5e's resource-management system is silly, unfun gameplay that forces DMs and players to act as adversaries instead of allies. It's time to abolish and replace it.
First, Will points seem to be another version of Stamina points and the like that we saw in some of the 3/3.5 and Pathfinder 1E optional rules and which was a core part of D20 Star Wars and Starfinder. Lots of other systems have had a version of it too. I think it's a good idea, though I do think that the massive amount of healing available in baseline 5E kinda made it a moot point. Under your proposed system it seems like PCs would be going into almost every encounter at max capacity, which does seem to be what a lot of groups gravitate toward. But if that's the goal, why not just say PCs start every encounter topped off?
Second, I don't see how this prevents casters from going nova at all, in fact I would argue it encourages it. Even if some spells are Long Rest and some of Short Rest, you are still dramatically increasing the casting capacity of any caster. Why wouldn't they go nova on every encounter if they know they can just rest for 5 minutes and get the majority of their spells back?
Third, this increases combat length rather dramatically as you're increasing everything's hit points without increasing the capacity for damage dealing. Doing some of the cool things we want to do in combat is even harder now because enemies have a big pool of Will points that have to be hacked through first before you even do real damage. Downing a low HP monster in one hit becomes much rarer like this. And ultimate the party is going to spend more resources on each encounter to resolve it. It seems like this would encourage players to be more frivolous with their resources and less likely to retreat from combat or try to find another way to resolve an encounter because they can go so much longer and know they can get the majority of their resources back after every encounter.
Finally, tieing HP healing to HD I think is inherently limiting, as the max healing any character can receive in a day is basically equal to their HP (assuming all rolls are average). This ultimately caps how many encounters a group can have in a day far more than the RAW rest system does I think. Fighter types for instance tend to take far more damage than anyone else and to need the most healing. It's not unusual in the typical adventuring day for a front liner to have taken many times more damage than their max HP over the course of the day thanks to healing. Now, you've limited how many encounters a melee type can have and made them a resource sink; RAW they have a pool of healing to draw upon from their allies' spells in addition to their HD that could be used in a short rest, under your proposed system now both of those resources are limited by the other and use each other, meaning that fighter types have LESS of the primary resource they need for adventuring over the course of a day than they do raw. One possible way to address this is to switch Will Points and Hit Points; make Will Points the much larger total and Hit Points much smaller. That would make HP damage less frequent but also far more dire, and would make HD much less limiting to how many encounters melee types could have.
I hope you don't take my critiques in the wrong spirit, I find this fascinating and enjoy exploring this topic and your insights into it:)
Very interesting. Only if I have to change the main basics of the system it is better to change to another system already. I like DnD but I don't have the strength to fix it all the time anymore.
5e’s Encounter System is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.
Few initial thoughts.
First, Will points seem to be another version of Stamina points and the like that we saw in some of the 3/3.5 and Pathfinder 1E optional rules and which was a core part of D20 Star Wars and Starfinder. Lots of other systems have had a version of it too. I think it's a good idea, though I do think that the massive amount of healing available in baseline 5E kinda made it a moot point. Under your proposed system it seems like PCs would be going into almost every encounter at max capacity, which does seem to be what a lot of groups gravitate toward. But if that's the goal, why not just say PCs start every encounter topped off?
Second, I don't see how this prevents casters from going nova at all, in fact I would argue it encourages it. Even if some spells are Long Rest and some of Short Rest, you are still dramatically increasing the casting capacity of any caster. Why wouldn't they go nova on every encounter if they know they can just rest for 5 minutes and get the majority of their spells back?
Third, this increases combat length rather dramatically as you're increasing everything's hit points without increasing the capacity for damage dealing. Doing some of the cool things we want to do in combat is even harder now because enemies have a big pool of Will points that have to be hacked through first before you even do real damage. Downing a low HP monster in one hit becomes much rarer like this. And ultimate the party is going to spend more resources on each encounter to resolve it. It seems like this would encourage players to be more frivolous with their resources and less likely to retreat from combat or try to find another way to resolve an encounter because they can go so much longer and know they can get the majority of their resources back after every encounter.
Finally, tieing HP healing to HD I think is inherently limiting, as the max healing any character can receive in a day is basically equal to their HP (assuming all rolls are average). This ultimately caps how many encounters a group can have in a day far more than the RAW rest system does I think. Fighter types for instance tend to take far more damage than anyone else and to need the most healing. It's not unusual in the typical adventuring day for a front liner to have taken many times more damage than their max HP over the course of the day thanks to healing. Now, you've limited how many encounters a melee type can have and made them a resource sink; RAW they have a pool of healing to draw upon from their allies' spells in addition to their HD that could be used in a short rest, under your proposed system now both of those resources are limited by the other and use each other, meaning that fighter types have LESS of the primary resource they need for adventuring over the course of a day than they do raw. One possible way to address this is to switch Will Points and Hit Points; make Will Points the much larger total and Hit Points much smaller. That would make HP damage less frequent but also far more dire, and would make HD much less limiting to how many encounters melee types could have.
I hope you don't take my critiques in the wrong spirit, I find this fascinating and enjoy exploring this topic and your insights into it:)
You are going to a lot of trouble to re-invent 4e, without letting on that you are re-inventing 4e.
Very interesting. Only if I have to change the main basics of the system it is better to change to another system already. I like DnD but I don't have the strength to fix it all the time anymore.