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5 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 7:28AM
#21
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Date Joined:
Apr 30, 2012
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As a possible fix you could remove the "heal from 0" rule, but then add to all healing spells a special ritual version that takes 1 min to cast, costs you a slot but has the "heal from 0" rule. This way someone taken out in combat is down for that combat, but once you are out of it you can heal those guys without stressing the already low out of combat heal we have.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 10:25AM
#22
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
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once you are out of it you can heal those guys without stressing the already low out of combat heal we have.
Removing 'heal from zero' would absolutely require rebalancing. It's the mechanic (rather than the balance) that's problematic.
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5 months ago ::
Jan 07, 2013 - 3:18PM
#23
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I was thinking of a homebrew Severe Wounds module that might help with this. The original intent was to add a little gritty verisimilitude, but it would also keep players from always bouncing back up like nothing happened.
The idea is this, whenever a character is crit'ed or dropped below 0 they have to make a con save. On a failed save they would take ability damage to a random stat. This abilty damage would require either advanced magic or an extended period of recovery. (This is mostly cribbed from the Shadowrun Severe Wounds rule).
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4 months ago ::
Jan 13, 2013 - 11:22AM
#24
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Date Joined:
Jan 30, 2007
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Good point Dwarfslayer. I'm seeing Cure Minor Wounds, Hold, Sleep and all those spells in a new light now. I could see Cure Minor Wounds going back to the older Stabilize cantrip.
Here's another idea: what if WoTC added that in order to perform a Coup-de-Grace, the attacking creature could not be in any threatened area. If they add this, players will be able to rush to stand beside their fallen comrade (as long as they get to move before the foe does). I think this might add some more excitement and make combats more dynamic.
Y'know, I'm houseruling "CdG cause opportunity attacks" from here on out, in any/all games that I run from now on.
Salla, on minions: I typically use them as encounter filler. 'I didn't quite fill out the XP budget, not enough room left for a decent near-level monster ... sprinkle in a few minions'. Kind of like monster styrofoam packing peanuts.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 14, 2013 - 7:48AM
#25
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Actually, all my players have always seemed to grock that intuitively. It's always seemed easy to understand, mechanically speaking.
Actually, negative HP seem to be very intuitive.
In both of these cases, I think two issues are on hand. First, players get used to using a certain rule and might have played that way for a very long time (years? decades?). Asking them to change old habits quickly, maybe hard, which means it has nothing to do with one set of rules being intuitive or not, as opposed to simple habit.
The other problem is that regardless of what healing does, players will still have to track negative hit points to see if they reach the "dead" threshold of negative hit points or not, which means they are tracking suddenly tracking hit points for a reason that has nothing to do with healing, and healing is the only thing that is suddenly not affected by it.
A more intuitive way of creating this rule would be to drop tracking of negative hit points. You reach zero and you don't have to track it anymore. You only die from failing death saving throws or from receiving a coup de grace (with the DM allowed to effective say you've been given one if you fall into a pool of lava or something).
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4 months ago ::
Jan 14, 2013 - 9:01AM
#26
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2002
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Simple solution:
No CDG during an encounter.
Nobody dies until everyone does.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 14, 2013 - 9:36AM
#27
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
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I think two issues are on hand. First, players get used to using a certain rule and might have played that way for a very long time (years? decades?). Asking them to change old habits quickly, maybe hard, which means it has nothing to do with one set of rules being intuitive or not, as opposed to simple habit.
Most of the players that I had to remind about 'heal from zero' had only ever played 4e.
The problem was that people intuitively understand normal math like:
-5 + 8 = 3
With the 'heal from zero' math exception, I have to remind them that in certain circumstances:
-5 + 8 = 8
players will still have to track negative hit points to see if they reach the "dead" threshold of negative hit points or not, which means they are tracking suddenly tracking hit points for a reason that has nothing to do with healing, and healing is the only thing that is suddenly not affected by it.
Exactly.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 15, 2013 - 2:31PM
#28
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Date Joined:
Sep 30, 2009
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Fortunatley my players either haven't figured this trick out or they're sufficiently afraid of the concept of dying (even though its mathmatically hard to do) but here's how i would handle such a situation - when a character is healed to 1hp (no matter how) they are concious but perhaps they incur some penalties to actions, the advantage/disatvantage mechanic is particularly sweet here. You could have the character effectively grant combat advantage by having all attacks against them rolled with advantage. This would encourage players to balance the risk of getting '1-shotted' against meaningful healing.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 16, 2013 - 12:08PM
#29
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I like that the CDG rule makes players want to stay above zero hit points, but I do agree that the first combat where I started rolling a CDG on every down player caused a few awkward pauses at the gaming table. Once you set the expectation the rules work very well.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 16, 2013 - 3:09PM
#30
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
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rolling a CDG on every down player caused a few awkward pauses
"... hits just got real."
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