From D&D 3.5 to 5.0(5E) - 21 - Recovering Hit Dice - Different Than Hit Points

By now you probably know that when your character has a long rest they recover ALL of their hit points, even if you only had 1 at the end of the day and your hit point maximum is 100.  You might feel like Loki after confronting the Hulk at the end of the day, but your will feel 100% better the next morning.
You may also know that during the day you may spend some of your "Hit Dice" after a "short rest" to regain hit points.  This is a new use for the concept of "Hit Dice" that was not present in 3.5.
If my fighter is 8th level, then he has 8 Hit Dice and is an 8d10 creature.  Let's pretend the fighter has a 72HP maximum.  During the morning you fight off some small dragons and after the battle you are still down 35HP of damage.  You are on your own with no healing.  You can take a short rest, and then expend some of your "Hit Dice" to recover some hit points.

1. You decide to expend 3 of your "Hit Dice" to regain hit points so your roll a d10 three times.  (Fighters roll a d10 because they use d10 "Hit Dice".  If your character is a monk he would roll a d8 instead of a d10.  Check your class description for the Hit Dice roll to use.
2. As you roll the 3d10 you get a 7, a 4, and a 2 for a total of 13HP.
3. You are now down 22HP instead of 35HP.
4. But you would like to recover more hit points, so you tell the DM that you are going to spend 2 more of your 8 Hit Dice.
5. You roll a 7 and an 8 for a total of 15HP.
6. You are now down 7HP instead of 22HP.  Much better.
7. You have spent 5 of your 8 Hit Dice for the day.

The rest of your day is uneventful; you take your long rest and recover all of the hit points you were down.  You are now at your maximum of 72HP again.  But you have NOT recovered all of your Hit Dice.  You are starting out the new day with only 7 of you 8 Hit Dice available to you.  This is because the rules state, on page 171 of the PHB, that you recover just "half" of your Hit Dice each day at a maximum.  Since your maximum Hit Dice is 8, you can only recover 4 of your Hit Dice after each long rest.

I think this is to discourage players from using your Hit Dice too casually.  You want to put some thought into it each day if you expect the next day may also be challenging.

D&D 3.5 - Can my character with Spell Immunity to Silence talk to other characters in the Silence?

Our party of intrepid adventurers encountered pixies that could cast silence on themselves at will with a 15' radius.  This greatly affected the abilities of the spell casters.  One spell caster cast Spell Immunity (PH 282) against silence on himself.  As expected, this caused an interruption in game play to debate the rules of spell immunity to silence.  We identified five possible scenarios to be adjudicated.  Poof casts Spell Immunity, Silence on himself.  Talia, the bard, is outside the area of silence and singing.  Poof moves into the area of silence.  Devis is already in the silenced area.

Q1) What happens when Poof attempts to cast a spell while within the area of silence?

A1) Obviously, he can cast verbal spells successfully due to his Spell Immunity.

Q2) Can Poof hear Talia singing when she is outside the area of silence and he is inside the area?

A2) Yes, because he is immune to the effects of the silence spell.

Q3) Can Talia, being outside the area of silence hear what Poof is saying when he is in the silence?

A3) We decided the answer was Yes, although an argument could be made that sounds emanating from Poof get blocked by the area of silence before reaching Talia.  We felt that would violate the spirit of the Spell Immunity spell and would also possibly imply that Poof could not even cast spells within an area of silence if "the universe" could not hear what Poof was casting.

Q4) Can Devis, who is also within the same silence area as Poof, hear what Poof is saying?

A4) No.  Even though the silence does not affect Poof and his ability to put vocalizations into the air, those vocalizations do not reach Devis because Devis is affected by the silence.  This does imply that the vocalizations could go past Devis to reach Talia beyond him and she, being outside the area of silence, could hear him.

Q5) Can Poof hear what Devis says when both are in the area of silence?

A5) Again no.  The sounds Devis makes are blocked by the silence spell.  The spell is effectively muting Devis while not affecting Poof.

Sound emanates from one source, vocalizations from mouths in these examples, and is received by another source, the ears.  This complicates trying to create rules based on the laws of physics.  Does the silence spell affect the source of the sound, or the reception of the sound?  One of our group thought that silence only impacted hearing, not vocalizations, but that the reason you were unable to cast spells within an area of silence is that you were unable to hear yourself in order to vocalize correctly.  We were able to rule out that interpretation by the fact that even verbal commands to items did not work, and the description of "Control Plants" spell on PH 213 implies that all vocal communication is impossible for people within silence.

The above is our House Rule.


UPDATE on March 29, 2017:

After a close reading of the Silence spell, I see that our house rules are incorrect, but we plan to play by our house rules rather than what the books say.  We think the silence spell is overly powerful (for a 2^nd level spell) when cast upon a moving creature.

THE CORRECT RULES: 

Spell Immunity does not work unless Spell Resistance is allowed: PH 282 “…immunity doesn’t protect a creature from spells for which spell resistance doesn’t apply...”

In the Silence spell it lists this for “spell resistance”:

Spell Resistance: Yes; see text or no (object)

“…The spell can be cast on a point in space, but the effect is stationary unless cast on a mobile object. The spell can be centered on a creature, and the effect then radiates from the creature and moves as it moves. An unwilling creature can attempt a Will save to negate the spell and can use spell resistance, if any. Items in a creature’s possession or magic items that emit sound receive the benefits of saves and spell resistance, but unattended objects and points in space do not…”

I am pretty sure it should be ruled that Spell Immunity to silence would only apply to an attempt to cast silence directly upon the target.  If you would attempt to say that silenced flying monsters are “creatures” and thus a different ruling would apply (I don’t think it would), that could easily be resolved by saying there is a Silence upon an object the monsters are carrying because the monsters cast the silence upon that object instead of themselves.

The silence spell is probably overly powerful when it is used to cast upon a willing creature, thus that is why we wanted to allow Spell Immunity to work against it.