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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
What do you like about 4e healing?
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<blockquote data-quote="Kannik" data-source="post: 5804846" data-attributes="member: 984"><p>Above all else, what I liked about 4e healing is that, for the first time, it actually embodied and embraced what Hit Points have always been about:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Right from the get go hit points = a whole host of factors, of which a smaller and smaller portion actually represent any type of physical injury or hardiness. With martial, bardic and other types of healing the HP mechanic was more fully explored.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Given that Hit Points is tradition, and they have always represented "all of the above" in terms of what they represent, I think the name for them is unlikely to change, even given the confusion it creates. </p><p></p><p>It's interesting, really -- earlier editions of AD&D <em>did</em> indeed limit most large/rapid healing capabilities to the divine caster classes. Only divine magic healing could increase PCs health quickly. Because of this what may have resulted is a clash of what we as gamers made up in our minds about this latter fact (it must be actual damage healed by divine provenance), verses what HP has always been described as (a combination of many factors). </p><p></p><p>HPs never changed, they just became thought of a particular way in many D&D groups, divorced from their actual definition in the game. (Ironically even as it meant that HP, seen through the lens as as purely physical damage capacity, could actually break verisimilitude as fighters would take sword hit after sword hit after sword hit after arrow hit after fireball after... ) So called “shouting someone to health” (which is actually replenishing their morale, drive, endurance, mental acuity, thusly skill, etc), even in the terms of the first edition of AD&D, works because it isn't shouting health, it's shouting hit points (which are more than just health). </p><p></p><p>What I would alter in DDN is to fix the unconscious/death saves below 0 and inspiring word conundrum, for at some point physical damage is taken and then that would need more than words of encouragement. Two quick ways I could see to do that is either a) to say your CON value in HP is your actual physical damage capacity, those HPs are always taken last, and thus from 0 to CON you would need bandaging/divine/something special to heal them or b) say that from 0 to -CON you are dazed and semi-conscious, if you get to -CON then you are unconscious and dying (needing bandage/divine/etc) and before then all healing works on you. Or something even more elegant. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I don't know if I want lasting injuries per se, but I would like an option for some lingering effect for exhausting all of your reserves after an adventuring day. (and I wrote some rules to this effect for 4e under my RPGNow imprint, so I'm biased in that want <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue :P" data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /> )</p><p></p><p>peace,</p><p></p><p>Kannik</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kannik, post: 5804846, member: 984"] Above all else, what I liked about 4e healing is that, for the first time, it actually embodied and embraced what Hit Points have always been about: Right from the get go hit points = a whole host of factors, of which a smaller and smaller portion actually represent any type of physical injury or hardiness. With martial, bardic and other types of healing the HP mechanic was more fully explored. Given that Hit Points is tradition, and they have always represented "all of the above" in terms of what they represent, I think the name for them is unlikely to change, even given the confusion it creates. It's interesting, really -- earlier editions of AD&D [I]did[/I] indeed limit most large/rapid healing capabilities to the divine caster classes. Only divine magic healing could increase PCs health quickly. Because of this what may have resulted is a clash of what we as gamers made up in our minds about this latter fact (it must be actual damage healed by divine provenance), verses what HP has always been described as (a combination of many factors). HPs never changed, they just became thought of a particular way in many D&D groups, divorced from their actual definition in the game. (Ironically even as it meant that HP, seen through the lens as as purely physical damage capacity, could actually break verisimilitude as fighters would take sword hit after sword hit after sword hit after arrow hit after fireball after... ) So called “shouting someone to health” (which is actually replenishing their morale, drive, endurance, mental acuity, thusly skill, etc), even in the terms of the first edition of AD&D, works because it isn't shouting health, it's shouting hit points (which are more than just health). What I would alter in DDN is to fix the unconscious/death saves below 0 and inspiring word conundrum, for at some point physical damage is taken and then that would need more than words of encouragement. Two quick ways I could see to do that is either a) to say your CON value in HP is your actual physical damage capacity, those HPs are always taken last, and thus from 0 to CON you would need bandaging/divine/something special to heal them or b) say that from 0 to -CON you are dazed and semi-conscious, if you get to -CON then you are unconscious and dying (needing bandage/divine/etc) and before then all healing works on you. Or something even more elegant. :) I don't know if I want lasting injuries per se, but I would like an option for some lingering effect for exhausting all of your reserves after an adventuring day. (and I wrote some rules to this effect for 4e under my RPGNow imprint, so I'm biased in that want :P ) peace, Kannik [/QUOTE]
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