D&D (2024) Should healing word require hit dice?

[mellored]

So one of the issues I have is the 0hp + healing word combo.

Mainly there is no point in healing until someone drops to 0. And then it's a bonus action to negate the last hit.

So what if healing word requires a hit die? Still useful for getting someone up in combat, but not 50 times a day.

Some other healing spells might require it too.
Could even have a cantrip that let someone spend hit dice as an action.

 

[MoonSong]

So one of the issues I have is the 0hp + healing word combo.

Mainly there is no point in healing until someone drops to 0. And then it's a bonus action to negate the last hit.

So what if healing word requires a hit die? Still useful for getting someone up in vomba

I'd temper it. It can heal you well, as long as you are awake, but if you are at 0, it needs one hit dice, plus one for each failed death save.

 

[MarkB]

I voted that it needs to be fixed some other way. And that way isn't to make healing at 0 hp less useful, it's to make healing when still standing more useful.

Right now, the amount of healing you can do is so outstripped by damage values that it's literally not worth dedicating even a bonus action to it while the target is conscious.

So, it either needs to be effective enough to be worth that cost, and/or the cost needs to be reduced, perhaps by making healing a side effect of more proactive actions.

 

[Tonguez]

A medical kit can stablise someone so why the hate on Healing word?

 

[Dausuul]

I'm in the "other" camp.

The fundamental issue here is the incentives created by the "no negative hit points" rule -- since damage that takes you below zero is negated (unless it's enough for an insta-kill), you effectively gain hit points by going to zero and then being healed. Healing word is just the most popular and efficient way to provide the healing. The spell isn't the problem.

Solving this requires some kind of distinction between healing at zero and healing when not at zero. One common proposal I've seen is to impose a level of exhaustion each time you drop to zero. With 1D&D's updated exhaustion rules, I think this has a lot of potential. Another option would be to say that it takes X points of healing to get somebody from zero hit points to one hit point. That's less punishing to the martial classes who are apt to be on the front line, but it's also more complicated to write into the rules.

 

[MoonSong]

A medical kit can stablise someone so why the hate on Healing word?

It kills the in-combat healer niche by replacing the "preventive healing then rush, protect, heal when a tragedy happens" with "I sneeze they are ok!". The medical kit is closer to the former than the latter.

 

[Haplo781]

Nope.

It should use a healing surge as God intended.

 

[Clint_L]

A medical kit can stablise someone so why the hate on Healing word?

Because healing word is a bonus action that you can cast at a 60' range, and it doesn't just stabilize someone, it pops them right back into combat. It's not comparable.

I think OP's suggestion is a good start but doesn't go far enough. Healing word fundamentally changes encounter design in 5e because, as OP correctly points out, it makes the "whack-a-mole" strategy of only healing people when they drop to 0 HP the most efficient, effective way to heal, and drastically lowers the stakes in combat because rescue is usually just a bonus action away. And the caster still gets to take another action. It's almost a get-out-of-jail-free card.

If you run a combat where the party has, say, a Bard and Cleric both with healing word, it is extremely difficult for the party to be in peril. From a storytelling perspective, I think healing word lowers the stakes too much. I would like to see it nerfed in OneD&D, but instead they are doubling down by giving Bard's a new ability where they can effectively do healing word (more or less) as a reaction. So then a bard will be able to pick two members up and still take an action (and if they have the medicine skill, that action could be to pick up a third member).

Edit: something as consequential to the story as saving your bleeding out teammate should at least require your action, IMO. Not an afterthought.

 

[James Gasik]

I do think that all healing should require hit dice; having a maximum limit on how much you can be healed in a game day might make it easier to stick to encounter guidelines. But at the very least, the Hit Dice should be added to the healing spell or effect, to make it different than just taking a rest. Sure, being able to heal outside of resting is useful, but since casting a spell is already using up a resource, there should be more effect if you're making someone spend two resources (spell slot + hit die).

And yes, as Mark B said, I'd like to see a system where you actually want to cast Cure Wounds to prevent players from going to 0 in the first place. Maybe bring back the Bloodied condition, where a monster might become more dangerous if they bloody a player, thus making it a good idea to stay above half hit points.

 

[OB1]

Even though I've been running a house rule for the last year (with great success) that has PCs be slowed instead of unconscious at 0HP (and remain slowed once healed above 0HP until succeeding on a DC19 Con save at the end of their turn), I still like this idea of healing word letting the recipient spend a HD (or multiple at higher levels) to heal. Would add the casters spell casting modifier to the total as well, but would not allow the recipient to add their con modifier (like in a short rest).