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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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<blockquote data-quote="GregoryOatmeal" data-source="post: 5698756" data-attributes="member: 6667661"><p>I read through a bunch of posts and never really encountered anything similar to my experience with healing surges.</p><p></p><p>I approached 4E anxious to slaughter some sacred cows. Ultimately healing surges were the only thing I really truly disdained about 4E. This is what I noticed in my game</p><p>- As a DM or player I didn't feel like spending a healing surge used a limited resource. I can't recall ever running out of healing surges, but I feel like it may have happened once or twice when I played a wizard</p><p>- Due to the length of combat and my players schedules permitting five-hour games I seldom ran more than two combats per game.</p><p>- A few bad apples, typically the types that forget to bring their character sheets, also forget to keep track of how many surges they spent at the end of their last battle</p><p>- Smaller combats didn't feel like they had any consequence or point. I never gave my players the cure light wounds stick (I always controlled when they could heal) so when they took 3 damage from orcs in the past they had to decide if they wanted to spend one of the few potions they had.</p><p>- I missed downtime. The fifteen-minute adventuring day had its moments when characters were resting.</p><p>- When a monster could spend a healing surge I usually avoided doing it because it would prolong the combat encounter</p><p>- A lot of the non-magical healing powers felt forced and awkward in implementation. My best role-player (who preferred 4E) frequently struggled to justify how her warlord inspired people to get back up.</p><p>- I never thought about how realistic healing was in the past but healing surges started to feel gamey. Maybe I was just conditioned to HP from previous games, but it just felt right.</p><p></p><p>Lots of players are just unable to "get" 4E and lack the imagination to translate it into a non-gamist narrative. A few simply aren't trying out of spite for 4E but a lot of folks get caught up in game terms and break immersion for everyone else. For example the Druid will say "I use my Daily Power Nature's Soothing Wrath and attack the drow and heal our ranger". I'll ask them "Without using game terms what does that do?" and they look at me like a deer in the headlights. This didn't happen in past editions. I found the ability to control the narrative to be really empowering but some others just couldn't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GregoryOatmeal, post: 5698756, member: 6667661"] I read through a bunch of posts and never really encountered anything similar to my experience with healing surges. I approached 4E anxious to slaughter some sacred cows. Ultimately healing surges were the only thing I really truly disdained about 4E. This is what I noticed in my game - As a DM or player I didn't feel like spending a healing surge used a limited resource. I can't recall ever running out of healing surges, but I feel like it may have happened once or twice when I played a wizard - Due to the length of combat and my players schedules permitting five-hour games I seldom ran more than two combats per game. - A few bad apples, typically the types that forget to bring their character sheets, also forget to keep track of how many surges they spent at the end of their last battle - Smaller combats didn't feel like they had any consequence or point. I never gave my players the cure light wounds stick (I always controlled when they could heal) so when they took 3 damage from orcs in the past they had to decide if they wanted to spend one of the few potions they had. - I missed downtime. The fifteen-minute adventuring day had its moments when characters were resting. - When a monster could spend a healing surge I usually avoided doing it because it would prolong the combat encounter - A lot of the non-magical healing powers felt forced and awkward in implementation. My best role-player (who preferred 4E) frequently struggled to justify how her warlord inspired people to get back up. - I never thought about how realistic healing was in the past but healing surges started to feel gamey. Maybe I was just conditioned to HP from previous games, but it just felt right. Lots of players are just unable to "get" 4E and lack the imagination to translate it into a non-gamist narrative. A few simply aren't trying out of spite for 4E but a lot of folks get caught up in game terms and break immersion for everyone else. For example the Druid will say "I use my Daily Power Nature's Soothing Wrath and attack the drow and heal our ranger". I'll ask them "Without using game terms what does that do?" and they look at me like a deer in the headlights. This didn't happen in past editions. I found the ability to control the narrative to be really empowering but some others just couldn't. [/QUOTE]
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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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