I was hoping I could get some people's opinions and suggestions on a house rule I've been working on and am about to start play testing. Since my campaign is a low-magic game, I wanted to expand on the healing skill and non-magical healing more. So, I've basically ported my long-time friend's 2nd Edition bandaging rules to Pathfinder.
Some Background -- Skip if you want:
My campaign setting is a low-magic game. Monsters, mythical beasts, magic, etc... all of it is a fairly recent thing to this world and not supposed to exist, including a mostly-evil and/or insane proto-pantheon that has arisen within the last 1200 years. As such, divine magic is strictly controlled by a monopoly of religious orders dedicated to these corrupt demigods. Asking for healing is like asking for a favor from the Mob. So, people have had to make do with what they had before, but supplement it with all of this new flora, fauna, and minerals/metals that have cropped up. As a result, the mostly-non-magical healing arts are more advanced than that of a standard Pathfinder game -- or so I'd like to have, since the player's magical healing options are limited in their struggle to survive this harsh world.
Quick Technicalities:
Wounds are recorded individually in my game for bandaging purposes. Each wound can be treated with an alchemical bandage in addition to being treated with magic, however, magical healing consolidates all damage into a single wound and renders the remaining damage unbandageable. So, it's common practice in my game to bandage up the wounded before applying any magical healing -- with the exception of Cure Minor Wounds, which can be used on a per-wound basis for a 1 HP boost per wound.
And now the actual part I wanted feedback on (especially wording... I'm having trouble wording the mechanics). Copy/pasted from my notes:
Non-magical healing is improved on Imperia. Before the advent of magic, that was all the people had. In addition to treating deadly wounds once per day as per the heal skill, a person may apply an alchemical bandage to each wound with a standard DC 15 first-aid check per wound. Success restores hit points to the wound, based on the type of bandage used (rolls of 20 bandages):
Type // Cost // Effect // Craft DC
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A (Common) // 20 GP // Restores 1 HP // 15
B (Good) // 30 GP // Restores 1d2 HP // 20
C (Masterwork) // 50 GP // Restores 1d3 HP // 25
If the check exceeds the first aid DC by 10 or more, additional damage is converted into non-lethal damage equal the restorative die of the bandage, and again for every additional 5 points by which the check exceeds the DC. For example, if Egbert’s total heal check is a 31 with a Type B bandage applied to a 9 HP wound, then the bandage restores 1d2 HPs and then converts 2d2 points of the remaining damage on the treated wound into non-lethal damage.
Looks overpriced to me, especially at low levels. If this world is really a brutal world, they're already stocking up heavily on regular bandages, which if used for every injury, can add up in carrying space. Relying on alchemical bandages to make up for no magical healing, I think two things should happen.
1. The effectiveness of the alchemical bandages should be at least comparable to healing potions in terms of cost, applicability, HP healed, and how quickly it works.
1.a. IMO, it should compare to wands of CLW in cost, roughly 3 gp per HP, or if its more pricey (no more than 10 gp/HP), depending on the other effectiveness factors.
1.b. It should be usable by anyone. The Heal skill will already be at a premium, it doesn't need to rival Perception in importance. Or, if you really want it to be that important a skill, lower the DC by 5 and make Heal a class skill for everyone. On a similar note, make it a flat amount healed, no bonus for exceeding this check. Rolling for regular heal checks is enough, try to keep the amount of math needed down.
1.c. The alchemical bandages should work quickly once used. Perhaps a full round to apply, a minute to work. Have a requirement to use it be that they must remove armor or build a fire to have it work, if you really want to slow them down more than a minute.
2. Make sure the PCs get more crowd control/meat shield allies than usual. With healing occurring slowly, spreading out the damage over several creatures or minimizing damage taken will be essential to avoid having to rethink encounters and dungeons. If you are rebuilding the wheel, be sure that they have plenty of time to fix themselves up if they want to. No melee will want to jump into a boss fight with 30% of their HP left because of a couple critical hits they ate on the way.
Personally, I would frown on this as a player unless I was comfortable with the GM. Certainly it could be pulled off, provided the encounters allowed more time to recover between fights. Augment Summoning would be a choice feat. A necromancer could be a particularly fun way to go, not that I would recommend it.
Awesomeness. Thanks very much for taking the time to take such a detailed look.
Nightskies wrote:
Looks overpriced to me, especially at low levels. If this world is really a brutal world, they're already stocking up heavily on regular bandages, which if used for every injury, can add up in carrying space. Relying on alchemical bandages to make up for no magical healing, I think two things should happen.
I'll definitely take another look at the price. They were originally rolls of 50 bandages, so yeah, I think I overlooked the price when it was lowered to rolls of 20.
Nightskies wrote:
1. The effectiveness of the alchemical bandages should be at least comparable to healing potions in terms of cost, applicability, HP healed, and how quickly it works.
1.a. IMO, it should compare to wands of CLW in cost, roughly 3 gp per HP, or if its more pricey (no more than 10 gp/HP), depending on the other effectiveness factors.
They're not a replacement for healing, they compliment it. Healing isn't as uncommon as it may have sounded in my description. Healing from priests is uncommon. There is a lantern archon that became trapped during the whole cataclysm bit, and has since gained a small bit of deific power. Enough so that he has a contingent of paladins (one of the players is a paladin of the archon) and inquisitors. Not exactly clerics when it comes to healing, but the healing is still there.
Druids and oracles (along with the option to rebuild) will also be made available to the players fairly soon.
Nightskies wrote:
1.b. It should be usable by anyone. The Heal skill will already be at a premium, it doesn't need to rival Perception in importance. Or, if you really want it to be that important a skill, lower the DC by 5 and make Heal a class skill for everyone. On a similar note, make it a flat amount healed, no bonus for exceeding this check. Rolling for regular heal checks is enough, try to keep the amount of math needed down.
I'm going to reword it to point out that the player can obviously take 10 outside of combat -- the rolling is really only necessary in the heat of battle. Also, it's a standard action to apply a bandage, as the bandages are used as a part of (compliment to) the first aid action.
And I'm liking your suggestion for a flat healing value on the bandage. I'll probably roll with that.
Nightskies wrote:
1.c. The alchemical bandages should work quickly once used. Perhaps a full round to apply, a minute to work. Have a requirement to use it be that they must remove armor or build a fire to have it work, if you really want to slow them down more than a minute.
As it stands right now, the effect is immediate (like topical aspirin). For simplicity, I hadn't planned on giving it any onset time as keeping track of every bandage would be a nightmare.
Nightskies wrote:
2. Make sure the PCs get more crowd control/meat shield allies than usual. With healing occurring slowly, spreading out the damage over several creatures or minimizing damage taken will be essential to avoid having to rethink encounters and dungeons. If you are rebuilding the wheel, be sure that they have plenty of time to fix themselves up if they want to. No melee will want to jump into a boss fight with 30% of their HP left because of a couple critical hits they ate on the way.
Personally, I would frown on this as a player unless I was comfortable with the GM. Certainly it could be pulled off, provided the encounters allowed more time to recover between fights. Augment Summoning would be a...
They do in fact have more downtime between fights, as a logical side effect of monsters and such simply not being as prosperous as they are in a typical PF game. As a result, they have plenty of time for brewing potions, making bandages, etc.
Plus, the players are well aware that they're in a gothic horror style of game with Lovecraft overtones. The odds are against them, but not overwhelmingly so.... yet.
Anyway, thank you very much for the feedback. Very helpful.
