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View Full Version : Ebon H4wk's 5ed Resting and Healing Houserules



EbonH4wk
2018-05-08, 04:02 PM
My house rules here stem from a desire to aggravate attrition of resources and health in the party. I am not overly fond of Long Rests resulting in a complete refresh for the group (and my players are notorious for resting frequently.

REGAINING CONSCIOUSNESS
Everytime a character regains consciousness from being at 0 Hit Points, he gains 1 Level of Exhaustion.

UNCONSCIOUSNESS AND MAGICAL HEALING
If a character has been reduced to 0 hit points and then receives magical, alchemical, or some other supernatural form of healing, some of that healing power must first be allocated to stabilizing the grievous injuries that are drawing the character closer to death. Remove 1 die from the healing effect for each remaining death saving throw that needs to be made in order for the character to stabilize. If a healing effect combines dice with a fixed modifier, the fixed modifier is only applied if the creature is stabilized (total of 3 successful death saving throws) by the effect, and there remains any dice of healing after those used for stabilization.

For example, Lucas Ryder is unconscious and has made no successful death saving throws, when N’Vek pours a healing potion down his gullet. Because a healing potion grants 2 dice of healing, (2D4+2 hit points) Lucas immediately checks off 2 successful death saving throws on his character sheet. Only one more is required in order to stabilize. If Lucas had previously made 1 successful death saving throw when the potion was administered, he would check his second and third successful death saving throw and therefore be stabilized, but the +2 would still not be applied, and Lucas would remain unconscious albeit stable. If the potion were one of Greater Healing (4D4+4) and Lucas had no death saving throws made previously, the potion would not only stabilize him (reducing the healing effect by 3 dice), but would also restore the remaining 1D4+4 in hit points of healing, and lift the ranger out of unconsciousness.

LONG RESTS
During a long rest, each character follows 3 steps:

Step 1: Set up Camp - The character benefits from a Short Rest and may replenish abilities and spend Hit Dice accordingly. If a character has not consumed 1 lb of food and 1 gallon of water during the day, he must do so now.

Step 2: At the end of the rest, the character regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total number of them (Round Down to a minimum of 1). For example, if a character has seven Hit Dice, he or she can regain three spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest.

Step 3: The character recovers lost hit points by rolling his total hit dice and adding his Constitution modifier to each die. This roll does not expend Hit Dice. This replaces the 100% healing in the Core Rules.

An Unconscious character cannot benefit from a Rest at all, but does regain 1 Hit Point after being Stable for 1D4 hours. Once he comes to, he may benefit from a Short Rest, or a Long Rest - however, unless the party is willing to prolong the duration of their respite, the recovered character may need to be content with the effects of a Short Rest only.

theshadowcult
2018-05-08, 06:11 PM
I'd go with the exhaustion from regaining consciousness only after failing a death save, but i'd definitely use that. Also i would go with rolling all available hit dice plus con once per long rest instead of the full restore, but not use up those hit dice.

I would not use your other stuff though. Especially the magical healing removing dice per success they have left, as it majorly affects other sources of healing. A healers kit seems useless now for example. Thats just how i would run it if i were the dm though.

EbonH4wk
2018-05-08, 06:34 PM
Don't forget, you can stabilize a companion with an Easy Medicine check, and a Healer's Kit makes that check automatically successful!

theshadowcult
2018-05-09, 04:48 PM
The way you have written it, makes it sound like healers kits and stabilizing the old fashioned way would be thoroughly ineffective. Maybe change the way it's written to make note of that?

Maybe also change the dice effect to, not one less per success missing, but rather each dice removes a failed save first, when the character has no failed saves, any remaining healing applies as normal?

Gorum
2018-05-09, 10:35 PM
I'd go with the exhaustion from regaining consciousness only after failing a death save, but i'd definitely use that. Also i would go with rolling all available hit dice plus con once per long rest instead of the full restore, but not use up those hit dice.

I agree. But I would give the penalty to magical healing not per missing success but per failed roll.

theshadowcult
2018-05-11, 08:19 AM
That could work to, however i figure the reducing failed rolls by spend dice, gives for a more dramatic and dangerous feel to it, as maybe you can only remove one or two failed saves, and they still have to to makes saves until next turn when you an heal them again.

Either way, the real big problem with this as a system is early level heals. This makes healing with 1st to 3rd level spells practically useless.

Gorum
2018-05-11, 08:28 AM
Either way, the real big problem with this as a system is early level heals. This makes healing with 1st to 3rd level spells practically useless.

... Well... You COULD have dice replaced by a percentage of the target's HP plus Xtra dice per slot level so that it automatically scale. Then you have failed saves count as negative hp worth the same percentage.

(Heal surges were a neat 4th Ed concept I was sad to see go.)

theshadowcult
2018-05-11, 08:37 AM
It's starts to get too complicated when you go that far. There maybe another easier fix, but i cant think of it right now.

As for healing surges, i agree, however they were not really removed from the game, just the modicum amount of ways to use them. Hit Dice you use for short rests are basically Healing Surges, the game just does not give you other ways to use them.

Maybe the solution is, for magic healing works like normal, but for every failed death save you must spend a hd first in order to receive the benefits. Again though, this makes healing at lower levels much harder, which i do not like.

Gorum
2018-05-11, 08:40 AM
It's starts to get too complicated when you go that far. There maybe another easier fix, but i cant think of it right now.

As for healing surges, i agree, however they were not really removed from the game, just the modicum amount of ways to use them. Hit Dice you use for short rests are basically Healing Surges, the game just does not give you other ways to use them.

Maybe the solution is, for magic healing works like normal, but for every failed death save you must spend a hd first in order to receive the benefits. Again though, this makes healing at lower levels much harder, which i do not like.

Hit Dice are random. Healing Surges are not. Leagues better than 3.5 ever will be, but still far from Surges.

Maybe allow for average rolls?

theshadowcult
2018-05-11, 10:59 AM
A DM can do that anyway. Using average values is a variant rule, it's why there is always a random value in brackets with most die values.