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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6089433" data-attributes="member: 42582">That's an interesting perspective. Is your "previously" 3E? Because I don't have much experience with 3E, and the few times I have played it I don't think we had a very serious healer.The 4e group that I GM has 3 healers out of 5 PCs: a hybrid ranger-cleric (two minor action heals per encounter, plus Invigorating Stride to get easier access to second wind); a paladin (four minor action heals per day, plus second wind as a free action when bloodied (Questing Knight)); and a dwarf fighter multi-classed cleric (between feat and item two or three minor or free action heals per day, plus an encounter attack that heals (Battle Cry), plus second wind as a minor action with Cloak of the Walking Wounded once per encounter).One thing you'll notice is no dedicated healer. My own intuition, for what it's worth, is that this suits 4e: it's a very active game, and being a dedicated healer is probably a bit passive. (So on this I think we're agreed, though coming to the same conclusion from different experiences.) But the other things I've noticed is that co-ordination among the healers isn't typically co-ordination in respect of surge expenditure, as co-ordination in respect of action economy (especially when things get dicey). And that's not zero-sum in the relevant sense.But on the resource-depletion issue - in a more traditional D&D like AD&D or B/X, and I would have thought in 3E too, isnt a healer who heals you for less than the overall value of their spell also squandering resources? Eg if you're 2 hp down, it would be a waste to cast a Cure Light Wounds, wouldn't it? The situation you describe looks a bit like that - only in 4e, instead of the caster's running out of spells, it's your PC running out of surges.This also reinforces [MENTION=6690267]Dragoslav[/MENTION]'s point about the importance of surges as resource management; and it reinforces your point, too, about the changed role of a healer, because it's now up to you, the fighter, to manage that resource rather than the healer to manage his/her spells. (That said, the healer's in my game typically do like to know that they're getting bang for their buck before they will let someone heal up, because most of the healing is daily rather than encounter.)</blockquote>

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