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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
In-Combat Healing: How and Why?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 7622927" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>This is really more dependent on the DM than anything else. The DM's choice of monsters and tactics will dictate how dangerous it is to employ the "whack-a-mole" strategy. If monsters fight "honorably," focusing their attacks and AoEs on enemies still standing, then whack-a-mole is the logical PC response. If monsters fight "viciously," diverting attacks to finish off downed PCs and deliberately catching them in AoEs, then it becomes imperative to avoid going down in the first place, which changes the healer's incentives.</p><p></p><p>So which makes more sense for the monsters, fighting honorably or fighting viciously? I like to take my cues from player behavior on this. Players typically fight honorably: They focus fire on active threats and ignore monsters that have been reduced to 0. Since monsters rarely have healing magic, this is a sensible strategy. However, as soon as the players see a defeated monster pop back up to rejoin the fight, they turn vicious and start slitting throats.</p><p></p><p>I figure that monsters are used to fighting other monsters most of the time, and have tactics optimized for that. They have no way of knowing the PCs have a healer in the party until they see the healing happen. So I mimic PC behavior. You can use "whack-a-mole" once... but as soon as you do, the monsters turn vicious, and heaven help the PC who goes down then. And if the monsters have advance knowledge of your capabilities, they will be vicious from the start.</p><p></p><p>(I would add that I don't think whack-a-mole is driven by any desire to optimize use of spell slots. It's actions that are being optimized here. Actions are the currency with which you buy victory, and a healing spell is an investment: Spend an action now, to earn back actions later when a teammate is up and fighting instead of down and bleeding out. If your expected return on that investment is less than the action you spent on the spell, it's a bad use of your action. Whack-a-mole is a way to guarantee a return.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 7622927, member: 58197"] This is really more dependent on the DM than anything else. The DM's choice of monsters and tactics will dictate how dangerous it is to employ the "whack-a-mole" strategy. If monsters fight "honorably," focusing their attacks and AoEs on enemies still standing, then whack-a-mole is the logical PC response. If monsters fight "viciously," diverting attacks to finish off downed PCs and deliberately catching them in AoEs, then it becomes imperative to avoid going down in the first place, which changes the healer's incentives. So which makes more sense for the monsters, fighting honorably or fighting viciously? I like to take my cues from player behavior on this. Players typically fight honorably: They focus fire on active threats and ignore monsters that have been reduced to 0. Since monsters rarely have healing magic, this is a sensible strategy. However, as soon as the players see a defeated monster pop back up to rejoin the fight, they turn vicious and start slitting throats. I figure that monsters are used to fighting other monsters most of the time, and have tactics optimized for that. They have no way of knowing the PCs have a healer in the party until they see the healing happen. So I mimic PC behavior. You can use "whack-a-mole" once... but as soon as you do, the monsters turn vicious, and heaven help the PC who goes down then. And if the monsters have advance knowledge of your capabilities, they will be vicious from the start. (I would add that I don't think whack-a-mole is driven by any desire to optimize use of spell slots. It's actions that are being optimized here. Actions are the currency with which you buy victory, and a healing spell is an investment: Spend an action now, to earn back actions later when a teammate is up and fighting instead of down and bleeding out. If your expected return on that investment is less than the action you spent on the spell, it's a bad use of your action. Whack-a-mole is a way to guarantee a return.) [/QUOTE]
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