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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 5897536" data-attributes="member: 996">The key improvement that healing surges represented over traditional clerical healing was to take the daily healing resource and separate it from the cleric (or leader) offense and utility resources.  The Cleric was long an absolutely necessary, but very unrewarding class.  The player stuck as cleric got to be a second-rate melee guy, and had a long list of spells he rarely ever got to cast, because healing was so vital, and he was the primary source of this.3e recognized this problem and tried to solve it by giving the cleric better base abilities, more spells, spontaneous healing, and making magic items a more plentiful and efficient source of healing.  The result was CoDzilla.4e recognizing the same problem, and 3e's failure to find a balanced solution, moved daily healing resources, but not primary healing ability, from the cleric to each character.  Relieved of the healing burden, the cleric was balanceable, at last.  It took a little work to finally get all the cleric builds balanced, but at least it was possible.  The cleric was no longer the boring band-aid, and no longer risked going over the top into CoDzilla territory.Healing Surges are still daily resources, though, and daily resources are problematic - whether they're a source of imbalance between classes that have vs lack them, or whether they're enjoyed by all, and just act as an encintive for the very un-heroic '5 min work day.'Healing Surges, like hit points or Clerical healing, also carry a specific tone with them.  Healing surges are very heroic and cinematic.  Hit points are less so, but still help model the 'plot armor' of protagonists.  Clerical healing is of course part of that 'classic D&D feel,' but has little support outside of D&D and it's imitators.  But, however healing is handled, it needs to be it's own resource.  Whether it's exclusively items, or a class feature, or a basic resource of all characters, it needs to be separate from pools of offensive or utility spells.  Otherwise you risk the return of the band-aid or the CoDzilla.  Let's not go there again.The best thing would probably be to have optional systems for wounds and healing, to get different tones from the game.  A 'gritty' system could use wound penalties, and have little if any healing beyond rest & time.  A 'classic D&D' module would drop penalties and add magical healing, with rest/time being a profoundly inferior last resort.  A 'cinematic' module would drop wound penalties, and have second winds and surges and martial healing.  A 'gritty heroic' take could add impairing wound rather than simple wound penalties, and have a recovery track so wounds could be healed or 're-open' (a classic bit in heroic fantasy and legend).</blockquote>

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