D&D 5E Gritty Healing and Survival Rules for 5e

[Stalker0]

Also you do want to specify all the steps that lower healing.

is it d6, the d4 than 1, or d6 d4 d2 1…etc etc

 

[OptionalRule]

Reading the new version I still think it’s too fiddly.

1) I really don’t like the roll for every HD, that’s a lot of rolls and just very random. It also introduces some weirdness with spells and abilities, can I use a bard inspiration on the check or enhance ability?

I would do it more like your HD roll rules, make it a simple (you get half your hd back, but if you don’t have two or more of the “rest requirements…sleep good food etc”, then you get one quarter hd.

2) instead of making medicine checks, I would just require 2 points of medicine (either through wisdom and\or proficiency) per person needing to heal. It still makes first aid training Useful without the fiddly bits.

My favorite part of this system is the granular hit dice rolling, I like how you can increase or decrease your comfort which affects your healing.

Answers numbered to questions.

1. That's a playstyle preference so there's obviously no wrong answer there. Without doubt you have to enjoy the "lets see what happens" aspect of rolling a good bit. Personally I don't see this as a huge problem in tier 1 and the first half of tier 2, which is the only place I'd use it. As for the rest, If you find something you want to do differently based on this then it's working as intended.

2. Sure that works. I think the core concept here is to move away from guaranteed outcomes and into the fact that outcomes are not deterministic.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the core concept here is to move away from guaranteed outcomes and into the fact that outcomes are not deterministic.

That is what I disagree with here, as it feels like your serving two masters.

The premise you outlined was to make things more "gritty"....not necessarily more random. As outlined, its actually possible for a person to recover more HD than they could under the normal system.

I felt like the tone you were going for was "the world is harsh" not "the world is fickle". If I am correct than I think you are better served with introducing mechanics that are less reliant on luck.

 

[OptionalRule]

That is what I disagree with here, as it feels like your serving two masters.

The premise you outlined was to make things more "gritty"....not necessarily more random. As outlined, its actually possible for a person to recover more HD than they could under the normal system.

I felt like the tone you were going for was "the world is harsh" not "the world is fickle". If I am correct than I think you are better served with introducing mechanics that are less reliant on luck.

Thanks for your thoughts here. I think mileage is going to vary of course and it's absolutely reasonable someone may take it that way. None of that came out in the bit I've used for this but it's definitely reasonable and why buy in is important.

 

[NotAYakk]

For my variant (tm), I moved to Gritty rests (as that is a preferred plot pace, and slows down healing to be more realistic). I also added magical healing getting a boost from a HD (which it consumes).

For overnight HD recovery, you get to roll HD that where expended at the start of the rest. Even results that are 4 or higher (so not 2) recover.

This gets you back about 40% of your HD (more with bigger HD, less with smaller HD).

So healing is slower than baseline, and magical healing is good but doesn't replace natural healing.

I have similar "burn HD to get back other stuff"; attribute loss, exhaustion, max HP.

Exhaustion costing HD to get back without a long rest means that bad camping (or food) can generate exhaustion, which eats away at your HD and makes recovery much slower.

 

[OptionalRule]

For my variant (tm), I moved to Gritty rests (as that is a preferred plot pace, and slows down healing to be more realistic). I also added magical healing getting a boost from a HD (which it consumes).

For overnight HD recovery, you get to roll HD that where expended at the start of the rest. Even results that are 4 or higher (so not 2) recover.

This gets you back about 40% of your HD (more with bigger HD, less with smaller HD).

So healing is slower than baseline, and magical healing is good but doesn't replace natural healing.

I have similar "burn HD to get back other stuff"; attribute loss, exhaustion, max HP.

Exhaustion costing HD to get back without a long rest means that bad camping (or food) can generate exhaustion, which eats away at your HD and makes recovery much slower.

That sounds like an interesting system, do you have a writeup somewhere? I may not be tracking right but it seems like this still might have the problem of casters holding onto spell slots to heal later, leaving them constrained in the encounter, is that a problem from your experience?

 

[NotAYakk]

Here is a copy paste

Rests: (gritty, variant)​

Long rests take a week, during which you need to get good sleep. During this rest you can do downtime activities, cast a few spells per day, carousing, take short rests, etc: but anything as strenuous as combat, overland travel, or crewing a ship restarts or delays the long rest.

A short rest requires a night’s rest. During a short rest, you can spend a single HD to recover 1 level of exhaustion or remove the rolled value of the HD in reduced max HP; if you do so, you do not regain HP from the spent HD.

At the end of a short rest, you can roll any expended HD. Any die that lands on an even value 4 or greater is recovered. (This recovers a bit less than half your expended HD)

Poor conditions during a short rest can cause you to accumulate exhaustion or cause the short rest to fail.

Healing Magic: (spell and potion adjustment)​

Healing magic enhances your natural ability to recover, it does not replace it. Whenever a magical effect causes you to heal HP, you must spend 1 HD to gain that benefit. You heal the amount rolled on the HD as well as from the spell. The exception is the regeneration spell’s per-turn healing, or the ring of regeneration, or similar regeneration effects. If you have no HD to spend when someone uses healing magic on you, you cannot heal from the magic. However, if you are unconscious, you do stabilize if healing magic is used on you, even if you don’t have any HD.

That sounds like an interesting system, do you have a writeup somewhere? I may not be tracking right but it seems like this still might have the problem of casters holding onto spell slots to heal later, leaving them constrained in the encounter, is that a problem from your experience?

So, changing game pace has to mix both rests and encounter budgeting changes.

In a standard game, a single days fight has a near complete recovery afterwards. In yours, with a healer, it is 2 days to completely recover.

With gritty, a full recovery takes 7 to 10 days. So the pace of the story is weekly, not daily.

So a Chapter is stuff that happens over 10 days.

A Chapter is broken up into 2-4 Scenes.

A Scene has a budget of 1-4 Encounters.

Scene's Encounters are linked in that if you take an overnight rest, the other Encounters would be significantly changed. Maybe the entire Scene would "fail" (bad guy gets away, or whatever).

So a Temple in the wilderness with a cult in it might be a Scene, or maybe an Encounter, depending.

 

[OptionalRule]

Interesting, thanks.