I probably don't know what I'm talking about (since I haven't played D&D in decades) but maybe a solution is just to give EVERY party a periodically-refreshed, shared pool of healing dice without any need for a character to actually administer it. Scale the pool based on the total number of levels in the party or something.I think Mr. Wilen may be on to something here. What if healing were simply a group meta-resource? How would you determine the number of points in the healing pool? How often would the pool refresh? Who decides when to draw points from the pool and when can it be done? Does anybody have any thoughts?
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In between encounters, you heal 1/2 the damage dealt to you.
ReplyDeleteIncrease the effectiveness of healing potions a bit by letting them be treated as max caster level (CLW would heal 1d8+5, CMW would heal 2d8+10, etc.) while keeping them the same price. That should handle things within encounters well enough.
Have you looked at the reserve pool concept from Iron Heroes?
ReplyDeleteI have, but I need to reread it.
ReplyDeleteThe Unearthed Arcana book had some optional injury rules (found here), including a reserve point system not quite unlike Iron Heroes' (you basically get your hit points a second time, but replenishing them takes time, i.e. can't be done easily in combat)
ReplyDeleteSystems with plenty of "Action Points" are a possible option, unless you just get a fixed amount of points per level. Trading in some points for some healing works nicely in Spycraft.
Or just speed up healing. Conan lets your mighty-thewed heroes regain 3+Con+lvl hit points per night of rest.
Skull & Bones (pirates for D20) lets you regain up to 4+con hit points per minute (depending on the hit die of the class). To compensate, once you go below 0 this is taken from your constitution. Kinda related to Wound/Vitality point systems like Star Wars.
All viable options, depending just on how much you want your party to endure. Healing without limits is nice for more martial campaigns, but bad for spellcasters, as they've run out of their daily resources while the fighting-types are back to their full potential.
Well, you could use this basic idea in a number of ways, some of which would actually start to turn the game into something that's more about the pool of healing than it is about all the other stuff.
ReplyDeleteBut the key thing here isn't just that we make individual characters tougher--we help the group "even out" the rate at which it gets worn down. That way no single PC turns into a drag just because they bore the brunt of an encounter.
Aside from that an important question is how you want to structure the PC relationships and what sort of player relationships the game is supposed to work under. I.e., if it's all for one and one for all, then you can get away with just having each character contribute 1d6/level to the pool and everybody being able to draw from it by consensus. Refresh the pool whenever the party returns to "normal society", defined as a friendly permanent settlement or tribe.
If you want something freaky/Forge-y, you might have a deal where the ability to refresh or draw on the pool depends on character relationships, or taking actions related to a character's background, personality, or quirks.
I'm trying to think of something wacky that'd either introduce a significant tactical choice or create an interesting dynamic for low-level vs. high-level characters, but nothing quite seems to click.
For example: you can draw from the pool normally outside of combat, but if you've attacked or cast a spell within the last N rounds, you have to spend dice at a 2-1 ratio. The idea is to force a balance between maintaining a flexible reserve for use in battle, and keeping everyone healed up all the time. I don't think this version works, though.
Another example: keep track of which character contributed which dice to the pool. Now take the highest-level character and "assign" his dice to the lowest-level character. Continue down the line. Now the rule is that if a character dies, the dice assigned to him go away. Something like that.
Well, if you want to go the high-falutin' game theory way, it might be useful to look at the usual role of the healer in a party. In most campaigns it boils down to sacrifice. The 3E cleric is able to dish out quite some punishment, yet he has to sacrifice this damage/buffing to heal someone.
ReplyDeleteEvery character could do this. The fighter could hold back in combat with the stone giant just to rally his comrades, providing (temporary?) hit points. The mage could wreak some senseless destruction to get the enemies to cover (i.e. not aiming the fireball directly at them) etc.
This could either happen as healing or as bolstering, providing the hit points _before_ something happens. The latter might be a little bit more believable.
As a final note, Fantasy Flights Redline Game simple made the Heal skill better, giving you the ability to heal 2d4 hit points (+1d4 per 3 points over DC 10). A quite mundande solution...