I currently have a non-magical healing mechanic that is similar to Unearthed Arcana's Reserve Hit Points rules. It basically takes those rules and makes them feel a little more believable (i.e. some attacks and forms of damage can hurt you to the point that you can't just recover from right after a fight, like suffering a critical hit or falling into a pool of lava). My players really enjoy the mechanics, but although I find it easy to follow, my players have some difficulty understanding the nuances of it.
I want to keep the same concept of reserve points, but make it easier to understand and use overall. And it's important to me to add in a feature that tells the players "no you can't take a short break and recover your health after you decided to stand naked in the campfire."
So in short, the mechanic is referred to as recovery dice.
The major points:
- you have a number of recovery dice equal to your level
- your die type matches your hit die type
- if you've taken damage, you can spend them after a rest period of 10 minutes
- an attack that does actual damage does Con damage in addition to hp damage
- you regain your recovery dice after an 8 hour rest
- it's a little gritter overall than the standard healing rules
A more detailed description:
This is a HP recovery system intended to fill the role of non-magical healing in the game. The hit point concept assumes that most hit points lost during a fight represent glancing blows and the deterioration of physical energy and endurance during the course of combat. The “damage scored to characters and certain monsters is actually not substantially physical – a mere nick or scratch until the last handful of hit points are considered – it is a matter of wearing away the endurance, the luck, the magical protections,” as quoted by G. Gygax in the 1st Ed. DMG.
To alleviate the prevalence of magical healing, the capacity to regain hit points is enhanced with the concept of recovery dice, which can replenish hit points quickly after a fight. Thus, a character with few hit points left at the end of a fight, can recover to full strength (or nearly full strength) before the next fight begins.
Recovery dice work particularly well in low-magic campaigns and in campaigns where healing is rare, expensive, or otherwise hard to get. In general, only PCs have recovery dice. But the GM may opt to give recovery dice to important NPCs and monsters as befits the campaign.
A character’s quantity of recovery dice equals his hit dice. Likewise, his recovery die type is the same as his hit die type. Thus, a 1st level character with a d8 hit die also has one d8 recovery die.
After a character becomes injured (by losing hit points), a PC may rest for a period of 10 minutes, performing only non-strenuous activity (such as resting or hiking, but not climbing, swimming, or fighting). At the end of this rest, the PC may use any number of remaining recovery dice to regain hit points. A creature with a negative hit point total can’t use its recovery dice unless it stabilizes.
A creature with the Endurance feat may use one of his recovery dice as a full-round action.
For example, Beragon is a 3rd level Fighter, with 22 hit points, so he has 3 d10 recovery dice. In a battle with orcs, he takes 6 points of damage, dropping his hit points to 16. After the fight, Beragon takes 10 minutes to rest and recover his stamina. At the end of this rest, his player decides to use one of his recovery dice and rolls a 6, bringing his hit points up to his maximum of 22. During the next fight, Beragon takes 24 points of damage, dropping him to -2, and is then dying for 5 rounds before stabilizing, leaving him at -7 hit points. After 10 minutes, his player decides to use his remaining 2 recovery dice rolling a 7 and 9 for a total of 16. He regains consciousness with 9 hit points remaining and no recovery dice left.
Nonlethal Damage: Recovery dice can also reduce a character’s nonlethal damage total. For each hit point healed by recovery dice, a character also heals 1 point of nonlethal damage.
Real Damage: To account for forms of damage that aren’t easy to recover from by resting for a short period of time certain attacks do Constitution damage in addition to hit point damage. This is the sort of damage is classified as real damage (such as a critical hit or being caught in a fire ball spell). The following forms of damage are considered to be real damage:
• Critical hits
• Damage from Inflict spells
• Energy damage (fire, lightning, acid)
• Falls from a great height
• Any attack or damage that results in the creature going below 0 hit points
• Certain spells
At the DM’s discretion, other forms of damage may result in the loss of Constitution as well as hit points (falling into a river of lava or being hit by a disintegrate spell for instance).
When a creature takes real damage, in addition to normal hit point loss, the creature also takes Constitution damage. For every 10 points of real damage sustained, the creature takes one point of Constitution damage (minimum 1). This Constitution damage never results in additional hit point loss, but it does cap the maximum hit points the creature may have and the Constitution damage must be healed by conventional means (i.e. normal rest or magic). If this results in a creature having more hit points than his current Constitution score would normally allow, don’t worry about it. In this case, just treat the excess hit points as temporary hit points.
Creatures replenish recovery dice by resting for at least 8 hours. A creature may only benefit from one such rest in any 24-hour period. After such a rest, the creature regains its full allotment of recovery dice. Magical healing has no effect on recovery dice.
Continuing the example above, Beragon, with 9 hit points left and 0 recovery dice, decides to return to safety and rest. He has no access to magical healing currently, so must heal naturally. After 8 hours of rest, he regains 3 hit points as normal and he also regains all three d10 recovery dice. He may decide to use them immediately to increase his hit points further, but will have fewer dice remaining for the rest of the day.
Multi-class characters have recovery dice according to their class levels. A fighter 1/ rogue 3 would have one d10 recovery die and three d8 recovery dice.
Feedback is appreciated.
I looked over your system and I must say, initially I like it very much. I would be very hesitant to incorporate this in a campaign that also allowed divine caster classes, especially Clerics, because that might just be a little too much healing going on, unless you are planning on running an extremely high intensity game with next to non-stop combat encounters. However, in a low-magic setting, especially one where divine magic is rare and Clerics are all but unheard of, this would be a wonderful system to adopt and modify for home-brew games. All in all, I like it.
Thanks Shadowlord. It is very much intended for low magic campaigns and/or campaigns where magical healing is hard to come by. (I hope I've made that evident in my OP).
I encourage my players to play what they want to play; in our current campaign, no one decided to play a cleric, so this is mechanic after 4 sessions seems to do the trick. Also, I've made the following changes that make this mechanic mesh well:
1) Clerics cast their domain spells spontaneously not cure/inflict spells. (the players really like this change)
2) Clerics do not channel energy. (I use 3.5 turn undead rules instead and 3.5 domains; the players like this too)
2) Magic is generally not for sale and rarer than the norm. Exceptions are potions and scrolls. (so wands of cure wounds are harder to come by; some of my players grumble at this change, but I like it because when they get magic items as treasure, they tend to keep them; plus I get to roll randomly for magic treasure and have it meaningful… a GM's gotta have fun too)
My main concern is that I want to keep the mechanics simple and easy to understand. If I get time, I'll post my current rules and see which set posters here think is easier to understand.
A few concerns I have after reading this. In the order I think most important:
1) You are making significan changes to the way con damage works.
2) Spell casters are getting a MAJOR boost in how dangerous they are since most spells deal "real" damage, but most attacks do not.
3) The con damage doesn't just lower the HP total it also lowers fort saves.
4) Ability damage is either somewhat expensive to heal, or takes a long time. This is an especially bit problem in a low magic setting. It could take weeks to recover.
I do have some suggestions on how to fix these concerns.
First I'd suggest replacing the con damage with something analagous to the 3.5 Vile damage. It is still damage, but it cannot be healed using recovery dice. Just have it heal at the normal rate for healing (ie 1 per level). How it is affected by magic/supernatural abilities is up to you, but I'd be generous.
About the energy damage and spells dealing "real" damage that shouldn't be too hard to balance against crits. If it a spell that allows a save then you take no "real" damage on a successful save. If it requires and attack roll then it only deals "real" damage on a crit. Magic weapons or attacks that deal extra energy damage still only do "real" damage on a crit. Of course if you want magic to be more dangerous compared to weapons then ignored what i just suggested.
Admiral Jose has some good points and suggestions. I had wondered how healing the CON damage would work too. That could put characters out of the game for far longer than desirable. But a few small changes to detail and it would be good to go.
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Alright, for comparison, here are my current rules. This is an adaptation of the "Reserve Points" rules in Unearthed Arcana. Again, I feel they're easy to understand; my players do enjoy the concept, but a couple of them think it's a little unwieldy. Hence my musings of a different styled mechanic that's easier to understand and I'm not sure my alternate version here accomplishes that.
A character’s maximum number of stamina points equals his full normal hit point total. Thus, a 1st level character with 7 hit points also has 7 stamina points.
After a character becomes injured (by losing hit points), stamina points begin automatically converting to hit points at the rate of 1 per minute of non-strenuous activity (such as resting or hiking, but not climbing, swimming, or fighting). Thus, for each minute of non-strenuous activity, the character regains 1 hit point and loses 1 stamina point. A creature with a negative hit point total can’t convert stamina points into hit points unless it stabilizes. Stamina points can never go below zero.
For example, Beragon, a 3rd level Fighter, has 22 hit points, so he also has 22 stamina points. In a battle with orcs, he takes 6 points of damage, dropping his hit points to 16. After the fight, Beragon’s stamina points begin to “convert” to hit points. Over the course of the next 6 minutes, his stamina point total drops by 6 and his hit point total increases by 6. He is now back up to his maximum of 22 hit points with 16 stamina points left.
Nonlethal Damage: Stamina points also reduce a character’s nonlethal damage total. For each stamina point that converts to a hit point, a character also subtracts 1 point from his nonlethal damage. In addition, a character can take a full-round action to “spend” a number of stamina points equal to or less than his HD to reduce his nonlethal damage an equal amount. A character with the Endurance feat may do this as a standard action.
Lethal Attacks: Certain forms of attack are considered “lethal attacks” Such attacks effectively reduce the capacity to heal quickly and sap one’s stamina. If an attack is considered lethal, the damage taken is deducted from stamina points as well as hit points. Common attacks that are considered lethal include critical hits, inflict spells, damage from elemental attacks (acid, fire, lightning, etc.), and damage from most traps.
At the DM’s discretion, other forms of damage may result in the loss of stamina points as well as hit points (falling from a great height for instance).
Continuing the example above, during the next fight, Beragon takes 24 points of damage, 5 of which came from a direct hit from alchemist’s fire. This puts him at -2 hit points and 11 stamina points. He is then dying for 5 rounds before stabilizing, leaving him at -7 hit points. Over the next 11 minutes, his remaining 11 stamina points convert to hit points. After 7 minutes, he’s conscious but disabled (0hp). After 8 minutes he’s back on his feet (1hp), and after all 11 minutes he’s up to 4 total hit points and 0 stamina points.
Only rest can restore stamina points. Healing, magical or mundane, has no effect on them. Thus, replenishing stamina points requires a rest of at least 8 hours. A creature may only benefit from one such rest in any 24-hour period. After such a rest, the character’s daily allotment of stamina points equals his current hit point total. Stamina points cannot recover hit points beyond the last current total the character had before taking further damage.
Continuing the example above, Beragon, with 4 hit points left and 0 stamina points, decides to return to safety and rest. He has no access to magical healing so he must heal naturally. After 8 hours of rest, he regains 3 hit points (he’s 3rd level) bringing his hit point total up to 7 and his daily allotment of stamina points also total 7 for the day. He cannot use his stamina points to further heal his hit points at this point. Amidst exploring some ruins, Beragon finds a potion of cure light wounds. He quaffs it, healing 7 hit points for a total of 14. If he takes damage from this point, his stamina points can now convert up to this new current total.
If a character’s Constitution modifier goes up or down, his stamina points go up or down just as hit points do.
I like the changes. This is a really good rule for low magic campaigns. I have seen a couple of mechanics out there for dealing with HP recovery without magic; I like this one a lot. Depending on the level of healing magic available I might also modify the amount of HP you gain from a full nights rest.
Second one is better and a little easier to understand.
Seeing it online:
Would it be easier to use if I just said:
Using Stamina Points:
After a period 10 minutes of non-strenuous activity, you can convert any number of stamina points to hit points.
Also:
Replenishing Stamina Points:
After 8 hours of rest, you regain your full allotment of stamina points.
So in my example:
After 8 hours of rest, Beragon would have 7 hit points and 22 stamina points (his normal max hp).
These changes don't seem as fluid to me, but maybe they're nice compromises to make its use in-game easier (even if it's just a little)?
Using Stamina Points:
After a period 10 minutes of non-strenuous activity, you can convert any number of stamina points to hit points.
You could go either way with this. Either way reflects realism in different ways.
Replenishing Stamina Points:
After 8 hours of rest, you regain your full allotment of stamina points.So in my example:
After 8 hours of rest, Beragon would have 7 hit points and 22 stamina points (his normal max hp).
Does that mean he can use those 22 points to heal beyond his current 7 HP? Or do the rules against that remain in effect? If you want to allow extra healing, then this would be good. Otherwise, I think the way you had it before works fine. But this, again, could go either way.