D&D 4E 4e Heal info in new Confessions article

[Mr Jack]

Umm, not cinematic? I take it you don'e see many movies then, because in the ones I've seen a LOT of characters die. For example Star Wars (qui-gon), lotr (boromir), etc.

They're blatently NPCs

 

[Steely Dan]

They're blatently NPCs

"You know why, because my character's not important enough to have a last name!"

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Umm, not cinematic? I take it you don'e see many movies then, because in the ones I've seen a LOT of characters die. For example Star Wars (qui-gon), lotr (boromir), etc.

PC death adds excitement and drama; if the pc's are never in danger of dying then combat becomes a meaningless chore.

I think if one half of the party is dropped to 0 hit points, it feels still dangerous, even if only one member of the party has to survive to rescue the others.

And it's not like they trying to make it impossible to die. The point is that a good grasp of the tactical situation and clever use of your abilities/resources means you will survive.

There is a difference between victory that is automatic, and a victory that is assured if you play smart. You still have to do something to survive.
Failure even though you did all you could might be realisitic, but is it something I want to experience in a game?

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Sweet, heal checks do more than waste character sheet space!?!

Best idea ever!

Agreed. One of the stupider things in 3.x was that fact that outside of clerical magic, nobody could do first aid beyond stabilizing a person. That was one thing that pre-SE Star Wars and d20 Modern got right that 3.5e should have incorporated.

And if Heal as a skill is now more viable, then that means much less demand on having the divine caster being a walking band-aid dispenser (beyond the other changes 4e is making), perhaps even making it so that a leader/healer type class isn't required like the way clerics tend to be in prior editions.

 

[Danzauker]

Healing that depends on the TARGET creature more than on the HEALER?

That's great!! It could solve most of the problems tied to old style Light / Moderate / Serious / Critical healing spells!!

If it's used throughout the system, a mechanic for (just speculation from now on), say, Cure Light Wounds that triggers a target's second wind ability, and for Cure Serious Wounds that triggers two second winds (or maximized, or whatever) could basically make healing consistently relative for characters from lever 1 to 30.

Brilliant.

 

[shilsen]

PC death adds excitement and drama; if the pc's are never in danger of dying then combat becomes a meaningless chore.

PC death is only one option (and in my estimation, one of the more boring options) to add excitement and drama to the game in general and combat in particular. What is needed to make combat meaningful is the possibility of failure, and repercussions for said failure. And there are dozens of repercussions for failure which are, for me, much more interesting than PC death. I run a game where I've essentially taken PC death off the table, but the players are often on the edge of their seats during combat, because all sorts of horrible things can happen to their PCs if they fail (and sometimes even if they don't).

If your DM is incapable of making combat meaningful without PC death, then he isn't thinking of all the various possibilities, and should hang out on ENWorld a lot more, since there are lots of DMs here who de-emphasize PC death and still run very exciting games/combats. Chances are your DM is also being very kind. One of the reasons I don't kill PCs is because I'm not that nice. A dead PC has escaped me and doesn't have to live with the repercussions of his failures. A living PC, on the other hand, does have to.

 

[Darkwolf71]

While it's nice that Healing has a good use, I'm not sure if I like this 'internal healing reserve' thing. It smells of cheese.

I'm down, basically at death's door, yet I can find the focus to heal myself?

I soooo desperatly want to like 4e, but things like this just turn me off.

 

[Archade]

I've incorporated a version of the SE Star Wars Healing check, allowing a chance for Revivify (like the spell, stabilize at -9 hp and alive if a Heal DC 30 check is made) if the character is approached within 1 round.

As well, I allow Heal users to perform surgery (1 minute per check) at DC 10 + the number of hit points the character is down. Success means they heal 1d6 hit points, failure means nothing happens, failure by 5 or more means they lose 1d6 hit points. That way, minor bumps and bruises can be dealt with, while a character down 40 hit points can't just be stitched up and sent back into the fray without magic.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Anyhow, is it even possible to pc's to die in dnd anymore?

There's been at least one PC death in playtest reports. Not enough for my taste. Then again it's trivially easy to increase the death rate by using more powerful traps/monsters.

 

[FireLance]

While it's nice that Healing has a good use, I'm not sure if I like this 'internal healing reserve' thing. It smells of cheese.

I'm down, basically at death's door, yet I can find the focus to heal myself?

I soooo desperatly want to like 4e, but things like this just turn me off.

It is, admittedly, more cinematic and less realistic. You just have to keep repeating the mantra "hit point gain does not necessarily mean physical healing" to yourself. Think of those scenes in a movie where the hero was knocked unconscious by a trap/an explosion/the BBEG/whatever, and a secondary character is shaking him and trying to make him get up. On a successful Heal check, he does.