View source for Z's Endurance Points (5e Variant Rule)

==Z's Endurance Points==

With this variant rule, a creature possesses Endurance Points equal to their maximum hit points. When your Hit Points are reduced to 0, any remaining damage is dealt to your Endurance Points, as is any damage taken while your Hit Points are at 0. This does not, however, affect the process of making death saving throws in any way.

While your Hit Points are at 0, any healing you receive, such as from the ''Cure Wounds'' spell or the ''Lay On Hands'' feature, restore your Endurance Points. When your Endurance Points are restored to their maximum, any remaining healing is restored to your Hit Points. 

If you are reduced to 0 Endurance Points, you die outright, regardless of death saving throws. 

===The Results===
With this variant rule, healing downed party members becomes a much more intensive process - Thus, if an enemy is holding a knife to the throat of a PC's sister as a hostage to guarantee his safe escape, that becomes a threat more credible than "Meh, I'll just ''Healing Word'' her; Cut him down anyway." This is because unless the damage reduces the target to exactly 0 hit points, a single healing spell may not be enough to revive her in time while they combat the enemy.

Additionally, these are healing spells that are not broken by the Wizard's 18th-level ability - Spell Mastery - And could thus, in theory, be allowed to the Wizard class. Regardless of your feelings on class identity, infinite at-will healing is broken at any level, and this change allows for some medical-themed wizards without creating an unbeatable party of adventurers.

====Reworked Healing Spells====
I've reworked the two most common healing spells to be a little more effective with this variant rule, though they can easily be used outside of the variant. 

These spells are still instantaneous, restore a larger amount of hit points, and grant the target a small number of Temporary Hit Points to mitigate further damage; However, these spells cannot restore a creature to hit points exceeding one-half of their hit points maximum - So, if a creature with 30 maximum hit points is healed by one of these spells, the highest number of hit points it could have after being healed by one of these spells is 15, regardless of the amount of healing rolled when casting the spell. 

Additionally, Healing Word was changed - No longer does it heal for a larger number of hit points for each spell level above 1st, but instead it may target an additional creature per spell level above 1st.

*[[Z's Cure Wounds (5e Spell) | Z's Cure Wounds]]
*[[Z's Healing Word (5e Spell) | Z's Healing Word]]

====New Healing Spells====

The following spells are also designed to work with this variant rule. They work similarly to the reworked spells above, but with a few key differences - They have a duration of 1 minute, requiring concentration; Only grant 1 hit point upon casting, but grant a higher number of Temporary Hit Points that persist for the duration; And they restore additional hit points at the start of the target creature's turns each round while the spell persists.
*[[Gift of Recovery (5e Spell) | Gift of Recovery]]
*[[Revitalizing Word (5e Spell) | Revitalizing Word]]

----
{{5e Variant Rules Breadcrumb}}

[[Category:5e]]
[[Category:User]]
[[Category:Variant Rule]]
[[Category:Transformational Variant Rule]]
{{Navboxes}}
Author	Zhenra-Khal +
Identifier	5e Variant Rule +
Rating	Undiscussed +
Summary	Bringing Negative Hit Points into 5e, both to clarify and unify the rule for use, and to help mitigate the whack-a-mole of Healing Word-ing downed allies. +
Title	Z's Endurance Points +