How Do you Feel About Healing Surges? (Read First!)

[NewJeffCT]

I think healing surges make the 15 minute adventuring day more likely then it was in prior editions so no I don't like them. The shame of it is with leaders getting healing powers per encounter this was preventable.

I am not a big fan of healing surges, but I felt that the most positive thing about them was that they made the 15 minute adventuring day far less common than in prior editions.

I've been playing D&D since the late 70s and until 4E came out, it was almost always 1 encounter/day and then rest/recover afterwards and then move on once back to full. The only times it wasn't 1 encounter/day was when you were trapped without means of escape, which can still occur in 4E.

In 4E, if you have surges left, you keep on going because you at least get your encounter powers back for the next encounter, and the healer(s) will get their encounter healing powers back. In previous editions, once the cleric and wizard burned their big spells, you stopped for the day.

My problem with healing surges is that they give you too much healing - most of the time, the 25% of hit point base value is bumped up by d6 or 2d6 plus another modifier that is likely +4 or better, plus a possible item bonus.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I like them; I like just about everything about how the 4e power/combat system works, and HS are no exception.

-I like that HS value is proportional to a PC's total hit points.
-I like that HS creates a currency that can be "spent" in a variety of ways, not just for healing.
-I like that the HS system does a better job that previous editions did of making HP more abstract and less about physical injury -- which makes it reasonable for things like warlord healing to work. YMMV, but I like it.

I've often wished for some additional mechanics -- long-term injuries, etc. In the past, I've used disease rules as a model to handle that, but it's a tricky thing -- it's the sort of thing you don't want to do very often because it will tend to make things less fun for that player, depending upon how debilitating the injury is, and how long it lasts in play.

-rg

 

[Steely_Dan]

They were one of the very first things that made me twitch when reading the class entries in the 4th Ed PHB (stuck out as alien next to HP, Defences, Proficiencies etc), the very word Healing Surge is dreadful (cheesy, gamey sounding jargon), and the arbitrary number characters get, HP only, please.

And in campaigns with often just one combat encounter on a given day (like mine), they are pretty much totally unnecessary.

Though I do like the concept of Second Wind (but that debuted in SWSE).

 

[nightwalker450]

Lets take the blinders off for a second...

Too Metagamey - What are Hit points other than metagame wounds?

Badly Named - Frankly, its a less metagame term than Hit POINT.

Very Video Game - Like potions and wands were not? These make hit points less important than gold. If you have the gold you have the hit points.

15 minute workday enforcer - Nope, it's still daily powers, that cause it, usually people have enough surges -- Exception, if your GM decides to use nothing but surge draining creatures in battles (usually because he doesn't like healing surges).

Endless Pools of hit points - You haven't played have you? Most (non-healing focused) characters have 1 (ONE) surge they can access in battle. And excluding dwarves, they do not attack that round when the use it... What does that mean, you spend a round not killing the guy in front of you who will then likely hit you again taking a good portion of that healing away again. -- And yet the same people complain about...

Healing limited by Target - These are people, not golems. You can't fuel magic into them all day and expect them to keep going. There should be that point where its going to be obviously unsafe to continue.

Great part of healing surges.. You can have fighters, and rogues, and non-magical people, without requiring a cleric/wizard to power them.

 

[Mercutio01]

-I like that HS creates a currency that can be "spent" in a variety of ways, not just for healing.
-I like that the HS system does a better job that previous editions did of making HP more abstract and less about physical injury -- which makes it reasonable for things like warlord healing to work.

These two points are true. And they are also a huge part of why I don't like healing surges.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

These two points are true. And they are also a huge part of why I don't like healing surges.

It's opposing positions like ours that make me really curious about how they'll build DDN in a way that makes both of us happy.

 

[dagger]

Trying to make everyone happy will just make more people unhappy.

 

[Neonchameleon]

For the third time today I'm going to link my explanation of healing surges and how the healing surge mechanic fits much better than a hit point mechanic for modelling a boxing match in the real world. (Yes, it is an action movie mechanic - but it fits for non-lethal wounds).

 

[DEFCON 1]

Love proportional healing values.

Don't care either way if 'surges per day' are used or not.

Although I also agree with Lanefan that restricting the sources of healing during combat is a good thing. The more healing that occurs during combat, the longer a fight takes. Remove all in-combat healing... go with just the hit points that brought you to the fight... and the game progresses faster.

 

[grimslade]

I like the concept but dislike the name. Heroic surge works better, somewhat. HS can be used for more than healing. They can power magic items, fuel rituals and be a measure of heroic will and resilience.
Are they necessary? No. They add a layer of complexity and D&D runs fine with just hit points. I do think that HS enhances play. I like monsters that sap will/HS. I like that operating some magic taxes the user. I think HS can better represent healing as the healer uses the natural processes sped up, working with the patient to affect the wounds.