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Healing in Combat
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5962571" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>The encouragement of in-combat healing in 4e isn't "bizarre" within the logic of 4e's design - it's part of the overall pacing of 4e combat, which is (roughly) that the monsters/NPCs start strong and hit hard, but the PCs bounce back by drawing on the depth of their resources (powers, action points, healing surges).</p><p></p><p>In-combat healing is one significant part of that dynamic.</p><p></p><p>Yes. Ablative hit points lost in only modest doses per combat make for boring play, unless those combats are quick and subordinate to some other focus of play.</p><p></p><p>I think this is correct. And it raises the question, what is the point of "wearing down" combats? As in, in what way are they supposed to be fun?</p><p></p><p></p><p>I think there is a deep mechanical incoherence in a game where the PC build rules, the action resolution rules, the encounter designe rules, etc, all focus on combat as the principal site of conflict resolution - and the game then says (or tries to say) "By the way, if you get into combat you're doing it wrong."</p><p></p><p>The way to have less combat in an RPG is to make something else the mechanical focus of play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5962571, member: 42582"] The encouragement of in-combat healing in 4e isn't "bizarre" within the logic of 4e's design - it's part of the overall pacing of 4e combat, which is (roughly) that the monsters/NPCs start strong and hit hard, but the PCs bounce back by drawing on the depth of their resources (powers, action points, healing surges). In-combat healing is one significant part of that dynamic. Yes. Ablative hit points lost in only modest doses per combat make for boring play, unless those combats are quick and subordinate to some other focus of play. I think this is correct. And it raises the question, what is the point of "wearing down" combats? As in, in what way are they supposed to be fun? I think there is a deep mechanical incoherence in a game where the PC build rules, the action resolution rules, the encounter designe rules, etc, all focus on combat as the principal site of conflict resolution - and the game then says (or tries to say) "By the way, if you get into combat you're doing it wrong." The way to have less combat in an RPG is to make something else the mechanical focus of play. [/QUOTE]
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