To Heal or Not to Heal

[Kavon]

[MENTION=11300]Herremann the Wise[/MENTION]: In essence, this is a variant death/dying rule with a critical hit rule to affect it on top of it (since the actual hit point mechanic doesn't really change).
Seems pretty cool, if I do say so myself ^^

 

[Dice4Hire]

I have never seen a system that works as smoothly as D&D hit points at the table. Anything that requires tracking of various wounds and recovery times is just plain unwieldy. And the vitality/wound thing is just the same as the others, plus the chance of a lucky crit in the first round of combat is just plain devastating.

Keep the D&D hit points as is, but I would not mind a bit of self healing like second winds and I am perfectly willing to grant that all hit points but the last few or the least one are non-wounds. That is how D&D has always played.

Put in a grim and gritty system for those who like it, but there are a lot of such systems already out there. Why do they have to be D&D?

We really cannot add the kitchen sink of every system out there to D&D.

 

[Trance-Zg]

Personally, I think that combat healing adds to the fantasy of D&D and no fighter in right mind would charge at 10 orcs w/o healing support or dive for 3rd floor to smash an axe at trolls head.

Yes it's interesting now and then to have tactical/stealth mini campaign to use terrain, sneaking and target picking every fight but this fight are slow and long and setup pre-fight is long as well, because you must count on condition that you kill the target and take 0 damage.

One of my more irritating character was 3rd level human cleric of lathander with feats: improved healing, healing devotion, touch of healing and renewal domain. God damn, party was near immortal at those levels.

 

[Dice4Hire]

... using a scale of 1 hit point represents a wound that takes 1 day to "heal" before it does not affect the character. [A single 7 hp wound would take 7 days to "heal"/not affect the character].

No, just no. Track this 7 day wound, that 3 day wound and another 1 day wound. No thank you very much.

 

[Minigiant]

I think each class should get 1 or 2 defensive moves but everyone would not necessarily heal themselves.

The cleric and the other divine casters would get Cure Wounds spells as usual.

The fighter could get a +4 bonus with fighting defensively instead of the normal +2. They could get an Adrenaline Surge once a day for temporary HP.

The rogue can Dodge one spell or attack completely as long as they aren't fatigued. The Dodge itself fatigues the rogue.

The wizard has many defensive spells such Mage Armor, Resist Energy, and Shield to increase survivability.

Other fringe classes would get defensive abilities too. Monks can mystical heal themselves. Warlords can say Inspiring Words for CLW equivalents as temporary HP. Barbarians get a CON boost from Rage as a HP barrier etc.

So if no one wants to play cleric or druid, the fighter character might want to fight defnsively in every fight, The Rogue would call Dodges and try to stay out of heavy combat. The wizard would prepare many AC boosting spells. And the Warlord would place a nice patch of THP on top of everyone.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

No, just no. Track this 7 day wound, that 3 day wound and another 1 day wound. No thank you very much.

You make it sound horrid!

While it is certainly not for everyone, having 5 or small boxes on your character sheet with a number in it is not that difficult (relatively speaking). Once a day (at the start of the day) you reduce the number in each box by one. It really is not that hard for players fluent with the current and previous editions.

For those who find this too fiddly, you could tone it down by maintaining something similar to healing surges and death saves. Take a critical hit; lose a surge. Take a critical hit or wound when your hps are zero, then you "lose" a death save and are incapacitated. It is all about answering the question: what happens when someone takes a hit when they are spent.

And the vitality/wound thing is just the same as the others, plus the chance of a lucky crit in the first round of combat is just plain devastating.

Not if you have abilities that can cancel a critical hit. Alternatively, you might start the combat with "hero" points that can be used among other things to cancel criticals and "gain" combat points during a combat by successfully performing special actions that can likewise be used to cancel criticals. Armor (used by those who are going to be criticalled most often) may give a percentage chance to cancel criticals as well as provide DR. A divine blessing may also cancel a critical etc. There are many ways to moderate the frequency of criticals.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Hussar]

While it is certainly not for everyone, having 5 or small boxes on your character sheet with a number in it is not that difficult (relatively speaking). Once a day (at the start of the day) you reduce the number in each box by one. It really is not that hard for players fluent with the current and previous editions.

That sounds awfully fiddly. Even in earlier editions, you didn't bother tracking when you took wounds, you just naturally heal X number of HP per day.

I think, perhaps, a better way to do it might be to use the disease track. Maybe something like this:

Damage that does not reduce you below 1 HP is considered meta-game damage (combination of meat, luck, whatever) and heals very fast - All back after a full rest perhaps? Healing surges might be used, or magical healing, or perhaps healing skill healing that is more effective. Doesn't matter.

Anything that drops you below 1 HP starts you on a "Major Wound" track. Each day, make your save and either get better, stay the same or get worse on the major wound. Fail three saves and you die. Major wounds could have in game effects like reduced movement speed, loss of healing surges (if applicable), attack penalties, that sort of thing.

I think that system, cleaned up and written by people who are MUCH better game designers than me, would satisfy most people. You get the long term healing still, but, it doesn't intrude on the game all the time, after every encounter.

 

[Kynn]

I would be perfectly happy if hit points restored after a short rest. I know that this would annoy the crap out of a lot of people, but, honestly, this is the best solution for me.

Remove in combat healing entirely though. But, if you survive the current combat, your hit points restore to max.

So, you want D&D Gamma World.

Good choice!

 

[Hussar]

So, you want D&D Gamma World.

Good choice!

To be honest, I never played Gamma World. OTOH, my latish 3e games worked pretty much exactly like this - healing wands meant that you were fully healed after every fight. It worked so well, and kept the pacing so high, that I would love to see it be the baseline.

 

[Kynn]

To be honest, I never played Gamma World. OTOH, my latish 3e games worked pretty much exactly like this - healing wands meant that you were fully healed after every fight. It worked so well, and kept the pacing so high, that I would love to see it be the baseline.

You should try D&D Gamma World. It's the best implementation of the 4e ruleset!