How Do you Feel About Healing Surges? (Read First!)

[Ahnehnois]

Healing Surges have two components: Surges Per Day, which is a daily limit on how often a character can be healed by healing effects; and Surge Value, which ensures that each of said healing effects is worth at least 1/4 of the character's maximum hit points.

By that standard, I profoundly dislike them. Anything per day is unbalanced and feels unnatural. With magic, it's tolerable because it's a D&Dism, for nonmagic things it isn't and it isn't.

I'm also not a big fan of anything (such as 3.0 and pre-3e Heal or Harm) that deals with fractions of total hit points. Without going into any complicated math theory, that defaeats the whole point of having a number for hp and having it change according to your character's various traits.

I also don't see any need for characters in general to have access to any kind of healing. 3.X natural healing was already way too fast, a significant increase from earlier editions. Healing should be a special thing that takes time and skill and requires the expenditure of (possibly magical) resources.

 

[Rhenny]

I hate healing surges with a passion. I've taken them out of my 4e game for all of the aforementioned problems and because they are extra record keeping.

That being said, I like the 1/4 surge value for rests and second wind.

 

[am181d]

I voted "dislike" but I do want to point out that I like Second Wind.

 

[CleverNickName]

 

[Dice4Hire]

Overall I like the HS mechanic, but wish it were more tied into magic items, feats and the like to power them. Of course, to do that, we would need them to go further in combat.

In my games, I have seen a character lose 8+ surges in just a couple of rounds, though healing or having them sapped away.

It can be brutal

But I do not want to go back to the days of infinite possible healing. Wands of CLW were one of the least fun things I saw at the table. They were a metagame crutch.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I like the surge value unreservedly. It solves all kinds of pernicious problems with D&D healing, at very little cost.

With the surges per day, I'm more ambivalent. I like them ok in 4E, but would prefer a more modular approach to where they come from, how many you have, what restores them, when you need them, etc. There is a lot of potential flexibility there that 4E ignores, which seems rather strange with how quick 4E readily reskins and reflavors elsewhere.

Also, it is the concepts that I like. I don't really care what they call them. If they want to rename them as "heroic surges" or similar, that's fine.

 

[Libramarian]

I don't like the character-based limit per day, it feels too obvious and artificial.

Don't like the surge value. I like the idea that what characters gain as they level is the ability to further test the limits of human endurance...i.e. they gain the ability to still be fighting while they're so worn down that after the adventure they'll require a month or more to top up.

A rule of thumb for race-running is to rest 1 day per mile. If you race 3 miles, you should rest 3 days. If you run a marathon, you should rest about 3 weeks. I like the idea that D&D characters gain the ability to run marathons, but they still have to rest for longer afterwards.

I recognize that this is sort of a moot point, because in no edition are you likely to do most of your healing naturally without magic speeding it along. But I still like long natural healing to be there as a possibility, as a "nod" to simulationism.

I actually don't mind the idea that healing capacity also goes up with level. I just don't want them tied together in such a boring, obnoxious way as having the heal unit be a flat percentage of max HP. I would like healing capacity to go up with level, but not quite as fast as HP.

I also hate the name healing surges.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm not a fan of healing surges, or anything else designed to promote healing during combat as an expectation rather than an uncommon exception.

Recovery of h.p. should happen in only 3 ways:
1. resting (slow)
2. curative spells (from a Cleric or subclass)
3. other one-off stuff (potions, Paladin lay-on-hands, herbs, ring of regeneration, etc.)

3e's wands of CLW were awful. Devices of curing should be rare, and not something the PCs can build until very high level.

Lanefan

 

[CM]

People seem to be neglecting that the healing surge limit per day is only a limit insofar as your own internal stamina reserves are concerned. Eventually you're too worn out for the warlord's pep talk or the priest's exhortations to do you any good.

You're still free to line up as many surge-less sources of healing as you like--whether spell or magic item--it's just that these effects are priced more "expensively" than surge- (morale-) based healing effects in terms of their availability. Witness Cure Light Wounds which is a level 2 daily utility power. Effect: The target regains hit points as if it had spent a healing surge.

I am also seeing people conflate 4e's full rest total recovery with healing surges. These are separate issues. If you want slower HP recovery in 4e, just slow the rate of surge recovery. Rapid HP recovery in 4e has nothing to do with healing surges and everything to do with the full rest and short rest mechanics.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

healing surges could be done better, however, I feel as though they will subtract from the feel. I do feel they are useful, however they make it seem like a board game, as most preset everything does.

Perhaps a healing spell that heals X amount of HP based on level.

For instance, it heals 1/X of health, X is the level.

So at 1st level it heals you fully, while at 20th level it doesn 1/20th of your health.

That's the most preset I would want, I like rolling the dice.