Dealing with Healing Surges

[andrewknaut]

Hello

So I'm running a campaign right now and it seems like the group dose not fear any monster due to the amount of healing surges they have. I have been taking them out with harsh weather yet still they seem to have a ton even thought they are losing healing surges and not regaining them.

Is the only way to deal with this hit them with multiple combats a day? If so I feel like I'm in trouble because I enjoy playing a more urban style game and have normally only one fight in a campaign day.

Any advice you guys may have to make the fights a bit more scary would be great.

Thanks a lot.

 

[fba827]

Well keep in mind that healing surges is just a pool of ability.

They can only activate their second wind on their own only once per encounter (that is what lets them heal themselves).

healing surges get spend on all sorts of things (and I really wish they didn't call them healing surges because someone at my table keeps insisting he can "surge" some more when he means second wind, which he can't do since he already did it).

So it is possible for them to still have healing surges left but no more healing capabilities.

It is, in general, difficult to get killed in 4e compared to 3e (at least in my own personal experiences so far), but for our group that has been more because of the increased hit points and defenses rather than healing surges (which we hardly ever use for actual healing in our game)

 

[Dalzig]

If you are only running one battle a day, the PCs will breeze through 'normal' encounters. They can effectively Nova every single battle, using all of their daily powers and having full healing surges. This is due to 4e's new focus on resource management.

If you want to challenge them, you have to be throwing difficult encounters at them. DMG 58 has encounter templates. Notice how on the "Hard" entries they're throwing a lot more powerful creatures at the party than normal. In the case of "Commander and Troops," the CO is 6 levels above the party, while the maggots are 1 level above the party.

 

[Dooks Dizzo]

More than 1 encounter a day is pretty much a must. How many leaders do they have in the party? Really how many surges can they have? 6 or 8 each? Make sure they're being tracked properly because they should be running out pretty quick after 2 encounters if they are not regenerating any due to harsh environement.

You could also make 'running' encounters. Where right after a group of bad guys is dispatched, a second group shows up in less than 5 minutes. Basically break the encounter into 2 parts and not give them breathing room to heal and such.

And really, 1 second wind per encounter should mean that they aren't healing a lot unless they have several leaders in the party.

 

[ac_noj]

I'm interested, how many encounters per day are a good idea? I find that my players always want to extended rest after any fight hard enough to use their Daily powers, so if there's a long string of normal or easy encounters they just keep going.

 

[Dooks Dizzo]

The biggest problem that I find is that Daily powers are just fun. People want to rest and get them back, even if they don't really need it.

We average 2 encounters before we rest and we have one guy that blows his daily and action point EVERY fight he gets the chance, no matter if it's tough or not.

 

[KarinsDad]

The biggest problem that I find is that Daily powers are just fun. People want to rest and get them back, even if they don't really need it.

We average 2 encounters before we rest and we have one guy that blows his daily and action point EVERY fight he gets the chance, no matter if it's tough or not.

Don't give them the chance. Put them into a situation with 5 encounters and if they try to rest, the encounters find them.

Do this 2 or 3 times and the players will be more judicious with their use of their daily abilities.

Note: Give them a heads up that this will be happening. Do not tell them explicitly, but foreshadow the information.

NPC: "Yup, I reckon that thar's a few dozen of those nasties up in those mines".

 

[evildmguy]

Well, to be the broken record.

Definitely need more than one encounter per day. Probably more like three, assuming the overall situation warrants it. What I mean is, if they are resting between adventures, no fights but during it and when they are in a "danger zone" have fights.

There are some undead that drain healing surges, if you want to go that route.

Play the monsters as smart as you can. Don't hold anything back.

I don't know if you fudge but I play the encounters as best as I can and roll in front of the PCs. It's very exciting and with good tactics, I usually drop one character per fight. Get two strikers on either side of a character, and they will go down fast.

But, in the end, yes, multiple fights in a day is the best way to go.

edg

 

[underfoot007]

Hello

So I'm running a campaign right now and it seems like the group dose not fear any monster due to the amount of healing surges they have. I have been taking them out with harsh weather yet still they seem to have a ton even thought they are losing healing surges and not regaining them.

Is the only way to deal with this hit them with multiple combats a day? If so I feel like I'm in trouble because I enjoy playing a more urban style game and have normally only one fight in a campaign day.

Any advice you guys may have to make the fights a bit more scary would be great.

Thanks a lot.

Yes, You need to run 3-4 encounters per day, you can make one encounter a skill challenge. Running only one combat per game day means you will over power the monsters every time.

But if you must, raise the encounter to avg level +3 (or4), that should make things a bit challenging for them.

 

[LostSoul]

Random encounters.