Enhanced Resistive Formula: Absurdly OP?

[im_robertb]

Eberron Player's Guide, Page 93

Enhanced Resistive Formula:

Prerequisite: 11th level, artificer, healing infusion class feature
Benefit: When your resistive formula grants temporary hit points to you or an ally, that character can grant an equal number of temporary hit points to one ally within 5 squares of him or her.


Eberron Player's Guide, Page 45

Healing Infusion: Resistive Formula (Artificer Feature)
Encounter (Special) * Arcane
Minor Action Close burst 5
Target: You or one ally in burst
Effect: The target gains a +1 power bonus to AC until the end of the encounter, and you expend an infusion crafted with your Healing Infusion class feature. The target can end the bonus as a free action to gain temporary hit points equal to its healing surge value + your Constitution modifier.
Level 11: Burst 10 and add twice your CON mod.
Level 21: Burst 15 and add 3 times your CON mod.
Special: You can use two Healing Infusion powers per encounter, but only one per round. At 16th level, you can use three Healing Infusion powers per encounter, but only one per round.

Is it just me, or is this...utterly ridiculous? It grants 2 party members more than HS Value in temporary hit points. You can do this twice per encounter. What were they thinking?

 

[keterys]

They also didn't have temp hp go away after 5 minutes (ie, if people avoid short resting). And made the battlerager. I think they've got a blind spot for temp hp.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

They also didn't have temp hp go away after 5 minutes (ie, if people avoid short resting). And made the battlerager. I think they've got a blind spot for temp hp.

Do any?

The PHB says:

Last until You Rest: Your temporary hit points last until they’re reduced to 0 by damage or until you take a rest.

Any temp HP that only lasted 5 min wouldnt be as good as the base temp HP presented in the PHB.

 

[keterys]

Yes, that's my point. That temp hp in general do not go away after 5 minutes.

They really, really should.

 

[chitzk0i]

The PHB does say that you have to "rest" during a short rest, but it doesn't say you have to stop and do absolutely nothing. The text is vague enough that you could probably take a short rest while walking through a dungeon as long as you aren't hustling. Given that, just about the only thing players can reliably do to prevent a short rest is find another fight before 5 minutes are up, but a) I find that unlikely and b) the missing encounter powers are a pretty fair trade for keeping their temp. hit points and c) you can almost always add a five minute long hallway.

On the other hand, if the party tries to let some people take a short rest while others keep their temps, what are they going to do? Jog around to keep from resting? I would say something like, "Your jog is very invigorating and strangely... resting. You've taken a short rest and your temps are gone." If they try to spar to keep on their toes, then hitting each other used up the temps.

Now, Enhanced Resistive Formula is awesome, but it takes some forethought and planning to keep those temps from going to waste.

ETA: It's awesome with a ranger beast companion. Check out how big their surge value is by paragon!

 

[eamon]

Is it just me, or is this...utterly ridiculous? It grants 2 party members more than HS Value in temporary hit points. You can do this twice per encounter. What were they thinking?

Unlike "real" healing, temporary hit points still don't stack; so while this is quite attractive, there's limits to its use. Also, compared to other healing powers, this power heals a relatively small amount, and its risky in the sense that it costs healing surges even when the temporary hitpoints come to nothing. For that matter, it costs a feat to be able to do this in the first place. Then, whereas most healers can very efficiently heal a party in one (or several) short rests, this artificer build is very bad at that, granting almost no bonuses to such healing.

This looks quite good, but I certainly don't think it looks "utterly ridiculous". I mean, other leaders get other very solid damage-reducing/healing abilities, so this seems par for the course. Even with this, I expect the artificer is still a ways behind the cleric in terms of healing.

 

[keterys]

A lot of it depends on the campaign and how many fights you're likely to see in one day. One of the strong points of the artificer healing is that you can move surges around, so it's no longer about one person's surges running out. You can very, very freely spend surges as a group.

So a fun thing you can do... say you have a 12th level group with a warden with 112 hp and a wizard with 68 hp. After a short rest you use a single resistive formula on the warden, giving him 38 temp hp... and giving the wizard 38 temp hp. More than the wizard's bloodied value, and equivalent to a surge + 3d6 from a tactical warlord. Hardly poor value.

Then the warden and wizard do calisthenics, not resting, while you do a short rest to get the formula back. Cost: 1 surge from anyone, and _someone_ will have an extra surge, gain: 76 hp of ablative that will likely turn the next combat into a relative cakewalk. If you've got one or two more allies, repeat before resting and use the barbarian's surge value to give the rogue ridiculous temp hp, or whatever.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Just rule that if one person rests, the entire group is considered to rest (calisthenics are insufficient to avoid a short rest). Even without the feat, an artificer could "pre-buff" a party to 125% normal hp (using temporary hp) by resting several times, but I'd consider that cheese and not what the designers intended. I'd allow an artificer with this feat to "pre-buff" up to 4 party members, but I'd also consider his infusions expended for the next encounter.

As long as the players don't try to exploit the rules, I think the ability is fine. It's a lot of temps, but temps are tricky to work with. Any that don't get used by the end of an encounter are wasted.

I actually think the feat could encourage some interesting tactics, like buffing the Warden with a Resistive at the beginning of the encounter so that he can assist allies (by granting temps) in case the artificer becomes dazed/stunned and cannot heal.

 

[keterys]

Just rule that if one person rests, the entire group is considered to rest

One possible solution, though not one that matters for games like Living Forgotten Realms.

but I'd consider that cheese and not what the designers intended.

Maybe. Much like I'm sure they didn't intend for pre-errata battleragers to be able to hit a target multiple times with invigorating powers then go into the next combat with a crazy amount of stacked temp hp.

As long as the players don't try to exploit the rules, I think the ability is fine. It's a lot of temps, but temps are tricky to work with. Any that don't get used by the end of an encounter are wasted.

True, you probably want to focus on defenders and people who burn temp hp to power abilities like Bloodclaw, if you're not allowed to just put it on everyone ahead of time.

 

[Obryn]

FWIW, I agree with keterys and have already houseruled my game so that temp HPs, like every other effect, only last 5 minutes.

-O