MARIO KUNDZINS: May 2024
I am currently reviewing some of 5e rules in regards to rest and am interested in making some changes you have created and how the player group has responded. Like you I want to create a gaming environment where combat feels more intense.
Questions
1. I have changed short rests to 8 hours. How many hit dice do you allow for healing? Also I believe this is where a healing kit maybe used.
2. I have changed long rests to 72 hours or 3 days. I do not like how the party can insta heal up to full after a long rest. I remember you mentioning you have changed this also.
3. Regaining hit dice to spend after a long rest is up to half. This is where I believe there can be flexibility based on if you are on the road or staying at an inn or having a base of operations. What advise or suggest?
4. Taking grievous wounds… Where characters are making death saves because they have reached 0 hit points they suffer grievous wounds. How so you think a balanced way may be to approach this.
ANSWER:
We had several meetings when we first adopted 5e and over time tried different rates of healing and impacts. We kept the base 1 night/1 week. The general consensus was that healing is too fast. Theres a lot of discussion to be had on purely mass vs. strain and fatigue being what HP/Health represents. No one wants to get dropped to zero then be back up and running without penalty in a couple days… so we came up with wounds and 1 week = long rest. multiple wounds gain cumulative exhaustion, so it can kill in 5e. Its a balance between the greatly lethal incarna mechanics and 5e’s reedonkulous bounce back. Keep in mind that different players have different expectations, so easing them into it – i.e. no wounds to start, may be the best. Standard 5e rules to my own are pretty drastic. But i have a group that grew up with something more lethal, so expectation management was a lot easier. Almost every character carries a field med kit, and the group uses herbalist and medical kit to enhance healing, and is usually willing to pay for high quality food/nutrition to regain health faster. Minor costs add up! Another way to drain wealth and simulate reality.
I am in the process of reading Grim Hollow Campaign book and Players guide. They have some really interesting ideas about the grim dark theme. They include ideas of making bargains, being cursed and having characters transform when making these bargains. This reminds me of your campaigns where the characters made deals with demons and other entities.
What intrigue’s me about this world is that in this campaign its the last age of man… dark creatures and events have an affect over the world. I like that the humanoid races that are non-monster are only about 20% of the worlds populations. Humans dominate the world at close to 80% and have not been kind to any of the other races.
I put together a document on races and how many points they would cost in order to gauge balance. It is surprising.
Gnomes 6 pts
Half Elves 9 pts
Half Orcs 7 pts
Tieflings 8 pts
Mountain Dwarves 11 points
Hill Dwarves 10 points
High Elves 11 points
Wood Elves 11 points
Drow Elves 13 points
Halflings stoat 9 pts
Halflings Light foot 8 pts
Humans 7 pts
So I made an update to humans in future campaigns in Grim Hollow:
Humans get 1 free feat, 4 attribute points that can be spread either at 2 pts for two attributes, spread 4 ways at 1 pt per attribute or lastly spread 1 attribute at 2 pts and two other attributes and 1 pt each. Humans get 1 extra skill, 1 extra language or a total of 3 and a choice of 1 tool. The point total is around 8 or 9. Putting this more inline with most of the other races.
ANSWER:
Reviewed Custom races of Grim Hollow
So, ive done a little research on the setting.
In Grim Hollow, are all the races 100% PHB versions is my first question. And are you using the custom races supplied as well? They were not on your point list.
Some of the Grim Hollow races are interesting. Some just don’t work will in some campaigns. One of the areas they did not do a good job in the Campaign book and players guide is how the new races are integrated into the world. With humans being a huge majority and controlling over 80% of the world, it seems very strange to me that they added more inhuman races. These new races would have an even harder time surviving and not being wiped out. So the answer to your questions is that I did not put points to the new races because they are added fluff with little substance.