, except those caused by vile damage or wounding damage. These must be cured by magic.
Also I would tie HP's to fatigue directly. If fatigued you can only recover 75% of your HP max and exhausted only 50% of them. That way you still give a good reason to rest 8 hours. I might institute a fatigue check after every combat (level + con vs DC?)

Stat Recovery
As normal

Spell Recovery
In an attempt to balance spells, characters may ready 1 spell level per caster level + their casting stat modifier. Sorcerers would get a bonus to that number and those spells would be known. Clerics would get a domain bonus and specialist wizards would get a school bonus. Except for sorcerers and bards, characters may switch their spells around every 5 minutes.

Examples:
wizard, sorcerer, cleric and druid get 1-20 spell levels
bards get 1-15 spell levels
paladins and rangers get 1-10 spell levels

Sorcerers get a bonus of 1 spell level known every other sorcerer level. (1, 3, 5 etc) So they would wind up with between 2 and 30 spell levels depending on their level
Specialized Wizards get a bonus of 1 spell level to ready in the school of specialty every 4 wizard levels. (1, 4, 8, etc) So they would wind up with between 2 and 25 depending on their level.
Clerics get a bonus 1 domain spell level to ready every 1, 4, 8, etc. So they would wind up with between 2 and 25 depending on their level.

And of course some spells would have to be curbed. near infinite walls of stone can cause problems.
I think the problem areas could be divinations, instantaneous creation of permanent objects, and unlimited teleportation all can be problematic. I'd say when you cast those spell levels you dont get them back. Also if you recharge with a buff up you dont get that back either.

Anybody like this idea?

 

[tbiaslorin]

Why?

I guess I would need to know why this would be a recovery method. Are you attempting to get players back in the fight quicker? Are you not wanting to deal with random encounters?

It certainly mitigates the need for secondary healers, as basically one gets to max their hp 2 or 3 (or 10, or 20?) times a day in 5 minutes. Why specify the need to rest at all, as 5 minutes is such a small block of time anyway? It also seems a little arbitrary; you could just say everyone gets all their hp and 5 spells back? 9 spells? 12 spells? 30 spell levels? You have also pointed out some flaws in which spells one could get back, and which couldn't, as some would be problematic. If I was worried about spells as a character, I would just say 'hey, lets rest 30 minutes' instead of 5. The odds of the bad guys showing up is not that much greater, and even if they found me at 15 minutes I have most or all of my spells back anyway.

It certainly is more complex than the standard rules, especially when most of the common spell classes has their own recharge rate. At least for me I try to minimize the complexity of my games unnecessarily. It also is far less 'realistic' though that term is relative in fantasy games in general, as bodies just don't heal that fast. At higher levels, one could be getting back (over multiple recharge periods) hundreds, if not thousands, of hp's per day under this method. From a continuity standpoint, it could create some challenges. Instead of clearing out that large dungeon or enemy fortress over the course of months, you could do it in days, maybe not even that long.

Again, I'm not sure what the purpose is, and overall it probably creates more problems and exceptions than it fixes. (I'm not really sure what it's trying to fix yet though!)

Good luck!

 

[Sadrik]

I guess I would need to know why this would be a recovery method. Are you attempting to get players back in the fight quicker? Are you not wanting to deal with random encounters?

This is meant to be a remedy for the cleric and a more heroic system than is currently in place. I personally as a DM dislike the- fight one fight- rest- fight another fight- that d&d is. This is a variant that deals with that. The party no longer needs to rest after every fight (or couple of fights). I am exaggerating a bit here but I have seen the party rest right after their morning encounter. So, the major shift here is that this is set at a per encounter rather than a per day situation. A lot of people have been liking that concept. This house rule is simply an extension of that.

It certainly mitigates the need for secondary healers, as basically one gets to max their hp 2 or 3 (or 10, or 20?) times a day in 5 minutes. Why specify the need to rest at all, as 5 minutes is such a small block of time anyway?

Healing spells under this house rule is more of an "in combat" thing and not an after combat thing. Do you think it would be balanced if it were a standard action? The point of making it 5 minutes is to allow enough time so that it is not practical in combat but short enough so that it doesnt deride from the action.

It also seems a little arbitrary; you could just say everyone gets all their hp and 5 spells back? 9 spells? 12 spells? 30 spell levels?

I think reducing the number of spells they have to play with for 1 encounter is where you want to be at with a system like this. And as far as getting them back why limit them to just 5/9/12/30 rather than all? Those numbers seem highly arbitrary to me.

You have also pointed out some flaws in which spells one could get back, and which couldn't, as some would be problematic.

Yes, there are some problematic spells but it is easily fixed by saying those spells are draining spells and whenever you cast them you dont get those spell levels back until you rest 8 hours. It will definitely curb those spells.

It certainly is more complex than the standard rules, especially when most of the common spell classes has their own recharge rate. At least for me I try to minimize the complexity of my games unnecessarily.

I disagree with you entirely. It is no more complex than the current system. It is just different.

It also is far less 'realistic' though that term is relative in fantasy games in general, as bodies just don't heal that fast. At higher levels, one could be getting back (over multiple recharge periods) hundreds, if not thousands, of hp's per day under this method.

Realism is a completely relative term in fantasy. With 200 hit point huge dragons and 200 hp medium fighters. You really have to scratch your head to figure out how a character can take 20 sword hits and still keep going. How I would describe HP in this system is not how much meat is on the bone so to speak but describe it as how much "combat savvy" the character has. More like the fatigue system. So you recharge your "combat savvy" after a fight.

From a continuity standpoint, it could create some challenges. Instead of clearing out that large dungeon or enemy fortress over the course of months, you could do it in days, maybe not even that long.

I also disagree with you here. Just because we have accepted that it takes weeks to infiltrate a keep or dungeon doesnt mean that it is more realistic. D&D has taught us it should be that way. But think about it... isnt it more realistic that the group makes a quick surgical strike in without weeks of resting between combats??? Yes it does...

 

[tbiaslorin]

This is meant to be a remedy for the cleric and a more heroic system than is currently in place. I personally as a DM dislike the- fight one fight- rest- fight another fight- that d&d is. This is a variant that deals with that. The party no longer needs to rest after every fight (or couple of fights). I am exaggerating a bit here but I have seen the party rest right after their morning encounter. So, the major shift here is that this is set at a per encounter rather than a per day situation. A lot of people have been liking that concept. This house rule is simply an extension of that.

Healing spells under this house rule is more of an "in combat" thing and not an after combat thing. Do you think it would be balanced if it were a standard action? The point of making it 5 minutes is to allow enough time so that it is not practical in combat but short enough so that it doesnt deride from the action.

I think reducing the number of spells they have to play with for 1 encounter is where you want to be at with a system like this. And as far as getting them back why limit them to just 5/9/12/30 rather than all? Those numbers seem highly arbitrary to me.

Yes, there are some problematic spells but it is easily fixed by saying those spells are draining spells and whenever you cast them you dont get those spell levels back until you rest 8 hours. It will definitely curb those spells.

I disagree with you entirely. It is no more complex than the current system. It is just different.

Realism is a completely relative term in fantasy. With 200 hit point huge dragons and 200 hp medium fighters. You really have to scratch your head to figure out how a character can take 20 sword hits and still keep going. How I would describe HP in this system is not how much meat is on the bone so to speak but describe it as how much "combat savvy" the character has. More like the fatigue system. So you recharge your "combat savvy" after a fight.

I also disagree with you here. Just because we have accepted that it takes weeks to infiltrate a keep or dungeon doesnt mean that it is more realistic. D&D has taught us it should be that way. But think about it... isnt it more realistic that the group makes a quick surgical strike in without weeks of resting between combats??? Yes it does...

I'm not sure how to parse here yet...so I won't. As a more heroic system, it should work as described, especially as you describe how you view hit points. I'm more a fan of the fighter spending a week (or longer sans healer) to recover from his 100 point wound (The main party in my game has only a Druid currently for healing) as an opportunity for role-playing, crafting, and the like. As a lower magic/power campaign, I see big fights more as the nitty-gritty such as at the end of Conan instead of the sometimes near continual action of something like LoTR.

I still think it might be a little more complex (with the spellcaster interacation) than heal 1+con bonus for a night's rest and get all spells back, but you're probably right in that it is just different. To be honest, I'm not sure what the 3.5 rule is, I've been using the 1+con bonus+all spells for more years than I can remember, so I don't have much room to talk!

As for the continuity, I guess I see a quick surgical strike as infiltrating a keep, killing the mad wizard and his golem (and maybe a few guards), and getting out in a night, as opposed to invading a huge dungeon, killing 400 goblins, 300 orcs, 15 hill giants, 28 plush pant devils, a dozen elementals, 24 blood cultists and a hundred other monsters as well as healing all HP's a few dozen times...and still getting out in a night. (Yes, that's a little exaggerated!)

Being able to wade through 5 or more times the number of encounters per long rest period has the potential to having characters level very rapidly in terms of in-game time even if the total session time is the same. (unless there are exp adjustments as well). I think I read elsewhere here the typical in-game day is 4 encounters; have you tried this system in your game yet? How many encounters can a party get through in an in-game day? 15-20? More? Less?

Thanks!

 

[Sadrik]

Spell levels available by level for character classes.

Level	Soc	Wiz	Sp Wiz & Clr	Brd	Rgr & Pal
1	2	1	1+1		0	-
2	3	2	2+1		1	-
3	5	3	3+1		2	-
4	6	4	4+1		3	0
5	8	5	5+2		3	1
6	9	6	6+2		4	1
7	11	7	7+2		5	2
8	12	8	8+2		6	2
9	14	9	9+3		6	3
10	15	10	10+3		7	4
11	17	11	11+3		8	4
12	18	12	12+3		9	5
13	20	13	13+4		9	5
14	21	14	14+4		10	6
15	23	15	15+4		11	7
16	24	16	16+4		12	7
17	26	17	17+5		12	8
18	27	18	18+5		13	8
19	29	19	19+5		14	9
20	30	20	20+5		15	10

 

[Sadrik]

I'm not sure how to parse here yet...so I won't.

Welcome to the boards.

As a more heroic system, it should work as described, especially as you describe how you view hit points. I'm more a fan of the fighter spending a week (or longer sans healer) to recover from his 100 point wound (The main party in my game has only a Druid currently for healing) as an opportunity for role-playing, crafting, and the like. As a lower magic/power campaign, I see big fights more as the nitty-gritty such as at the end of Conan instead of the sometimes near continual action of something like LoTR.

To each his own... I would reserve con damage to take a long time to recover and make hp's quick. I also prefer the fewer combat encounters way of roleplaying. This system is actually designed specifically for that- no matter how many encounters you have the characters should be balanced for that encounter.

Being able to wade through 5 or more times the number of encounters per long rest period has the potential to having characters level very rapidly in terms of in-game time even if the total session time is the same. (unless there are exp adjustments as well). I think I read elsewhere here the typical in-game day is 4 encounters; have you tried this system in your game yet? How many encounters can a party get through in an in-game day? 15-20? More? Less?

D&D is designed around giving enough stuff to the characters to survive 4 equal EL's per day and leveling up after 13 equal EL encounters. So every 3.25 days characters by the rules go up a level. 65 days to go from 1st to 20th level- 2 months. If you ask me I think that is too quick and almost all games I have played
take much longer than that.

 

[tbiaslorin]

Welcome to the boards.

To each his own... I would reserve con damage to take a long time to recover and make hp's quick. I also prefer the fewer combat encounters way of roleplaying. This system is actually designed specifically for that- no matter how many encounters you have the characters should be balanced for that encounter.

D&D is designed around giving enough stuff to the characters to survive 4 equal EL's per day and leveling up after 13 equal EL encounters. So every 3.25 days characters by the rules go up a level. 65 days to go from 1st to 20th level- 2 months. If you ask me I think that is too quick and almost all games I have played
take much longer than that.

Thanks for the info and clarification on the levelling up. I hope my players never read that, as typically it is an in-game year (24 6-hour sessions typically) until they reach 10th-11th level. I was resistent to the 3.0-3.5 rules set for a long time (and so still haven't read them end to end), but the fact they provide any guidelines at all is better than I remember 2nd Edition. My thought is that becoming an Epic-Level character is something of a lifetime event (or at least long-term), and definitely not something to be achieved in 60 days.

And thanks for the welcome...I've been searching for good active D&D forums on and off for a while, and most didn't have what I was looking for. This one definitely fits the bill.