Heal to grant saving throw to self?

[vic20]

Grant a Saving Throw: Make a DC 15 Heal check. If you succeed, an adjacent ally can immediately make a saving throw, or the ally gets a +2 bonus to a saving throw at the end of his or her next turn.

It would appear that in the RAW, you can grant a saving throw to an adjacent ally, but not to yourself?

This came up in a recent game where players were Immobilized in spider webs. One player was alone (nobody adjacent), and I thought it strange that if there were an adjacent ally, they could help each other to escape, but wouldn't be able to help themselves. I allowed a Heal check as per PHB, but targeting self, and have been allowing such saves since.

Am I in "house rules" territory here, or is this poor wording that is concretely contradicted elsewhere?

 

[Kordeth]

You're in house-rule territory; the PHB clearly defines "ally" as a creature other than you.

Allowing creatures to use Heal checks to make immediate saves on themselves is going to make "save ends" conditions significantly weaker--especially in cases of conditions like immobilized, where giving up your standard action isn't going to sting nearly as much (because you might not have been able to do anything with it anyways).

 

[vic20]

You're in house-rule territory; the PHB clearly defines "ally" as a creature other than you.

Allowing creatures to use Heal checks to make immediate saves on themselves is going to make "save ends" conditions significantly weaker--especially in cases of conditions like immobilized, where giving up your standard action isn't going to sting nearly as much (because you might not have been able to do anything with it anyways).

Yeah, I'm down with ally != self. I don't have a lot of house-rules, but this use of Heal is on my short list.

Thanks for the quick answer.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Really, I think it falls under the same territory as not being able to make an "aid other" test for yourself.

Things to keep in mind is that if you allow players to heal themselves in this circumstance, why not in others? For example, why can't a player heal himself to spend a healing surge as a minor rather than a standard? (though admittedly, if they do that they wouldn't get the +2 defences from second wind).

I'm not advocating one way or another, just suggesting that you view the issue through a wide lense before deciding. This is something that I have found very useful in my own rules discussions with the players (that was on whether giving people saves should kill them faster if they were failed).


Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui

 

[FireLance]

Things to keep in mind is that if you allow players to heal themselves in this circumstance, why not in others? For example, why can't a player heal himself to spend a healing surge as a minor rather than a standard?

Because administering first aid is a standard action?

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Indeed... either my memory is fading, or the rule book is rewriting itself after I read it...

Dr. Ruminahui - shrink with a spear