D&D 5E What if healing spells only created Temp HP?

[reelo]

Have a look at how "Crypts & Things" handles HP and loss thereoff. Genius.

 

[DEFCON 1]

But cure spells is a key subclass feature of life clerics and divine souls... Did you ban them?

Didn't have to. Players knew going in what the house rules for the campaign were and made their class and subclass choices based off of them.

Had someone brought up Life Cleric or Divine Soul I would have reminded them, but it was unnecessary.

 

[Dausuul]

What would happen if all magical healing and healing potions did not increase hitpoints, but only created temp HP?

What I think would happen:

1. Starting in the mid-levels (the point where gold starts piling up faster than PCs can spend it), it would be routine to stock up on potions of healing and drink them after every skirmish, providing a buffer in case of ambush. Actual healing spells would be reserved for pre-buffing before major combats. In this role, they would be very powerful.

2. Since temp hit points don't stack, there would be a strong preference to buff with spells that heal a lot in one go, rather than spreading out healing over multiple rounds/targets.

3. In-combat healing would basically never happen; you have removed the best use case for in-combat healing (reviving a fallen comrade), and even in other use cases, the need to anticipate where damage will fall is a serious hindrance.

4. Without the ability to top off your hit points and revive fallen allies using potions, a healer's kit would be must-have equipment, and the Healer feat would be in extremely high demand.

5. Upon reaching 11th level, using heal as a pre-buff before a big fight becomes a no-brainer. 70 extra hit points for the party tank is insane.

 

[CubicsRube]

Frankly, the game works fine by just removing all the healing spells in their entirety from the game too if you want really gritty.

I did that for my Curse of Strahd game. No magical healing spells worked in Barovia. The only "healing" came from spending hit dice during rests, the paladin's Lay on Hands (which I allowed for roleplay reasons) and the Healer feat. Doing that made things plenty gritty which is what I wanted for that campaign. It took a bit of time for the players to learn these new expectations... but that was part and parcel for learning how to deal with being in Barovia. Not much worked "normally" in ways they were used to.

Yeah that's the kind of approach I like.

Most of the ideas I put up here I would only implement for a certain setting. Your idea is actually great for Barovia. How did the players respond to it? I imagine it helped add to the feeling of dread to the place.

 

[CubicsRube]

Didn't have to. Players knew going in what the house rules for the campaign were and made their class and subclass choices based off of them.

Had someone brought up Life Cleric or Divine Soul I would have reminded them, but it was unnecessary.

That's right. For campaign setting rules you have a lot of leeway as long as you're upfront a out it in your session 0

 

[CubicsRube]

What I think would happen:

1. Starting in the mid-levels (the point where gold starts piling up faster than PCs can spend it), it would be routine to stock up on potions of healing and drink them after every skirmish, providing a buffer in case of ambush. Actual healing spells would be reserved for pre-buffing before major combats. In this role, they would be very powerful.

2. Since temp hit points don't stack, there would be a strong preference to buff with spells that heal a lot in one go, rather than spreading out healing over multiple rounds/targets.

3. In-combat healing would basically never happen; you have removed the best use case for in-combat healing (reviving a fallen comrade), and even in other use cases, the need to anticipate where damage will fall is a serious hindrance.

4. Without the ability to top off your hit points and revive fallen allies using potions, a healer's kit would be must-have equipment, and the Healer feat would be in extremely high demand.

5. Upon reaching 11th level, using heal as a pre-buff before a big fight becomes a no-brainer. 70 extra hit points for the party tank is insane.

Thanks @dausappreciate your thoughts.

point 3 and 4 are kind of intended consequences. It allows for anyone in the party to take on a healer role, which I kind of like.

As for the others like heal for buffing, yeah that's what I would find interesting. I'd like to see how it changes PC behaviour into going to dangerous places. I imagine it'd be quite fundamental.

 

[CubicsRube]

Have a look at how "Crypts & Things" handles HP and loss thereoff. Genius.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look it up.

For the sake of the thread, can you summarise?

 

[loverdrive]

Healing already sucks ass, and everyone already has too much HP, so I honestly don't see any reason to worsen both problems.

 

[reelo]

Thanks for the tip. I'll look it up.

For the sake of the thread, can you summarise?

Bear in mind this is an OSR game, but the idea behind it is (imho) awesome.

 

[Blue Orange]

This might be a little 'out there', but it reminds me almost of some of the early editions of the game--Cure Light Wounds gave you a lousy 1-8 HP back and you didn't get Cure Serious Wounds until 7th level, so you wound up having to rest a lot to recover HP. I played some of the computer games based on 1st ed (Pool of Radiance (1988) is probably the best example of this), and you would carefully pace your exploration around having places to rest (small out-of-the-way rooms with one entry). You didn't want to get into too many fights because recovery was difficult.