Cure Light Wounds: Nearly Useless?

[Danceofmasks]

Faster dead foes = denying ever increasing # actions to the opposition = better than healing

 

[IanB]

It is also worth thinking about as a multiclass utility pick too, depending on whether or not you want your level 2 or your level 6 from your original class. An extra heal per day looks more exciting when you can only healing word once a day anyway.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well, err ... if you wait till 10 or retrain at 10 to pick up that feat, you can get mass cure light ..
I'm a big fan of that power, although utility 10 has sweet choices from any class.

 

[erik_the_guy]

I'm a fighter with no cleric in the party and I would ing LOVE you to use that on me. Right there, between where the arrow and sword are sticking out.

Oh and its a minor action in addition to healing word, now you can heal 3 times in one turn (three surges practically bring my dragonborn fighter to full).

 

[coldpheasant]

I'm a fighter with no cleric in the party and I would ing LOVE you to use that on me. Right there, between where the arrow and sword are sticking out.

Oh and its a minor action in addition to healing word, now you can heal 3 times in one turn (three surges practically bring my dragonborn fighter to full).

Yea, i imagine three surges would bring your dragonborn fighter up about 3/4 of the way

Healing Word can be used twice per encounter but only once per round, so if you want to have the potential to "burst" heal someone, you could in one round spend a standard action for a Cure Light Wounds, a minor action for a Healing Word, and then trade your move action for another minor action for the Bastion of Health (which adds cha mod as well as your wis mod to the heal). Three enhanced healing surges in one turn would heal almost anyone up to full life, even if they were close to death.

 

[Zurai]

Yea, i imagine three surges would bring your dragonborn fighter up about 3/4 of the way

More than 3/4. Dragonborn add their con mod to healing surge value. With just a 12 con, a level 1 dragonborn fighter will recover 78% of their health. With a 16 con, he'd recover 97%.

 

[Ulthwithian]

Just a point here. The group I'm running has two Leaders (Tactical Warlord, Melee Cleric), and they don't really worry about the number of healing surges. The only time people have gone down is because of burst damage.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Faster dead foes = denying ever increasing # actions to the opposition = better than healing

Not necessarily. If you heal faster than your foe, you effectively negate their actions. In 3E, it was true, because the damage was much higher than the healing.

However, in 4E, with its multiple opponents and longer combats, it changes. Your healing surges easily heal twice or even three times as much as a single enemy does damage - so your healing effectively negates two to three turns of attacks.

If we say a combat is taking about six rounds, you make a single opponent half useless, whereas the extra hit possibly only kills him one or two turn earlier. Which is very possible since in 4E, missing is much more common. Healing doesn't miss.

If healing can outpace damage, it can become a viable action. And in 4E, it can, as long as you have enough things to trigger your surges.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Danceofmasks]

I didn't say you couldn't out-tank your enemies ...
I was saying, in response to "more healing is always better" and "fighters don't have to hit to do their job", that optimising for damage output is better than optimising for healing.

 

[DLichen]

I didn't say you couldn't out-tank your enemies ...
I was saying, in response to "more healing is always better" and "fighters don't have to hit to do their job", that optimising for damage output is better than optimising for healing.

That's not always true. If your enemies killed you in a round and you kill them in 3, improving your damage to the point that you're able to kill them in 2 is not improving your situation.

Offense is the best defense only if you can kill all enemies fast, in 4e, with burst offensive beefy monsters like fire beetles (3d6 at in blast against a level 1-2 party, hot damn) - being able to tank is still important.