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Martial Healing
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<blockquote data-quote="Doctor Proctor" data-source="post: 5187486" data-attributes="member: 78547"><p>The problem with THP is exactly what you said, that you can give it to them <em>before</em> they take damage. In fact, you can buff them up, and keep it buffed up, such that they never take a lick of damage during a whole fight. Mind you, that was after the Dragon hit them with his breath weapon, clawed him four times and then tried to bite his head off... </p><p></p><p>Martial Healing as THP instead of HP works no better, and in fact, it's probably a little worse since it's very easy to make sure that the person receiving it never loses surges. Remember the old Battlerager? You could attack and attack and attack, but never really "hurt" him. I suspect this is what they were trying to avoid. (And yes, I realize that the old Battlerager was a THP machine, and could stack them, and this was the problem...but it also illustrated why THP's need to be limited in scope and availability, otherwise they can add up over time to make players nigh invulnerable)</p><p></p><p>Secondly, many of you (including the OP) are forgetting about the other component of HP: Healing Surges. Healing Surges really do a much better job of representing that "realistic damage" mechanic. You have a set number at the beginning of the day, and there's pretty much almost no way to increase them or gain some back. That's your "limit" for a character, representing the combined grit/damage threshold.</p><p></p><p>Now, when it comes to magic healing of course, you can give back some HP and it costs a surge. But there's also a lot of surgeless magic healing (Cure X Wounds), and the Pally can even essentially donate a surge to an ally (which could be represented as him magically transferring your wound to him). But perhaps magic healing has certain limitations? Sure, it can set that broken leg, or heal close that massive bleeding gash, but maybe it doesn't repair some of the <em>internal</em> damage? Perhaps it doesn't stop infection and shock? This would explain why someone can be getting healed constantly by the Cleric all day long, but still be unable to be healed anymore when they have 1 HP remaining (barring of course the surgeless healing, which is much more powerful and mostly limited to dailies).</p><p></p><p>When you frame the "magic" healing in this perspective, then Martial healing can make more sense. Yes, the Warlord can now shout "Get up and keep fighting you maggot! I'm not gonna die here because your lazy butt needs a nap!!!" and revive an ally. Or perhaps instead he says "Jerry, that last blow knocked your pauldron loose, cinch it back up or you're liable to lose an arm next time he comes after you!" (BTW, that <em>would</em> be a sort of damage prevention measure, but can be abstracted as you shoring up your defenses so you're not as vulnerable to the next attack) or tells an ally he needs to put pressure on that neck wound to avoid blood loss.</p><p></p><p>Once you get away from the idea of "Magical Cleric guy magically reattaches your arm" sort of healing, it becomes easier to deal with this. You have to dial down the magic healing a bit though, cuz otherwise, surges are just meaningless anyway. It's just like in the older editions then, where your healing is only limited by how many potions of healing or wands of cure light wounds you can fit in your bag of holding. We already did that edition, and if you want the all powerful magical healing engine back, then play 3.x again.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and as for healing between encounters, that's easy enough to explain even <em>with</em> real damage. Ever heard of field medicine? A Warlord would naturally be trained in this, and between fights he can go around and pop the Fighter's shoulder back in it's socket, attach a splint to the Rogue's hand and lash his dagger to it because of the fractured finger, apply pressure to the Wizard's gash along with a poultice to promote healing, etc... There are basic things that all adventurers know how to do (since you can spend a surge without a leader), but Warlords just got more in depth training, and thus can administer to their allies better.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Doctor Proctor, post: 5187486, member: 78547"] The problem with THP is exactly what you said, that you can give it to them [I]before[/I] they take damage. In fact, you can buff them up, and keep it buffed up, such that they never take a lick of damage during a whole fight. Mind you, that was after the Dragon hit them with his breath weapon, clawed him four times and then tried to bite his head off... Martial Healing as THP instead of HP works no better, and in fact, it's probably a little worse since it's very easy to make sure that the person receiving it never loses surges. Remember the old Battlerager? You could attack and attack and attack, but never really "hurt" him. I suspect this is what they were trying to avoid. (And yes, I realize that the old Battlerager was a THP machine, and could stack them, and this was the problem...but it also illustrated why THP's need to be limited in scope and availability, otherwise they can add up over time to make players nigh invulnerable) Secondly, many of you (including the OP) are forgetting about the other component of HP: Healing Surges. Healing Surges really do a much better job of representing that "realistic damage" mechanic. You have a set number at the beginning of the day, and there's pretty much almost no way to increase them or gain some back. That's your "limit" for a character, representing the combined grit/damage threshold. Now, when it comes to magic healing of course, you can give back some HP and it costs a surge. But there's also a lot of surgeless magic healing (Cure X Wounds), and the Pally can even essentially donate a surge to an ally (which could be represented as him magically transferring your wound to him). But perhaps magic healing has certain limitations? Sure, it can set that broken leg, or heal close that massive bleeding gash, but maybe it doesn't repair some of the [I]internal[/I] damage? Perhaps it doesn't stop infection and shock? This would explain why someone can be getting healed constantly by the Cleric all day long, but still be unable to be healed anymore when they have 1 HP remaining (barring of course the surgeless healing, which is much more powerful and mostly limited to dailies). When you frame the "magic" healing in this perspective, then Martial healing can make more sense. Yes, the Warlord can now shout "Get up and keep fighting you maggot! I'm not gonna die here because your lazy butt needs a nap!!!" and revive an ally. Or perhaps instead he says "Jerry, that last blow knocked your pauldron loose, cinch it back up or you're liable to lose an arm next time he comes after you!" (BTW, that [I]would[/I] be a sort of damage prevention measure, but can be abstracted as you shoring up your defenses so you're not as vulnerable to the next attack) or tells an ally he needs to put pressure on that neck wound to avoid blood loss. Once you get away from the idea of "Magical Cleric guy magically reattaches your arm" sort of healing, it becomes easier to deal with this. You have to dial down the magic healing a bit though, cuz otherwise, surges are just meaningless anyway. It's just like in the older editions then, where your healing is only limited by how many potions of healing or wands of cure light wounds you can fit in your bag of holding. We already did that edition, and if you want the all powerful magical healing engine back, then play 3.x again. Oh, and as for healing between encounters, that's easy enough to explain even [I]with[/I] real damage. Ever heard of field medicine? A Warlord would naturally be trained in this, and between fights he can go around and pop the Fighter's shoulder back in it's socket, attach a splint to the Rogue's hand and lash his dagger to it because of the fractured finger, apply pressure to the Wizard's gash along with a poultice to promote healing, etc... There are basic things that all adventurers know how to do (since you can spend a surge without a leader), but Warlords just got more in depth training, and thus can administer to their allies better. [/QUOTE]
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