Hit Point Question

[Ichabod]

Maybe it's just a perception problem. When my 125 HP character loses 50 or so HP, I just don't care since, in a snapshot, he's not remotely close to feeling any sort of mechanical pain. But, this perception with this system, a system generous with natural healing if you can spend days healing, falls apart when it comes to a serious of encounters in short order. After all, if the first fight took 50HP away, wouldn't a later fight do worse?

In reality, the measurement should be more along the lines of how many days it would take to fully recover rather than whether HPs are close to 0 or what percentage of the total he has.

The definition of a tough fight should probably be fluid and would be in the GM's mind based on how often the party will fight, which the players shouldn't be clear on.

Too often, things grind to a halt when the party believes that living through an early fight is all that matters, sucks up a bunch of damage, and becomes fragile in expectation of an even tougher fight.

OTOH, it's kind of boring to worry about the first 80% of one's HP. I'd much rather have a system of recovering HP naturally or with skill checks much faster than add in some magical healing, BTW.

For those who favor realism or rigid mechanics, this wouldn't work, but I could see a GM system of HP% recovery dependent upon what is likely to happen and what would make for dramatic impact. For instance, in a temple, fighting waves of guardians, recover 50%, 50% of what was lost, or whatever after a fight so that the party isn't crippled by the time it runs into the climactic battle. In contrast, a chase scene, where the intent is to beat the party down in a war of attrition, recovery might be what it is out of the book for short term care.

 

[superc0ntra]

Shamelessly steals the "Catch your breath" rule.
I love that one

 

[Supplement Four]

Shamelessly steals the "Catch your breath" rule.
I love that one

I was afraid, at first, that my new rules may remove "something" from the game. You know...the rule of un-intended consequences and all that.

But, I have to say, after four game sessions playing with it, that the healing rules I'm using (above) are working out quite well. They're not unbalancing the game at all.

Dragonlance is such a "tough" game. The modules are amazingly hard. The PCs fought a group of 7 Trolls last game session. Those suckers had better AC (by two points!), did more damage, got more attacks each round (three), numbered almost as much as the party (7 Trolls vs. 8 party members), and were all higher level than anyone in the party (HD 6+6 = Lvl 7 vs. PCs at 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3).

On top of this, the Trolls got surprise.

And, that was a Wandering Monster result (1-10 Trolls).

There's even a note in the WM section saying that the Trolls will not retreat and fight to the death (so much for Morale checks).

I looked at that and said, "How they hell are they going to survive this?"



They did. Slaughtered all of the Trolls (and lost one of their own that was brought back to life with the staff...but the staff has no charges now).

Hairy encounter. When we finished, most PCs were one round away from dying.

The Healing Rules above were great. We didn't have to "camp out" in the Swamp for days trying to recover some hit points. The regular AD&D 2E rules would have them getting, max, 3 points per day even if I decided that they could get "Bed Rest" in the swamp.

 

[Supplement Four]

CATCHING YOUR BREATH
At the end of every combat encounter, when out of danger, a character will regain perspective, recharge energy lost to fatigue, and literally catch his breath, resting from the high-energy requirements of a fight.

Hit Points Regained: 1 Hit Die + CON Bonus





WOUND TREATMENT
Characters with the Healing non-weapon proficiency can treat injured characters provided enough herbs, salves, and other medicines are at hand. The Dungeon Master will require a Healing check with a difficulty based on the severity of the wound being treated. A successful Healing check will return a number of hit points to the injured character equal to his Natural Healing rate. Treating an injured character uses up resources, and healers may need to locate replacement medicines. An injured character can only be treated in this manner but once per day regardless of how many combat encounters the character lives through or how many times the character is wounded.





NATURAL HEALING
The body is constantly healing itself. After a good night's sleep, the character awakens refreshed and recharged. The character must rest 3d4 hours, and hit points regained are available but once in a 24 hour period.

Hit Points Regained: 1 Hit Die + CON Bonus + 1 point per Level




BED REST
Badly injured characters can refrain from all activity, resting in bed for the entire day. Doing so doubles the hit points regained from Natural Healing that day.



CARE GIVER
Characters with the Healing non-weapon proficiency may nurse injured characters as long as the healer has at hand the necessary materials (healing salves, herbs, bandages, and other medicines). This treatment does not require a Healing check but does use healing resources (counted at the DM's discretion). The injured character benefits from the healer by using 2 HD when rolling for his Natural Healing (instead of 1 HD).

Care Givers that have both the Healing and Herbalism non-weapon proficiency benefit their patients by allowing them to throw 3 HD when rolling for Natural Healing.

These rules are working superbly in my Dragonlance game (so far--still no healers! Although Goldmoon is starting to become a disciple! She's been given temporary powers.)

I'm adding this addendum to these rules, though:

DEATH'S DOOR

If a character is knocked to zero or less hit points, the Death's Door rule is used, allowing the character to remain alive (incapacitated, but alive) until his hit points reach -10.

Should this happen to a character, the character has been critically wounded. Use the normal healing rules from the 2E AD&D PHB and DMG until the character has regain maximum hit points. At that time, the character can then, again, use the alternate rules above.

The alternate rules are meant for healthy characters who have not suffered serious, life-threatening wounds. A character who has suffered such a wound will heal far less quickly than those characters who are just fatigued or have had their endurance run low.