Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6337312" data-attributes="member: 2011">Although there is some truth to what you say, the trap idea is valid as well. A cleric will often have +3 or +4 to hit versus ACs of 10 to 12, at least at lower levels. Unless a PC is eventually knocked unconscious, from an action economy POV, hitting 55% to 75% of the time for some damage is often better than healing, especially if the cleric can attack a foe that is already wounded. If a PC is about to go down, then it is also often better to heal after the PC goes unconscious then it is to heal before the PC goes unconscious. The three main exceptions to this are 1) the cleric is the one seriously injured, 2) the foes are doing a lot of damage with their attacks and a PC with very few hit points remaining has a high chance of being killed if the cleric waits, and 3) the monster attacking a seriously injured PC has an initiative shortly after the cleric where there is a chance that the unconscious PC will get hit while down by another foe(s) at least once.But as a general rule, if the cleric waits until PCs go unconscious before he heals, then the party gets free bonus healing equal to how many points below zero a given attack effectively would have done. For example, a PC at 6 hit points gets hit for 10 points of damage, he goes to 0, not -4. If healed for 10, he is at 10 hit points. If healed before he went unconscious, then he is at 6 hit points (going to 16 and getting hit for 10). There are definitely many times when immediate healing is the suboptimal choice.Waiting until a PC goes unconscious also risks the action economy issue of the unconscious PC's turn coming up before the cleric's turn in initiative order.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 6337312, member: 2011"] Although there is some truth to what you say, the trap idea is valid as well. A cleric will often have +3 or +4 to hit versus ACs of 10 to 12, at least at lower levels. Unless a PC is eventually knocked unconscious, from an action economy POV, hitting 55% to 75% of the time for some damage is often better than healing, especially if the cleric can attack a foe that is already wounded. If a PC is about to go down, then it is also often better to heal after the PC goes unconscious then it is to heal before the PC goes unconscious. The three main exceptions to this are 1) the cleric is the one seriously injured, 2) the foes are doing a lot of damage with their attacks and a PC with very few hit points remaining has a high chance of being killed if the cleric waits, and 3) the monster attacking a seriously injured PC has an initiative shortly after the cleric where there is a chance that the unconscious PC will get hit while down by another foe(s) at least once. But as a general rule, if the cleric waits until PCs go unconscious before he heals, then the party gets free bonus healing equal to how many points below zero a given attack effectively would have done. For example, a PC at 6 hit points gets hit for 10 points of damage, he goes to 0, not -4. If healed for 10, he is at 10 hit points. If healed before he went unconscious, then he is at 6 hit points (going to 16 and getting hit for 10). There are definitely many times when immediate healing is the suboptimal choice. Waiting until a PC goes unconscious also risks the action economy issue of the unconscious PC's turn coming up before the cleric's turn in initiative order. [/QUOTE]

Verification