In our campaign, we introduce a nuanced approach to hit points, dividing them into two distinct components: Stamina and Health. This system aims to add depth to combat and recovery, reflecting both the physical and the more abstract aspects of battle endurance and injury. This variant healing system aims to enhance the realism and strategic aspects of combat and recovery in our campaign. It encourages thoughtful engagement with the game's mechanics, placing a little more focus on role-playing than just roll-spamming through the story.
Understanding Stamina and Health
Stamina represents half of your character's hit points. It reflects not just physical endurance but also combat awareness, balance, readiness to react, heroic luck, and the remarkable ability of heroes to turn what could have been a lethal blow into a mere graze or close miss. Stamina is the first line of defense against the rigors of combat.
Health also represents half of your character's hit points. This portion is indicative of actual physical harm—wounds, cuts, bruises, and other tangible damage your character sustains. Once your Stamina is depleted, any further damage directly affects your Health, representing serious physical injury.
Damage and Recovery
- Damage Application: When you take damage, it is first subtracted from your Stamina. Only when your Stamina is completely depleted does damage begin to subtract from your Health, reflecting actual physical injuries.
- Short Rests: Rejuvenating Stamina. A Short Rest is at least 1 hour of light activity. During this time, you can spend one or more Hit Dice to regain Stamina. Roll each Hit Die and add your Constitution modifier to it, restoring that much Stamina. You can choose to spend additional Hit Dice after each roll. Remember, healing from a Short Rest applies ONLY to Stamina, not Health.
- Long Rests: Restoring Balance. A Long Rest requires at least 8 hours of downtime, with at least 6 hours of sleep. Upon completion, you regain all lost Stamina. You also recover spent Hit Dice, up to half of your total number (minimum of one die).
Using a Healer’s Kit during a Long Rest allows you to regain Health equal to half your character level (rounded down, minimum of 1). This action represents the effective use of bandages, splints, and healing salves to treat physical injuries. This Health recovery can only be done once per Long Rest.
Magical Healing: Spells and magical effects that restore hit points ONLY heal Health, not Stamina, emphasizing their role in treating physical injuries rather than restoring overall vitality.
Additional Notes
A character cannot benefit from more than one Long Rest within a 24-hour period and must have at least 1 Health at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.