Healing Surge and recovery after extended rest effect modification...

[gweinel]

Well, new to the 4th... still haven't played any game, but intent to dm a new campaign.
Me and my gaming group really didnt like the healing surge idea (at least to that extent) and the full hp recovery after an extented rest.
So, if i eliminate the full hp recovery after extended rest and limit the healing surge to once/day after an extended rest, would make the game playable.
I mean that, these rules are so hardcoded to the game mechanics that would impact the gaming experiance?
Have in mind that i dont care if the gameplay would be slowed a bit...
I need some review of players that played w 4th edition rules...
thank you

 

[Obryn]

Well, new to the 4th... still haven't played any game, but intent to dm a new campaign.
Me and my gaming group really didnt like the healing surge idea (at least to that extent) and the full hp recovery after an extented rest.
So, if i eliminate the full hp recovery after extended rest and limit the healing surge to once/day after an extended rest, would make the game playable.
I mean that, these rules are so hardcoded to the game mechanics that would impact the gaming experiance?
Have in mind that i dont care if the gameplay would be slowed a bit...
I need some review of players that played w 4th edition rules...
thank you

It will encourage your players to play far more cautiously... It could work with a few other modifications, but as it is, the game you're describing would be more restrictive for healing than any previous edition of D&D.

Remember that nearly every healing power (except for some Dailies and Epic-tier powers) costs a healing surge to use. So, when a cleric uses Healing Word, it actually spends a surge to trigger that healing.

Even in 1e and 2e, you'd at most be looking at 2 days' rest (one for the cleric to prep all his or her Cure spells, then a second to let them get their real spells back). 3e had very inexpensive wands of cure light, which basically acted as magical auto-heal fountains for any party of 5th level or higher, along with abundant magical healing. With this, you'd be looking at around 2+ weeks for the fighters to get all their Surges & HP back.

-O

 

[gweinel]

It will encourage your players to play far more cautiously... It could work with a few other modifications, but as it is, the game you're describing would be more restrictive for healing than any previous edition of D&D.

Remember that nearly every healing power (except for some Dailies and Epic-tier powers) costs a healing surge to use. So, when a cleric uses Healing Word, it actually spends a surge to trigger that healing.

Even in 1e and 2e, you'd at most be looking at 2 days' rest (one for the cleric to prep all his or her Cure spells, then a second to let them get their real spells back). 3e had very inexpensive wands of cure light, which basically acted as magical auto-heal fountains for any party of 5th level or higher, along with abundant magical healing. With this, you'd be looking at around 2+ weeks for the fighters to get all their Surges & HP back.

-O

Thank you for the very usefull reply Obryn! If I keep the healing surges in name only? I mean to keep them only in order to be used by healers to make their healings and not to be used to heal the characters themselves. Of course the healing surge 1/day after an extended rest i intent to keep it

 

[gweinel]

a little up for anyone kind enough to help

 

[Samurai]

For my game, I decided that regaining 3 Healing Surges and 1/2 your HP (a number of HP equal to your Bloodied value) after each extended rest was sufficient. In 2 days, characters will be at full HP, and regain most of their Surges (6). Also, I said that the Durable feat not only gives you +2 Surges, it increases the number regained after each extended rest to 4.

I think only 1 surge per day recovery would create a very gritty, hard core game where you'll have very cautious players who rest for a week+ after each foray into the dungeon...

 

[hida_jiremi]

Healing Surges

Here are the healing rules for my 4E campaign, Heroes of Jade, a Japanese fantasy setting.


HEALING SURGES

All characters gain healing surges as normal, but their use is somewhat more limited in the Heroes of Jade setting. To reflect that damage is more persistent, a character can only use Second Wind once per day, rather than once per encounter. An ability that gives a character another use of Second Wind works normally. This prevents characters from completely healing outside of combat without the aid of trained healers or magical healing (which still draw on the character’s healing surges as normal).
A character trained in the Heal skill can make a DC 15 Heal check as a full-round action to give another character an extra daily use of Second Wind. No character can benefit from this effect more than once per day. So, a character might use his Second Wind in a combat, then afterward have a trained healer give him the ability to use another one that day. The first character could use his Second Wind immediately, or save it for a later time; after gaining the use of his Second Wind back from the Heal skill, whether he uses it or not, he cannot gain yet another use from any character using the Heal skill on him.
If a character drops below bloodied, then healing surges no longer allow him to gain hit points above that amount. For example, a character with 30 hit points is bloodied at 15. Once he goes below 15 hit points, no effect that relies on healing surges can restore him to more than 15 hit points. Abilities that heal damage without using healing surges (like the cure light wounds daily power) can do so normally. If brought above bloodied through such an ability, healing surges work normally once more.


NATURAL HEALING

Natural healing is also somewhat slower in the Heroes of Jade setting than in the core rules. This is, again, to emphasize the lethal nature of combat and to instill a certain amount of wariness in warriors. It is also to improve the verisimilitude (or “realism”) of the setting.
After an extended rest, a character recovers one healing surge and a number of hit points equal to his character level. If the character is at full healing surges, he instead recovers hit points equal to twice his character level. Characters can take the Quick Healer feat (see below) to improve this recovery rate.


Jeremy Puckett