FadedC said:
Depends how many healing surges you want to have. I think it might be a bit risky to run around with a really small number.
Meh. It just means that a character will need an extended rest a few encounters earlier. Since there's no real benefit to fighting those extra encounters except in rare cases when a party is time-constrained, then having a couple more healing surges doesn't help all that much.
I'm a bit underwhelmed by Constitution is 4E. The difference between a 16 Con and 12 Con are 4 HP and 2 healing surges. Like I said, I don't think the extra healing surges matter much since there's rarely a need or a benefit to soldiering on through a lot of encounters in a day. The 4 HP are nice, I suppose, but I'm guessing it'll be pretty easy to find another ability score to bump up that will provide nicer bonuses to a certain class than an extra 4 HP.
There's also the matter of the +2 difference to the fortitude defense, but the classes that need Constitution the most are likely to have Strength as their key attribute, so that negates that difference in fortitude defense.
I'm a bit overwhelmed, though, by the Toughness feat. That 4 extra HP at first level is fine, but the extra hit point every level is very nice. When even fighters are only getting 6 HP per level, an extra hit point each level is great. And for wizards, it's gonna be hard to pass up a feat that will probably raise their HP total by 25%. Especially now that hit point damage is more vital since save-or-dies have been reduced.
Oh, and the extra hit points will also increase the amount healed by healing surges, and will give the character a larger death cushion below 0 HP.
So yeah, in my opinion, Consitution meh, Toughness yay.