Fast Healing in Modern Games

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I'm playing a relatively low-level Pulp Supers game as my regular home game. We're using d20 Modern and RPGO's Blood and Vigilance.

At any rate, one of the PCs has gotten himself some ranks in Regeneration. It fit within his concept and the story-line has them coming out of the shadows of the mean streets as "Normal" vigilantes and gaining some amount of recognition (both amongst themselves, and publicly) of their "special" talents.

All well and good. Fast Healing of any mark is an especially powerful ability, even in D&D ... in D&D, however, you have Wands of Cure Light Wounds, Clerics, and Potions of Cure X Wounds.

In Modern, the best you can really do is a Treat Injury check for a whopping 1d4 hp.

This works great, IMHO, and I've liked the flavor of it ... but Fast Healing Guy has become totally and unfailingly broken. His FastHealing 2 means that, after combat rounds have ceased, the next combat sequence of the day finds him at his (huge) full hit points, while everybody else is limping around with 10-15 hp. I'm all for his ability to function as a tank, and it's my fault for making him "TOUGH", but it's becoming a situation where any combat that THREATENS Fast Healing Guy would absolutely slaughter the rest of the crew. I've seen it happen before, so I try to avoid it.

((The "Rob's Paladin Maneuver". Named for when a DM attempted to throw a combat challenging a 34 AC Dwarven Defender at the group and reduced another player's Paladin to -56 hp in one round.))

One other PC has access to "Supernatural" healing: the Mythos Occultist ... unfortunately his "Healing Touch of Asklepios" spell comes with a 2 Wis Damage + 2d6 Subdual Damage price tag, so he only uses it in dire emergencies (something I ALSO like).

Honestly, my best-case-scenario would be to hit Fast Healing with the Nerf stick. The player is being a bit immature about the whole thing, though, and is clinging to that Fast Healing with both hands. He'd rather retire the PC than "Ruin The Archetypal Concept Of The Character!" by getting rid of the Fast Healing and making use of his enhanced Second Wind ability (which nets him, on average, 9hp). The problem with that is his only other character idea, frankly, sucks.

So I'm falling back and trying to think of some more solutions to the problem other than "Your PC gets nerfed" or pulling a Rob's Paladin Maneuver. I don't really want to make the player with the healing spell feel USELESS, so I want to offer up superscience healing potions or anything like that. I'm contemplating upping his healing power or lowering the cost to help out.

Any other ideas? Or is the nerf stick really our only choice?

--fje

 

[C. Baize]

In my Blood and Vigilance game, there's an underground hospital for mutants, and other supers.. completely neutral.
I call it St. Darwin's.
But there are healers there who heal others.... for a price....

 

[^Graff]

Well, if fast-healing guy is the toughest guy in the team, let him get a reputation for it. Then, the bad guys realize that they have to take fast-healing guy out, so they constantly try to separate him from the others (a teleport trap, perhaps?) and then you can let him have it without risking anyone else's characters.

It will be a challenging encounter for him, and if you spring an encounter on everyone else at the same time, it won't look like you're specifically trying to knock of the broken character.

 

[Masada]

You could experiment with wound points.

The other similar concept is go for Ability Points. A 0 Charisma puts you in a coma no matter how fast you heal.

What's this guys Will Save? I'm picturing the Juggernaught that was perpetually at risk from Xavier's mental attacks... I'd say that if he wants the uber healing, then he has to accept some other weakness.

 

[The Grackle]

Nerf it.

If the character is way over-powered compared to the rest of the party, that's a problem. If the player can't see how it's unbalanced after you've explained it to him, he's just being a baby.

"Ruining the archetypal concept," is bull. Any one who wolud retire a character just b/c one power was being (quite reasonably) nerfed doesn't really care about that character anyway. He doesn't want to let go of his unfair advantage, so he's gonna take his ball and go home. Let him.

I say nerf it.

 

[aurance]

Nerf it.

If the character is way over-powered compared to the rest of the party, that's a problem. If the player can't see how it's unbalanced after you've explained it to him, he's just being a baby.

"Ruining the archetypal concept," is bull. Any one who wolud retire a character just b/c one power was being (quite reasonably) nerfed doesn't really care about that character anyway. He doesn't want to let go of his unfair advantage, so he's gonna take his ball and go home. Let him.

I say nerf it.

Totally agree. Putting his own fun above that of the other players is pretty obnoxious.

 

[Arkhandus]

I wouldn't take away the Fast Healing and make him use that crappy 9HP Second Wind (which costs action points anyway, right?), that'd just be mean (and unfair if he already spent 'points' or whatever on getting fast healing). Slow the rate that Fast Healing works, so it only heals him of 2 HP per minute, per 10 minutes, or per hour. At 2 HP per hour, he'd heal 48 HP per day, for instance. This would make the other character's healing spell useful in the heat of battle, but allow the tough character to heal on his own within a day or a few days.

That or make his crappy Improved Second Wind actually do something worthwhile, like healing 1d4 (or 1d6) HP per point of Constitution bonus he has (I'm assuming his 'improved' SW still heals based on Con bonus, right?). This could help him survive in the heat of battle, but at the expense of using up his finite supply of action points. I'd advise against this though generally, since it doesn't really represent any sort of automatic self-healing power, but more like healing himself through force of will and such.

Either way, if you nerf his Fast Healing or take it away, at least have it stabilize him automatically when he goes to negative HP, and have it heal him of 1 HP per round when at negative HP. Or something.

 

[Tonguez]

Why not up the ability of the other characters instead?.

Create an Improved Treat Injury feat which allows more hp to be recovered or allow the Supernatural healing to work without the subdual damage (but keep the wis damage (assuming its temporary))

 

[C. Baize]

Honestly, though... the thing is that the player chose that power... that's one less offensive or overtly defensive power the character can bring to bear... While the others might have spiffy keen blast'em powers... he heals quick.

 

[Kelleris]

I would say limit the amount of healing in one day. Just say that the character's fast healing cannot restore more than his full normal hp total in one day. He's still getting twice as many hps out of it, if that's okay, but at least he'll eventually get tired.

Ugh, I hate fast healing/regeneration.