Heal Skill House Rule

[Yuan-Ti]

I am planning on changing the Heal Skill Short Term Care slightly as house rule in my game. This is really an experiment (one I am hoping to carry over into our D20 Modern campaign) and not really a reflection of my dissatisfaction with the rule as written. Still, please consider these options as if you HAD to change the rule, which option would you think the best.

The original rule is: Heals 1 hp per level + Con mod -- Example: 2nd level Barbarian with 14 Con heals 4 hps

Thanks for your help! Comments are welcome!

 

[GhostWolf69]

Anything goes I guess, I really don't see how one of these differes in a major way from any other. They are all ok.

/wolf

 

[Camelon75]

I like the idea that you can get a ONE OFF benefit from Heal like this and then normal healing applies.

Although I am importing some herbs from the ultimate equipment guide for the group herbalist to use instead of potions.

Think it fits better with the rarity of throw away magic in Conan.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

I like the idea that you can get a ONE OFF benefit from Heal like this and then normal healing applies.

Although I am importing some herbs from the ultimate equipment guide for the group herbalist to use instead of potions.

Think it fits better with the rarity of throw away magic in Conan.

I've been thinking about doing that, as well, but it may not be necessary if I make the Heal skill a bit more useful at higher levels. And that is really what I intend here. Right now it heals a couple hps at 1st level, but as you go up in level it becomes less and less useful. (Not as bad as d20 Modern, of course...)

 

[Yokiboy]

You might want to check out Bastion Press' book Torn Asunder. It details a pretty cool critical hit system, but also contains lots of ideas regarding natural healing and the use of herbs.

Otherwise I see nothing wrong with your basic idea, of keeping the Heal skill effective even at high levels. However, I will leave the rules the way they are in order to keep the gritty nature that I feel belongs in a Conan rpg. If I see my party acting like wimps due to injury, I will perhaps rethink my decision.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Kostchtchie]

I've sort of dabbled in giving my guys some healing based on what I have seen in NWN. That is heal gives a # of hit points equal to the check result once until you are fully rested again (which might be shorter due to long term care) I make this a 1 power point expenditure which takes a full round action to cast and uses approximately 1/10th of a healer's kit. every power point spent gives a +2 to the roll. More than 5 power points makes it a mighty spell.

response? and yes it is the basis of an exhalted-healing "sorcery style"

 

[argo]

I voted for (1 + Con mod) per character level. Though really, any of them would probably be fine.


The rule I am going to try once my campagin starts is ((1 per character level) + Con mod) + (the same for every 5 points the healer beats DC 15)

So if the healer beats 15 you get (1 per character) + Con mod
If he beats 20 you get (2 per character) + 2 * Con mod
And so forth.

I like the idea of the benefit scaling with the skill of the healer. But having is simply scale with the level of the character works fine too. Also, remember that since HP gain slows to a crawl after tenth level short term care will eventually become more valuable again.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

133 views and 9 votes? :shock:

 

[Johannixx]

I voted for 1d4 per level + Con per level.

 

[zero skill LPB]

I haven't voted; I dislike the ON/OFF nature of "meet DC [blah]" skill checks.

Maybe a sliding success scale (as suggested above)? That should keep your advancing characters coming back to the Heal skill for more ranks...

DC 15 = x
DC 20 = x + [some]
DC 25 = x + [some more]
etc.

 

[Yokiboy]

133 views and 9 votes? :shock:

Well you didn't offer a "none of the above" option. I actually like the gritty nature of the rules as written. That for a first level character he might get completely healed by a simple Heal skill check, whereas the higher level character you have, that help gets less and less noticable. :twisted:

As I stated before, I need some time with the RAW, and I'll get back to you.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Yuan-Ti]

133 views and 9 votes? :shock:

Well you didn't offer a "none of the above" option. I actually like the gritty nature of the rules as written. That for a first level character he might get completely healed by a simple Heal skill check, whereas the higher level character you have, that help gets less and less noticable. :twisted:

As I stated before, I need some time with the RAW, and I'll get back to you.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

Oh, I know. I intentionally left NONE OF THE ABOVE off the list of options. I am not really opposed to the rule, as I said, I just wanted to try an experiment and was looking for advice on which experiment.

 

[Elfman]

I voted for (1 + Con mod) per character level, but like some others have stated, I'd prefer to use the RAW over any of the house rules.

 

[Erekose]

I haven't voted because like "zero skill LPB" I'd prefer it to link more to the Heal skill.

Perhaps something along the lines of healing by the number of points above the Difficulty Check?

Although I can see why you'd want it to scale with level.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

This thread has gotten me thinking about this more. I have three concerns with the RAW that I want to address:

1) I want players to continue finding Heal skill useful beyond the first few levels.
2) I like the idea of linking the result to the skill of the healer as well as the level of the healee.
3) I also want to insert a level of randomness to it.
4) I want to make Con an important part, even at higher levels, but not TOO important.

Here is another, more complicated, formula to try to get at some of these concerns.

Heal Skill: Short-term Care -- Requires a DC15 check, heals (1 per character level) + Con Mod + (1d4+Con Mod per 5 points the skill check is above 15).

Example: A 2nd level Barbarian with Con 14 is being healed by a companion with a +7 Heal check. The healer rolls a 14 and gets a 21 on his skill check and the Barbarian is healed: 1d4 +6 hps :arrow: 2 (for level) +2 (for Con) + (1d4+2) for skill check. If the Healer had rolled an 8 for a check of 15, the Barbarian would have been healed only 4 hps (no 1d4 + Con).

Example: A 10th level Barbarian with a Con 15 is being healed by a companion with a +15 heal check. The healer rolls a 15 and gets a 30 on his skill check and the barbarian is healed: 3d4 + 18 hps. If the healer had rolled a 2 for a check of 17, the Barbarian would have been healed only 12 hps :arrow: no 3d4 + (3)Con.


This would require some changes to the Long Term Care rules in order to make that a tad better, however.

Maybe this is all moot, however. I just felt like toying with the heal rules.

 

[Elfman]

This thread has gotten me thinking about this more. I have three concerns with the RAW that I want to address:

1) I want players to continue finding Heal skill useful beyond the first few levels.
2) I like the idea of linking the result to the skill of the healer as well as the level of the healee.
3) I also want to insert a level of randomness to it.
4) I want to make Con an important part, even at higher levels, but not TOO important.

Those are good concerns, and IMO (1), the first part of (2), and (3) are the most important.

The second part of (2), level of the healee, is already taken into account in the base healing rules, and really shouldn't have any effect on how well a healer performs. To take a real-world example, does the president of the United States (a high-level diplomat) heal faster than a College Freshman when tended by the same skilled physician? I don't think so.

As for (4), that's also taken into account in the base healing rules. And again as above, while the relative health of the patient has a large effect on how quickly he heals, the skill of the healer isn't affected by it. If you want to really incorporate this effect, maybe you can modify the Heal check DC by the patient's CON modifier, where a positive modifier lowers the DC and a negative modifier raises it.

Here is another, more complicated, formula to try to get at some of these concerns.

Heal Skill: Short-term Care -- Requires a DC15 check, heals (1 per character level) + Con Mod + (1d4+Con Mod per 5 points the skill check is above 15).

Example: A 2nd level Barbarian with Con 14 is being healed by a companion with a +7 Heal check. The healer rolls a 14 and gets a 21 on his skill check and the Barbarian is healed: 1d4 +6 hps :arrow: 2 (for level) +2 (for Con) + (1d4+2) for skill check. If the Healer had rolled an 8 for a check of 15, the Barbarian would have been healed only 4 hps (no 1d4 + Con).

Example: A 10th level Barbarian with a Con 15 is being healed by a companion with a +15 heal check. The healer rolls a 15 and gets a 30 on his skill check and the barbarian is healed: 3d4 + 18 hps. If the healer had rolled a 2 for a check of 17, the Barbarian would have been healed only 12 hps :arrow: no 3d4 + (3)Con.


This would require some changes to the Long Term Care rules in order to make that a tad better, however.

Maybe this is all moot, however. I just felt like toying with the heal rules.

I personally would never use this due to the complexity, and I bet a lot of others feels the same. Why not try something simpler if you must have a house rule, like perhaps this (off the top of my head):

For short term care, the Healer makes a Heal Check at DC = (15 - CON modifier). If he beats the DC, the target gains an additional +2 hit points. For every 5 points he beats the modified DC, the target gains another +2 hit points.

For long term care, the target gets the standard healing rates per day of rest under the existing Heal skill rules, except that the DC is modified by the CON of the target as above, and for every 5 the healer exceeds the DC the target (patient) gains an extra 2 hit points that day.