In some ways, I think the Ranger should have been called the Skirmisher or Light Infantry, and the Fighter should have been called Heavy Infantry. Those names aren't so catchy, but they convey the roles without any baggage from previous editions.
Disappointed in 4e
- Thread starter WarlockLord
- Start date
That is the bit that ties together the entire healing system and one of its biggest flaws that overshadows all else and makes it all look silly rather than just a bit over the top.
One of the reason I can't get behind any of the healing in 4th.
I have never, and will never use a Second Wind because I don't want to play a character that does that. I don't even keep track of my healing surges. I would rather my character die than mess with that crap.
If I want to play a healer, I will whip out a cleric.
It just isn't the way I see healing in D&D to belong and makes the powers like you mention seem silly when you have to ret-con the wound.
Sure it happened and you altered it. That was retconning the wound too quickly to even mention it.
If the heal comes form the fighter himself, then it is really funny where no magic can explain the wound being removed.
DM: You got another slash on your leg.
Fighter: I use Second Wind and heal....(More damage than the last attack caused)
DM: You notice the slash was only a leaf stuck to you as it floats away.
I mean bring back mending and bandages at least to make it look like there was a real wound until you go to sleep and turn into Naruto while dreaming.
*Naruto Uzamaki has great stamina and healing that from even the worst wounds to a point of near death he heals within a day or two. Slower than a 4th edition PC.
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Raven Crowking
First Post
I guess your wound isn't "still there", then, is it?
Make the game episodic, only allow for sleeping between "episodes", and your system works perfectly well with 4e as written.
It is not 4e as written, however.
RC
Vyvyan Basterd
Adventurer
There is no such thing as Wounded (capital W meaning game rule status) in any version of D&D. There is Dead, Unconscious, or Conscious. Role-Playing wounded (small w referring to the general term) is the only way a wound exists in any edition. The status you attribute to being Wounded may not mesh with others. In fact, you mention that once Bruce Willis in Die Hard meets his objective he goes to the hospital to heal up. Once my players met their objective in Keep on the Shadowfell they rested to recover from their wounds. Could they have gone off to the next dungeon the next day? Yes, if the story called for it. But Die Hard 2 could have started with Bruce Willis being loaded into the ambulance. Someone runs up to tell him that his daughter was kidnapped by the real villain behind the scenes. If Die Hard were a 1E game, he would have to push on in a weakened state, probably putting his daughter in jeopardy when he can't fight the fight as long the next day or waiting to heal and losing his daughter for sure. In 4E he pushes himself up stiffly while the paramedics try to talk some sense into him. He pushes them away saying, "I've gotta save Sara!" You would still roleplay that he is hurt and struggling to continue, even at full hit points! Hit points have never equaled wounds to me. And wounds have never had a game effect in D&D. Other systems I've played that do have game effects for wounds have been fun, but PCs in them seem to suffer the death-spiral effect. Once you start getting hurt, it is harder to avoid getting hurt more.
It isn't badwrongfun to play a grittier game where hit points are hard to come by. Neither is 4E badwrongfun to emulate the action movies that many people love and adore, now matter how cheesy the dialogue gets at times.
Vyvyan Basterd
Adventurer
In any edition of D&D, your narrative is what caused the leg wound, not the rules. So what is the penalty for having a leg wound? There isn't one. So you can use narrative to describe 4E healing the same way:
DM: You got another slash on your leg.
Fighter: I use Second Wind to push through the pain and keep fighting....
[After a short rest]
Fighter: I catch my breath and bandage my wounded leg. (Uses healing surges to get back to full hit points.)
[Two in-game days later, walking back into town.]
Fighter: I limp to the inn. I want to soak my wounded leg and scrub the road-grit out of it.
The examples are only absurd if you deliberately try to make them absurd. I'm not breaking the rules by roleplaying that my fighter has a leg wound. I'm also not breaking the rules by playing the wound without in-game penalties. D&D has never had a core rule that simulated a wound and its long or short-term effects.
Vorpal sword?
Sword of Sharpness?
I don't recall the actual penalties for harmed limbs, but recall it somewhere. I mean you got vorpal weapons that could be used against you, there is going to have to be something unless the cleric has sewing NWP or something.
What is the penalty for being on fire? But you can still attack without one when engulfed in flames, it even adds to your damage!
Silliness overrules common sense as always of course.
The vorpal sword bypassed HP entirely, and so says nothing about the HP system except that it sucks for modeling specific injuries.
I agree. Many posters appear to have a default assumption that narration rights rest primarily with the GM, but in 4e it is made fairly clear by the rulebooks (eg power rules in the PHB, skill challenge rules in the PHB and DMG, and James Wyatt's sidebar in the DMG about his son narrating the existence of a trap) that a lot of narration rights rest with the players.
