D&D 4th Edition RulesAsk questions about 4th-Edition rules and the like in here. General discussion about 4E or any other game belongs in General RPG Discussion, above.
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I wouldn't call it "broken" because the rate of healing really is quite slow (5+Con bonus hit points per use), but unicorn's touch (Swordmage Utility 6, Arcane Power) is an encounter power that allows the user to restore hit points to himself or an ally without having to spend any healing surges. If the PCs aren't in a hurry, they will never need to spend healing surges outside of combat again!
I have this idea that the environment of an encounter is exciting sometimes frightening and indeed some of the powers might only work during that energized boosted encounter time. The unicorn is definitely a spirited beast... so you might find it doesn't even work outside of an encounter.
While I can see the issue, it's not all that far away from "If you have a lot of time, you can save your healing surges through the Cleric's Healing Word". Yeah, it's doable, and supported, but if you as a DM don't like it, put a time limit on things, or throw in some random encounters.
For my game, this power won't have much of any impact, since I tend to get the tension out of 'the cleric is out of healing words' in a single combat, rather than 'I'm out of surges for today'. The latter is way too likely to get characters randomly killed for my liking (if that's your game, of course, feel free).
"If you have a lot of time, you can save your healing surges through the Cleric's Healing Word". Yeah, it's doable,
What? Healing word lets you spend a surge (but get an extra benefit). You still have to spend a surge, but you'll just spend less. UT means you spend no surges at all.
That is a different kettle of fish, with a cleric you spend less. With a 6th+ level paladin you spend none at all!
Second: Quoting myself, I said "it's not that far away", and proceeded to explain why. Yes, you spend no surge at all on this power, and Healing Word does use a surge. Barring circumstances during which time is of the essence, both can be used to optimize healing. Healing Word does it a lot quicker than Unicorn's Touch, but it uses surges, meaing that the latter might be faster in the long run (never needing to take an extended rest due to running out of surges).
My main point was that this usage of these powers seems more or less to require the same from the story/DM, meaning that you don't have to mind these shenanigans (a lot of DM's I saw post on here already got an apoplexy from repeated uses of Healing Word and short rests... this would be worse in their book), and there can't be any timing in the storyline. IMO, though, if time is of no importance anyway, why do you care if they can heal without using surges all day long? They might just as well use HW, and use extended rests when one of them runs out of surges.
Yeah, there's a modicum of difference, but only in specific storylines and campaigns, in which the DM can call shenanigans on it all.
I wasnt aware that sword mages were priests (ok not quite priests) of the unicorn but combined with all the blinking effects representing the uncatchability of the unicorn and since the unicorns horn is a symbol of certain "swords" it actually makes sense.
Personally it actually doesn't bother me, the main reason is hp and therefore healing does not represent long term injury... and well somebody getting back their spirit, recovering their luck, and fairly fast recovering from muscle fatigue..(hit points are the resource we spend to avoid real wounds) so this doesnt bother me.
I see the DM as having some say over the use of powers explicitly outside of an encounter... so either way they might rule works.
Last edited by Garthanos; 8th May 2009 at 03:54 PM..
Like that 'will wotc ever get it right thread'; the often don't think to deeply about these things do they!
Nailing things down real tight can give less room for interesting interpretation... like the dm deciding that the energy to do encounter powers comes literally from being in the encounter itself, shrug.
Every other edition of DnD has had infinite healing. Whats the problem? The fact that 4E restricted potions to using healing surges and removing the ability to recover from some bad dice rolls without having to rest I see as a huge problem with 4E. The DM can't slip some extra healing potions on enemies to let the party recover and instead has to break the storyline and let the party rest or watch as they walk into the next fight in a state that will TPK them.
Honestly, I don't see anyone taking this power when one of the alternatives is Armathor's Step.
I mean, I can see how it might in some weird play-style become a problem, but it's a tiny amount of free healing, when it comes down to it. If you can spend enough time to go from low to full on it, you might as well do an extended rest.
Every other edition of DnD has had infinite healing. Whats the problem? The fact that 4E restricted potions to using healing surges and removing the ability to recover from some bad dice rolls without having to rest I see as a huge problem with 4E. The DM can't slip some extra healing potions on enemies to let the party recover and instead has to break the storyline and let the party rest or watch as they walk into the next fight in a state that will TPK them.
Unlimited healing ... has a bit less plausibility for me, I like healing surges. The idea of inspiration and luck and energy being "deep resources" in the subject is cool to me.
Though I also like potion interaction limitations, ie if you take potions while you are still under the influence of a previous one (how long does a healing potions influence last?) then you get unpredictable and or dangerous results.
Meh. It'll take hours to heal a whole party. Healing surges have never been an issue for us. Course, we do the multiple rest thing to get more clerical bonuses, so this will only boost that slightly.
This also doesn't scale well at all. At level 7 or so, it is just a drop in the bucket. So it has 5 levels of goodness, 5 more levels of something to consider, and after that isn't worth the action to use.
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