I have begun to put together a small list of homebrew rules. Nothing big. If it can't fit on a single page its too much in my opinion. That said I wanted to get some second opinions on my custom healing rule before implementing it.
The goal is to make damage more threatening and not as easily mended. I would like them to feel that healing is not some magic cure all and they still have limits not some indestructible body that a single level 1 healing word bonus action can keep up no matter how much damage they take.
I'm not changing any spells but rather how magical healing in general works. Whenever someone is healed by magic it amplifies their own healing but expends one hit die to do so. So a lvl 3 cure wounds would heal 3d8 plus mod for 1 hit die. Once out of hit dice magical healing doesn't work on them. They can still spend hit dice during short rests and such but its a more precious resource now.
In addition they only restore a number of hit dice equal to their CON mod during a long rest now. Minor change but the idea here is as they get higher into levels their hit dice become even more precious.
In addition they only restore a number of hit dice equal to their CON mod during a long rest now.
So, players without a positive CON mod never get Hit Dice back... ?
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Yes. None of these address the problem I continually run into a a DM with magical healing though. I'm looking to make it harder but more like they need to care about their hit dice not making them spend more time recovering. The problem I run into a lot is magical healing just completely negates the threat of most encounters unless an encounter is specifically designed to negate healing. not looking to beat my players but want to make them care about damage and falling in combat. I did play with the idea of just making them lose a hit die everytime they hit 0 hp too. Much simpler to do but I liked the idea they need to make their healing spells count and manage their hit dice.
The goal is to make damage more threatening and not as easily mended. I would like them to feel that healing is not some magic cure all and they still have limits not some indestructible body that a single level 1 healing word bonus action can keep up no matter how much damage they take.
While I get this, make sure you consider how this will feel at the table. Saying, "you rest for the night and recover all your hit dice" isn't actually any shorter to a player than saying "you rest for a week and recover all of your hit dice," except for the part where the players are doing the math to figure out how long they need to rest. In-game time doesn't matter unless you go out of your way to make it matter.
If you really want healing to be slow and arduous, you need to be ready to have a lot of things for the players to do during that process. Otherwise it doesn't really accomplish much in terms of how the game feels. Maybe you have already anticipated this, but I just thought it would be worth bringing up.
I'll also save someone else the time and go ahead and drop the "HP represents more than just physical wounds" line. Although it's more complicated, you might actually get your point across better if damage below half hp is tracked and healed differently than "morale HP," and hit dice/magic can only recover "morale HP." Only time or high level spells can heal physical wounds.
The goal is to make damage more threatening and not as easily mended. I would like them to feel that healing is not some magic cure all and they still have limits not some indestructible body that a single level 1 healing word bonus action can keep up no matter how much damage they take.
While I get this, make sure you consider how this will feel at the table. Saying, "you rest for the night and recover all your hit dice" isn't actually any shorter to a player than saying "you rest for a week and recover all of your hit dice," except for the part where the players are doing the math to figure out how long they need to rest. In-game time doesn't matter unless you go out of your way to make it matter.
If you really want healing to be slow and arduous, you need to be ready to have a lot of things for the players to do during that process. Otherwise it doesn't really accomplish much except kill the pacing of your adventure. Maybe you have already anticipated this, but I just thought it would be worth bringing up.
I'll also save someone else the time and go ahead and drop the "HP represents more than just physical wounds" line. Although it's more complicated, you might actually get your point across better if damage below half hp is tracked and healed differently than "morale HP," and hit dice can only recover "m
The goal is to make damage more threatening and not as easily mended. I would like them to feel that healing is not some magic cure all and they still have limits not some indestructible body that a single level 1 healing word bonus action can keep up no matter how much damage they take.
While I get this, make sure you consider how this will feel at the table. Saying, "you rest for the night and recover all your hit dice" isn't actually any shorter to a player than saying "you rest for a week and recover all of your hit dice," except for the part where the players are doing the math to figure out how long they need to rest. In-game time doesn't matter unless you go out of your way to make it matter.
If you really want healing to be slow and arduous, you need to be ready to have a lot of things for the players to do during that process. Otherwise it doesn't really accomplish much except kill the pacing of your adventure. Maybe you have already anticipated this, but I just thought it would be worth bringing up.
I'll also save someone else the time and go ahead and drop the "HP represents more than just physical wounds" line. Although it's more complicated, you might actually get your point across better if damage below half hp is tracked and healed differently than "morale HP," and hit dice can only recover "morale HP."
Yeah, not looking to bog down the pace hench here to brainstorm my idea pickup on some issues it may have.
Love the idea of making damage past half health acting different. My main worry there is making it too complicated. I like a nice simple home rule that's a sentence or two at most. Otherwise, folks get confused on them.
Yes. None of these address the problem I continually run into a a DM with magical healing though. I'm looking to make it harder but more like they need to care about their hit dice not making them spend more time recovering. The problem I run into a lot is magical healing just completely negates the threat of most encounters unless an encounter is specifically designed to negate healing. not looking to beat my players but want to make them care about damage and falling in combat. I did play with the idea of just making them lose a hit die everytime they hit 0 hp too. Much simpler to do but I liked the idea they need to make their healing spells count and manage their hit dice.
I just meant the part about having to spend Hit Dice on long rests also playing into your desire to emphasize their having to manage their hit dice. It’s been my experience that most players only use magic healing to play yo-yo when a PC goes down and don’t heal during combat otherwise.
How many encounters are you giving them a day? If the cleric burns through bless, spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, etc., they won’t have many slots left for healing. Or vice versa, if they keep topping people up, there’s fewer combat and utility slots left. Make them think harder about what spell to cast when. That doesn’t fix the long rest and you’re back to full issue, but it can make them more cautious about how much healing they’re giving out in a day.
An idea from video games might be to have healing be a over time effect instead of an instant effect or if a healing spell is cast on a wound that round of the round after it heals full damage but any other damage is healed 1/2 as much. The problem with the last idea is you have to track damage done in a round and with the first idea that you heal over time players might cast healing spells at the beginning of battle to stave off damage.
What ever you decide to do I would run some tests with you players to see how it plays out or even an dream or demi-plane mini adventure (where if they die it does not mean anything) to see if your idea(s) work in your game and if your players like the changes.
Longer days, more encounters, more uses for spell slots. If the spells are spent the hit dice come in to play.
Hit dice for damage
A popular homebrew solution is to add abilities that spend hit dice for damage.
Trauma damage
A very video-gamey thing is " trauma damage" Which is basically a reduction to max hitpoints that can only be healed by special means. In this case it would only be heal-able by hit dice at a short rest. When used in games this is meant to incentivise avoiding things that cause trauma and finding ways to heal it when possible.
What you give trauma for would be up to you
A percentage of damage, maybe 1 trauma for each die.
Going down, maybe a set amount or the hit that took your down
Maybe you get a con save
extra on crits ect
Damage exhaustion (untested)
A similar alternative is exhaustion damage. The same kind of thing as trauma damage except when they have x % of their health in trauma damage they gain a level of exhaustion. This exhaustion damage would also be healed with hit dice.
This is a lighter version of the trauma damage rule. Exhaustion is less punishing than lowering max health.
Persistent death save fails
A rule I use to stop yo-yoing is every time they go down a death save gets crossed off until they rest or heal it with a medicine kit ect... So the first time they go down 3 fails for death. Second time 2 fails for death. Third time I fail for death, fourth time instant death. If that's too harsh you can make one curable with a medicine or short rest ect....
This option is meant to make you want to avoid going down at all costs and heal before going to 0. I mainly bring it in with paladins who are prone to using 1hp heals.
Healing is temporary (untested)
I haven't tried this but another video gamey option is to have healing from spells be temporary. Now I don't necessarily think it should all be temporary hit points that don't stack. You might let them stack but maybe healed health lasts a certain amount of time then disappears or decreases over time.
This is a massive nerf to healing making it almost entirely in combat based so you could consider buffing the amount of healing given by spells. This is an option that would maybe work with the spending hit dice. When healed you can spend a number of hit dice for true healing and the rest is temporary.
It seems like a simpler way might be to up the damage everyone does. It makes combat nasty, short, and hard to anticipate the outcome of. Perhaps put everything on max damage.
Another option, one more cinematic, is to make various drastic conditions common. Broken bones and such producing significant debufs, and happening every time you take more than a certain number of hp from a single attack. That way you don't need to tweek the numbers, but injury still matters.
Also, I'd like to keep updated on what you experiment with. Could up post back with results of whatever you try?
I have begun to put together a small list of homebrew rules. Nothing big. If it can't fit on a single page its too much in my opinion. That said I wanted to get some second opinions on my custom healing rule before implementing it.
The goal is to make damage more threatening and not as easily mended. I would like them to feel that healing is not some magic cure all and they still have limits not some indestructible body that a single level 1 healing word bonus action can keep up no matter how much damage they take.
I'm not changing any spells but rather how magical healing in general works. Whenever someone is healed by magic it amplifies their own healing but expends one hit die to do so. So a lvl 3 cure wounds would heal 3d8 plus mod for 1 hit die. Once out of hit dice magical healing doesn't work on them. They can still spend hit dice during short rests and such but its a more precious resource now.
In addition they only restore a number of hit dice equal to their CON mod during a long rest now. Minor change but the idea here is as they get higher into levels their hit dice become even more precious.
Thoughts? Ideas to improve?
Have you looked at the Healing options in the DMG?
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#Healing
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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So, players without a positive CON mod never get Hit Dice back... ?
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Yes. None of these address the problem I continually run into a a DM with magical healing though. I'm looking to make it harder but more like they need to care about their hit dice not making them spend more time recovering. The problem I run into a lot is magical healing just completely negates the threat of most encounters unless an encounter is specifically designed to negate healing. not looking to beat my players but want to make them care about damage and falling in combat. I did play with the idea of just making them lose a hit die everytime they hit 0 hp too. Much simpler to do but I liked the idea they need to make their healing spells count and manage their hit dice.
Ah, my bad. Forgot to mention minimum of 1.
While I get this, make sure you consider how this will feel at the table. Saying, "you rest for the night and recover all your hit dice" isn't actually any shorter to a player than saying "you rest for a week and recover all of your hit dice," except for the part where the players are doing the math to figure out how long they need to rest. In-game time doesn't matter unless you go out of your way to make it matter.
If you really want healing to be slow and arduous, you need to be ready to have a lot of things for the players to do during that process. Otherwise it doesn't really accomplish much in terms of how the game feels. Maybe you have already anticipated this, but I just thought it would be worth bringing up.
I'll also save someone else the time and go ahead and drop the "HP represents more than just physical wounds" line. Although it's more complicated, you might actually get your point across better if damage below half hp is tracked and healed differently than "morale HP," and hit dice/magic can only recover "morale HP." Only time or high level spells can heal physical wounds.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Yeah, not looking to bog down the pace hench here to brainstorm my idea pickup on some issues it may have.
Love the idea of making damage past half health acting different. My main worry there is making it too complicated. I like a nice simple home rule that's a sentence or two at most. Otherwise, folks get confused on them.
I just meant the part about having to spend Hit Dice on long rests also playing into your desire to emphasize their having to manage their hit dice. It’s been my experience that most players only use magic healing to play yo-yo when a PC goes down and don’t heal during combat otherwise.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
How many encounters are you giving them a day? If the cleric burns through bless, spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, etc., they won’t have many slots left for healing. Or vice versa, if they keep topping people up, there’s fewer combat and utility slots left. Make them think harder about what spell to cast when.
That doesn’t fix the long rest and you’re back to full issue, but it can make them more cautious about how much healing they’re giving out in a day.
An idea from video games might be to have healing be a over time effect instead of an instant effect or if a healing spell is cast on a wound that round of the round after it heals full damage but any other damage is healed 1/2 as much. The problem with the last idea is you have to track damage done in a round and with the first idea that you heal over time players might cast healing spells at the beginning of battle to stave off damage.
What ever you decide to do I would run some tests with you players to see how it plays out or even an dream or demi-plane mini adventure (where if they die it does not mean anything) to see if your idea(s) work in your game and if your players like the changes.
Good Luck
RAW solution
Longer days, more encounters, more uses for spell slots. If the spells are spent the hit dice come in to play.
Hit dice for damage
A popular homebrew solution is to add abilities that spend hit dice for damage.
Trauma damage
A very video-gamey thing is " trauma damage" Which is basically a reduction to max hitpoints that can only be healed by special means. In this case it would only be heal-able by hit dice at a short rest. When used in games this is meant to incentivise avoiding things that cause trauma and finding ways to heal it when possible.
What you give trauma for would be up to you
Damage exhaustion (untested)
A similar alternative is exhaustion damage. The same kind of thing as trauma damage except when they have x % of their health in trauma damage they gain a level of exhaustion. This exhaustion damage would also be healed with hit dice.
This is a lighter version of the trauma damage rule. Exhaustion is less punishing than lowering max health.
Persistent death save fails
A rule I use to stop yo-yoing is every time they go down a death save gets crossed off until they rest or heal it with a medicine kit ect... So the first time they go down 3 fails for death. Second time 2 fails for death. Third time I fail for death, fourth time instant death. If that's too harsh you can make one curable with a medicine or short rest ect....
This option is meant to make you want to avoid going down at all costs and heal before going to 0. I mainly bring it in with paladins who are prone to using 1hp heals.
Healing is temporary (untested)
I haven't tried this but another video gamey option is to have healing from spells be temporary. Now I don't necessarily think it should all be temporary hit points that don't stack. You might let them stack but maybe healed health lasts a certain amount of time then disappears or decreases over time.
This is a massive nerf to healing making it almost entirely in combat based so you could consider buffing the amount of healing given by spells. This is an option that would maybe work with the spending hit dice. When healed you can spend a number of hit dice for true healing and the rest is temporary.
It seems like a simpler way might be to up the damage everyone does. It makes combat nasty, short, and hard to anticipate the outcome of. Perhaps put everything on max damage.
Another option, one more cinematic, is to make various drastic conditions common. Broken bones and such producing significant debufs, and happening every time you take more than a certain number of hp from a single attack. That way you don't need to tweek the numbers, but injury still matters.
Also, I'd like to keep updated on what you experiment with. Could up post back with results of whatever you try?