How do you use "healing serums" in your campaing? (question to gamemasters)

[masterqgj]

Hi,

i'm wondering how you handle healing serums in your campaign. Technically a player could buy 100 healing serums MK I, and just "eat" them after or duiring a combat one by one to regain 1d8 HP each. The makes the need of stationary medical treatment kinda obsolete, especially since the price for a serum is kinda low.

So i'm wondering how you handle the serum and prevent players, in a somewhat logic and fair way, of just using them in large quantities?

Best regards!

[Flyteach]

OK, some quick ideas, maybe not so much to discourage as to make sure the play is balanced. During combat, they'll have to draw and consume the serum, so they can't attack and will provoke if they are in melee range. They aren't consumed with a free or swift action. After combat, well, if they can afford that many and can take the time to consume, it's not much different from medicine checks, magical heals, or rest except for the cost of the serums. They cost 50, so at first level, with only 1,000 credits to spend, they can only afford 20 of them and that means no armor, weapons, etc. so they'd have to survive the combat to consume them. Depending on where they are (physically, in game) you could also limit the number that the store/shop has on hand to purchase at any one time. As they get higher level, they'll get higher damage and need to consume more, still at Cr50 per serum and an average result of 4.5 heal points, so they will start to go pretty quick. You could also enact a house rule that they become less effective after 5 or 10 straight doses, so maybe reducing the heal by 1 point for each after the prescribed number (say 5) with still a minimum of 1 is another way to discourage. Seems to me that the balance is still there in the game.
Flyteach

[masterqgj]

Hey Flyteach,

thanks for your thoughts. The serums just seem to make the longer time to heal HP (in contrast to the fast regeneration of SP) kinda obsolete. I really like the idea that it takes more time to heal severe wounds and would like to preserve that "feature" somewhat. You can use a serum giving up an action im combat, so yes, i see that not really as a problem - but out of combat. I know at least one of my players who's a min/maxer and i fear that he might really use 10 or 20 serums after a fight just to keep healty.

Maybe some houserule like (several ideas consolidated in case someone else has the same question later):
1. in combat --> no problem, out of combat, only in medbay and once per day to prevent interaction with other meds or an overdose --> that would just not really explain why it is allowed in combat.
2. each and every use of a healing serum needs a (beginning low, but increasing DC) forti-save to prevent from getting "adicted" (resetting the counter afer a long rest) --> someone would need to keep track of which player used the serum how often each day
3. (mentioned by Flyteach) limit amount of serums sold by a vendor
4. (mentioned by Flyteach) the serum becomes weaker after several usages up to the point where it only heals 1 HP
5. (mentioned by deer_buster) One method would be to make them addictive and start a constitution poison path if they get addicted (give it a decent addiction factor - e.g. Fortitude Save DC, maybe start at 15, and go up by 2 for each serum after the first ). Each failure is another step up the poison path, until death! The only cure is by following the poison path
6. (mentioned by deer_buster) Another way is to start them out at sickened AFTER combat's adrenaline has run out if they take 1. On the next one, they add Fatigued. One more, they add Exhausted, and if they take a 4th, they get Nauseated, anything above that and they become unconcious. The only way to cure them of those conditions is 24hr of rest per serum, or get treated at a medical bay/facility, or perhaps even a spell.
7. (mentioned by superteddy57) Drugs might be illegal (or illegal in specific ammounts above "X per person") and the law might interfere with the large quantities stored.

[deer_buster]

Hey Flyteach,

thanks for your thoughts. The serums just seem to make the longer time to heal HP (in contrast to the fast regeneration of SP) kinda obsolete. I really like the idea that it takes more time to heal severe wounds and would like to preserve that "feature" somewhat. You can use a serum giving up an action im combat, so yes, i see that not really as a problem - but out of combat. I know at least one of my players who's a min/maxer and i fear that he might really use 10 or 20 serums after a fight just to keep healty.

Maybe some houserule like (several ideas consolidated in case someone else has the same question later):
1. in combat --> no problem, out of combat, only in medbay and once per day to prevent interaction with other meds or an overdose --> that would just not really explain why it is allowed in combat.
2. each and every use of a healing serum needs a (beginning low, but increasing DC) forti-save to prevent from getting "adicted" (resetting the counter afer a long rest) --> someone would need to keep track of which player used the serum how often each day
3. (mentioned by Flyteach) limit amount of serums sold by a vendor
4. (mentioned by Flyteach) the serum becomes weaker after several usages up to the point where it only heals 1 HP

@masterqgj, if you don't want to "limit" serum availability, perhaps you could introduce some non-supply related rules (sounds like that is what you need).

Serum is basically unlimited (I mean, they can make it with UBP, right), so think about adding "levels" of conditions to players that use serums.

One method would be to make them addictive and start a constitution poison path if they get addicted (give it a decent addiction factor - e.g. Fortitude Save DC, maybe start at 15, and go up by 2 for each serum after the first ). Each failure is another step up the poison path, until death! The only cure is by following the poison path

Another way is to start them out at sickened AFTER combat's adrenaline has run out if they take 1. On the next one, they add Fatigued. One more, they add Exhausted, and if they take a 4th, they get Nauseated, anything above that and they become unconcious. The only way to cure them of those conditions is 24hr of rest per serum, or get treated at a medical bay/facility, or perhaps even a spell.

Anyhow, just some thoughts...

[masterqgj]

Thank you deer-buster. Sounds kinda intriguing to me. I mean - it is still a drug, isn't it? :)

I gonna discuss the different ideas with my players, so they do get a way to add pros/cons to the different "solutions" .

[EmptyOwl]

Consider adding Bulk to that many. Sure, one is trivial, but 100?

[masterqgj]

I thought aobut that too EmptyOwl, but there's the problem of the group having a ship with a cargo hold :) so guess that won't work (at least not with a logical explanation :))

I believe i'm sticking somewhat around the fact that the medical stuff is still a drug and you can get addicted to it. It kinda makes sense to mee, since it is in RL the same with most (all?) medicaments.

[superteddy57]

I thought aobut that too EmptyOwl, but there's the problem of the group having a ship with a cargo hold :) so guess that won't work (at least not with a logical explanation :))

I believe i'm sticking somewhat around the fact that the medical stuff is still a drug and you can get addicted to it. It kinda makes sense to mee, since it is in RL the same with most (all?) medicaments.

If it was me, I'd also go the law route. Maybe they are illegal in this part of space. Now the law is on them during a "routine" inspection of the hold.

[Kaas00]

if it were me, I'd change the healing to be temporary hit points that last until the end of combat instead of hard hit points. Having them being more 'combat stim' oriented could make using them attractive to use early and during a fight to beef up with out feeling like a huge nerf. Big hits would be slightly effected but as the stims don't heal crazy damage it is likely that wounds would stay as wounds until treated. This also has the added benefit of being a simple change so players should be able to understand the change right away. I would also have their use be a standard/move action to prevent abuse by using one each turn, giving a player a choice of being risky or not as risky.

The only downside to this method is that it would interfere with spells/items that grant temporary HP, but depending on the characters in play it may not matter at all.