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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5699023" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>And this right here is where the whole system breaks down, and why EVER treating move-by-move combat in D&D as causing actual physical injury is patently absurd. (And please note, I'm not saying we didn't do this... I'm saying that the fact we did do this this entire time shows us how dumb we all were to do so.)</p><p></p><p>As I said upthread... an individual D&D combat involves a character taking upwards of ten to twenty actual wounds over the course of the fight (if we are to assume that taking damage equates to actual injury that has to be HEALED either via magic or long amounts of bedrest.) Now... name me ANY combat situation where this actually happens?</p><p></p><p>The answer is, there isn't any. Any fight actually usually involves just bruising, minor cuts, and fatigue until such time a <em>single</em> major injury occurs that almost assuredly knocks the person out of the fight entirely. Once you get that limb broken, or that blow to the head knocks you out, or you are gutted by the spear... you're done. You're on the ground in massive amount of pain, or your body goes into shock, or you are instantly killed. That's just the way it is. And it is only the extremely rare cases where you might suffer a massive injury (one that in the D&D world would require magical healing via spell or potion) and still be able to continue fighting... but then the odds are that a SECOND massive injury will remove you from the fight. Two injuries tops, three for a psychotic superman, but assuredly none of this ridiculous ten to twenty.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>The only way D&D combat in any way would make a little bit of actual sense would be if hit points were not physical injury but fatigue, luck, blocks, parries, and bruising and it's only that final attack that drops you under 0 HPs that is the real, wounding injury (the 'killing blow'). But to emulate this... D&D's combat and recovery should really be that if you are under 0 HPs you require a magical heal to put you at 1 HP (thereby mending the gash in your abdomen, or resetting the broken bone)... and then all the rest of your HPs automatically return via 5 minutes of rest because of regaining breath, binding small cuts, putting ice on it etc. (the healing surge mechanic). You should in no way require your <em>positive</em> HP levels to have to be returned by magical healing, because that implies actual injury... which as I've just pointed out, makes not a lick of sense.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 5699023, member: 7006"] And this right here is where the whole system breaks down, and why EVER treating move-by-move combat in D&D as causing actual physical injury is patently absurd. (And please note, I'm not saying we didn't do this... I'm saying that the fact we did do this this entire time shows us how dumb we all were to do so.) As I said upthread... an individual D&D combat involves a character taking upwards of ten to twenty actual wounds over the course of the fight (if we are to assume that taking damage equates to actual injury that has to be HEALED either via magic or long amounts of bedrest.) Now... name me ANY combat situation where this actually happens? The answer is, there isn't any. Any fight actually usually involves just bruising, minor cuts, and fatigue until such time a [I]single[/I] major injury occurs that almost assuredly knocks the person out of the fight entirely. Once you get that limb broken, or that blow to the head knocks you out, or you are gutted by the spear... you're done. You're on the ground in massive amount of pain, or your body goes into shock, or you are instantly killed. That's just the way it is. And it is only the extremely rare cases where you might suffer a massive injury (one that in the D&D world would require magical healing via spell or potion) and still be able to continue fighting... but then the odds are that a SECOND massive injury will remove you from the fight. Two injuries tops, three for a psychotic superman, but assuredly none of this ridiculous ten to twenty. *** The only way D&D combat in any way would make a little bit of actual sense would be if hit points were not physical injury but fatigue, luck, blocks, parries, and bruising and it's only that final attack that drops you under 0 HPs that is the real, wounding injury (the 'killing blow'). But to emulate this... D&D's combat and recovery should really be that if you are under 0 HPs you require a magical heal to put you at 1 HP (thereby mending the gash in your abdomen, or resetting the broken bone)... and then all the rest of your HPs automatically return via 5 minutes of rest because of regaining breath, binding small cuts, putting ice on it etc. (the healing surge mechanic). You should in no way require your [I]positive[/I] HP levels to have to be returned by magical healing, because that implies actual injury... which as I've just pointed out, makes not a lick of sense. [/QUOTE]
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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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