Healing

[Merlion]

Personally, I've never really seen the big deal about healing that people go on about. In the games I've been in, its rarely been an issue, especially as far as during combat.

So really, the change I would like to see but know isnt going to happen, is to have them simply stop worrying so much about it.

Also, for conceptual/in game logic reasons, I'd like to see the Mage classes able to heal at least a bit.

It sounds as though it will be at least a little less of an issue in 4e tho.

Whatever the solution, rather than letting the "leader" heal and do something else (which sounds like it will come off pretty cheesy most of the time)

I am a little worried about this as well. I hope that the thing from the playtest with "cleric attacks and it heals everybody" is either a specific ongoing spell, or an ability that can be chosen, but doesnt have to be.

I think it can be done without being silly...hopefully they will be careful.

 

[Jack99]

From my experience in 3.5, you dont need a cleric/druid in the party if your DM run the game more or less by the book, meaning he is using the 4 fights per day with CR appropriate encounters.

If however your DM runs encounters that pushes the players to the most of their abilities, they will need a cleric/druid or be very likely to face a high bodycount.

In 4e, it is my understanding that fights in general will be harder. If that is true, some sort of healing most likely will be necessary.

Ongoing spells or swift/immediate spells would do the trick, so that the cleric isnt bound to be healing every single round.

However, we dont know yet what the cleric will be able to do. From what has been said, it is most likely that the cleric will lose a good chunck of his melee power, so what will be his role, what will he be able to do, aside from healing. Before we know that, its gonna be hard to come up with good suggestions on how the healing should work.

Cheers,

 

[sfgiants]

How does the second wind in SWSE work? I must have missed that

 

[Mercule]

In thinking about this more, what I'd like to see is healing moved to a non-combat action. Meaning: healing is not generally a worthwhile option compared to another combat action. It should only be about as common as, say, a critical hit or some other unusual damage situation.

I don't know what the mechanics of the solution would look like. I can think of a couple, but I'm not sure how they'd play out.

First, any/many other "buff" effects (aid, protection from evil, divine vestiments, etc) heal in addition to any other effects they have. It isn't so cheesy to think that a divine blessing helps in more ways than one.

Second, grant leaders auras than add fast healing to their companions. The cleric so oozes his god's power that the luck and fatigue portions of the hps are replenished by his mere presence.

Neither of those really solves the core issues of the D&D damage track, but they do reduce the need for the cleric to be the medic. And, they're a whole lot better than, "Hang on, let me punch this kobold so you heal."

 

[Jack99]

First, any/many other "buff" effects (aid, protection from evil, divine vestiments, etc) heal in addition to any other effects they have. It isn't so cheesy to think that a divine blessing helps in more ways than one.

Isnt there a feat in complete champion that does something similar? Either way, that is definitely an approach I like. Needs to be some sort of heal over time though, else you will still "force" the cleric into the medic role.

 

[Merlion]

In thinking about this more, what I'd like to see is healing moved to a non-combat action. Meaning: healing is not generally a worthwhile option compared to another combat action. .

This is already the case. A Cleric casting Cure spells in battle is usually just trading actions with the enemy. Heal is the usual exception.

Thats why healing out of combat is usually a better idea anyway, unless someone gets down in the danger zone.

But the designers seem to feel its crucial to have in combat healing, but not force people to do it instead of something else. Hopefully there will be ways that this will be implemented that arent

"Hang on, let me punch this kobold so you heal."

 

[F4NBOY]

How does the second wind in SWSE work? I must have missed that

Swift action 1/day
Regain 1/4 of HP or con score, whataver is higher.
HP must be lower than 50% to be able to activate.

My house rule: if you are one point over your 1/2 HP, and you fear the next strike you'll kill you, as a free action you can bite your tongue and deal yourself 2 points of damage in order to be able to activate Second Wind.