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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gryph" data-source="post: 5730837" data-attributes="member: 98071">I've been playing/DMing in a 4e group for almost 3 years now. The game is a lot of fun and as a whole it is both complex enough and well-balanced enough that houserules are basically non-existent. (Just a couple races and classes that I don't allow for campaign story reasons.) Overall, I like the healing surge mechanic, with a couple of exceptions. First, it didn't quite answer the short work day problem. When healing surges are gone, it is rightfully hard to get the players to keep moving forward. Secondly, and increasingly the more serious issue for me, healing has become an afterthought with the players (including myself when I play). I recognize this is a playstyle issue more than a design issue. I'm sure a lot of groups prefer that healing be kind of a low involvement activity during the encounter and the adventuring day. I kind of miss it as a tactical activity. I have come to the conclusion that the reason it feels like an afterthought to me is the leader classes getting most of their healing from minor actions. So quite often, in our group, a healer will take his move and attack then just before ending his turn ask around the table, "Oh, does anyone need healing?" As a houserule, I've been thinking of making the use of healing word and its brethren a standard action instead of a minor. I think the tactical range of options that leader classes have been given are broad enough to make those classes interesting to play, even if the player has to choose between attacking or healing with their standard action. To handle the short work day problem, I've been thinking about adding a medium rest. The medium rest would take about an hour and require that the characters eat a meal. The medium rest would let players recover 2 healing surges and they couldn't use a medium rest more than twice between extended rests. I could have put this in houserules, but I'd also like to hear peoples thoughts on pace of healing and other ideas for alternate answers to the "healing" question.</blockquote>

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