Unicorn's Touch: Free Hit Points Every 5 Minutes?

[Garthanos]

Like that 'will wotc ever get it right thread'; the often don't think to deeply about these things do they!

Nailing things down real tight can give less room for interesting interpretation... like the dm deciding that the energy to do encounter powers comes literally from being in the encounter itself, shrug.

 

[Regicide]

Every other edition of DnD has had infinite healing. Whats the problem? The fact that 4E restricted potions to using healing surges and removing the ability to recover from some bad dice rolls without having to rest I see as a huge problem with 4E. The DM can't slip some extra healing potions on enemies to let the party recover and instead has to break the storyline and let the party rest or watch as they walk into the next fight in a state that will TPK them.

 

[Obryn]

Honestly, I don't see anyone taking this power when one of the alternatives is Armathor's Step.

I mean, I can see how it might in some weird play-style become a problem, but it's a tiny amount of free healing, when it comes down to it. If you can spend enough time to go from low to full on it, you might as well do an extended rest.

IMO, anyway.

-O

 

[Garthanos]

Every other edition of DnD has had infinite healing. Whats the problem? The fact that 4E restricted potions to using healing surges and removing the ability to recover from some bad dice rolls without having to rest I see as a huge problem with 4E. The DM can't slip some extra healing potions on enemies to let the party recover and instead has to break the storyline and let the party rest or watch as they walk into the next fight in a state that will TPK them.

Unlimited healing ... has a bit less plausibility for me, I like healing surges. The idea of inspiration and luck and energy being "deep resources" in the subject is cool to me.

Though I also like potion interaction limitations, ie if you take potions while you are still under the influence of a previous one (how long does a healing potions influence last?) then you get unpredictable and or dangerous results.

 

[Solodan]

Meh. It'll take hours to heal a whole party. Healing surges have never been an issue for us. Course, we do the multiple rest thing to get more clerical bonuses, so this will only boost that slightly.

This also doesn't scale well at all. At level 7 or so, it is just a drop in the bucket. So it has 5 levels of goodness, 5 more levels of something to consider, and after that isn't worth the action to use.

 

[DracoSuave]

Meh, it's not so bad so long as time is a resource. And if you're in the middle of a dungeon, time -is- indeed a resource.

 

[Garthanos]

Healing surges also kind of fix the oddness of the barely wounded high level fighter need a ton of healing potions or clerical treatments and his apprentice level but nearly dead wizard friend needing one slap from a priest.

This in response to regicides nostalgia.

 

[DracoSuave]

Healing surges also kind of fix the oddness of the barely wounded high level fighter need a ton of healing potions or clerical treatments and his apprentice level but nearly dead wizard friend needing one slap from a priest.

This in response to regicides nostalgia.

It also makes the number of hitpoints you have into damage mitigation rather than simply a pad between life and death-- When most healing effects deal a set percentage of your hps (25%+some), the more hps you have, the more these effects heal for you. Which, in turn, means that you're using less healing resources in the group in-toto.

 

[ppaladin123]

Honestly, I don't see anyone taking this power when one of the alternatives is Armathor's Step.

I mean, I can see how it might in some weird play-style become a problem, but it's a tiny amount of free healing, when it comes down to it. If you can spend enough time to go from low to full on it, you might as well do an extended rest.

IMO, anyway.

-O

If you are an eladrin you already have a good encounter teleport power anyway (very good if you take the feat that lets you make a basic attack at the end of your feystep). You might take this. Note that it is a minor action heal and that you can instead use it to make an extra saving throw. Both of those abilities can come in handy. You'll probably train this ability out though once you hit mid-paragon levels and the amount of healing just isn't enough to make it worth a spell slot.

 

[Regicide]

Unlimited healing ... has a bit less plausibility for me, I like healing surges. The idea of inspiration and luck and energy being "deep resources" in the subject is cool to me.

I really don't like them. They make no sense. How do you, for instance, "spend" a healing surge on something, like the healing sash? Theres no parallel for this in any fantasy movie I've ever seen, or in reality. You can't have "Joe from Wisconsin thrown into a fantasy world, picks up a sword and starts fighting" because DnD characters just don't work the way you and I and even movie and fantasy people and characters do.

Saying it's "luck" doesn't work either. Characters know exactly how much they have. Do you know how much luck you have? Does anyone? Nope. And again, how do you "spend" your luck activating a magic item or to heal someone else completely? I certainly can't spend my luck that way, maybe it's not a surprise I can't picture it and no film-maker I know of has tried.

If you're "bloodied" and rest for 5 minutes but then fall off a cliff, you die, but had you "spent" a couple healing surges, you have enough HPs to live. Weird. So "luck" didn't save you from dying from the cliff, but had you spent the surges and had less "luck" left, you'd have lived. Weird.

What does someone with no healing surges left look like compared to someone with full? I dunno. 4E didn't even try to describe it, like they didn't try to describe what it looks like to use healing surge. Because, well, they can't really.

What it comes down to for me is that all characters in 4E possess magic. It's the only good fit for how surges work. So even your bog standard fighter can magically heal himself or power magic items. You don't have to be a sword mage, everyone is doing it!

Though I also like potion interaction limitations, ie if you take potions while you are still under the influence of a previous one (how long does a healing potions influence last?) then you get unpredictable and or dangerous results.

Um? If you have 10 surges, you can chug 10 healing potions and they work, 10 more and they do nothing. Alternatly you can spend 10 surges on powers and then the very first potion you try won't even work... even if you wait 3 days without taking an extended rest. So "influence of a potion" makes no sense what so ever. It's a really ugly shortcut they took to try to force characters to rest frequently.