Have them find a staff of healing. The bard can use it.
No. Stuff like that trivializes player decisions that may cause death.
THe whole point of the thread is to find a way to not cause death.
Suggestions otherwise are not particularly good at answering the OP.
That is because the suggestions given are not the best answers. If "not causing death" is the optimum condition, then the DM should simply not have the players track HP, or simply handwave every encounter. That is the same results as sprinkling healing potions, jury-rigging the encounters.
That you think those two things are equivalent speaks volumes about your style of playing pathfinder D&D 5e.
If chars can' die, the methods to ensure that become irrelevant. The result is the same. The game has always been about the potential of char death. Always. It is not a game where the players can save and reset a video game.
That's neither accurate nor correct and is markedly deceptive and deceitful.
I have played with the creators and early developers of the game, and none of them ever said or thought the game was about the possibility of char death. Not only that, but I am quite certain the current designers would soundly disagree with you -- the game is about having fun and having adventures. For some people, the possibility of death makes the game more interesting, while for others (and that includes a significant majority of them) the possibility of death reduces the fun of the game (hence why the game is currently designed to minimize the possibility of death).
Death is not what the game is about, death is a potential circumstance -- and if a DM wants to treat their table as a video game, with instant rebirth or spawning, that is a perfectly acceptable way to play. Literally.
I would even go so far as to state that it is more likely to be played in much the same way as a video game, overall (were death is a possibility, but you get to start again right after you die) and that it is going to become even more that way as the popularity of video games continues increases over time.
Given that D&D inspired (and spawned) many of those video games, which acted to use the basics of D&D to create and model their systems, the argument that D&D isn't like a video game is, well, empty, vacuous, and ignorant -- although it does make me laugh at the absurdity inherent in someone thinking that such an argument has merit or weight.
Unless one has some weird desire to see people only play the way that they play and feels like crapping on everything that anyone else is doing, of course.
You are wrong on so many levels, I can't even begin to address them all.
I too, know and play with people that knew and played with Gygax. Have a look at Bill Silvey's YouTube channel, where he DM's a real AD&D 1e game, and a Gamma World game, and currently a Call of Cthulhu game. Death happens on an extremely regular basis in his games, and char death was expected in early D&D, and a zillion mechanics built around it. To say otherwise is simply revisionist history. And yeah, in the past 8 days I have played or DM'ed in a 1e game, two 5e games, and a Pathfinder game. I play in ALL forms of RPG games, so I know of what I speak.
Now, you may be right that the significant majority of current players think the possibility of character death makes the game less fun. With regard to you stating that "the game is about having fun and having adventures", your interpretation is wrong. For most people today, the game is about wish fulfillment, which is why they don't want their character to die. Having adventures and wish fulfillment are mutually exclusive, because adventures by definition include risks, challenges, and consequences. It's literally in the Merriam-Webster online definition, FIRST meaning, quote, " an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks"
If you can't die, there is no danger. After all, in an RPG, what other danger is there?
1 - I played with Gygax, Arneon, Cook, Kuntz, etc. Not "knew people who knew them", I mean direct. So there is no "I, too" there. False equivalence. Those early Gencon's were a wild affair.
2 - "death happens" is not "the game is about". False Equivalence.
3 - Who gives a rodent's hind end about those people? I ran 1e games into this century. Appeal to authority.
4 - Wish fulfillment is "fun*. Therefore, if the game is about wish fulfilment (which, btw, is you shifting goal posts) and wish fulfillment is fun, I am actually correct, and you are wrong in your prior assertion that the game is about the potential of char death.
5 - "Having adventures and wish fulfillment are mutually exclusive, because adventures by definition include risks, challenges, and consequences." that is absolutely hilarious, since pretty much every fantasy book that the game is based on and that has come out since then actually involves precisely the idea of wish fulfillment through adventure. THere is nothing that stops wish fulfillment from including risks, challenges and consequences -- video games are nothing but that.
6 - Danger and unknown risks are not the same as death. What a narrow understanding of the world and the human experience. What a very specifically masculine view, no less.
7 - Danger exists even when there is no risk of death.
8 - In an RPG there are as many possible dangers as the imagination can conceive. Danger of imprisonment, Danger of failure. Danger of loss of an NPC. Danger of loss of gear and equipment. Again, a limited grasp of what is possible -- and in a game that is all about the ability to imagine things that are not possible in reality.
9 - that also ignores the fact that if death reduces the enjoyability of the game, the game has grown tremendously as a result of these changes (5e is the most popularly version ever), and if most people today enjoy the aspects of wish fulfillment, then, under your own argument the basis of that wish fulfillment is not to have to deal with death in the game. (which, not too coincidentally, is one of the oldest wish fulfillment tropes ever: not dying when facing death).
10 -- I get that you just want to argue and lob bait and crap on stuff, you do you, whatever; but could you at the very least come up with better arguments that are not empty, vacuous, and rely on false equivalence or goal post moving? It would make this sort of thing much more enjoyable and far less simplistic.
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I met Gary and Dave. I offered Gary a donut and he declined but hung out to smoke a cig and take a photo with my son (who was 5). We talked about being parents and gaming and then walked into the MECCA center, parting paths and enjoying the rest of our days.
All of which to say that the pointless measuring in this thread is... pointless. It's a great time to agree to disagree or wander off and not talk at each other.
I only recommend making sure that they have some resources for bringing friends back from death saves. Like potions or magic items. Those provide amazing situations where they have to decide between reviving and trying to finish the baddies. Without revival means, a player may just end up making saving throws for many rounds.
Healing spells aren't generally very good for actually regaining a lot of HP. One healer won't make a difference between combat and in combat healing is usually only useful for reviving, except for some crucial heals, life clerics and lvl 6 Heal or higher. Most of the time even the "healer" is better of doing something else. Usually short rest is the go-to heal between encounters.
help them out if you don't wan tthem to die. THere's nothing that stops you, and the rules encourage you to do what you can -- even if you never quite get them all the way healed back up.
Remember that a short rest can be used to recover some hit points, and a long rest can recover all -- and help them find way to reach those points.
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One of the things I did in an epic campaign for 3.5 was introduce what I called death points. Each player got 3 points per game. If something caused a save or die moment, either from damage or some other effect, they could use death points to:
1 point = Immediately stabilize when dying
2 points = Reduce character to half of current hit points
3 points = Suffer no ill effect
It made things a lot more manageable at those levels and it might be something that helps your characters as well.
Another thing you might consider is something like Second Wind from 4E. To update it to 5E, you might decide that they can take an action or bonus action to recover hit points equivalent to a short rest once per combat encounter. You might also consider giving them advantage on saving throws and disadvantage to opponents making attacks against them until the start of their next turn so that they have a chance to retreat from challenging situations.
So I’ve started running dungeon of the mad mage and it’s with two sorcerers, a bard and a rouge, they’re burning through healing potions. So how can I help them not die without a DM NPC cleric?
2 are newish players one this is their first character. Nearly killed with grells and intellect devours.
I kind of like the idea of a healer clinic that they have to be mindful of making time to return to in the early days of their adventures, or perhaps making sure there are plenty of problems that have solutions that do not require rushing headlong into a battleaxe.
If the bard does not want to do healing spells, have one of them learn how to use a healer kit. The official healer kit is a total snooze, but there are plenty of third party options out there (some really good free ones too) that you can use to utilize healer or herbal kits when potions and healing spells are not available.
So I’ve started running dungeon of the mad mage and it’s with two sorcerers, a bard and a rouge, they’re burning through healing potions. So how can I help them not die without a DM NPC cleric?
2 are newish players one this is their first character. Nearly killed with grells and intellect devours.
I kind of like the idea of a healer clinic that they have to be mindful of making time to return to in the early days of their adventures, or perhaps making sure there are plenty of problems that have solutions that do not require rushing headlong into a battleaxe.
If the bard does not want to do healing spells, have one of them learn how to use a healer kit. The official healer kit is a total snooze, but there are plenty of third party options out there (some really good free ones too) that you can use to utilize healer or herbal kits when potions and healing spells are not available.
Ooh! Ooh! Save points! You have an artifact that you can gaze into and it tells you something about the future. You can use it once per game to decide, "You know what? That combat is going to kill us," and you rewind the game to right before making that decision.
So I’ve started running dungeon of the mad mage and it’s with two sorcerers, a bard and a rouge, they’re burning through healing potions. So how can I help them not die without a DM NPC cleric?
2 are newish players one this is their first character. Nearly killed with grells and intellect devours.
I kind of like the idea of a healer clinic that they have to be mindful of making time to return to in the early days of their adventures, or perhaps making sure there are plenty of problems that have solutions that do not require rushing headlong into a battleaxe.
If the bard does not want to do healing spells, have one of them learn how to use a healer kit. The official healer kit is a total snooze, but there are plenty of third party options out there (some really good free ones too) that you can use to utilize healer or herbal kits when potions and healing spells are not available.
Ooh! Ooh! Save points! You have an artifact that you can gaze into and it tells you something about the future. You can use it once per game to decide, "You know what? That combat is going to kill us," and you rewind the game to right before making that decision.
Augury, Divination, and Foresight...in fact the whole school of Divination would like to have a word and explain why Save Points shouldn't be necessary if you're using all the tools at your disposal as a play.
So I’ve started running dungeon of the mad mage and it’s with two sorcerers, a bard and a rouge, they’re burning through healing potions. So how can I help them not die without a DM NPC cleric?
2 are newish players one this is their first character. Nearly killed with grells and intellect devours.
Give them Healing Potions. And one thing to note is that, eventually, feats and other stuff - and maybe some Bard spells, I forget - can be used to get small healing benefits.
I might also do something to make Medicine checks more useful, and I would encourage them to make use of resting, negotiation, and most importantly the ability to stay away from the front lines. Dottm is an interesting module, but it's incredibly combat heavy and has very little useful terrain in encounters, which makes it especially bad for this party.
One of my current campaigns has a party makeup of two barbarians, a fighter, and a blood hunter (pretty much no healing at all). I 100% disagree with anyone who says anything like “the party did not choose to have a “healer” let the chips fall where they may”
No one should be forced into playing a cleric or a healing subclass because the party will die if they don’t.
Make the necessary adjustments to balance the game. Lets just assume that all of the RAW and adventure modules assume that there will be a “healer” in the party.
My recommendation to fix this is add a significant number of healing potions to the loot table. Let players use a bonus action to take health potions, and add some homebrew (or RAW) items that have some healing attributes. These are the steps I have taken in the above mentioned campaign and it seems fine.
The game should not be harder because the players did not optimize their party. Let the players build the characters and their party that they actually want to play, as the like. Then adjust the game world and adventures accordingly, not the other way around.
I would recommend having a session where you have a discussion with the players before starting; like a mini-session 0 event. Talk to them about their exceptions for healing and recovery. This should include options for character builds, their expectations for discovering items, and strategies for recovery (i.e. short rest and hit die). You mentioned there are newish players and the table should come to a concurrence on how everyone wants to play. For example, a video game style adventure (something where healing is placed strategically throughout the adventure) or pacing encounters and implementing strategies so the party can tactically regroup or fight it out to a long rest.
One advantage of the adventure you are running is that you can position other fallen parties throughout the journey with the supplies that the players may need: So things like more potions of healing, scrolls, and other magic items. The party could also come across other adventures with the a Cleric and the parties can barter for healing services. This can be for gold, assistance on a mission, or to save their companions. Or teach the party that negotiation with hostile creatures is important; and occasionally reward them with healing for good barter tactics.
Establish a base camp of NPCs that the party can return to heal up and then pursue the mission the next day. Or stress the value of short resting and make them use their hit die.
Pace encounters so the party can find the necessary recovery they need. That is the key. But first, talk it over with them to determine how the table wants the adventure to run. This will be very beneficial for the newish players. Clue them in on how you are making adjustments to allow for healing options, and how their character builds impact it, so everyone learns what it takes to make an adventure work. Make it the table's game. Hopefully that will give you a better answer than I can.
help them out if you don't wan tthem to die. THere's nothing that stops you, and the rules encourage you to do what you can -- even if you never quite get them all the way healed back up.
Remember that a short rest can be used to recover some hit points, and a long rest can recover all -- and help them find way to reach those points.
Of all the suggestions here, I find AEDorsay's suggestion to hit the nail on the head the most. It's simple, it's effective and best of all, it can be adjusted on the fly better than for example pre-given items and potions.
Managing the rest/combat ratio makes ALL the difference.
I'll explain why.
A bit of background info:
I have played quite a few single PC games that go to really high levels, called Life Arc games. Basically a 1 weekend speedrun through a legendary character's life with just 1 PC and the DM. Generally these are very rules light and transition quickly from scene to scene with long timeskips - but we do have some actual fights in there too.
And how can a single hero beat really strong enemies alone in the endgame? It's because we usually skip the minion crawling bit almost entirely. The way to the boss is often quite narrative, so the hero has full or almost full resources. Sometimes there is an actual fight against minions, sometimes the player just describes how they solve the situation.
A level 10-15 PC is remarkably strong if they have full resources for the "big fight". Same goes for any party of level 5+.
Back to the topic:
The more/fewer combat encounters you have between short rest and long rests is actually what determines the party's ability to survive more than anything else. And this is the single most important aspect to increasing/decreasing the general difficulty too.
Like someone said, avoiding damage is also an option. And available class resources reflect directly on this. A wizard for example may not have heals, but they have lots of ways to avoid damage, trap enemies and deal damage. Your party might not have a lot of healing, but instead the enemies will go down faster = less need for healing. Level 6 PCs have quite a lot of resources and options available, so I don't think this will be a problem.
The early levels could be tough, but they are tough for almost any party, because resources are so limited. But the rest-combat ratio still applies.
So just arrange enough rests for them, and you'll be fine. And some potions for reviving. :)
(You could stress test this sometime. Try to make a deadly (but balanced) encounter for a fully rested level 6+ party. I think you're gonna have a hard time killing them)
Make the necessary adjustments to balance the game. Lets just assume that all of the RAW and adventure modules assume that there will be a “healer” in the party.
I'm not sure that's really a correct assumption. Healing in DnD 5e is super weak, I'd say the more common assumption for published adventure modules is generally that no healing is required.
The only healing in combat that's ever actually a good use of action economy is throwing a 1+ point heal on someone who is downed, other than that you're better off just killing your opponents to prevent damage. And then outside of combat, long rests and short rests with hit dice are far better ways to heal than using spell slots. The only time magical healing actually makes sense on someone who isn't unconscious is outside combat where it's too dangerous to rest, and retreating to a safer location isn't an option - which definitely does happen occasionally but it's not that common. In the OP's predicament, the Bard could just take Tiny Hut and then they have all the healing they'll ever need.
Make the necessary adjustments to balance the game. Lets just assume that all of the RAW and adventure modules assume that there will be a “healer” in the party.
Let's not assume that. D&D 5e was designed so that any party composition will work.
It's not the DM's job to solve this problem - it's the Players.
Add a room to the dungeon which has mushrooms which heal. If they players find it, then it can be a source of slowly replenishing health.
If the players find themselves wishing they had healing, they can work out how to get it with their levels. If they can't do that, then they will start looking for something to help them. Don't make it easy for them - with Long Rests giving full health and short rests giving you all your hit dice, player characters can >almost< die twice without even going down, and come back at full health the next morning, without healing.
Give them a Medicine Kit to find, so that they can stabilise each other as an action to avoid death - but giving them (further) free healing will make them less inclined to solve the problem for themselves.
I'm not familiar with the Mad Mage module, but if there's a village nearby, have them sell medicine kits. That way they get 10 uses, then have to go back and buy another.
It's not the DM's job to solve this problem - it's the Players.
Add a room to the dungeon which has mushrooms which heal. If they players find it, then it can be a source of slowly replenishing health.
If the players find themselves wishing they had healing, they can work out how to get it with their levels. If they can't do that, then they will start looking for something to help them. Don't make it easy for them - with Long Rests giving full health and short rests giving you all your hit dice, player characters can >almost< die twice without even going down, and come back at full health the next morning, without healing.
Give them a Medicine Kit to find, so that they can stabilise each other as an action to avoid death - but giving them (further) free healing will make them less inclined to solve the problem for themselves.
I'm not familiar with the Mad Mage module, but if there's a village nearby, have them sell medicine kits. That way they get 10 uses, then have to go back and buy another.
I disagree quite a bit. It's not necessarily the player's job either. It depends on whether you are playing a board game or a roleplaying game. Dnd can be both.
If RP and stuff like that is important, then I'd rather encourage players to make a character they like and let me worry about making the campaign appropriately challenging for that party. They could all be wizards for all I care and I can go with that.
But if it's more about dungeon crawling and killing things, then it's maybe their job to optimize.
I always adjust the difficulty anyway. A party of 4 super optimizers, ok up goes the difficulty. A party of 4 squishy sacks of brains and no damage spells. Ooook down goes the difficulty. 😁
I disagree quite a bit. It's not necessarily the player's job either. It depends on whether you are playing a board game or a roleplaying game. Dnd can be both.
In D&D, regardless of if you are playing it as a board game, roleplaying game or both, the DM's job is not to provide solutions to the players' problems. It's the DM's job to provide problems for the players to solve. If they can't come up with a solution, in my never humble opinion, then it's an example of not all stories have a happy ending.
Granted, with totally new players you should probably give prompts. They're in a pit and can't figure out how to get out? Recommend that they go through their inventories and see if there's anything they might have to help with the situation. Maybe Brad has a grappling hook. Maybe Jane has a rope that will reach the top. Maybe Todd asks "What do these Boots of Spider Climbing" do?
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1 - I played with Gygax, Arneon, Cook, Kuntz, etc. Not "knew people who knew them", I mean direct. So there is no "I, too" there. False equivalence. Those early Gencon's were a wild affair.
2 - "death happens" is not "the game is about". False Equivalence.
3 - Who gives a rodent's hind end about those people? I ran 1e games into this century. Appeal to authority.
4 - Wish fulfillment is "fun*. Therefore, if the game is about wish fulfilment (which, btw, is you shifting goal posts) and wish fulfillment is fun, I am actually correct, and you are wrong in your prior assertion that the game is about the potential of char death.
5 - "Having adventures and wish fulfillment are mutually exclusive, because adventures by definition include risks, challenges, and consequences." that is absolutely hilarious, since pretty much every fantasy book that the game is based on and that has come out since then actually involves precisely the idea of wish fulfillment through adventure. THere is nothing that stops wish fulfillment from including risks, challenges and consequences -- video games are nothing but that.
6 - Danger and unknown risks are not the same as death. What a narrow understanding of the world and the human experience. What a very specifically masculine view, no less.
7 - Danger exists even when there is no risk of death.
8 - In an RPG there are as many possible dangers as the imagination can conceive. Danger of imprisonment, Danger of failure. Danger of loss of an NPC. Danger of loss of gear and equipment. Again, a limited grasp of what is possible -- and in a game that is all about the ability to imagine things that are not possible in reality.
9 - that also ignores the fact that if death reduces the enjoyability of the game, the game has grown tremendously as a result of these changes (5e is the most popularly version ever), and if most people today enjoy the aspects of wish fulfillment, then, under your own argument the basis of that wish fulfillment is not to have to deal with death in the game. (which, not too coincidentally, is one of the oldest wish fulfillment tropes ever: not dying when facing death).
10 -- I get that you just want to argue and lob bait and crap on stuff, you do you, whatever; but could you at the very least come up with better arguments that are not empty, vacuous, and rely on false equivalence or goal post moving? It would make this sort of thing much more enjoyable and far less simplistic.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
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I met Gary and Dave. I offered Gary a donut and he declined but hung out to smoke a cig and take a photo with my son (who was 5). We talked about being parents and gaming and then walked into the MECCA center, parting paths and enjoying the rest of our days.
All of which to say that the pointless measuring in this thread is... pointless. It's a great time to agree to disagree or wander off and not talk at each other.
You can assign a NPC Cleric/Druid/Bard that levels with party. full cut of exp and gear.
They can buy normal healing potions
You can make a bandage rule where a medicine check could be used to treat a wound granting them 1d4 + Con mod in HP
You can give them an item that grants healing at the cost of sapping magic from other items
You can give them a wand of cure wounds.
In the end it on you as the DM to decide how you want to run your game.
I only recommend making sure that they have some resources for bringing friends back from death saves. Like potions or magic items. Those provide amazing situations where they have to decide between reviving and trying to finish the baddies. Without revival means, a player may just end up making saving throws for many rounds.
Healing spells aren't generally very good for actually regaining a lot of HP. One healer won't make a difference between combat and in combat healing is usually only useful for reviving, except for some crucial heals, life clerics and lvl 6 Heal or higher. Most of the time even the "healer" is better of doing something else. Usually short rest is the go-to heal between encounters.
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So, anyway, OP:
help them out if you don't wan tthem to die. THere's nothing that stops you, and the rules encourage you to do what you can -- even if you never quite get them all the way healed back up.
Remember that a short rest can be used to recover some hit points, and a long rest can recover all -- and help them find way to reach those points.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
One of the things I did in an epic campaign for 3.5 was introduce what I called death points. Each player got 3 points per game. If something caused a save or die moment, either from damage or some other effect, they could use death points to:
It made things a lot more manageable at those levels and it might be something that helps your characters as well.
Another thing you might consider is something like Second Wind from 4E. To update it to 5E, you might decide that they can take an action or bonus action to recover hit points equivalent to a short rest once per combat encounter. You might also consider giving them advantage on saving throws and disadvantage to opponents making attacks against them until the start of their next turn so that they have a chance to retreat from challenging situations.
I kind of like the idea of a healer clinic that they have to be mindful of making time to return to in the early days of their adventures, or perhaps making sure there are plenty of problems that have solutions that do not require rushing headlong into a battleaxe.
If the bard does not want to do healing spells, have one of them learn how to use a healer kit. The official healer kit is a total snooze, but there are plenty of third party options out there (some really good free ones too) that you can use to utilize healer or herbal kits when potions and healing spells are not available.
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Ooh! Ooh! Save points! You have an artifact that you can gaze into and it tells you something about the future. You can use it once per game to decide, "You know what? That combat is going to kill us," and you rewind the game to right before making that decision.
Augury, Divination, and Foresight...in fact the whole school of Divination would like to have a word and explain why Save Points shouldn't be necessary if you're using all the tools at your disposal as a play.
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Give them Healing Potions. And one thing to note is that, eventually, feats and other stuff - and maybe some Bard spells, I forget - can be used to get small healing benefits.
I might also do something to make Medicine checks more useful, and I would encourage them to make use of resting, negotiation, and most importantly the ability to stay away from the front lines. Dottm is an interesting module, but it's incredibly combat heavy and has very little useful terrain in encounters, which makes it especially bad for this party.
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HERE.One of my current campaigns has a party makeup of two barbarians, a fighter, and a blood hunter (pretty much no healing at all). I 100% disagree with anyone who says anything like “the party did not choose to have a “healer” let the chips fall where they may”
No one should be forced into playing a cleric or a healing subclass because the party will die if they don’t.
Make the necessary adjustments to balance the game. Lets just assume that all of the RAW and adventure modules assume that there will be a “healer” in the party.
My recommendation to fix this is add a significant number of healing potions to the loot table. Let players use a bonus action to take health potions, and add some homebrew (or RAW) items that have some healing attributes. These are the steps I have taken in the above mentioned campaign and it seems fine.
The game should not be harder because the players did not optimize their party. Let the players build the characters and their party that they actually want to play, as the like. Then adjust the game world and adventures accordingly, not the other way around.
I would recommend having a session where you have a discussion with the players before starting; like a mini-session 0 event. Talk to them about their exceptions for healing and recovery. This should include options for character builds, their expectations for discovering items, and strategies for recovery (i.e. short rest and hit die). You mentioned there are newish players and the table should come to a concurrence on how everyone wants to play. For example, a video game style adventure (something where healing is placed strategically throughout the adventure) or pacing encounters and implementing strategies so the party can tactically regroup or fight it out to a long rest.
One advantage of the adventure you are running is that you can position other fallen parties throughout the journey with the supplies that the players may need: So things like more potions of healing, scrolls, and other magic items. The party could also come across other adventures with the a Cleric and the parties can barter for healing services. This can be for gold, assistance on a mission, or to save their companions. Or teach the party that negotiation with hostile creatures is important; and occasionally reward them with healing for good barter tactics.
Establish a base camp of NPCs that the party can return to heal up and then pursue the mission the next day. Or stress the value of short resting and make them use their hit die.
Pace encounters so the party can find the necessary recovery they need. That is the key. But first, talk it over with them to determine how the table wants the adventure to run. This will be very beneficial for the newish players. Clue them in on how you are making adjustments to allow for healing options, and how their character builds impact it, so everyone learns what it takes to make an adventure work. Make it the table's game. Hopefully that will give you a better answer than I can.
Of all the suggestions here, I find AEDorsay's suggestion to hit the nail on the head the most. It's simple, it's effective and best of all, it can be adjusted on the fly better than for example pre-given items and potions.
Managing the rest/combat ratio makes ALL the difference.
I'll explain why.
A bit of background info:
I have played quite a few single PC games that go to really high levels, called Life Arc games. Basically a 1 weekend speedrun through a legendary character's life with just 1 PC and the DM. Generally these are very rules light and transition quickly from scene to scene with long timeskips - but we do have some actual fights in there too.
And how can a single hero beat really strong enemies alone in the endgame? It's because we usually skip the minion crawling bit almost entirely. The way to the boss is often quite narrative, so the hero has full or almost full resources. Sometimes there is an actual fight against minions, sometimes the player just describes how they solve the situation.
A level 10-15 PC is remarkably strong if they have full resources for the "big fight". Same goes for any party of level 5+.
Back to the topic:
The more/fewer combat encounters you have between short rest and long rests is actually what determines the party's ability to survive more than anything else. And this is the single most important aspect to increasing/decreasing the general difficulty too.
Like someone said, avoiding damage is also an option. And available class resources reflect directly on this. A wizard for example may not have heals, but they have lots of ways to avoid damage, trap enemies and deal damage. Your party might not have a lot of healing, but instead the enemies will go down faster = less need for healing. Level 6 PCs have quite a lot of resources and options available, so I don't think this will be a problem.
The early levels could be tough, but they are tough for almost any party, because resources are so limited. But the rest-combat ratio still applies.
So just arrange enough rests for them, and you'll be fine. And some potions for reviving. :)
(You could stress test this sometime. Try to make a deadly (but balanced) encounter for a fully rested level 6+ party. I think you're gonna have a hard time killing them)
Finland GMT/UTC +2
Some of the fun is over coming a party weakness.
I'm not sure that's really a correct assumption. Healing in DnD 5e is super weak, I'd say the more common assumption for published adventure modules is generally that no healing is required.
The only healing in combat that's ever actually a good use of action economy is throwing a 1+ point heal on someone who is downed, other than that you're better off just killing your opponents to prevent damage. And then outside of combat, long rests and short rests with hit dice are far better ways to heal than using spell slots. The only time magical healing actually makes sense on someone who isn't unconscious is outside combat where it's too dangerous to rest, and retreating to a safer location isn't an option - which definitely does happen occasionally but it's not that common. In the OP's predicament, the Bard could just take Tiny Hut and then they have all the healing they'll ever need.
Let's not assume that. D&D 5e was designed so that any party composition will work.
RAW the game is exponentially harder without a healer.
"D&D 5e was designed so that any party composition will work." the Game it's self maybe but I don't think so, adventure modules not a chance.
It's not the DM's job to solve this problem - it's the Players.
Add a room to the dungeon which has mushrooms which heal. If they players find it, then it can be a source of slowly replenishing health.
If the players find themselves wishing they had healing, they can work out how to get it with their levels. If they can't do that, then they will start looking for something to help them. Don't make it easy for them - with Long Rests giving full health and short rests giving you all your hit dice, player characters can >almost< die twice without even going down, and come back at full health the next morning, without healing.
Give them a Medicine Kit to find, so that they can stabilise each other as an action to avoid death - but giving them (further) free healing will make them less inclined to solve the problem for themselves.
I'm not familiar with the Mad Mage module, but if there's a village nearby, have them sell medicine kits. That way they get 10 uses, then have to go back and buy another.
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I disagree quite a bit. It's not necessarily the player's job either. It depends on whether you are playing a board game or a roleplaying game. Dnd can be both.
If RP and stuff like that is important, then I'd rather encourage players to make a character they like and let me worry about making the campaign appropriately challenging for that party. They could all be wizards for all I care and I can go with that.
But if it's more about dungeon crawling and killing things, then it's maybe their job to optimize.
I always adjust the difficulty anyway. A party of 4 super optimizers, ok up goes the difficulty. A party of 4 squishy sacks of brains and no damage spells. Ooook down goes the difficulty. 😁
Finland GMT/UTC +2
In D&D, regardless of if you are playing it as a board game, roleplaying game or both, the DM's job is not to provide solutions to the players' problems. It's the DM's job to provide problems for the players to solve. If they can't come up with a solution, in my never humble opinion, then it's an example of not all stories have a happy ending.
Granted, with totally new players you should probably give prompts. They're in a pit and can't figure out how to get out? Recommend that they go through their inventories and see if there's anything they might have to help with the situation. Maybe Brad has a grappling hook. Maybe Jane has a rope that will reach the top. Maybe Todd asks "What do these Boots of Spider Climbing" do?