Do Healing Surges close wounds?

[Dice4Hire]

A healing surge restores hit points. Whether from 75% to full or from nearly dead to 25%, that is all it does.

How individual players and DMs choose to look at it is up to them.

But seriously, I think a lot of people are WAY overthinking all of this.

 

[was]

yes..except for certain vile spells that say they must be healed naturally

 

[KidSnide]

I took the view that there are two types of magic: light semi-illusory magic that can't heal a wound, but can dull the pain and help a combatant fight through it and serious permanent magic that can cause flesh to knit up and (potentially) restore life.

I use healing surges to represent small magics that help people fight through their wounds, figuring that particularly inspiring words would have the same effect. True healing is far rarer and is represented by surgeless healing magic and certain rituals.

IMG, I assume that all hit point damage that doesn't take you down consists of non-lethal cuts and bruises, but that if you go to zero, there is a GM's discretion to give you a lasting wound that affects your abilities until you have time to heal under a doctor's care. I find that this (mostly ad hoc) system gives me enough verisimilitude while keeping the "game keeps moving" benefits of healing surges.

-KS

 

[babinro]

While I have no problems with how players choose to envision damage in 4e. I personally take the more realistic approach to combat where surges don't close wounds at all.

Damage is representative of one soldier getting the edge in position or just a morale bonus for lack of a better explanation. It involves a close call in battle but no physical damage.

Bloodied refers to an actual cut or contact. In the movie Troy, Hector bloodied Achilles upon cutting his armour.

0hp represents an actual hit to either knock the fighter out or a proper stab to knock them down for a significant time. Then character death is the finishing blow or simply bleeding out from whatever injury knocked them down.

I prefer this take approach as I'd rather allow my fantasy world to have people with lasting injuries with them. Though I've yet to impose such things on the PC's, I like to set the precedence that ones ability to heal isn't an immediate cop out for all injuries.

 

[pemerton]

Depends.

I couldn't XP you again yet, so opted to QFT instead.

While I have no problems with how players choose to envision damage in 4e. I personally take the more realistic approach to combat where surges don't close wounds at all.

<snip>

I'd rather allow my fantasy world to have people with lasting injuries with them. Though I've yet to impose such things on the PC's, I like to set the precedence that ones ability to heal isn't an immediate cop out for all injuries.

I've certainly had NPCs in my game who have suffered injuries - blinding, maiming etc - that the PCs can't heal just with a Healing or Inspiring Word. (I assume that Remove Affliction will heal this sort of injury.)

It's just that the regular combat mechanics mean that PCs never suffer such injuries. Which is fine by me. As someone said upthread, hit points for PCs = plot protection!

 

[Ryujin]

Depends. Is your character Bruce Willis, Bruce Lee, or Steven Segal?

 

[Unwise]

If even the smallest fraction of hit points is physical damage (which I believe everyone agrees on) then the fact that HS can bring one back from zero or less would seem to indicate that they can heal actual physical damage when applied in certain circumstances.

I agree with the conclusion, however I don't see coming back from zero HP as requiring actual healing. There is no point talking about realism, so lets compare this to books and movies instead.

A boxer gets knocked down and can't get up, he is on zero hitpoints, the bell rings. He has a moment to rest, digs deep and finds his second wind. He hops up and continues to fight.

The kung-fu master is kicked through the wall by his rival, he lays there crippled by his wounds, unable to hop up. He has a flashback of his old training (probably a utlility skill) and heroicily hops to his feat. By the time he wipes that little trickle of blood from his lip he is almost as good as new.

The hero has been shot in the guts, a sits there slowly bleeding out. He hears his lady's cries for help, he is so inspired that he hops to his feet and drags himself forward towards where his weapon lays on the floor.

Sure, I think it is safe to assume that everybody in the above scenarios will die without medical aid eventually, however that will happen off camera during a break from the action.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It probably depends on the type of healing triggering them. A magical surge-trigger, like a healing potion or Artificer's infusion or Cleric's healing word could be visualized as accellerating healing, causing wounds to virtually disapear, at the cost of the subjects 'life energy.' A non-magical surge trigger, like a Second Wind, OTOH, can be seen as tapping that same deep reserve of 'life energy,' not all at once to supernaturally insta-heal a wound, but to get the character up and going, in spite of the wound. Preternatural healing, like a Warlord's inspiring word could work the same way, or it could even be narrative-influencing, healed wounds that 'turn out to be not as bad as they looked.'

Then there's non-surge Healing. Cure Wounds spells could be visuallized as causing wounds to just miraculously disapear. Others could be seen as granting or opening up new additional 'reserves' over and above healing surges.

 

[Aenghus]

I answered Other, as there are issues other than just magical or non-magical healing to consider.

If a party's healer is a warlord, it is incumbent on the referee not to fight the system and be careful not to describe massively crippling wounds on the PCs. Doing so makes suspending disbelief re warlord non-magical healing more difficult. I think of warlord healing as a combination of motivating people past the pain and pointing out to people that their wounds aren't as bad as they first seemed - the "it's just a flesh wound" schtick.

The latter doesn't work if broken bones or severe internal or external injuries are clearly described when initially inflicted - with a warlord around it's not appropriate to undermine them by providing this sort of description unless the victim is killed outright.

 

[jeffh]

OTHER

There are no Wounds in D&D as defined in the rules. Damage causes whatever the DM wishes to describe it narratively. As such, healing is treated the same way. How it occurs is within the narrative control of the DM. One unified mechanic, Healing Surges, is used to cover a multitude of methods.

A Cleric's Healing Word may close wounds.

A Warlord's Inspiring Word may give the character the resolve to continue despite the pain he is in.

Since the earliest days of the game hit points have been described as a combination of physical toughness, skill, luck, resolve, etc. How those hit points are lost or gained have always been up to the DM to determine.

How is that "Other", rather than "Sometimes"?