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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6864017" data-attributes="member: 6787650">This might be an artifact of the initiative system you're using. Perhaps one reason my players don't rely on popup healing is because of the AD&D-style (WEGO: everyone declares/everyone acts) initiative system in use. When five of six giant rats are attacking you this round and you're already at 2 health, or when you're at full health but you just hurled yourself into the middle of a clump of four Umber Hulks, popup healing is pretty irrelevant. The players become very, very aware of exactly how many enemy hits they can take before becoming hamburger. In the case of the giant rats, what happened was that the giant rats hit him just enough times to bring him down to two failed death saves (i.e. once to put him at 0 HP, and then once more auto-crit due to 5' melee attack against an unconscious target, resulting in two failed death saves), and at the start of the new round before anyone could declare an action he rolled his death saves and got a natural 1. Sayonara, Gale!The point I'm trying to make in a roundabout way is that cyclic initiative tends to result in predictable combat where players are very comfortable that they'll be able to coordinate effectively. This tends to make combat safer, not just for healing but for e.g. exploiting the Mobile feat or gaming spell durations like Wrathful Smite. Could it be that trying a new initiative system would resolve your discomfort over "safeness" in a satisfying way?</blockquote>

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