Ways to heal in an RPG

[NecroLord]

What modes of healing should a good RPG have depending on the world and setting?
Medkits/Medbot/Regeneration nanite augmentation (like Deus Ex)?
Stimpacks (Fallout)?
Spells, Potions and Regeneration of lost limbs if it is a medieval/fantasy RPG?
Or perhaps there should be very few ways of healing your characters and they should just suffer through it? Maybe just some methods to heal crippled limbs and cure some diseases?

 

[Skinwalker]

Or perhaps there should be very few ways of healing your characters

Yea, you don't need to keep your characters alive in an RPG, fuck that.

 

[Old Hans]

I always found it funny when playing an RPG full of healing potions and resurrection scrolls, there are these moments where some character has to die for story reasons and theres always some excuse why a healing potion wont help. its like "noo its too late for me...my wounds are 2 legit 2 quit"

 

[NecroLord]

I think resurrection shouldn't be allowed.
If it is, then make it impactful and requiring either a quest or very high level and experience or something similar.
What are the implications of it?
Is the soul willing to come back into its body (if there is even a body left)?
Or maybe the soul found itself in the hands of a vengeful Deity who will not relinquish possession of it so easily.
Just some ideas...

 

[d1r]

Sexual Healing

 

[NecroLord]

Sexual Healing

As in you keep a harem of luscious female companions who restore your HP when you make sweet love to them?
Interesting.
Tyranicon Make it happen!

 

[deuxhero]

For party games where time passage actually exists, I like seeing cheap "medical supplies" (or such, just keep it vague so it's not clear what it has beyond bandages) as out of combat healing that is cheap and removes various debuffs, but requires and medical skill to apply and time to take effect. It's a good compliment to whatever magic/sci-fi healing potion is used.

Of course, the problem is so few games actually care about time passing because plebs can't handle even the most generous deadlines. It really only seems to get a pass in games with a strategic layer where it's not a binary fail state for taking too much time, but the enemy digs in harder the longer you delay.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Limited healing is the cornerstone of a good dungeon dive. If you can heal every wound you take between trips to the merchant five times over, there's zero tension in battles. Combat needs conseqences in between 'trivially small waste of time' and 'complete failure reload last save'

Not a traditional rpg, but Battle Brothers is a good example of it down in vaguely recent years. Most examples I can think of are from decades ago. The suspense of resource attrition in a dungeon dive or wilderness trek is a lost art it seems.

 

[octavius]

What kind of necrolord fails to mention lifesteal?

 

[NecroLord]

What kind of necrolord fails to mention lifesteal?

Some form of cannibalism and blood drinking and the stealing of life forces from your enemies?
Might make for cool ways to heal in a more darker cRPG.

 

[luj1]

1. if a game is showering you with consumables, it needs to provide frequent difficult situations to use them (in kotor I used all stimpacks before the final boss)
2. ressurection should be rare and characters should suffer -1 CON permanently
3. rest restrictions = good design

 

[luj1]

What kind of necrolord fails to mention lifesteal?

spell lifesteal is also very cool

I am surprised so few games use it

 

[Gregz]

Sleep, spells, potions, med kits, innate regeneration, food...all of that stuff is fine; it mostly depends on the implementation and the rules.

Anything that permanently maims your character sucks imo. Games like Kenshi that allow you to grow through injury are much more interesting and satisfactory.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

mRNA vaccinations. The downside is that every injection permanently decreases one random attribute, and you have a 2% chance of becoming paralyzed.

 

[NecroLord]

mRNA vaccinations. The downside is that every injection permanently decreases one random attribute, and you have a 2% chance of becoming paralyzed.

Just paralyzed?

 

[NecroLord]

What kind of necrolord fails to mention lifesteal?

spell lifesteal is also very cool

I am surprised so few games use it

Blood drinking or cannibalism in a darker RPG.
Maybe you can even play as an Undead...

 

[luj1]

What about that?

 

[NecroLord]

Just some food for thought.
It's always with the spells and potions and shit...

 

[luj1]

you should play ToME

 

[Devastator]

Regular healing is cheating. The most ethical way to play is to avoid getting hit.

Perhaps acceptable methods of healing include:

• Lifesteal, as it provides fake healing. This is akin to considering any DoT effects (e.g. poison) as fake damage.
• Resurrection, as it offers a second chance after paying the price for ineptitude. Nevertheless, the question is whether one deserves this second opportunity.
• Damage mitigation, such as armor or evasion, which ensure that you're not technically healing but rather preventing damage altogether. Skillful avoidance is sexy. Perhaps here we can also include skill-based mechanics that reward players for mastering dodging or parrying attacks.
• Health regen over time is perhaps also fake healing. Your health would slowly recover between battles. This could be justified as your character's natural resilience or stamina replenishing, like having 20 CON in AD&D.
• Temporary buffs of vitality or endurance, but with a limited duration and no permanent healing effect. Ethical as fuck. This would also include ancestral pacts and innate skills to gain some temporary buff.

Now we get to the really sexy methods:

• Sacrificial mechanics where you exchange something valuable or permanent. Like a stat, a valuable item, or a companion (bwahaha!) to regain health. This would also include blood magic, where players would sacrifice some of their VIT/CON.
• Cursed artifacts with healing but with significant consequences.
• Karma/faith mechanics where you perform acts of selflessness vs. evil to earn sub vs. dom points. These points can then be spent to receive some limited healing.
• Sacrificial reflection where you redirect negative effects back onto yourself to save another. Like a tank but with extra steps (also more cucked).
• Soul-binding rituals where you permanently bind a portion of your essence to an entity in exchange for some protection. Or you fracture your soul and give a fragment to some entity.

I'm sure there are other even sexier ways.

P. S. Since OP mentioned Deus Ex, I guess regeneration would fall into the above regen over time, like natural resilience. But in this case there are nanites Since I neglected sci-fi aspects, maybe a few more are worth mentioning, like cybernetic or genetic rewiring (similar to Fallout's mutate). You could sacrifice certain genetic traits in exchange for healing. Or some sort of quantum syphoning, a sci-fi lifesteal, where you could siphon healing energy from nearby sources (e.g. organisms, environmental energy fields).

If we really want to get out of the box, how about some nano quantum technology to transfer injuries to alternate realities or parallel versions of ourselves? Son of a bitch, I'm in.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

in my mid-hard sci-fi ruleset there's only "stopping hemorrage" and "natural healing". but enough armor can negate all damage. but a skilled gunslinger has a (very remote) chance to stop even a tank with a pistol bullet. but this is for p&p or a very sandboxy experience since it requires a lot of abstract downtime. in any other environment you must have some sort of instant healing.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

This is another time where Betrayal at Krondor got it right. Healing magic is uncommon and expensive. Its not until way into the game that players will even find or be able to afford health potions. Even then, they're not a pancea and they're emergency use only.

Otherwise its mostly rest and healing herbs which mostly enhance the resting recouperation rate. This is just about the only game I have ever used healing services from temples. With resting being the main mechanism for healing, inns were particularly important. Adventuring in BaK was actually adventuring, and every foray was an expedition. Injury, illness, poison, starvation...always loomed over the player. The game had a lot in common with Oregon Trail, in that regard.

 

[Alienman]

Sexual Healing

Warrior, check.
Wizard, check.
Rogue, check.
Marvin Gaye, check.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Of course, the problem is so few games actually care about time passing because plebs can't handle even the most generous deadlines. It really only seems to get a pass in games with a strategic layer where it's not a binary fail state for taking too much time, but the enemy digs in harder the longer you delay.

Therein lies the rub, since there's no real reason for most RPGs to restrict your healing this way, why should they bother? Even if it's something as mundane as changing what ending you get, people who can't get the best ending will bitch about it.

Though, that said, if you really want to do your resurrection in-game and in-story permanently killing someone off, you can always change it so that in-game "death" is just getting knocked unconscious, thereby removing the entire issue from the equation. It's just that DnD and its many rip-offs have us convinced that we should be dying and resurrecting so much we get frequent flier miles to the afterlife. If they really wanted to be clever, you can't heal knocked out unless you go back to a town or something.