Recovery Hearts (5e Variant Rule)

This variant rule is intended for a less realistic, more video game-like romp where the heroes of the story never need to rest, and begin most encounters with full hit points. Most critically, this rule assumes player-characters gain no benefit from a short rest. It also allows players to more strategically allocate the benefits of rest to those who need it.

Campaign Setting: Hyrule
Player's Guide
Character Creation
Races
Common: deku scrubs, gerudo, gorons, hylians, and zora
Uncommon: anouki, kokiri, koroks, rito, skull kids, and tokay
Classes
Fighter: brute, darknut, spellsword, sword savage, archer, tunic
Opportunist: assassin, garo, mystic, skirmisher, picaroon
Researcher: technomancer, witch, wizzrobe
Sage: earth, fire, forest, light, shadow, spirit, water, wind
Scion: dragon, fairy, mask, poe
Backgrounds & Languages
Feats
Spells
Equipment
Armor
Weapons
Adventuring Gear
Tools and Vehicles
Potions and Poisons
Mounts and Animals
Other Goods and Services
Downtime Activities
World of Hyrule
Astrology
Divisions of the known universe
Geography
Hyrule
Akkala
Central Province
Eldin
Faron
Gerudo
Hebra
Lanaryu
Necluda
The Forsaken
Southern Hyrule
Termina
Holodrum
Labrynna
Islands of the Great Sea
Islands of the Sky
Subrosia
Religion
Gods of Hyrule, their worship, and how they influence the world
History
History of the Light World as known by Hyruleans
Dungeon Master's Guide
Bestiary
This world bears many monsters unique to it
Legendary NPCs
Figures of myth, history, and happenstance
Traps
Ruins, dungeons, and temples are littered with various hazards
Treasure
Marks of Prestige
Blessings
Epic Boons
Artifacts
Optional Rules
Exotic Races
Fragile Weapons
Optional Actions
Prestige Classes
Recovery Hearts
Targeted Attacks
Adventures
Quests, dungeons, and storylines ready for exploration
Tables
Tables for random generation of dungeons, encounters, treasure, etc.


Source

Recovery heart

RollHearts
15-19
20-24♥♥
25+♥♥♥

A recovery heart appears as a bright red heart-shaped object with a size and consistency comparable to a plum or peach. Once a heart is formed, it will almost always vanish in about 12 seconds (or 2 rounds). After 6 seconds (1 round), it will begin to flicker rapidly, as if fading in and out of existence, before finally vanishing from existence entirely at 12 seconds.

If a living creature touches a recovery heart, either with its body or an object directly connected to its body, the heart vanishes abruptly, and the creature is invigorated with healing energy. Roll one of the creature's Hit Dice, add its Constitution modifier to the roll, and restore hit points equal to the result.

If a character who restores spell slots, stamina points, or other numerical resources that are restored during a short rest, 0.5 ¼ of these resources are restored upon gaining a recovery heart. Gaining four hearts should be the equivalent of completing a short rest and expending four Hit Dice.

Without the benefit of a magic item or a powerful spell, it is generally impossible to preserve a recovery heart after it has appeared.

Forming hearts

Recovery hearts are formed shortly after a hostile creature is felled. Whenever a creature is killed, roll a d20. Add that creature's CR to the result, but treat any CR below 1 as 0. On a result of 15 or higher, one recovery heart pops out of the creature's corpse. On 20 or higher, two hearts appear instead. On 25 or higher, three hearts appear instead. On a roll of natural 1, no hearts appear regardless of the CR; and on a natural 20, three hearts always appear.

To prevent abuse of this rule, it is suggested the DM judge that any "farming" of recovery hearts fails. "Farming" strategies might include bringing along small but ferocious animals to kill in the middle of a dungeon to form recovery hearts, or other actions taken to expend relatively cheap resources to facilitate the appearance of hearts.

At the DM's discretion, there may be stationary plants or inanimate objects which when destroyed can produce recovery hearts. An abundance of these "free" recovery hearts can help facilitate a long and grueling dungeon, or an otherwise brutally difficult boss fight.

Variant: Player-exclusive hearts

Certain flowers may even grow visible hearts,
subject to DM determination.
Source

This rule normally assumes all living creatures can see and benefit from recovery hearts. It allows, for example, a conniving hobgoblin to kill its already injured goblin underling in an attempt to heal itself with the heart that forms.

Instead, for an extra layer of unreality, the DM may use this variant. With it, recovery hearts would be invisible and unusable to all creatures other than the player-characters.


Back to Main Page 5e Homebrew Rules
Back to Main Page 5e Homebrew Campaign Settings Hyrule

gollark: <@435756251205468160> esowiki unary
gollark: Exists.
gollark: I'll just use it three times then.
gollark: But I used it twice, so by the laws of something it is required.
gollark: ```c#define QUITELONG long long int```
This article is issued from Dandwiki. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.