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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doctor Proctor" data-source="post: 5732335" data-attributes="member: 78547">I think you hit the nail on the head there. Making a healing a standard action basically means that whoever is playing a Leader now has to let the party dictate his main action in the round. If someone is down, he needs to blow his turn (as the OP mentioned, some healers don't do a lot besides heal with their minor, so making that minor a standard won't change that, meaning that the healer is now sacrificing his ability to do anything worthwhile) in order to get them back up, otherwise there will be a lot of glares at the table. Perhaps it's not that healing is an "afterthought" in the case of the OP's players, but simply that his Leader is enjoying taking his turn and making his own choices about what his character will do? On a side note, the most fun I ever had playing a Leader was with an Ardent in Dark Sun. They have awesome, interesting powers, and the Impetuous build was fun as hell ("No really, just move away and provoke. You'll get a big damage boost and then you can take down that artillery that's bogging us down, instead of slugging it out with the Brute."). If I had been relegated to healbot though, I never would have played it because I never would've gotten to do all of the fun amazing things I did, because I would've been constantly blowing my turns healing allies.  I don't think it's that other players don't thank you for saving their bacon occassionally, it's just that they don't notice all the other things you're doing. For example, in my first 4E campaign I played a Fighter and was the sole Defender in the party. The rest of the party wasn't especially good at tactics, which meant that it fell to me to handle that. They also didn't like it when I said "Hey, we should really do this" in an attempt to create some cohesive strategies, so they just sort of did their own thing. To compensate for this I really had to pay attention, even when it wasn't my turn. I had to learn all of the monster roles and what they could, as well as the roles and abilities of my fellow players. That way, I could assess a situation and tell who would get into trouble, and which enemies were the biggest threats to the party. Point is, every single turn I was watching what was going and try to stay aware of the situation at the table while others knitted, played Pokemon or played with the Ferrets. Many times I didn't save the party in some spectacular fashion like a crit on the BBEG, but in simply marking or not marking opponents at the most opportune times. These sorts of behind the scenes tactics are not noticed by many players, and thus you are never thanked for them. Yeah, I got thanked for tanking a Purple Dragon (150+HP in damage taken in that single encounter, probably another 100+ dished out, ended with 1HP and 1 surge...out of 12 that I started the day with. And that was at level 5, when I only had about 55 or 60HP.), but never for the dozens of times when I was surrounded by 3 or more enemies for multiple rounds taking every single attack they dished out. Often times, healers get the same short shrift. They dutifully buff, dish out bumps to saving throws, heal, grants temps, and generally just do a good job of keeping the party alive and able to contribute. Yet, most people don't seem to really thank them for all the little things they do, just the big ones when they drop a Beacon at just the right moment.</blockquote>

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