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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6143535" data-attributes="member: 2067">I'd imagine the low/no magic might include that. "Make a CON check and get some HP back." Heck, bring back healing surges. Use a healing salve made of mud, perhaps. Depending on how you define it, faster healing and fate points might also hit those notes. The exact mechanic isn't quite the point. Ultimately, the point is that they're thinking about this stuff independent of any one particular class, but more as a table decision. Which seems smart to me. I'm guessing by "panic button" you mean specifically a big spike recharge of HP? You could have each character carry their own panic button (fate points, second wind). You could have an environmental/circumstantial panic button (kill the orc, get HP back). You could have a panic button based on time (everyone gets a big HP burst after 4 rounds!), or a panic button that triggers with a given event (an ally drops below 1/2 hp). There's infinite ways to hit that button.You could also have a panic button in the form of a mechanically-identical defensive buff. You can ignore X attacks, or gain X temp HP. There's a lot of different forms that button could take. You could also not have a panic button. You can get regen, you can up your AC, you can fight defensively, but the adventure is a process of whittling away your HP, killing you by slow cuts, inspiring a survival mindset. There's a galaxy of ways to keep PC's fighting so that they don't NEED to hit a panic button in the first place. You could mix and match or combine all of these kinds of abilities, traits, mechanics, and tricks. Each one has its own different feel and style and psychology. Take a look at what Guild Wars 2 does with healing: there is no class that will keep you alive with HP recovery. While support does exist, support doesn't take the form of counter-acting enemy damage primarily, which means each player must actively dodge and predict and pre-empt. What healing there is mostly is distributed to the individuals, to heal themselves as appropriate. To me, D&D5e seems to be on-track for allowing a lot of different kinds of defense and recovery as appropriate to the given genre, playstyle, and setting. The panic button being in one character's hands is one way to do it, and that's suitable to the D&D cleric, but it's not always suitable beyond the D&D cleric.By default, we'll probably have a cleric with a panic button, because that's very "D&Desque." But that's the beginning of the story, I think, not the whole story.</blockquote>

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