this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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Really? I actually think it's one of the strengths of 5e. In 3.5 you just have negative hitpoints down to -10, and that doesn't scale with level or anything so it's barely relevant after the first few levels. And it's nice to not be just DRT when you get downed in combat.
Each to their own. I really hate the resulting meta it leads to. Healing is worthless in dnd 5e because of the action economy, it makes more sense to let someone go down and then bring them back up. That's slightly better in pathfinder but not much. Overall I just really hate the combat in dnd 5e though, it's so incredibly boring. Especially after having played other systems.
Do you have a system you like where healing is a good idea? I'm a 3.5 native so I'm kind of used to the philosophy of "the best healing is killing them before you take damage." But I'm interested in systems design in general and if there's a particularly good example of doing it better I'd love to learn about it.
Pathfinder 2e healing feels valuable. Fabula Ultima healing feels almost necessary.
Could you elaborate? How do their healing systems work? What makes them good?
Pathfinder 2e healing actually heals a substantial amount of hp, so using the actions to do so feels valuable. Additionally, although it still has the same weeble-wobble effect as dnd 5e, it has a condition called Wounded which makes it more dangerous to go down to 0 hp successively, incentivizing PCs to try and stay above 0. The encounter balance in pf2e is also just miles better than Dnd5e.
Fabula Ultima is modeled to feel like a JRPG (and does so wonderfully). Because healing is often a staple in those games, that feeling comes through well. Dropping to 0 hp removes you from the combat entirely, so it's a very bad thing to happen. The numbers are also smaller and tighter. Healing also often targets the whole party.