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2/18/13 L&L column
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6089981" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>My proposals aren't aimed at having a game where damage doesn't exist, they're aimed at having a game where clerics aren't strictly necessary to gameplay -- that is, as Mearls said in the article, so that the physicians can functionally "heal themselves" (or, in my examples, pre-empt damage...the same thing, ultimately, as far as the maths are concerned). </p><p></p><p>It might help if you think of it like this: a given party of 4 has, say, 40 HP's. Lets say the monsters do about 5 hp damage per round, meaning the typical party lasts 8 rounds against the monsters (2 rounds each). Now, they also have a cleric with a CLW spell, so they have, effectively, 41-48 HP's, giving them an extra round or two on the whole. So when you look to see how many monsters the party should fight in between periods of complete recovery, you include those extra 1d8 HP's in your calculations, because you want the party to be pushed to the limit. </p><p></p><p>That's when someone not wanting to play the cleric becomes a problem. The reason a cleric is "necessary" is because they're the only ones with real access to those extra HP's: without CLW, you don't have those 1d8 extra HP's. Because those 1d8 HP's are included in the calculations for the challenges you face, your party without a cleric is actually significantly weaker than the game is expecting. Thus, clerics are necessary.</p><p></p><p>My proposals are aimed at giving other classes ways to access that extra 1d8 HP. If the rogue gets an AC bonus that causes an extra attack to miss, or if the fighter can deflect an attack, or if the wizard gets a spell that ups AC like the rogue's, they've all done the equivalent of adding that additional round onto the party's total. Now, when nobody plays the cleric, it's not a big deal -- CLW doesn't have exclusive access to that extra HP, so the game can encompass it without an issue. </p><p></p><p>The actual numbers don't quite line up like this, of course (in actual play, healing often makes up about half or more of a party's ultimate HP total), but I hope that helps you see where my ideas are coming from a little more clearly.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6089981, member: 2067"] My proposals aren't aimed at having a game where damage doesn't exist, they're aimed at having a game where clerics aren't strictly necessary to gameplay -- that is, as Mearls said in the article, so that the physicians can functionally "heal themselves" (or, in my examples, pre-empt damage...the same thing, ultimately, as far as the maths are concerned). It might help if you think of it like this: a given party of 4 has, say, 40 HP's. Lets say the monsters do about 5 hp damage per round, meaning the typical party lasts 8 rounds against the monsters (2 rounds each). Now, they also have a cleric with a CLW spell, so they have, effectively, 41-48 HP's, giving them an extra round or two on the whole. So when you look to see how many monsters the party should fight in between periods of complete recovery, you include those extra 1d8 HP's in your calculations, because you want the party to be pushed to the limit. That's when someone not wanting to play the cleric becomes a problem. The reason a cleric is "necessary" is because they're the only ones with real access to those extra HP's: without CLW, you don't have those 1d8 extra HP's. Because those 1d8 HP's are included in the calculations for the challenges you face, your party without a cleric is actually significantly weaker than the game is expecting. Thus, clerics are necessary. My proposals are aimed at giving other classes ways to access that extra 1d8 HP. If the rogue gets an AC bonus that causes an extra attack to miss, or if the fighter can deflect an attack, or if the wizard gets a spell that ups AC like the rogue's, they've all done the equivalent of adding that additional round onto the party's total. Now, when nobody plays the cleric, it's not a big deal -- CLW doesn't have exclusive access to that extra HP, so the game can encompass it without an issue. The actual numbers don't quite line up like this, of course (in actual play, healing often makes up about half or more of a party's ultimate HP total), but I hope that helps you see where my ideas are coming from a little more clearly. [/QUOTE]
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