Xfer83 said:
You can spend as many surges as you need outside of encounters during a "short rest".
As for healing:
I was at D&DXP and played each of the LFR 4th Edition preview games. In one game the GM told me (I was playing the cleric) to use healing word to activate peoples surges during a "short rest" period between combats.
In the other game(different GM) our group was told that if the cleric used healing word outside of combat, the uses would be expended for the "next encounter".
So if you used healing words after your second encounter but before your 3rd, you would not have them available during the third encounter.
Obviously these rulings were contradictory and I don't know which one is the correct ruling.
Anybody else play at the XP and want to share how outside of combat healing worked.
From everything that has been said elsewhere, Healing Word would *not* be expended, if the next encounter was at least 5 minutes away.
1/per encounter translates to 1/5min out of combat.
IF you used your Healing Word in encounter A, then rested for five minutes, then used it again, then was involved in an encounter less that 5minutes of game time later, I would adjudicate that you would not be able to use Healing Word in the Encounter B.
If, however, you rested a total of 10 minutes after Encounter A, then I would rule it as 'recharged'
What say the people?
Healing Word uses 1 of each of the parties healing surges, and grants additional healing on top of the normally healed amount.
Edit: By 'used' I mean both charges that you get in an encounter.
Not that, in that fashion, all the party would have used at least 4 healing surges. Which is quite a lot for a single encounter.
With regards to NPCs, if it is not mentioned, I will give them healing surges that are useable only OOC.