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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6051755" data-attributes="member: 2067">HP is a resource. For HP to be balanced within the encounter, it needs to come back at the end of every encounter. If it didn't, the encounters wouldn't be balanced (they'd assume a level of HP that may actually vary depending on what part of the recharge cycle you have the encounter on). The design doesn't really care if you do that via wands or potions or hit dice or healing surges. The only reason 4e even has an "extended rest" is to give a nod to the fact that, pre-4e, the game was not as tightly defined around the encounter. 4e could be played with a "you gain all your hp back at the end of the encounter" hand-wave without any major hiccups -- 3e, too, but the only major difference between wands of CLW and healing surges is the implied flavor and control of the resource. If you limit HP loss to the individual encounter, you make HP something that cannot be truly affected outside of the encounter. It's something that was discussed in the "Exploration Rules" thread at some length -- you can't have falling down a cliff deal HP damage in a game where you can heal all your HP easily, because then it becomes irrelevant. So I don't see it as a localized "extended rest problem." It's a problem IMO because HP are defined as something you use in one encounter, rather than over the course of several. Yeah, but it's still just <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/331161-rules-rulings-paradox-choice.html" target="_blank">roll the dice to see if the DM lets you win</a>. Which doesn't work for everyone (and doesn't work for me). I want a rogue to have as unique a contribution when they're exploring the dungeon or chatting up the townsfolk as when they're killin' goblins, and 4e defines rogues mostly in terms of how they kill goblins. It's meticulously balanced for that, but that's not what I've ever found most interesting and fun and engaging about my D&D games. And yet every game of 4e that I have played has had a MUCH bigger percentage of the time dedicated to combat than any of the things I find so much more fun, because 4e does not make them as fun or as interesting as earlier e's made them. I'm sure the first reaction will be "YOU'RE DOIN' IT WRONG!" but that's the thing with any sort of design: if your users are doing it wrong, then the blame still falls on your design. Good design makes it hard to do things wrong and easy to do things right. Whenever I enter a skill challenge, I feel like I'm doing something that the game doesn't really want me to engage in, because none of my most interesting, varied, and character-defining abilities come into play. Skill checks are not a robust enough mechanic to hang 2/3rds of the game on for me.</blockquote>

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