Free healing with Life Transference

[Rothe_]

Actually it would not be better in all cases, just different.
CLW heals without a surge, but only for the target's surge value.
Life transference heals without surges AND it heals according to your surge value.

In a situation where one of your allies runs out of surges, life transference is better if you have couple of surges left. You can boost your ally up to half of his hp's with one power, and if your surge value is higher, they'll get extra benefits.

Actually, life transference is a really nice utility swap for defenders MC'ing into cleric, as their surge value is high, and they are likely able to take a hit when healing their allies.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, in some circumstances it would still be useable, that way. But compared to a power that is pretty much always useful, that's not exactly a good deal, I think.

Anyways, if people dislike it, it's easy to just ban it entirely. I don't think it's necessary, though. Restricting its use on allies is more than enough to make it reasonable im my opinion.

Bye
Thanee

 

[DracoSuave]

CLW isn't always useful. It's a daily.

The encounterness of Life Transferance -really- gives it a lot of upside compared to CLW.

Let's face it, any situation where you use CLW is a situation you're over your head and need that extra healing -now-. Transferance will accomplish that for you more effectively, with a deep cost. But, if you happen to have healing word up, then blowing a healing word after Transferance means:

Your target gained 2 surges of hp at the cost of 0 surges, plus your Wisdom modifier
You lost a surge but gained your wisdom modifier + 1d6 hps.

Compare to CLW and Healing Word, where your target spends a surge, gets twice your wisdom + 1d6, but you don't end up ahead on hps.

Given the former situation is applicable in every battle, and the later only happens once, the Daily aspect of CLW really starts to weigh it down.

 

[Thanee]

CLW isn't always useful. It's a daily.

Yeah, but then again, we were discussing LT as a daily in comparison.

Bye
Thanee

 

[DracoSuave]

The fact that was my idea and I forgot makes that entire thing very funny.

And embarassing.

Even then tho, it's no wash.

 

[Regicide]

There are actually two problems, both because actual intelligence in design got replaced in 4E in favour of a dart board.

The core problem is that Longtooth Shifters, unlike pretty much anyone else, have infinite healing in a game where that actually matters.

The next problem is that, as was pointed out, this power gives more than it takes. Infinite oregano, or in this case, again, infinite healing. Since more HPs are generated that removed and there is no other "cost" other than 5 minutes of rest, it's busted even if you couldn't target yourself to make it truly abusive. (Even if you can't target yourself, think 2 clerics.)

 

[LightPhoenix]

The thing you're missing is that Life Transference can be used on yourself. No regeneration necessary: you hurt yourself for 1 surge and give yourself 2 surges.

Were I a DM, I would Rule 0 (or the 4E equivalent) that, on the basis of RAI being you giving HP to someone else.

I think, as an Encounter power, the best thing to do to fix it would be to only have it heal HP equal to the Cleric's surge value (plus bonuses). That way it's not completely better than CLW, but still viable. You could still heal yourself to full... but now it's not so instant.

 

[DracoSuave]

There are actually two problems, both because actual intelligence in design got replaced in 4E in favour of a dart board.

The core problem is that Longtooth Shifters, unlike pretty much anyone else, have infinite healing in a game where that actually matters.

The next problem is that, as was pointed out, this power gives more than it takes. Infinite oregano, or in this case, again, infinite healing. Since more HPs are generated that removed and there is no other "cost" other than 5 minutes of rest, it's busted even if you couldn't target yourself to make it truly abusive. (Even if you can't target yourself, think 2 clerics.)

Time -is- a factor, however. And a DM can make it a factor, and the players should understand that time is a spendable resource.

Let's face it, Craft checks could make you 'infinite' gold in D&D3e.

Wasn't broken tho, because of the time factor.

After a certain length of that time, it is not trivial at all, and that's the point where you must compare this not to a short rest, but to an extended rest. Once you hit about 15 minutes or so, you've greatly increased the risk to the party of being attacked with your pants down.

At that point, if you're outside of the field of conflict, it just might be more expedient to just extended rest, at which point the comparison is moot.

More importantly, this ability allows for longer adventure days, which is something -many- of you have complained you wanted. This doesn't give you -back- surges (you still should be spending more in battle itself) and it doesn't give you dailies back, nor does it make you more powerful in terms of that individual conflict.

The -only- effect this power has in terms of resting at that point is giving you more encounters in a day.

Is more encounters in a day unbalancing? And if so, why? Does it increase XP/encounter? No. Does it make encounters trivial? No. Does it make fights go shorter than they should? No.

All it does is permit more encounters per day. That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Turtlejay]

The only thing that more encounters a day really gives you is milestones.

Really, this is just the latest in a string of too cheesy to stomach combos that I would never be even close to tempted to try. I have a hard time picturing my shifter cleric working up a shifing rage because he has been transfering HP's to an ally.

I know that is not an answer, but I hope that I will always play with people for whom that will be enough. There are far worse broken combinations and offenses being touted on the charop boards, I see this as a silly trick and nothing more.

Jay

 

[DracoSuave]

The only thing that more encounters a day really gives you is milestones.

Really, this is just the latest in a string of too cheesy to stomach combos that I would never be even close to tempted to try. I have a hard time picturing my shifter cleric working up a shifing rage because he has been transfering HP's to an ally.

I know that is not an answer,

This is probably the best answer yet, actually.