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Does “Whack-A-Mole” Healing really happen in games?
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<blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8157206" data-attributes="member: 93670"><p>yes absolutely but there are a few d&d/ 5e things that contribute to it. 4e' already been mentioned but there's a good comparison to 3.5 too.</p><p></p><p>In d&d mmo style "in combat healing" is almost always a poor option over doing something to end the fight faster & that's fine as eve a lot of video games work that way. That was true back in 3.5 but not as absolute as 5e, first you have [spoiler="this"]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130551[/ATTACH]</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p>I thought about cutting out just the relevant bits, but it's most of the page and conveniently located all on the same page to make sure nobody needs to give too much thought to connecting<em> those</em> dots. For comparison...</p><p>[spoiler="here is how it worked in 3.5"]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130553[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130554[/ATTACH]</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>You while previously you were in severe risk of death if you were even <em>low </em>on hp because any damage over your current hp still subracts hp that just be healedbefore you are no longer disabled & you only had a 10hp buffer hat kept replenishing itself until you were healed or somehow made stable. 5e changes that so amy damage beyond your curret hp just goes away & dno longer requires you to heal it before you are functional again. </p><p></p><p>Putting than in perspective a zombie did 1d6+1 damage for a theoretcal crit of 14 making it so a crit could just instantly kill someone in low single digits of health and everyone knew that the too beat up to risk it margin only went up from there as monsters hit harder. In 5e you can be at 1hp and not die drom a single attack unless that attack would also kill you at max health. <strong>So that's the first big shift..</strong></p><p>healing spells themselves work different</p><p>[spoiler="old 3.5 healing spells & new 5e ones"][ATTACH=full]130552[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130557[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130559[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130558[/ATTACH]</p><p>There were some ranged heal spells, but they are..</p><p>[spoiler="high level and generally not very good"]</p><p><strong>Channeled Divine Health (PHBII p.106) - Cleric 4</strong></p><p>Range/healing increase the longer you spend casting it: from touch/1d8 as a swift action up to long/4d8+CL if you spend 2 rounds casting.</p><p><strong>Close Wounds (Spell Compendium p.48) - Cleric 2</strong></p><p>Immediate action, close range, heals for 1d4+CL (max. +5). Can be used to save someone who just dropped below -10.</p><p><strong>Darts of Life (Complete Champion p.118) - Cleric 5</strong></p><p>Creates 10 floating orbs that you can launch (close range) for 1d8 healing each.</p><p><strong>Healing Circle (Complete Champion p.122) - Cleric 5</strong></p><p>Allies within 30 ft. can use one of the spell's charges to heal themselves as a standard action. 5 charges; each one heals for progressively less.</p><p><strong>Healing Spirit (PHBII p.114) - Cleric 4</strong></p><p>Creates a spirit that can heal an ally within close range for 1d8 each round.</p><p><strong>Insignia of Healing (Races of Destiny p.166) - Cleric 3</strong></p><p>You'll first need to make special insignias for your allies to wear (10g each). Heals 1d8+CL (max +10) to all insignia wearers within long range[/spoiler]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130555[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130556[/ATTACH]</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p>Take a level 10 cleric casting that cure light wounds spell vrs a 5e level 10 cleric casting cure wounds. in 3.5 it would heal 1d8+5 with cure light in a first level slot, 2d8+10 cure moderate in a second level slot, 3d8+10 cure serious i a third level slot or 4d8+10 cure critical in a fourth level slot while the 5e cleric casts cure wounds giving slot level *1d8 plus caster stat ability mod(ie swis/cha/int). In 3.5 those low level healing spells got better to a point as you advanced and your higher level slots were for when it rally mattered while 5e the low level slots are more efficient for healing/slot level & dramatically so when you factor in the first big shift. <strong>That's the second big shift.</strong></p><p></p><p>Finally they changed how spells are prepared, just ignore multiclassing for now. In 5e you get a certain number of spells you can prepare based on your class & levels in that class plus some extra for your relevant int/wis/cha mod in most cases & it didn't matter if you use every single spellslot or no spell slots on a given prepared/known spell. Without getting into irrelevant details like how/when you recovered expended spell slots what attributes were involved, & if you prayed meditated or whatever to select your spells it was fairly simple but extremely different from 5e because you would prepare your spells for each spell slot. Using just the cure x wounds that 10th level cleric would have 4/4/3/3/2 1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th level slots & would probably not be very interested in putting cure x wounds in every one of those. They might devote most of those first level slots to cure light wounds, but there are a lot of good first level spells that got better as your level advanced so that's unlikely. The higher level slots had more impressive non-healing options as you advanced so you wouldn't see many people preparing more than a couple or less cure serious/critical wounds & we haven't even gotten to the mass versions that worked the same but covered multiple targets. With that said... <strong>The fourth big shift </strong>is that the cleric now has any amount of healing spells available to burn on the yoyo/wackamole style healing in the most efficient manner instead of saying "That was the only/last big cure x wounds spell I prepped so be careful guys" & no longer has the same clout that goes with keeping you alive because point 1 2 & 3 make death not very likely, not very costly to prevent, and the healer's ability to cast cool stuff vrs heal is not particularly limited as long as they have a single spell slot of any level.</p><p></p><p><strong>edit: </strong>also as [USER=1165]@(Psi)SeveredHead[/USER] noted it was a bigger cost to stand up from prone back in 3.5 & you were not going anywhere this round without eating an AoO if you did get healed back to an <em>extremely</em> dangerous conscious[spoiler="move action"]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130563[/ATTACH]</p><p>[/spoiler]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tetrasodium, post: 8157206, member: 93670"] yes absolutely but there are a few d&d/ 5e things that contribute to it. 4e' already been mentioned but there's a good comparison to 3.5 too. In d&d mmo style "in combat healing" is almost always a poor option over doing something to end the fight faster & that's fine as eve a lot of video games work that way. That was true back in 3.5 but not as absolute as 5e, first you have [spoiler="this"] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609011440174.png"]130551[/ATTACH] [/spoiler] I thought about cutting out just the relevant bits, but it's most of the page and conveniently located all on the same page to make sure nobody needs to give too much thought to connecting[I] those[/I] dots. For comparison... [spoiler="here is how it worked in 3.5"] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609012184619.png"]130553[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609012356935.png"]130554[/ATTACH] [/spoiler] You while previously you were in severe risk of death if you were even [I]low [/I]on hp because any damage over your current hp still subracts hp that just be healedbefore you are no longer disabled & you only had a 10hp buffer hat kept replenishing itself until you were healed or somehow made stable. 5e changes that so amy damage beyond your curret hp just goes away & dno longer requires you to heal it before you are functional again. Putting than in perspective a zombie did 1d6+1 damage for a theoretcal crit of 14 making it so a crit could just instantly kill someone in low single digits of health and everyone knew that the too beat up to risk it margin only went up from there as monsters hit harder. In 5e you can be at 1hp and not die drom a single attack unless that attack would also kill you at max health. [B]So that's the first big shift..[/B] healing spells themselves work different [spoiler="old 3.5 healing spells & new 5e ones"][ATTACH type="full" alt="1609011666489.png"]130552[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609013243918.png"]130557[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609013296925.png"]130559[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609013285173.png"]130558[/ATTACH] There were some ranged heal spells, but they are.. [spoiler="high level and generally not very good"] [B]Channeled Divine Health (PHBII p.106) - Cleric 4[/B] Range/healing increase the longer you spend casting it: from touch/1d8 as a swift action up to long/4d8+CL if you spend 2 rounds casting. [B]Close Wounds (Spell Compendium p.48) - Cleric 2[/B] Immediate action, close range, heals for 1d4+CL (max. +5). Can be used to save someone who just dropped below -10. [B]Darts of Life (Complete Champion p.118) - Cleric 5[/B] Creates 10 floating orbs that you can launch (close range) for 1d8 healing each. [B]Healing Circle (Complete Champion p.122) - Cleric 5[/B] Allies within 30 ft. can use one of the spell's charges to heal themselves as a standard action. 5 charges; each one heals for progressively less. [B]Healing Spirit (PHBII p.114) - Cleric 4[/B] Creates a spirit that can heal an ally within close range for 1d8 each round. [B]Insignia of Healing (Races of Destiny p.166) - Cleric 3[/B] You'll first need to make special insignias for your allies to wear (10g each). Heals 1d8+CL (max +10) to all insignia wearers within long range[/spoiler] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609013094709.png"]130555[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="1609013122497.png"]130556[/ATTACH] [/spoiler] Take a level 10 cleric casting that cure light wounds spell vrs a 5e level 10 cleric casting cure wounds. in 3.5 it would heal 1d8+5 with cure light in a first level slot, 2d8+10 cure moderate in a second level slot, 3d8+10 cure serious i a third level slot or 4d8+10 cure critical in a fourth level slot while the 5e cleric casts cure wounds giving slot level *1d8 plus caster stat ability mod(ie swis/cha/int). In 3.5 those low level healing spells got better to a point as you advanced and your higher level slots were for when it rally mattered while 5e the low level slots are more efficient for healing/slot level & dramatically so when you factor in the first big shift. [B]That's the second big shift.[/B] Finally they changed how spells are prepared, just ignore multiclassing for now. In 5e you get a certain number of spells you can prepare based on your class & levels in that class plus some extra for your relevant int/wis/cha mod in most cases & it didn't matter if you use every single spellslot or no spell slots on a given prepared/known spell. Without getting into irrelevant details like how/when you recovered expended spell slots what attributes were involved, & if you prayed meditated or whatever to select your spells it was fairly simple but extremely different from 5e because you would prepare your spells for each spell slot. Using just the cure x wounds that 10th level cleric would have 4/4/3/3/2 1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th level slots & would probably not be very interested in putting cure x wounds in every one of those. They might devote most of those first level slots to cure light wounds, but there are a lot of good first level spells that got better as your level advanced so that's unlikely. The higher level slots had more impressive non-healing options as you advanced so you wouldn't see many people preparing more than a couple or less cure serious/critical wounds & we haven't even gotten to the mass versions that worked the same but covered multiple targets. With that said... [B]The fourth big shift [/B]is that the cleric now has any amount of healing spells available to burn on the yoyo/wackamole style healing in the most efficient manner instead of saying "That was the only/last big cure x wounds spell I prepped so be careful guys" & no longer has the same clout that goes with keeping you alive because point 1 2 & 3 make death not very likely, not very costly to prevent, and the healer's ability to cast cool stuff vrs heal is not particularly limited as long as they have a single spell slot of any level. [B]edit: [/B]also as [USER=1165]@(Psi)SeveredHead[/USER] noted it was a bigger cost to stand up from prone back in 3.5 & you were not going anywhere this round without eating an AoO if you did get healed back to an [I]extremely[/I] dangerous conscious[spoiler="move action"] [ATTACH type="full"]130563[/ATTACH] [/spoiler] [/QUOTE]
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