Rate of non-magical healing

[irda ranger]

A quick poll for the crowd:

Four points:

1. Does anyone think that the rate of healing is fairly slow?

2. Does it seem wonky that it take a high level character longer to heal to full health than a low level character? After battling a dragon Hugo the 100 HP Hunter could be in bed for months recovering. That might be "realistic", but what does his 30 HP Magic-User buddy do during that time?

3. Does it seem wierd that really high Con folks don't heal any faster than low Con folks? Sure, they heal HP faster - but they have more HP to heal! There's no speed advantage. An 19 Con Dwarf Fighter will take longer to heal than a 10 Con magic user. Huh?

4. Or does everyone just assume access to Clerical healing?

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I would suggest (Assuming bed rest, plenty of food, and having had First Aid cast or similarly beneficial non-magical poultices):

1. One Day: d4, d6: 1 HP / level.

--------------- d8, d10: 2 HP / level.

--------------- d12: 3 HP / level.

2. One week: Add 2x Con bonus daily (High con achieves full HP faster than low con).

(By the way, it might be easier to say that at the end of a week you recover 7xCon (or 14xCon in my suggestion). Saying "Con daily" seems like back-dating.)

I have no suggested changes for the Recovery-from-negatives rules. I think they're fine as is.
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[Nelzie]

Considering the availability of Clerical Healing Magic and the fact that my current campaign currently had both a Cleric and a Druid in the party, coupled with the fact that I tend to space out the time in between adventures so that it doesn't feel like everything under the sun is happening at the same time...

I don't worry about it.
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[Maliki]

Magical healing is pretty common IMC so this does not come up often, I think, using irda rangers ideas as a base I'd do something like this.

per day (with proper rest and care)

d4hd=1/day

d6/d8=2/day

d10/d12=3/day

I would then allow them to add thier constitution bonus each day.
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[StealthSuitStanley]

In games I have run, we just simply say that over a period of time the character is fully healed. It helps get back into the good stuff.

However, I have used rules for wounds above and beyond damage. A critical hit scores a wound that has some debilitating defect on the character. The character looses HP's as normal, but those HP's heal very slowly (1 HP/day of rest) unless magic is used. Another ruling was that a normally cast healing spell would heal normal HP loss. In order to heal HP's lost from a wound, the spell must be specifically targeted to heal a wound. Any HP's above the amount of the wound do not carry over for additional healing.

This added some dramatic flare in a few situations. One example is where a character's engineering expertise was desperately needed, but the character was in a coma from a head injury (flails tend to leave a mark). Unfortunately, the only healers available were low level and were magically drained by healing warriors on the front line. By the time they were retrieved, it was too late. Healing potions only effect general injuries, and healing salves only effect wounds to which they are applied. Since the injury was an internal head wound, only a spell cast by a priest/druid would be able to help. Thus, the party had to hold off an advancing horde using their own ingenuity to give the healers opportunity to rest and the character opportunity to heal naturally.

As far as natural healing goes, I went with this model:

Have each character roll the die they use for hit points once for each level they have for each full day of rest they receive. This total is the HP's they regain. The randomness demonstrates the quality of the aid they receive and the conditions of their rest.

Also add in their constitution bonus for those who have it. This represents their body's natural healing ability.

I also add additional dice for receiving aid from someone who is trained in medicine.

This method takes into account the character's class, level, and constitution while adding a random variance to show conditions beyond their control.

Hope this helps!
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-Yoda, Jedi Master

[pineappleleader]

Every game that I have ever played in the PCs were either healed by a Cleric or similar means; or it was "hand waved" ( You are completely healed by the time of the next adventure). All healing during a game was by magic.

I don't think I even know what the natural healing rate is, as it was never an issue.
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[Exalt]

As far as natural healing goes, I'm considering, not bothering with any particular rule, and arbitrarily deciding at the time, how many days the pc's need to rest. If they were fighting Goblins, maybe 1 or 2 days of healing. If it was a Dragon, then maybe 2 weeks.

Ex

[Treebore]

I essentially use 3E's rule. 1 HP per day + 1 additional HP/level/day + CON bonus (or minus)/day.

So a 5th level fighter with an 18 CON would heal 1+5+3=9 HP/day.

If they cannot rest but must "push on" I give them 1/3.

This comes up most often in one and two player games for me.

[gideon_thorne]

Since a high con person adds their con bonus after a few days, they do heal faster. But also consider, someone taking a serious amount of damage is not going to heal super quickly. Major injury ought to, and does, take a long time to heal unless one has access to magal restoration.

The 30 hp mage, in the above example, ought to be cooking up some healing potions if he's in such a hurry.
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Peter Bradley

[irda ranger]

gideon_thorne wrote:
Since a high con person adds their con bonus after a few days, they do heal faster.

They heal an objective number of HP more quickly, but having a higher HP total to reach they are no faster than a 6 Con character at achieving "full recovery." This seems odd to me.

gideon_thorne wrote:
But also consider, someone taking a serious amount of damage is not going to heal super quickly. Major injury ought to, and does, take a long time to heal unless one has access to magal restoration.

Well, two things about that.

One, HP is kind of an abstract thing. Can the 100 HP barbarian really take multiple longsword thrusts without undue effect, or is it more of a luck/ stamina/ martial perseverance thing where he's not "really" hurt except to the extent he has lost big fractions of his HP total. It's generally a will-o-wisp path to ask too closely what HP are, which also makes it hard to justify arguments like yours. If both the Barbarian and the Mage have are down to 1 HP, is the Barbarian really three times as hurt? Or are they equally almost dead? And if they're equally almost dead, why does the Mage bounce back to full health thrice as quickly?

Two, I'm interested in versimilutude - but only to a point. If the Thief and Mage (who hang back and avoid fights) are always left with lots of free time while the Fighters heal up at the Inn, someone's probably not having fun. Either the Thief and Mage are anxious to "get back at it", or (more likely) they start getting involved in city-based campaigns that the Fighters have to sit out. This disparity in recovery time does not make for smooth gaming experiences, which is also important to me.

gideon_thorne wrote:
The 30 hp mage, in the above example, ought to be cooking up some healing potions if he's in such a hurry.

You let Mages make healing potions? What blasphemy is this?!?!
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[Lurker]

I tend to like games with mid to low magic so at times unless there is a cleric in the party the group has to heal slow.

Ive always done the 1 per day plus con bonus, but that might be a bit slow/harsh. I have never used the 1/3 for pushing on but really like the sound of it.
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[gideon_thorne]

irda ranger wrote:
Well, two things about that.

One, HP is kind of an abstract thing. Can the 100 HP barbarian really take multiple longsword thrusts without undue effect, or is it more of a luck/ stamina/ martial perseverance thing where he's not "really" hurt except to the extent he has lost big fractions of his HP total. It's generally a will-o-wisp path to ask too closely what HP are, which also makes it hard to justify arguments like yours. If both the Barbarian and the Mage have are down to 1 HP, is the Barbarian really three times as hurt? Or are they equally almost dead? And if they're equally almost dead, why does the Mage bounce back to full health thrice as quickly?

Ok, where I am coming from, I see HP as a kind of ablative armor or dodge reflex advantage. The person with more hit points is not especially tougher, they are just able to move more and minimize relative damage. So the lesser hp characters arent as quick and get more solid hits on them. The heavy duty hit point dude has to be 'whittled' down with more hits because he's more effective at avoiding them.

But, conversely, someone with a lot of hit points going by my premise above, is going to be using a lot of his energy avoiding blows, hence his healing isn't as fast.

Thats my 'logic' anyhow, take it for what its worth.

Quote:
You let Mages make healing potions? What blasphemy is this?!?!

Worse, I let anyone with any knowledge of herbology make a potion with an appropriate skill check. ^_~`

So druids and rangers with their nature lore skills can do so. I've always been adept at blasphmeny. It makes me a very slippery player. ^_~`
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Peter Bradley

[serleran]

My current character has near maximum HP for his Con, class, and level... and, he hates clerics and won't normally let them heal him (paladins don't actually cast spells, so their healing is ok) and he's not encountered a druid that could befriend him (no one can with his whopping 3 Charisma!) so when he gets hurt (which is always) it sucks to have to spend a year in recuperation (well, not quite, but you get the drift.) It'd be nice if the CK gave us some healing potions, but I think we've found one, and traded for one other, all of which have been used up long ago. Now, that may sound like whining, but its not, because I picked it for myself. By the rules, this character needs like a month and a hhalf to heal from near-death, and that makes sense to me. You come within inches of your life's breath fleeting, and you don't just snap out of it in a moment... that's what spells do for you. The body is powerful, sure, but its also slow.

[irda ranger]

Quote:
By the rules, this character needs like a month and a hhalf to heal from near-death, and that makes sense to me. You come within inches of your life's breath fleeting, and you don't just snap out of it in a moment... that's what spells do for you. The body is powerful, sure, but its also slow.

Makes total sense ... in real life. What do the other PC's do during this time?
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[Treebore]

irda ranger wrote:
Makes total sense ... in real life. What do the other PC's do during this time?

Use my house rules for increasing stats or picking up more skills.

[serleran]

They are usually healing, or in the case of the cleric, healing others, speaking to the dead, consecrating areas so we can be less afraid of the dead coming for us.... or all sorts of other non-stat, total RP things like tinkering with magic items. Heck, for a while, my PC was unhurt (or in not so bad shape he wasn't afraid of dying) and used the time to carve a statue of himself out of ivory. Now, he's trying to get it enchanted.

[Lisa Nadazdy]

How long does it take to heal attribute loss? Is it like 3e- one point per day? Clarify it for me, as I couldn't find it in either the PHB or M&T.
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[DangerDwarf]

Lisa Nadazdy wrote:
How long does it take to heal attribute loss? Is it like 3e- one point per day? Clarify it for me, as I couldn't find it in either the PHB or M&T.

As far as I can tell, it depends on the source.

Strength drain from a shadow recovers at the rate of 1 every 2d4 turns.

Wisdom drain from a Lamia is permanent.

Constitution drain from a weapon with the wounding quality? I'd be prone to handle t like the strength drain from a shadow.

[serleran]

Yep, the source is all-important dealing with attribute "damage." Some of it cannot be healed. Its usually listed, but in the case of it not, I'd go with a default of one point / hour restored.