OK, kids, fight nice. Here's my thought on the whole process; Change it to grant a little more and yet not be so powerful at higher levels.... AND incorporate a decreasing ability to gain HP back from short rests.... read on.
With the new higher starting HP, LV1 characters are a little more durable. That being said the hit die healing is a little too weak at lower levels. You can very easily roll low and if you have a low CON score, you're hosed. Otherwise, this mechanic is very much like a healing surge. In the playtest I ran, Hit Dice worked OK but seemed like not enough. Here's my idea I had before the playtest was released, posted on EN World back on Feb 8th:
www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discuss..."I would advocate for something I’ll call
“After Battle Recovery”, LOL just a working title.
The way it could work, after a combat is over, you can choose to ‘Recover’ 1d12 HP +1 per Character Level (or whatever your Hit Die is; using a Barbarian character as an example). Add a d12 every 4 Character Levels (so 2d12+5 at LV 5, 3d12+9 at LV 9, etc). This die would be based on your Class Hit Dice:
d12 for a Barbarian, d10 for a Fighter/Paladin, d8 for Cleric & so on, with each class getting a minimum of 3 'Recoveries'. Sure, this means more 'Recovery' for fightery types but they usually sustain more punishment & being naturally tougher, would be able to shake off such 'battle fatigue' easier. But other classes get Recoveries too, just fewer of them and not for as many HP. (EDIT: should also include CON bonus to give a few more HP back).
Furthermore, you reduce the type of dice used for each subsequent combat, representing
a declining ability to endure battle fatigue, cuts & bruises, general wear and tear of your body. After the next combat your Barbarian only gets d10s… 3rd combat, d8, etc. By the 5th combat, the Barbarian is down to 4-sided dice and not regaining much at all, even at higher levels. a Fighter would get 4 such Recoveries (d10, d8, d6, d4). A Rogue only 3 (d6, d6, d4). Then you would have to camp and rest to
reset your “Recovery” cycle (& it would make sense that you get some healing for camping/resting, of course, say 1HP/LV + CON bonus EDIT: And Level; needs to give more in hindsight). This whole idea differs from
4E Healing Surges in a few ways. First of, you get less Recoveries than you would Healing Surges. Also, Healing Surges or for 1/4 of your total HP; my idea is for less and further declines each time until your last Recovery is used. And it's more than likely that my idea for Recoveries while useful, wouldn't get you back up to full HP very often... part of the idea.
Adventuring parties that had a Cleric among them would certainly fare better, be able to get healed
DURING a battle (via Spells) and wouldn’t have to camp as often. AND maybe a Cleric could augment your “After Battle Recovery” by adding an extra die to another's Recovery 3 times/day + WIS modifier, representing "Being under the care of a Healer". Just my 2CP.
WotC, feel free to use this idea, heheh. I'm planning on using it in future 3.5 and/or Pathfinder games."
I know, it's a little more complicated but if you get +1 to an ability score at LV 4, 8, etc, my idea was to add a more dice to the Recovery. And no healer's kit was required; as HP are an abstraction I'm not sure why they are required anyway. In the playtest rules, you have to keep track of how many Hit Dice you're used anyway so either way, you'd be keeping track. In my proposed system, you would track the number of times used, not the number of Hit Dice used.
So, No, I don't think Healer's Kit should be needed. You should just get some HP back.
BUT, if you
DO have a Healer with Kit and in the spirit of the current Play-test, a Healer should augment HP recovery by giving more in the form of an
Advantage on Hit Dice rolls for healing. I
REALLY like that idea; 2 dice, take the better result. Conversely, if you were at zero HP or lower in a fight, you should be at a Disadvantage when healing up, just for that one Short Rest. Heheh, yes, I have given this a lot of thought.... we're all geeks, aren't we?? But this last part really does seem in the spirit of the game we've seen so far and would make for better healing under a Cleric (or Druid or Ranger). The Disadvantage seems in-line with a return to a "grittier" kind of game.
Why am I adding so much about this? I think that the current rules for healing are too stingy at low levels but will get very powerful at higher levels. As flatter math/progressions seem to be the trend, maybe Healing needs to be this way as well. AND I really do think I'm onto something with a decling ability to heal... the current system "sort-of" has that; when you use up your Hit Dice, you're out. I guess I prefer it to be more gradual... at the time I made the original post, I was assuming a more retro-ish D&D game where there were no "healing surges" so it's naturally stingy as the assumption can be that NO non-clerical healing would be available without potions & the like. Healing Potions also need a boost IMHO. All this is just my 2CP; take it with a grain of salt. I just love this game and I'm optimistic moving forward. I like a lot of what I've seen so far...
