Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I don't get the dislike of healing surges
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 5697568" data-attributes="member: 3424"><p>Well, it seems to me that most of the problems that people have with healing surges are not actually problems with healing surges per se. Rather, the problems seem related to non-magical recovery of hit points, and the speed of hit point recovery.</p><p></p><p>The fact that hit points can be recovered by non-magical means (taking a short rest, the second wind action, a warlord's <em>inspiring word</em>) imposes certain restrictions on the narration. It means that hit points are almost entirely non-physical. When a character loses hit points, you can narrate a small cut, a minor bruise, or some fatigue from dodging a blow that would otherwise have killed him, but nothing that would hamper the character significantly. If the only way to recover hit points is through magical means, you can get a bit more creative with the narration, because the idea that magic can fix anything doesn't jar with most peoples' sense of realism (magic is, after all, inherently unrealistic). Most people can accept that a character can be dying one minute, and be back on his feet, fighting as if nothing has happened after he receives magical healing. Not everyone can accept the various narrative justifications why he can do so after non-magical hit point recovery ("He's ignoring the pain"/"He's just <em>that</em> tough"/"He's been bandaged to the point that the wound doesn't bother him").</p><p></p><p>A related point is rapid hit point recovery, whether it's the ability to take the Second Wind action in the middle of a fight, recovering hit points after a short rest, or recovering all healing surges after an extended rest. It is still plausible if you accept the narrative convention that hit points are mostly non-physical, but it does have an impact on gameplay, as a number of posters have noted.</p><p></p><p>Of course, since these issues have nothing to do with the concept of healing surges, you can address them while retaining healing surges as written: ban the warlord class and other non-magical sources of healing (or re-write them so that they provide temporary hit points instead of hit point recovery), ban the spending of healing surges during a short rest, remove the Second Wind action or restrict it to once per day instead of once per encounter, slow down the rate of healing surge recovery, etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 5697568, member: 3424"] Well, it seems to me that most of the problems that people have with healing surges are not actually problems with healing surges per se. Rather, the problems seem related to non-magical recovery of hit points, and the speed of hit point recovery. The fact that hit points can be recovered by non-magical means (taking a short rest, the second wind action, a warlord's [I]inspiring word[/I]) imposes certain restrictions on the narration. It means that hit points are almost entirely non-physical. When a character loses hit points, you can narrate a small cut, a minor bruise, or some fatigue from dodging a blow that would otherwise have killed him, but nothing that would hamper the character significantly. If the only way to recover hit points is through magical means, you can get a bit more creative with the narration, because the idea that magic can fix anything doesn't jar with most peoples' sense of realism (magic is, after all, inherently unrealistic). Most people can accept that a character can be dying one minute, and be back on his feet, fighting as if nothing has happened after he receives magical healing. Not everyone can accept the various narrative justifications why he can do so after non-magical hit point recovery ("He's ignoring the pain"/"He's just [I]that[/I] tough"/"He's been bandaged to the point that the wound doesn't bother him"). A related point is rapid hit point recovery, whether it's the ability to take the Second Wind action in the middle of a fight, recovering hit points after a short rest, or recovering all healing surges after an extended rest. It is still plausible if you accept the narrative convention that hit points are mostly non-physical, but it does have an impact on gameplay, as a number of posters have noted. Of course, since these issues have nothing to do with the concept of healing surges, you can address them while retaining healing surges as written: ban the warlord class and other non-magical sources of healing (or re-write them so that they provide temporary hit points instead of hit point recovery), ban the spending of healing surges during a short rest, remove the Second Wind action or restrict it to once per day instead of once per encounter, slow down the rate of healing surge recovery, etc. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I don't get the dislike of healing surges
Top