Effects without damage?

[fba827]

although it sounds like 'not a bad idea in the grand scheme since he isn't doing damage' something about it just rubs me.

he's electing to effectively specialize (as a healer), so he should accept the tactical downsides of it as well (which, in this case, means a much smaller pool of options when trying to deal with a bloodied enemy).

By the way, if he is bored of doing his astral sea and other things, don't forget he can always do other tactical things like Aid Another (for someone else's attack or defense -- with the update on that, aid another for attack is no longer an attack in itself, it is just a fient or distraction to give your ally a +2 to hit, or +2 to defense, etc), or using a heal check to grant a bonus save to someone (which is about as good as sacred flame without doing damage since your heal check may be more likely to succeed depending on modifiers), and so on.

 

[The Human Target]

although it sounds like 'not a bad idea in the grand scheme since he isn't doing damage' something about it just rubs me.

he's electing to effectively specialize (as a healer), so he should accept the tactical downsides of it as well (which, in this case, means a much smaller pool of options when trying to deal with a bloodied enemy).

By the way, if he is bored of doing his astral sea and other things, don't forget he can always do other tactical things like Aid Another (for someone else's attack or defense -- with the update on that, aid another for attack is no longer an attack in itself, it is just a fient or distraction to give your ally a +2 to hit, or +2 to defense, etc), or using a heal check to grant a bonus save to someone (which is about as good as sacred flame without doing damage since your heal check may be more likely to succeed depending on modifiers), and so on.

For the record, he didn't ask or even hint to me about making up this houserule. I don't want to besmirch his name.

I'm just a mother hen DM.

Aid another is a very good idea, and I will bring it up to him. The main problem with that to me is that it will require him to close into melee range.

 

[Arlough]

I would personally say that he should sometimes just take the hit, or do something else useful. It will add to the thematic drama of the event when he decides that he must attack X for the good of the party.

But, if you are convinced to allow Sacred Flame to do no damage (by others or yourself), I would make the Sacred Flame never do damage rather than make it optional at any time.

I like the idea of doing things like "aid another" etc. better, though.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I've been an advocate from day one of allowing powers to be used without the damage component. Pacifist throws this viewpoint for a loop, but let's look at the options:

Astral seal: Enemy receives -2 to all defenses and attacking ally gains 2 + Cha hit points.

Sacred Flame (forgoing all damage): Ally gains temp hit points = Cha + 1/2 level -OR- ally receives a saving throw.

From a first look this seems pretty equal to me. I'd try it out.

 

[DracoSuave]

There's a way to make it so he doesn't have to worry about the Pacifist Healer interfering with the attacks he'd like to make.

It's called

'Retrain the feat if you don't like it.'

Trust me, to start removing damage but still get effects is openning a can of worms you don't want to open.... there are a LOT of ways to abuse it.

*goes to roll a Dark Warlock...*

 

[The Human Target]

There's a way to make it so he doesn't have to worry about the Pacifist Healer interfering with the attacks he'd like to make.

It's called

'Retrain the feat if you don't like it.'

Trust me, to start removing damage but still get effects is openning a can of worms you don't want to open.... there are a LOT of ways to abuse it.

*goes to roll a Dark Warlock...*

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but my group has never in its history in any edition got too cheesy with stuff so I wouldn't be worried.

 

[mysticknight232]

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but my group has never in its history in any edition got too cheesy with stuff so I wouldn't be worried.

One thing I forgot to mention on my post on the previous page that may change the say he thinks about things. He can attack and kill minions all day long with a penalty. I know it's not the most glamorous or exciting thing to do, but he could turn into a minion machine gun and never take a penalty from the feat since the minions die in a single hit and are never bloodied. That's our how our Pacifist Cleric runs his guy.

So, just thought I'd throw that out there as something to consider also.

 

[The Human Target]

One thing I forgot to mention on my post on the previous page that may change the say he thinks about things. He can attack and kill minions all day long with a penalty. I know it's not the most glamorous or exciting thing to do, but he could turn into a minion machine gun and never take a penalty from the feat since the minions die in a single hit and are never bloodied. That's our how our Pacifist Cleric runs his guy.

So, just thought I'd throw that out there as something to consider also.

Thank you for the suggestion. Its a viable tactic, but we have a War Wizard in the group that tends to kill all the minions before any bad guys get bloodied.

However, we had out first session with the pacifist healer in the group yesterday. It went fine without any house rules. He's the kind of player that can think of things to do without attacking pretty easily if he had too. And thankfully our rageblood barbarian guarantees that no one stays bloodied for too long.