Free healing with Life Transference

[Garthanos]

Right this is out of encounter use right....
I have seen a house rule and considered it. Encounter power use out of conflict are limited to 1 per hour. The basic premise is that encounter powers usually draw on the intensity and adrenaline rush of an encounter... in quiet time they are less accessable... you could use them in an encounter have a rest use them again have an encounter all in very short time but without the boost of an true encounter well... life moves slower.

I mentioned I call the ... non-healing surge healing.. the unicorn force... well powers derived of it definitely are the kind that draw on the intensity of an "encounter". I use house rules to create a flavor for the world more than because I think something is somehow objectively "wrong"

Combine that with lower number of combat encounters... "Ah man my character has to talk to somebody".. guess thats why my players have linguist and diplomacy on some of there characters sheets (and history too).

 

[Garthanos]

I had made restrictions on healing in my game world ... it ranged from major historical trajedies.. like the heart home event where the majority of the worlds healers were killed off or and most are now born as regeneratives who are unable to heal others ( any race with a regen or healing abilty usually warforged or long tooth shifter ).
to the unicorn force being hard to control - healing spirits whatever they look like (One healers healing spirit has his mothers eyes) tend to heal anyone nearby not just your allies... its annoying on a battle field and so they were rarely conjured til after the fight because of that.
However in 4e the hitpoints (+ healing surges) now feel truly what they claimed what hp were all along luck and morale and fatigue etc. I dont have much problems at all with poets and politician and priests who inspire and invigorate... because it doesnt feel like the same "healing magic" which my world has supressed. Enter wound mechanics and no you cant talk the broken arm better (you can make them heal quite as much as 3x faster (like a kid heals) if you put the time making frequent use of those "healing" powers. But serious injuries dont just fix without serious rituals or serious time.

 

[Regicide]

Right this is out of encounter use right....
I have seen a house rule and considered it. Encounter power use out of conflict are limited to 1 per hour.

That is an ugly rule. So if a power is used in a fight, 5 minutes and it can be used again, but out then it's 1 hour and it can be used again? What if they use it out, then rest 5 minutes then get into a fight, can it be used or is it "readied but not useable" which would be a very awkward and new state that brings with it loads of problems.

The basic premise is that encounter powers usually draw on the intensity and adrenaline rush of an encounter...

Which is the opposite of how things normally work. Not to say 4E made any attempt to model reality what so ever beyond falling hurts, or in 4E's case reduces your luck/restedness/savoire faire whatever. But what you're basically saying is that a surgeon can perform a tricky surgery 5 minutes after performing one AS LONG AS drunken frat boys were pelting him with beer bottles while he was doing it, but NOT if he did it in a safe environment. Very strange.

The standard rule of, out of combat 5 minute reuse, in combat no reuse until you get out and rest for 5 minutes makes FAR more sense. And with the exception of this power and perhaps a tiny number of others. Which is why it's the power that is at fault.

This power is so awesome for NPCs and enemies it's not funny.

 

[Garthanos]

Right the rush makes "some things" work better (healing is one -- or the magical healing I mentioned makes sense - and certain forms of pain supression - and certain forms of clearing of fatigue [some but not even all hitpoint recovery] - and power actions are another) and others worse (precision stuff primarily)... so using that isn't consistent enough to be useful -- only some of the encounter powers are likely to make sense working better or more frequently in the conflict rush situation.

Your example picked something surgery likely to take longer than the duration of any encounter in the game and the most precision oriented activity in existence.

I see what you mean you need a rest time after the encounter to recover that use... so its overlapping in to the frame of out of conflict. Clunk...

 

[Garthanos]

This power is so awesome for NPCs and enemies it's not funny.

who are you picking for enemies? and as dm I don't think I would typically have a "hero class" innate healer working for the big bad. ;-),

Most npcs might be minions and awesome hit point recovery rates wouldnt be real meaningful ;-) --OK even minions heal true wounds much faster when there spirits and physical energy are kept running very high (they have uses for rousing speeches and clerics and bards too).

 

[Regicide]

who are you picking for enemies? and as dm I don't think I would typically have a "hero class" innate healer working for the big bad. ;-),

Priests of Orcus, Vecna and other evil gods are very popular baddies.

 

[Garthanos]

Priests of Orcus, Vecna and other evil gods are very popular baddies.

So you use player character rules on the npc enemies... just doubly verifying... priest does not = cleric.... priests of those entities might well be even "more like a warlock." and still not the same as a player character warlock.

 

[Regicide]

So you use player character rules on the npc enemies...

DMG pg. 186.

 

[Garthanos]

I was thinking the only time you would see a "true healer" working for Orcus with me as a DM is when that healer is a captured hero operating under diress. That said the easiest way to build NPC's is using the Character builder. (so even if there wasnt a rule I would do it anyway ) . I still consider a priest of these evils to usually be non clerics just as I see there champions to be something other than a paladin. The generosity of voluntarily transfering your life force to others and similar things just doesnt work as well for me with evill nasty stuff attached...that said some of the cleric and paladin powers might work as vampiric effects..

Ah I got it a blood letting on yourself to do a heal magic... ok you convinced me. I could do an awesome evil cleric.