Free healing with Life Transference

[castro3nw]

So, I noticed this interaction the other day. It seems like a Longtooth Shifter Cleric with Life Transference can heal nearly the entire party to full, without spending any healing surges. It only requires taking 3-4 extra short rests.

If I'm reading things right, I could use Life Transference to heal someone, then rest. Repeat that until bloodied and use the Longtooth Shifting power to regenerate hp back to bloodied. From then on, I can just Life Transference then Shift over and over until the entire party is at full hp, and I'm bloodied. From there, it's not very hard to heal myself to a reasonable point, spending maybe one surge tops.

So the question is.. Am I missing something that makes this not work? Or is it really that silly? Yes, I do know that an extra 30 minutes of resting isn't always going to be possible.

Pertinent information:

Life Transference Cleric Utility 2
Encounter • Divine, Healing
Standard Action Melee touch
Target: One creature
Effect You take damage equal to your healing surge value,
which can't be reduced in any way. The target regains hit
points equal to twice that value.

Longtooth Shifting Shifter Racial Power
Encounter ✦ Healing
Minor Action Personal
Requirement: You must be bloodied.
Effect: Until the end of the encounter, you gain a +2 bonus
to damage rolls. In addition, while you are bloodied, you
gain regeneration 2.

Until the End of the Encounter: The effect ends
when you take a rest (short or extended) or after 5 minutes.

 

[DracoSuave]

Yeah, it works. It's viability depends solely on whether or not that extra 30 minutes is trouble or not for the party. In the wilderness? Go for it, but then if you're travelling long distance, the need to heal quick and surge-free isn't a problem. In the enemy's camp while you're raiding? You're lucky if you can get 10 minutes free time to rest, never mind 30. It's a risk, and one the DM should certainly call into play.

 

[tmatk]

That's silly. As a DM I would rule out those abilities outside of combat. IMO, encounter powers require an actual encounter.

 

[DracoSuave]

Meh. They're still spending their surges in battle. It's not like they've escaped healing surges all together. Hell, go with Pacifist Healer, and then you're healing Surge+Surge+Wisdom+Charisma+1d6...

...and when appropriate throw in random encounters that discourage this sort of behavior in inappropriate situations. Then this becomes a choice, do they use it and risk being attacked, or do they just spend the surges and go. Once it becomes a choice -with real consequences- the thought that it is a broken interaction goes away.

Given how lately, they've been introducing more and more feats and abilities to permit and encourage the use of healing powers outside of battle, this is just more of that.

 

[Shin Okada]

It may work. But the risk of being attacked while the party cleric is bloodied (or worse) will increase.

 

[Nifft]

The thing you're missing is that Life Transference can be used on yourself. No regeneration necessary: you hurt yourself for 1 surge and give yourself 2 surges.

It's just plain broken as written.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Thanee]

Hehe, yep. I wondered about that a while back already.

Using Life Transference on yourself surely is not the way it is meant to work.


BTW, you do not need to be a Longtooth Shifter, you can also be a Cleric of Melora.


I see no problem there (except the use-it-on-yourself one).

Bye
Thanee

 

[DracoSuave]

Using a standard action and one of your utility powers to heal yourself your surge value + wisdom is broken?

I wouldn't say it's broken per se, but it does make Cure Light Wounds look like a terrible choice. Perhaps if it were a higher level power it might be more fixed.

Make it daily, there's no problems.

 

[Nifft]

Using a standard action and one of your utility powers to heal yourself your surge value + wisdom is broken?

Yep. Outside of combat, which is the whole context of this discussion, it sure is.

Make it daily, there's no problems.

Then it would suck.

The real solution: make it only usable in combat. E.g. "Target: an ally who was hit by an enemy since the end of your last turn."

Cheers, -- N

 

[castro3nw]

The thing you're missing is that Life Transference can be used on yourself. No regeneration necessary: you hurt yourself for 1 surge and give yourself 2 surges.

It's just plain broken as written.

Cheers, -- N

No, I caught that... I was purposefully not considering it, 'cuz it's just as broken as you say it is if that's allowed.

Life Transference is so crazy. Good call on Cleric of Melora though, I was wondering if there was any other encounter power regeneration.