how much should this item cost? (out of combat healing)

[Moginheden]

I'm DMing a campaign where no one wanted to be a healer. After each battle the group spends days healing up before they can fight again.

I want to give them a magic item that can only be used out of combat but grants fast healing 1. Can have any item slot restriction but it should work right away, (not only after 24 hours worn like I've seen on a few similar items.) Also should be able to heal wounds caused while not wearing it becuase I want the group to share the item.

How much would this item be worth? what slot should it be?

I've seen rings of regeneration and rings of fast healing but they have restrictions that mean it can't be shared between the group and they cost a TON, (I'm hoping the "doesn't work in combat" clause will drop the price a bunch.)

[Kylarra]

Just give them a few wands of lesser vigor. For most campaigns that should be more than enough healing to last through the low levels.

[Z3ro]

If you're playing a high-action game, and the party prefers the action over the top, then just give it to them in treasure somewhere.

[Zaq]

So . . . a wand of Lesser Vigor, then? 750 GP for 50 charges, each of which grants FH1 for 11 rounds. Pretty much useless in combat, but perfect for HP refilling out of combat. Just requires someone who can cast the spell (even if they don't know it) or who can make a DC 20 UMD check.

[awa]

750 gp for 550 hp should handle all but the most grueling meat grinders
but an at will magic item of lesser vigor would do it as well

i will calculate its price

[Moginheden]

It's a level 7 group so a lesser vigor wand wouldn't really be enough. I'm looking for something in the 2-20k price range

[Moginheden]

750 gp for 550 hp should handle all but the most grueling meat grinders
but an at will magic item of lesser vigor would do it as well

i will calculate its price

If it was at will that would do nicely

[tyckspoon]

It's a level 7 group so a lesser vigor wand wouldn't really be enough. I'm looking for something in the 2-20k price range

Ok. Give them two or three of them. 1 fully charged wand is good for 550 HP. That should be enough to full-heal the whole party two or three times over. Give 'em a 4-pack or so and they'll be good for several levels worth of healing.

[awa]

assuming my calculations are correct a use activated item of lesser vigor is only 8000 gp because its a level 1 spell. although for 8000 gold you could also get
get 10 wands of lesser vigor and still have money left over

[Dalek-K]

Give them a NPC healer that has the vow of poverty or something like that?

[Kylarra]

Well you're the DM so you can take advantage of borked guidelines, but a continuous/use activated first level spell measured in rounds is 8k.


edit: swordsaged

[Moginheden]

ok, if permanent fast healing 1 is calculated to only 8k... why are the ring of regeneration and ring of rapid healing so %$#ing expensive?

And why does the ring of rapid healing need a 24 hour adjustment period?

I know as DM I can cheat... but this seems like overkill, what am I missing?

[awa]

ring of regeneration is based of the regenerate spell and is thus exponentially more expensive.

the thing is a ring of regeneration is over priced nobody in their right mind would ever buy one. even in a core only environment you would be better off just buying wands of cure light wounds instead

edit
actually wizards vastly overpriced a lot of items they realized this and fixed it for magic item compendium.

[Dr.Epic]

Just give them a few wands of lesser vigor. For most campaigns that should be more than enough healing to last through the low levels.

Or give them each a ring of regeneration.:smallbiggrin:

[Zaq]

WotC severely overpriced a lot of the early magic items, and very severely overvalued healing. You can't really trust most of the prices in the DMG to be anything near worthwhile, and that's doubly true if the item heals you in any way. As the game matured, they got better about this. For example, compare the Potion of Cure Serious Wounds (DMG) and the Healing Belt (Magic Item Compendium). Both cost 750 gp and can be used by anyone, magical training or not. The potion will heal you for 3d8 + 5, once. The belt will heal you for 6d8 (if used over three rounds) or 4d8 (if used all at once), every day. No, the belt is not broken. It's completely reasonable. The potion is a waste of money.

Just give them a few wands of lesser vigor and you'll seriously be fine.

[awa]

although wands of lesser vigor is only the answer if you have a druid, cleric or umd specialist in your group.

[Beorn080]

although wands of lesser vigor is only the answer if you have a druid, cleric or umd specialist in your group.

Or just give them a cup that makes 4 potions worth of lesser vigor a day.

[randomhero00]

I like to go the "Holy Grail" route. Give it to them as an artifact and put on whatever healing things you'd like.

[Jastermereel]

It might be excessive, but for my group, healing is done during/after a battle so as to be prepared for the next attack. Any HP damage that remains at the end of the day is wiped clean, regardless of where it stands in regards to the 2/hp/level/night rule. This doesn't apply to poison, or other unusual effects, but lets them keep going day to day rather than writing off various recuperation days.

I never liked the idea that a level 1 barbarian who gets disabled would take at least 6 days to heal. It might be realistic, but it means your campaign is interrupted by "Ok, so we make camp, for a week...or two" after any moderately tough fight. That the slow HP recharge is just another way casters (of the back-line type) have an edge, what with their HP essentially coming back proportionately faster, relatively speaking (a lvl 1 mage at 4 can recharge in 2 days, whereas the lvl 1 barb at 12 (or more) takes close to a week).

[Grendus]

It might help if we knew what the classes are, but there are always options. At level 7, giving them each a Belt of Healing will solve the 'camp a week' problem. Now they'll just camp for a day, or so. There are a few other options:

1: Come up with some fiat to give them all fast healing 1. It won't really effect combat, but afterwards it's a quick 5 minute breather instead of a six day campout for recovery. Also makes being knocked into the negatives less stressful, though you may enjoy that.

2: Cache of Wands of Lesser Vigor. Easy as pie.

3: I'm unfamiliar with the rules for creating infinite use magic items, but wouldn't it be cheaper to make one that casts Cure Minor Wounds and just use that to rule that all healing happens in between battles. Unless you don't have someone with UMD or the spell on their class list, it should be easy and cheap.

[Dimers]

How much would this item be worth? what slot should it be?

I've seen rings of regeneration and rings of fast healing but they have restrictions that mean it can't be shared between the group and they cost a TON, (I'm hoping the "doesn't work in combat" clause will drop the price a bunch.)

The quote of 8000 gp is a valid one by magic item creation rules; I'd recommend a vest, since torso is a generally "healing and health" sort of body area (and because it won't conflict with almost anybody's existing equipment). If you make it not work in combat, that might drop the price 10% or so -- no hard rules for it. There's also no need for the clause, since healing five hit points on one person during combat isn't a big deal.

This sort of item lets the party have full HP for every fight. That can be important. It can also be worthless if you use monsters with save-or-lose abilities or if your PCs seem to run out of spells before they run out of HP. I'd give them the healing item as treasure but reduce it to one hit point per minute -- that's still plenty of free healing per day, but allows you to continue using HP attrition as a valid threat (which I believe it should be at that character level).

[Jack_Simth]

Command-word widget of at-will Cure Minor Wounds. Slotted, DMG estimates put it at 900 gp. Unslotted, they put it at 1800 gp. Heals 1 hp per standard action. Nobody's going to use it during a battle, except maybe to stabilize the dying.

Does... everything you seem to want, really.

[awa]

that is a good idea for infinite healing on the cheap

[Beorn080]

Command-word widget of at-will Cure Minor Wounds. Slotted, DMG estimates put it at 900 gp. Unslotted, they put it at 1800 gp. Heals 1 hp per standard action. Nobody's going to use it during a battle, except maybe to stabilize the dying.

Does... everything you seem to want, really.

If you don't mind it being silly, an on-use cure minor wound widget, on-use being smacked into the air with a body part, but not thrown. The object being a small, bean filled sack looking like a deflated baseball.

[Moginheden]

If you don't mind it being silly, an on-use cure minor wound widget, on-use being smacked into the air with a body part, but not thrown. The object being a small, bean filled sack looking like a deflated baseball.

I like this idea a lot! To reduce the cost I'd say it's "slotted" for feet, you must keep the sack in the air using bare feet. Might even put a low dex check to keep it in the air for flavor.

Unfortunately I didn't see it in time. I gave them an amulet that grants fast healing 1. It's a rope with a piece of troll flesh hanging from it. When you first put it on you take 10 HP damage. Then every round after that you gain a HP back up to your full hp total. (no stabilizing the dieing, plus hilarious role play when the injured guy missed out on loot because he knocked himself unconscious trying to get healed.) I figure it's worth 8,000g. The 10 HP loss isn't strictly necessary but it keeps it closer to the existing items.

[kestrel404]

That sounds like a good solution.

The 24 hour wait period on the ring of healing (whatever it's called) is obviously so that it just doesn't get passed around the party to provide limitless free healing to everyone. That's always been something that Wizards likes to discourage (it's ridiculously tough and expensive to get really unlimited healing).

[Godskook]

I suggest you encourage your players to pick up Draconic Aura(Vigor) as a feat. It'll provide everyone within range fast healing 1(unless he's dragon-blooded), up to half-health.

[Doug Lampert]

DMG guidelines say to first compare to the items presented, and only afterward use the table. The closest comparable items is the ring of regeneration...

But IMAO the RoR is grossly overpriced. That's one reason traps of healing are used in some RAW discussions, because traps avoid the various activation problems, do not have any note saying to compare with existing items, and get the cost down to 2000 GP base cost for unlimited CLW.

Given the existence of traps there's no reason cheap healing items shouldn't exist and I'd go with the item of CMinorW as both hard to abuse and cheap.

However: I'd also ask why your PLAYERS haven't solved this? I mean, they're level 7, getting healing by that level is TRIVIAL. In core: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Paladin, and Ranger can ALL use the wand of CLW, as can anyone with UMD. And the wands are dirt cheap given expected wealth by level 7. So why aren't they already using them?

Do your players ENJOY the tone of not having easy healing available? Of thinking of wounds as both serious and real. If so then you may want to leave things as is. Why ruin their fun?

Or is there absolutely no time presure so they DON'T CARE that they need weeks rather than minutes between encounters? If so then things will REALLY break in 2 more levels when they get teleport and you're treating a symptom here rather than the real problem. D&D is designed with the assumption that for some unspecified reason you keep pressing on at full speed. The DM has to provide that reason if the players don't just hand wave it.

Or do they just not enjoy playing games to optimize their builds with various magic items? In that case I think that you are likely playing the wrong system and that the problems will get worse in the future to the extent that if you have to stay with 3.x as your basic engine I'd recommend e6 (and if you aren't wed to 3.x I'd recommend almost any other system, 3.x is probably the most item dependent game I've ever seen).

Broadly. This problem is so easy to solve at this level, that it feels like a symptom of something else.

DougL