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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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<blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 5697409" data-attributes="member: 17106"><p>The problem with healing surges is that they take the problem that is hit points, and they make it worse. As you've pointed out, hit points have always been abstract and vague. As you've also pointed out, while 3e improved the verisimilitude, fairness, and comprehensibility of many of the rules, hit points remained basically the same. This is a bad thing.</p><p></p><p>If I had been designing 4e, one of if not my single top priority would have been to dispose of hit points and introduce a system that really tracked health, injury, and sickness, and at least made some effort to reflect the fact that wounds hurt, wounds disable you, and wounds take time to heal. Doing that while keeping the game beginner-friendly (and rules lawyer-friendly, and everyone else-friendly) would be extraordinarily difficult, which is why it hasn't been done. But that is the next big breakthrough the PnP rpg hobby is waiting for.</p><p></p><p>I use a modified vitality/wound system, which is not perfect but so much better than hit points, and still certainly allows heroes to be tough. Quick healing of vitality damage (but not severe wounds) also removes the "need" for healing surges.</p><p></p><p>Healing surges have several problems. They describe instant healing of damage that, while abstract, is lethal damage that could have killed a character. Verisimilitude is a problem, no matter what examples of people "shaking off" wounds you can come up with. They create another "per [time period]" resource, which was another big problem with 3e, both in terms of verisimilitude and balance. They also completely redefine the archetypical D&D roles. Whether you liked it or not, a "healer" has always been central to a D&D party. With everyone being able to heal themselves, this is much less true, and required a radical reimagining of the divine classes. Some people might view this sort of change as good, others are conservative and will object to any change. Personally, I prefer clerics to be quasi-doctors, although I wish they were less effective at it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ahnehnois, post: 5697409, member: 17106"] The problem with healing surges is that they take the problem that is hit points, and they make it worse. As you've pointed out, hit points have always been abstract and vague. As you've also pointed out, while 3e improved the verisimilitude, fairness, and comprehensibility of many of the rules, hit points remained basically the same. This is a bad thing. If I had been designing 4e, one of if not my single top priority would have been to dispose of hit points and introduce a system that really tracked health, injury, and sickness, and at least made some effort to reflect the fact that wounds hurt, wounds disable you, and wounds take time to heal. Doing that while keeping the game beginner-friendly (and rules lawyer-friendly, and everyone else-friendly) would be extraordinarily difficult, which is why it hasn't been done. But that is the next big breakthrough the PnP rpg hobby is waiting for. I use a modified vitality/wound system, which is not perfect but so much better than hit points, and still certainly allows heroes to be tough. Quick healing of vitality damage (but not severe wounds) also removes the "need" for healing surges. Healing surges have several problems. They describe instant healing of damage that, while abstract, is lethal damage that could have killed a character. Verisimilitude is a problem, no matter what examples of people "shaking off" wounds you can come up with. They create another "per [time period]" resource, which was another big problem with 3e, both in terms of verisimilitude and balance. They also completely redefine the archetypical D&D roles. Whether you liked it or not, a "healer" has always been central to a D&D party. With everyone being able to heal themselves, this is much less true, and required a radical reimagining of the divine classes. Some people might view this sort of change as good, others are conservative and will object to any change. Personally, I prefer clerics to be quasi-doctors, although I wish they were less effective at it. [/QUOTE]
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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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