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5e, Heal Thyself! Is Healing Too Weak in D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 8622740" data-attributes="member: 7026594"><p>The way they've designed healing really feels to me like it's intended to produce certain patterns in combat.</p><p></p><p>Being 1 hit from dropping feels dramatic. Being unconscious and out of the action is frustrating (especially if you're in a group where other people aren't efficient on their turns). Healing Word as presently designed helps minimize the number of rounds a given character spends down and bleeding and unable to act, while generally still leaving them a hit from being unconscious again. Which feels tense and dramatic to the player. While the party (at least after the first few levels) may rarely feel like they could get TPK'd, individual PCs may regularly feel like they're fighting on the edge of being dropped.</p><p></p><p>I do agree that there's an unfortunate effect that players tend to take for granted that they'll be able to save someone. I think this "comfort factor" can be comforted by DM tactics; for example, throwing the occasional hit in on a downed PC will ramp up the danger and make the other PCs at least consider protecting the downed folks, even if they can't immediately heal them. But it does feel a little kludgy and run the risk of players feeling like the DM is fighting dirty. You have to manage expectations a bit to make it feel "fair" and realistic rather than like an antagonistic move. There's also the factor that the fixed initiative order limits how much a healer (or anyone else, for that matter) can choose to play cautious and deliberately intercede between enemy turns and those of Dying PCs. The randomness of initiative restricts some options, here.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mannahnin, post: 8622740, member: 7026594"] The way they've designed healing really feels to me like it's intended to produce certain patterns in combat. Being 1 hit from dropping feels dramatic. Being unconscious and out of the action is frustrating (especially if you're in a group where other people aren't efficient on their turns). Healing Word as presently designed helps minimize the number of rounds a given character spends down and bleeding and unable to act, while generally still leaving them a hit from being unconscious again. Which feels tense and dramatic to the player. While the party (at least after the first few levels) may rarely feel like they could get TPK'd, individual PCs may regularly feel like they're fighting on the edge of being dropped. I do agree that there's an unfortunate effect that players tend to take for granted that they'll be able to save someone. I think this "comfort factor" can be comforted by DM tactics; for example, throwing the occasional hit in on a downed PC will ramp up the danger and make the other PCs at least consider protecting the downed folks, even if they can't immediately heal them. But it does feel a little kludgy and run the risk of players feeling like the DM is fighting dirty. You have to manage expectations a bit to make it feel "fair" and realistic rather than like an antagonistic move. There's also the factor that the fixed initiative order limits how much a healer (or anyone else, for that matter) can choose to play cautious and deliberately intercede between enemy turns and those of Dying PCs. The randomness of initiative restricts some options, here. [/QUOTE]
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5e, Heal Thyself! Is Healing Too Weak in D&D?
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