Universal fast healing - effects?

[Spatzimaus]

Plowing through an area in a short time would be fine, I think. Better than an adventurer's day. Gives it more of cinematic, action movie kind of feel. Or maybe too videogamy. Dunno.

That IS the result. It also ties in to the other house rules used by this homebrew, which effectively turn most adventurers into a sort of fighter-mage multiclass, with no "dedicated healers", as the caster classes have access to all types of magic. But most of the fights end up playing out sort of like a cross between a Kurosawa movie and the X-men, since most of the magic in our system is either between-combat stuff, passive, or effectively at-will. VERY cinematic in feel, as opposed to the "novel" feel of most D&D campaigns I've been in, where the details of the spells are really important. But that's not really important for this discussion.

One unexpected perk of this sort of downtime change is that the DM doesn't really need to account for how many encounters per day he expects the party to trigger; as long as each INDIVIDUAL encounter is manageable, he knows the party can deal with it.

On the other hand, there's something to be said for the cinematic feel of the "depleted resources" fight, where the party's trying to scrape together enough firepower and healing to survive, while all their big guns have been expended.

The key difference comes down to the players. If your players are the type that'll be willing to try that one last fight while low on resources, then providing free healing, even between-combat, hurts the cinematic feel. On the other hand, if your group is the type that wants to rest after each and every encounter and spends minutes buffing up... well, I'd say shoot them all and find a new group, but from your questions it sounds like that's not an option.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

In one of my campaigns my Cleric created a use at will stone of Cure Minor Wounds, and my house rules as a DM allow unlimited use of cantrips. It may take a little while to heal after a fight, but it will allow more encounters per day without messing with things in combat.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

How abou this? All damage from normal attacks is non-lethal. All damage from critical attacks is leathal.

Note that non-lethal damage heals normally much faster than lethal damage.

 

[Korak]

You know... with the Vigor line of spells from Complete Divine and a handfull of Pearls of Power, our clerics have always had plenty of spell slots to use on other spells. They could easily last 3 , 4, 5, or more encounters, depending on how fast they want to blow through their offensive complement.

Also, as the tank, I took 2 levels of cleric and had 5 pearls of power 1. I could heal myself for 60hp per day on just one spell slot.

Also consider eternal wands of vigor or mass lesser vigor.

 

[XCorvis]

Also consider eternal wands of vigor or mass lesser vigor.

Technically, an eternal wand requires an arcane spell, but I think that's a silly rule...