Yossarian
2006-11-17, 12:35 PM
A thought crossed my head the other day. I was thinking about consistency in D&D (not normally a productive endeavor, I know), specifically about healing magic and the tremendous impact it would have on the way people lived. So I thought "Hum. Maybe there should be some limit to how much HP can be restored with cure spells, keeping the cure line of spells as a first aid measure but leaving it unable to just make wounds disappear."
So... the idea is this. Part one: Cure spells affect nonlethal damage only (other means of healing would for the most part be similarly affected). Useless on its own, yes. So, part two: Any time a character takes lethal damage, half the damage is converted to nonlethal damage (creatures with immunity to nonlethal damage are still unaffected by purely nonlethal attacks, but not to the nonlethal portion of a lethal damage attack).
I think this would probably make for a more realistic, consistent world--which is in my book generally not on its own a very good reason to do things. I want a game that's fun and balanced. However, upon further examination I think this variant would have some interesting ramifications on game balance. Healing magic in general would be de-emphasized--not only would cure spells be more limited, but nonmagical healing would be a lot more effective. Four to eight hours of rest would be just as effective at healing as getting topped off with cure spells, although neither method would be able to get you fully healed. Combat would obviously be less immediately lethal, too--being defeated would be much less likely to result in death unless your opponents wanted to kill you afterwards.
I find this concept interesting. Has anyone ever tried using a similar variation? If so, what was the game like? I suppose there should be some means of healing lethal damage other than resting for a week, but it should generally be higher-level, less effective, and beyond all more time consuming than simply tossing cure spells.
So... the idea is this. Part one: Cure spells affect nonlethal damage only (other means of healing would for the most part be similarly affected). Useless on its own, yes. So, part two: Any time a character takes lethal damage, half the damage is converted to nonlethal damage (creatures with immunity to nonlethal damage are still unaffected by purely nonlethal attacks, but not to the nonlethal portion of a lethal damage attack).
I think this would probably make for a more realistic, consistent world--which is in my book generally not on its own a very good reason to do things. I want a game that's fun and balanced. However, upon further examination I think this variant would have some interesting ramifications on game balance. Healing magic in general would be de-emphasized--not only would cure spells be more limited, but nonmagical healing would be a lot more effective. Four to eight hours of rest would be just as effective at healing as getting topped off with cure spells, although neither method would be able to get you fully healed. Combat would obviously be less immediately lethal, too--being defeated would be much less likely to result in death unless your opponents wanted to kill you afterwards.
I find this concept interesting. Has anyone ever tried using a similar variation? If so, what was the game like? I suppose there should be some means of healing lethal damage other than resting for a week, but it should generally be higher-level, less effective, and beyond all more time consuming than simply tossing cure spells.