CapnZapp
Legend
My answer to why this troubles people:
Because it creates a situation where you might want to take "double rests".
To me, this feels like clumsy design. Where did the simplicity of choosing between a short rest and an extended rest go?
Also, it reintroduces a need to count minutes. Everywhere else, the rules encourage you not to keep close track of exactly how long a short rest is, which is a very attractive proposition. It simply lasts precisely as long as is needed to get to the next exciting encounter!
Instead of giving clerics their two healing words per each five minutes, this should have been handled in a more quick, easy and generic fashion to gel with the rest of the stream-lined rules. Something like this:
Intermediate Rest: You take a longer break to allow your healers to reinvigorate any wounded and tired party members. The actual time usage varies (10-30 minutes). In the rare case where an exact time measurement is needed, use fifteen minutes (three times the length of a short rest).
An intermediate rest counts as a short rest. Additionally, it restores everyone to full hit points. It does not restore healing surges, daily item uses, or anything else you need an extended rest for.
If your party does not contain a Leader, your party cannot take an Intermediate Rest.
Something like this would offer several improvements with how it works today:
1) You don't actually have to bother with the tedious admin of rolling Healing Words, and adding up hp totals. Just assume you rest until all hp damage has been taken care of. This is much more "the 4E way" of doing things.
2) You make it much more visible that this indeed is a valid intended course of action.
3) You make it much more visible that this is an important benefit of having a Cleric in your group. Or more to the point, that having none means you can't do this (and have to resort to using up Healing Surges).
So my answer is: it troubles people because it's a cludgy lazy implementation that does not go all the way through. Either replace it with something like what I whipped up above, or remove it altogether!
My personal opinion? Removing it is a fine house rule. However, I would probably keep the rule (in the cleaner incarnation like above), but I would remove the third paragraph.
That is, I find that the advantage of having a Cleric with Healing Word is big enough for the in-combat advantages. I see no reason to not allow "intermediate rests" for parties without Leaders.
Because it creates a situation where you might want to take "double rests".
To me, this feels like clumsy design. Where did the simplicity of choosing between a short rest and an extended rest go?
Also, it reintroduces a need to count minutes. Everywhere else, the rules encourage you not to keep close track of exactly how long a short rest is, which is a very attractive proposition. It simply lasts precisely as long as is needed to get to the next exciting encounter!
Instead of giving clerics their two healing words per each five minutes, this should have been handled in a more quick, easy and generic fashion to gel with the rest of the stream-lined rules. Something like this:
Intermediate Rest: You take a longer break to allow your healers to reinvigorate any wounded and tired party members. The actual time usage varies (10-30 minutes). In the rare case where an exact time measurement is needed, use fifteen minutes (three times the length of a short rest).
An intermediate rest counts as a short rest. Additionally, it restores everyone to full hit points. It does not restore healing surges, daily item uses, or anything else you need an extended rest for.
If your party does not contain a Leader, your party cannot take an Intermediate Rest.
Something like this would offer several improvements with how it works today:
1) You don't actually have to bother with the tedious admin of rolling Healing Words, and adding up hp totals. Just assume you rest until all hp damage has been taken care of. This is much more "the 4E way" of doing things.
2) You make it much more visible that this indeed is a valid intended course of action.
3) You make it much more visible that this is an important benefit of having a Cleric in your group. Or more to the point, that having none means you can't do this (and have to resort to using up Healing Surges).
So my answer is: it troubles people because it's a cludgy lazy implementation that does not go all the way through. Either replace it with something like what I whipped up above, or remove it altogether!
My personal opinion? Removing it is a fine house rule. However, I would probably keep the rule (in the cleaner incarnation like above), but I would remove the third paragraph.
That is, I find that the advantage of having a Cleric with Healing Word is big enough for the in-combat advantages. I see no reason to not allow "intermediate rests" for parties without Leaders.
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