Removing Hit Die Healing

[Garfunion]

Using hit die to heal yourself, to me seems like just an extra set of hit points.

If we give each player twice the amount of hit points they would get each level could you effectively remove hit die healing?

At the end of a long rest each player will heal and number of hit points equal to 1/4 of their maximum hit points.

Could this system work?

[Aett_Thorn]

Could this work? Sure. However, it would likely be the death knell for short-rest resource characters like Warlocks, unless other changes were made for them.

[strangebloke]

Hit die healing is designed to make combats threatening, but not impossible to recover from.

Let's say cHP represents current hitpoints granted by the system, and nHP represents the HP of the new system.

Let's say this is the adventuring day our party is going through.


Encounter 4: party each takes 1/2 cHP of damage.
Short rest
Encounter 2: party each takes 1/4 cHP of damage.
Encounter 3: party each takes 1/4 cHP of damage.
Short rest
Encounter 1: party each takes nearly cHP of damage.

under the current system, it would go something like this:

e1: "That was intense. Some definite close calls."
e2: "Manageable."
e3: "Good thing we have a short rest coming up."
e4: "Holy crap we almost died."

under your system it would be more like:

e1: "We're good. Still got most of my HP."
e2: "Pathetic."
e3: "Ok, yeah, I'm at half health. Still, we're ok."
e4: "Holy crap we almost died."

Having access to that much HP lowers the feeling of being threatened. It also raises max HP which makes healing way more efficient, which is another sure fire way to reduce tension in a game.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Hit die healing also lets clerics and such use their spell slots for things other then healing. And maintains the theme in 5e that magic items are a bonus not a necessity.

Edited For Clarity.

[Sharur]

There are a few differences between what you describe and the effects of hit-dice based healing:
1. Things that are based on hit dice are nerfed, such as the Durable and Healer feats.

2. Hit dice are used for some resources, such as a Fighter's Second Wind

3. Your system would double the number of max hit points, so hit point maximum reduction is less of an issue (e.g. Sucuubi are less dangerous).

4. Your system would double the number of max hit points, so they can heal more (being less like to have "overrunning healing" be wasted). This makes healing stronger.

5. With the hit-dice system, hit points are not spread out throughout the day, which has multiple issues:
A) By giving the hit points to a character all at once, the characters E.g. A level 1 Fighter with 10 CON is normally downed with 10 damage, but would need 20 damage under your system.
B) There is less to be gained from short rests, especially by martial characters. I believe that Rogues and Barbarians in particular would gain nothing from Resting under your system.


5B is particularly problematic as it encourages the "ten minute workday", that 5e has tried to build away from with its Short&Long Rest system.

[Sharur]

Lord Vukodlak,

In IMHO, it actually INCREASES the amount of healing that a cleric/druid would be responsible for.

Hit Dice allow characters to "self-heal" for normal battle wear-and-tear, as by their expected roles: Front liners get d10 (or d12 in the Barbarian's case), caster's in the back get a d6, and in skirmishers and in-betweeners (bards, rogues, monks) get a d8.

If you make a healing mechanic into hit points, you haven't reduced the "expected healing of the dedicated healer", you've increased the amount a problem player expects from their cleric, because now a cleric who healed you for half of your health has now only healed you for a quarter.

[Beelzebubba]

Using hit die to heal yourself, to me seems like just an extra set of hit points.

It's not. It's a pool of healing available between combats, that reduces the burden on Clerics to heal. It has nothing to do with your hit point maximum.


Could this system work?

By "work", you mean make the game worse? Sure. It will "work".

[Garfunion]

Could this work? Sure. However, it would likely be the death knell for short-rest resource characters like Warlocks, unless other changes were made for them.
I plan on giving those classes alternate way of recovery.


It's not. It's a pool of healing available between combats, that reduces the burden on Clerics to heal. It has nothing to do with your hit point maximum.
At the end of the day you still could end up exhausting both hit point pools. No different than having them all at once. The only downside I see, like another poster has mentioned, some combat may not be as threatening as it would have been.

The larger hit point pool only seems like it would be a burden to the healers, you don’t have to have full hit points throughout the day.

[JellyPooga]

Personally, I'd rather see a system that reduces the cumulative growth of HP in favour of swifter/better recovery (i.e. lower HP max, better/more HD). This would, I think, keep threat high but allow for increasing durability/stamina over the course of a days adventuring. I might even go so far as to allow or introduce spending HD as an action at higher levels to mitigate the high damage attacks you see in Tier 2+ play.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Lord Vukodlak,
Hit Dice allow characters to "self-heal" for normal battle wear-and-tear, as by their expected roles: Front liners get d10 (or d12 in the Barbarian's case), caster's in the back get a d6, and in skirmishers and in-betweeners (bards, rogues, monks) get a d8..
That's what I said, I was adding to what others have said about healing hit dice.

[Afrodactyl]

My group recently tried a home rule that affected Hit Die. Basically, you could no longer use them between combats to heal, however, when you are healed through magic you can expend hit die equal to the spell level to gain extra health back. With potions you can expend one hit die per potion.

[PhoenixPhyre]

My group recently tried a home rule that affected Hit Die. Basically, you could no longer use them between combats to heal, however, when you are healed through magic you can expend hit die equal to the spell level to gain extra health back. With potions you can expend one hit die per potion.

To be honest, I'd hate that house rule. It means you must have a dedicated healer who basically does nothing with his slots other than heal. It's also a strong incentive to have a 15-min working day and nova everything (thus penalizing the short-rest classes even more).

[JellyPooga]

To be honest, I'd hate that house rule. It means you must have a dedicated healer who basically does nothing with his slots other than heal. It's also a strong incentive to have a 15-min working day and nova everything (thus penalizing the short-rest classes even more).

I'd probably add, if I were using that houserule, that you can spend HD upon using a healers kit or a medicine check as well as by magic. Just my 2p.

[Contrast]

Consider this is a pretty significant buff to Healing Spirit given that previously much of the healing at lower levels would have gone to waste. At higher levels you'll likely have lower level spells slots to burn to top off anyway.

Having someone with Healing Spirit in the party will now mean everyone will be entering fights with twice their normal maximum number of HP.

[Afrodactyl]

To be honest, I'd hate that house rule. It means you must have a dedicated healer who basically does nothing with his slots other than heal. It's also a strong incentive to have a 15-min working day and nova everything (thus penalizing the short-rest classes even more).

To be honest, we had a druid and a cleric in the party for that set of games, so we didn't even really notice that it shoehorns you into absolutely needing a healing caster.

[Maelynn]

At the end of a long rest each player will heal and number of hit points equal to 1/4 of their maximum hit points.

Could this system work?

Eh, do you mean short rest? Since it makes no sense to cripple the long rest healing.

If you meant short rest, then I agree that it makes encounters less threatening. Each short rest will give you 25% of your max hp. So resting for 2 hours gets half of your health back. Damn, that's almost like playing a video game. Right now, you're limited in the amount of healing you have. Are you level 4? Then you can heal 4dx at most during the day. Any more than that and you're looking at a serious upscale of all your future encounters.

[sophontteks]

Doubling the HP is a massive buff to the party. Comparing that to hit die healing is apples to oranges. Normally lethal encounters are now boring slogs. Combat will be more drawn out as the PCs will just plain not go down. If players use things lke healing spirit, they will have those HP available pretty much all the time.

Short rest hit die represent characters bandaging their wounds between fights. It doesn't make them stronger in the fight itself, but it allows them to recover for the next fight. Doubling hp in no way replaces or replicates this.