D&D 5E Those who come from earlier editions, why are you okay with 5E healing (or are you)?

[Ath'kethin]

I started playing in '95, in an AD&D 2e Dark Sun game. I've played every edition of the game (some definitely more than others, and TBH never played AD&D 1e without bits of 2e sprinkled I and vice versa).

I love 5e's healing rules. I generally run very episodic Sword & Sorcery based games, and there was not a single instance in any Conan or Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser story where the heroes were hung up in hospitals or recovery wards slowly inching back toward life. They're always at the top of their game and ready to go, and 5e's healing helps facilitate that.

Note that, like other have mentioned, what's good for the main characters ain't necessarily good for the walk-ons. The village crier doesn't recover all HP on a long rest, because the village crier isn't an adventurer.

Maybe the ability to shrug off near-death experiences after a good sleep is what makes heroes heroes.

 

[Oofta]

With apologies to Sir Mix-a-Lot

I like hit points and I can not lie
You other players can't deny
That when an ogre swings at you with a big bad club
And smacks you in your face
You get hit, have to show it at least a bit
'Cause it's a game and all that stuff
Death is just around the corner
One more hit I'm gonna need a coronor
Oh cleric, I need that healin'
Cuz death that ogre's been dealin'
Gotta get some down time, gotta get a break
I don't know how much more my PC can take

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Yup. I'm ok with it. It's a game with game pieces and parts. I like playing games.

It's not a reality simulation.

 

[TwoSix]

I think the idea that every rule should be analyzed in terms of setting implications has largely fallen out of favor in modern RPG design, which is much more focused on game impact. The rules by which the game is played need not be treated like physical laws of the setting.

Couldn't have said it better.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Even if the DMG use the name "Slower natural healing" for the variant healling, in the PHB, It's just called "resting". And after a long rest, characters get back all their HP. There is no hint that the wounds close, the infections receded and the broken bones ment themselves naturally overnight, just that the characters can recover their HP at a long rest. Many things are abstracted in the game, and in 3.5, the result was that characters carried wands of healing and it quickly became a non-issue (healing overnight became a mere money sink, or xp sink if you could craft wands). I don't see any reason not to think that adventurers are just using non-magical healing when they can. "Hey, have a bandage soaked in snake oil, your wounds will disappear overnight... too bad snake oil can't be used in combat". And abstract it so that no sane adventurer would venture without snake oil. We abstract cost of living, don't we?

 

[JeffB]

I generally run very episodic Sword & Sorcery based games, and there was not a single instance in any Conan or Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser story where the heroes were hung up in hospitals or recovery wards slowly inching back toward life. They're always at the top of their game and ready to go, and 5e's healing helps facilitate that.

^ This.

I also run same-same.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm always fascinated by how folks will take a system (hit points in this case, but also XP and leveling) that is grossly unrealistic on every level, and focus intensely on the quirks of one tiny piece of that system while completely ignoring the rest.

 

[Arilyn]

I'm always fascinated by how folks will take a system (hit points in this case, but also XP and leveling) that is grossly unrealistic on every level, and focus intensely on the quirks of one tiny piece of that system while completely ignoring the rest.

Yes, but I think a lot of us have one or two pet peeves in D&D that bug us, even when we know it shouldn't.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Hit points, for us, represent a mechanic to model the way action heroes, and many legendary characters work. In the morning they get beat up and in the evening they kick ass.

This reflects an approach to the game as centered on the story and constructing a heroic narrative, not puzzle solving style play where HP are primarily a resource to manage.

Honestly I don't think 5e is a good fit for this type of game.

 

[Oofta]

Even if the DMG use the name "Slower natural healing" for the variant healling, in the PHB, It's just called "resting". And after a long rest, characters get back all their HP. There is no hint that the wounds close, the infections receded and the broken bones ment themselves naturally overnight....

Even if wounds close, infections recede and bones mend overnight, so what? In a world where magic exists, that may just be normal.

Ultimately there's no good way of modeling all of this. Either you can only recover from serious wounds with magic or at the rate that adventurers are wounded you will never recover. If you wan to model the latter because it would be more "realistic" that's fine, but to me it wouldn't be D&D.