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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Can you get too much healing?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mengu" data-source="post: 4732329" data-attributes="member: 65726"><p>To answer the original post, yes, I think there is such a thing as too much healing. First of all, if you need so much healing that everyone in the party has to pick a multiclass healing power, either PC's are doing something wrong, or the DM is doing something wrong, or the players have terrible luck and miss all the time.</p><p> </p><p>I think from a party design perspective, you need to balance the need to dish out damage, with the need to heal when things go bad. For instance, say a ranger has the options of warlord multiclass for once per day healing, or barbarian multiclass to dish out 2 additional damage per attack during one encounter. Dead monsters don't attack back, so the ranger should probably go with the barbarian multiclass. In case you do have some bad luck with a string of misses, let the wizard, who is not a primary damage dealer, pick up cleric multiclass for that extra daily healing your party may need.</p><p> </p><p>As to the issue of going nova first combat of every day and running out of resources, I've never had this issue. If anything, I have an issue of my players not using any daily abilities in early encounters of the day, which makes these encounters harder than they might be with maybe one daily each from one or two characters.</p><p> </p><p>And then there is the issue of nova chain infection. When they see one character spend an encounter power, action point, daily, they all follow suit, making a medium encounter very easy, but running them out of resources again.</p><p> </p><p>Yet another issue in a party can be mismanagement of healing surges per character. Defenders can sometimes become a bit overzealous in their role and throw themselves in the middle of something they don't really need to be in the middle of. They end up spending 5 or 6 healing surges in one encounter (including what they spend during their short rest). Not a good sign when that's the first encounter of the day.</p><p> </p><p>Players have to learn to manage their resources.</p><p> </p><p>The DM has some responsibilities too of course. True, not every day has to be a chase for a time bomb. But interesting encounter design, and encounter difficulty does not always come from how many monsters you throw at the party. A fight that breaks out in the middle of a crowded market square where there are a lot of innocents, presents a completely different kind of challenge, when the attackers are harrasing commoners and PC's alike. This might be the only fight in the day, so you're not really challenging the resources of the players, you're challenging their tactics.</p><p> </p><p>Another one of the jobs the DM has, is to know their party. If the party has a bunchof defenders and leaders, but no strikers, you'll want to avoid high HP fights. Low HP high damage artillery would be fine, since thanks to leaders, the healing will be fairly efficient. If you ave a party of leaders and strikers, those strikers will run out of healing surges fast, so you'll want to provide situations where the strikers get the first jump on their enemy more frequently than not. If you have a party of strikers and defenders, the only thing you have to avoid is very long fights or encounters with too many opponents that outnumber the PC's. Fights against elites and few higher level creatures will be perfect for this group.</p><p> </p><p>I don't know if the system needs to be blamed for 15 minute adventuring days. I think the system is extremely flexible for many styles of play. It just requires some coordination from DM and players. A player that wants to be disruptive by novaing first encounter every day, playing wrecklessly, running out of healing surges, and insisting on an extending rest will accomplish his goal of being disruptive. The system does assume a bit of responsibility from both DM and players so everyone can enjoy the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mengu, post: 4732329, member: 65726"] To answer the original post, yes, I think there is such a thing as too much healing. First of all, if you need so much healing that everyone in the party has to pick a multiclass healing power, either PC's are doing something wrong, or the DM is doing something wrong, or the players have terrible luck and miss all the time. I think from a party design perspective, you need to balance the need to dish out damage, with the need to heal when things go bad. For instance, say a ranger has the options of warlord multiclass for once per day healing, or barbarian multiclass to dish out 2 additional damage per attack during one encounter. Dead monsters don't attack back, so the ranger should probably go with the barbarian multiclass. In case you do have some bad luck with a string of misses, let the wizard, who is not a primary damage dealer, pick up cleric multiclass for that extra daily healing your party may need. As to the issue of going nova first combat of every day and running out of resources, I've never had this issue. If anything, I have an issue of my players not using any daily abilities in early encounters of the day, which makes these encounters harder than they might be with maybe one daily each from one or two characters. And then there is the issue of nova chain infection. When they see one character spend an encounter power, action point, daily, they all follow suit, making a medium encounter very easy, but running them out of resources again. Yet another issue in a party can be mismanagement of healing surges per character. Defenders can sometimes become a bit overzealous in their role and throw themselves in the middle of something they don't really need to be in the middle of. They end up spending 5 or 6 healing surges in one encounter (including what they spend during their short rest). Not a good sign when that's the first encounter of the day. Players have to learn to manage their resources. The DM has some responsibilities too of course. True, not every day has to be a chase for a time bomb. But interesting encounter design, and encounter difficulty does not always come from how many monsters you throw at the party. A fight that breaks out in the middle of a crowded market square where there are a lot of innocents, presents a completely different kind of challenge, when the attackers are harrasing commoners and PC's alike. This might be the only fight in the day, so you're not really challenging the resources of the players, you're challenging their tactics. Another one of the jobs the DM has, is to know their party. If the party has a bunchof defenders and leaders, but no strikers, you'll want to avoid high HP fights. Low HP high damage artillery would be fine, since thanks to leaders, the healing will be fairly efficient. If you ave a party of leaders and strikers, those strikers will run out of healing surges fast, so you'll want to provide situations where the strikers get the first jump on their enemy more frequently than not. If you have a party of strikers and defenders, the only thing you have to avoid is very long fights or encounters with too many opponents that outnumber the PC's. Fights against elites and few higher level creatures will be perfect for this group. I don't know if the system needs to be blamed for 15 minute adventuring days. I think the system is extremely flexible for many styles of play. It just requires some coordination from DM and players. A player that wants to be disruptive by novaing first encounter every day, playing wrecklessly, running out of healing surges, and insisting on an extending rest will accomplish his goal of being disruptive. The system does assume a bit of responsibility from both DM and players so everyone can enjoy the game. [/QUOTE]
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Can you get too much healing?
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