Hit Dice - Part 1

You’ve just leveled up, and you need to either roll for more hit points, take the average or proceed through some complicated method your DM has come up with to get those precious bumps to your health. You find your Hit Dice somewhere on your sheet, figure out the amount, add your Constitution and don’t worry about them until you really need to take a short rest. But wouldn’t it be cool if you could use them for something more? 

Below are some ideas and design to give players more to do with their Hit Dice both in and out of combat. Each rule can be used on it’s own or in conjunction with the other rules depending on preference, but they all work well together. This rule-set imagines that Hit Dice are a limited pool of resources that represent your character’s physical fortitude. When you need to run that last mile, climb that last rung of the ladder, leap just one inch more you can expend some Hit Dice to help you succeed, although there will be a cost to your body, whether now or later. People push themselves beyond their limits in stressful situations all the time, when your adrenaline is running and you don’t realize the damage being done to your body till after the danger is past. Why can’t our character’s do the same? 

Additional Rule - Short and Long Rests

If you use one or more of the following rules, your players’ characters will run out of Hit Dice more quickly than the average character. To mitigate this, I recommend using these rules on recovering Hit Dice rather than the rules contained within the Player’s Handbook (which state you recover half your maximum amount of Hit Dice on a long rest.) 

Short Rest: If you begin a short rest with less than half of your maximum amount of Hit Dice remaining you may recover up to half your maximum amount of Hit Dice before you take a short rest (round down in both cases). You may then spend these Hit Dice as normal to recover hit points during your short rest.  

Example: You have a maximum of 7 Hit Dice, at the beginning of a short rest you have 2 out of 7 of your Hit Dice remaining, you may recover 1 additional Hit Dice for a total of 3 (half of 7, rounding down), you may then spend those Hit Dice to recover hit points as normal during a short rest. 

Long Rest: At the end of a long rest you may recover up to your maximum amount of Hit Dice.

Recharging Magic Items - In Combat

Isn't it just a bother when your magic items run out of charges in battle? Well now you can sacrifice your own lifeforce to recharge that Wand of Magic Missiles right when you need it. 

Resonant Consonance: As a bonus action you may select one of your magic items that has charges, and choose how many charges you would like to recover (up to its maximum charges). Expend that many Hit Dice and roll those Hit Dice, taking force damage equal to the amount on the dice. The magic item then recovers the amount of charges you selected. You can only use this ability during a Combat Encounter.

Note: Some magic items require you to roll a d20 when you deplete their last charge, and on a roll of 1 they lose their magic. This ability cannot recharge a magic item that has lost it’s magic in this way. If you recharge a magic item that has already been depleted, and it becomes depleted again, you must roll another d20 as per the item’s instructions. 

Taking an Extra Action

You missed with all your attacks, you don’t have anything you can do with your bonus action and now you just sit there waiting for your turn. What if you could exert some of your energy to take an extra attack when you really need it? 

Desperate Straits: If you take the attack action or cast a spell which requires a spell attack, and miss on all of your attacks, you may (once per round) expend 1 Hit Die to take an extra action. That action can be used to take the Attack (one weapon attack only,) Dash, Disengage, Hide or Use an Object action. You may also cast a spell that requires a spell attack (obeying the rules for casting multiple spells in one turn.) Once you have taken this action, roll the Hit Die you expended and take force damage equal to the amount on the die.

Reckless Exertion: Alternatively, you may (once per turn) expend 3 Hit Dice to take an extra action. That action can be used to take the Attack (one weapon attack only,) Dash, Disengage, Hide or Use an Object action. You may also cast a spell that requires a spell attack  (obeying the rules for casting multiple spells in one turn.) Once you have taken this action, roll the Hit Dice you expended and take force damage equal to the amount on the dice.

Casting an Additional Spell 

You need to get out of combat, and Misty Step is looking really good right about now,  but you also really want to cast that Fireball spell at all of those humans. Well with a bit of dangerous exertion of the magic running through your veins, you should be able too. Magic is all about risk! 

Incantation of Blood: If you have already used a bonus action to cast a spell this turn  you may (once per turn) expend 3 Hit Dice to cast another spell of 3rd level or lower as an action.  (This doesn’t give you an extra action, but can be combined with other abilities that do). Once you have cast the spell, roll the Hit Dice you expended and take force damage equal to the amount on the dice. If you wish to instead cast another spell of 4th level or higher, increase the Hit Dice expended for each slot level above 3rd.

Enough - They’re already dead - for now.

That should be enough extra rules and ideas to get started. Play with them if you think these rules are cool, and see what you think. I’ll be back soon with part 2 of these rules. For now

talis evolvere