D&D 5E Resting and Healing in D&D Next

[Crazy Jerome]

I like the extended rest, slower variant where hit dice come back on an extended rest, but hit points do not. I like this slightly slower version for a few reasons:

1. When everything is going great, and the party has ready access to resources, and a warm, secure place to rest--this becomes more or less equivalent to "get everything back" anyway. So it takes practically no time to administer and ends up in the same place as saying, "You rest for a month."

2. When everything is somewhat under control but could get a bit dicey, the party is running a modest risk in using up extra hit dice on a rest--i.e. if the extended rest goes poorly, using them now may not be the best thing to do, but if they extended rest goes well, using them now is. This makes the camping and effort to be secure itself somewhat more interesting than it otherwise would be, but again without much time spent on it.

3. Finally, the only time that resources really matter is when resources are tight and not easily replaced. In most D&D economies, this really means when stuck somewhere without a good way to replace the necessary things--or healing kits, in this case. So now that resources matter, they really do matter, and we get the fun of tracking them.

That's the way the Isle of Dread play test is in our group right now. The real "slow death" risk is running out of food and bandages. The party planned and took extra, but they don't have unlimited amounts. So it's made them cautious about wandering monsters.

I hate spending a lot of time to track a bunch of resources carefully all the time, to get the little bit of fun that 5% of the time they matter. But if I can get 80% of the fun with only a bit of the work, I am so there.

 

[TarionzCousin]

My favorite healing system so far would fall between 1e & 3e in speed of natural healing.

So... 2E?

My playtesters haven't needed to rest yet (two short sessions, only one short combat), so I don't know what system I'll use.

But with so many options, Li Shenron's system does seem rather elegant "On a full night rest, you recover all your lost HP."

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Wish you'd broken down the core + Slower in the poll, it's really 3 different rules that I would use for different feeling games. But over all I favor the all around slower varient.

Additionally I don't know why they don't publish WP/VP system as a varient. They own it already it's the best healing systems they have ever made and they have simply forgot about it, never understood why they changed from it for d20 Modern.

 

[steenan]

I would prefer complete decoupling of significant injury from HPs.

You recover full HPs during a short (5-15 minutes) rest.
You are bloodied at half HPs. Getting bloodied gives you a minor injury.
You are knocked unconscious at zero HPs. It gives you a major injury unless the attack was a nonlethal one.

Minor injury gives you a small, situational penalty or complication.
Major injury gives you a significant penalty or complication and the third major injury kills you.
Specific weapons or forms of attack may cause injuries with keywords that make them harder to heal.

A long rest is a couple of days of being safe, well-fed and comfortable. The time when you don't have to travel, keep watch, fight or perform any tiring activities.
A long rest lets you recover from all minor injuries or downgrades a single serious injury to a minor one.

Low-level restorative magic lets you recover HPs without taking a short rest.
Medium-level restorative magic heals you from minor injuries, speeds up healing serious injuries (without making it instantaneous) or allows you to recover normally from keyworded injuries (eg. regenerating a lost hand).
High-level restorative magic instantly heals any injuries without keywords and speeds up healing keyworded injuries.

 

[Sadrik]

I voted Other:

I really like the concept of the Wounds/Vitality system. Under this it would be Wounds/HP of course.

Have wounds equal to your CON score + 1/2 level. HP as more your luck, skill, etc. HP can recover on a long rest or short rest depending on your particular fancy or use HD. Wounds recover much slower (rates similar to stat damage in 3e).

Wound damage can ignore HP in certain instances. Things like finger of death would deal wound damage. Critical hits and sneak attacks could deal wound damage. Falling could cause wound damage. Energy drain could deal wounds. Basically there are no auto-death effects, instead they would cause wound damage.

Cure wounds spells would heal 1 wound per level of the spell in addition to the HP cure portion. If HP are at 0 and you are taking wound damage make a system shock CON save or fall unconscious. Minion type monsters always have 1 wound. There is no negative HP, 0 wounds = dead.

This is not that much more complex and it adds so much to the game. It makes the auto-death stuff of higher level much more manageable as you do not auto-death the BBEG with your save or die spell, it takes wound damage but is not dead. It makes someone who gets wounded, actually wounded without the need for additional rules. There is still not a death spiral, however the systems shock roll gives a two tiered status and recovering wounds is more realistically if you take 8 wounds it will take eight days to recover, if on the road, or 4 if in bed, or with curative magic much faster. It adds a level of danger. I understand all would not like this system but I think a very good sized chunk of D&Ders would.

 

[Jack99]

I voted core + slower. I like the one where you regain all your HD after a night's rest, but no HP. In fact, I adopted it for our 2e campaign. Works fairly well.