MIC - Healing Belt errata?

[IanB]

The charges make no sense.

1 charge = heal 2d8

2 charges = heal 3d8

3 charges = heal 4d8

But...

1 charge, then 1 charge, then 1 charge, and you'll heal 6d8.

If you're spending all your charges into a single healing, it should be greater than the ammount you'd heal by spacing it out, no?

That being said, I'm SO yoinking this item for an Eberron solo game I'm writing up!

There are times when you will want your 4d8 of healing all at once; having to give up the other potential 2d8 is a nice little bit of resource management decision-making for a character. Many of the '3 charge per day' items, of which there are approximately 10,000 in the book it seems like, are set up that way.

 

[James McMurray]

There are times when you will want your 4d8 of healing all at once; having to give up the other potential 2d8 is a nice little bit of resource management decision-making for a character. Many of the '3 charge per day' items, of which there are approximately 10,000 in the book it seems like, are set up that way.

It's actually all of them. Or at least all the ones that give a gradiated effect. It was done on purpose, to force the player to make choices.

 

[Kelleris]

The charges make no sense.

1 charge = heal 2d8

2 charges = heal 3d8

3 charges = heal 4d8

But...

1 charge, then 1 charge, then 1 charge, and you'll heal 6d8.

If you're spending all your charges into a single healing, it should be greater than the ammount you'd heal by spacing it out, no?

Really? My impression was exactly the opposite - spacing out the charges is a more efficient use of that energy than whomping someone with all 3 charges at once, and so should heal more damage all told...

 

[Kurotowa]

And a discount for the eternal wand as well because it can only be used by someone with the spell on their list.

Just to be clear, that's not so. Eternal Wands can be used by anyone capable of casting arcane spells, and can only have arcane spells placed inside them. That means that having an Eternal Wand of CLW is going to be exceedingly rare, since there aren't many Bardic crafters.

As a side note, IME the people who really love Eternal Wands are the new specialized caster classes like Warmage and Beguiler. They can use Eternal Wands even if they couldn't normally cast the spell, because they're still arcane casters.

 

[hong]

Obviously the price is stupidly low compared to a 300 gp potion of 2d8+3 healing.

That's more because the price of a 2d8+3 potion of healing is stupidly high. 3 x 1d8+1 potions of healing cost 150 gp. Silly quadratic scaling rules.

But I think the real question is whether it would automatically be a problem in the context of the Core class abilities. To that I would say No.

I'd agree. The belt is undoubtedly cool at low levels, but later on (say, past ~12th level), it won't have much of an impact.

 

[starwed]

The main issue I have with this belt is that AFAICT it does not allow for a save against damage if you used it against undead. I think that was an oversight, and a rather silly one.

I'd agree with this. A cleric character of mine bought it, but has only used it so far to lay the smack down on undead. 4d8 damage no save is pretty nice. On the other hand, I'm not really clear on whether you'd be able to hold the charge on a miss, which possibly offsets the no save.

And in the midst of combat, it's safer to activate than casting a spell...

 

[Stalker0]

There's presumably a discount being applied for the belt using an item slot, as well.

This is an item that I consider to have a "pseudo-slot".

Its a belt, but you could just keep in the bag and put it on after combat for healing. I see it as a 6d8 after combat healing wand.

 

[Thanee]

If you're spending all your charges into a single healing, it should be greater than the ammount you'd heal by spacing it out, no?

Nope. The cost is higher, if you spend three actions and three charges instead of one action and three charges. Hence the effect should be lower in the two- and three-charges options.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Perun]

As a side note, IME the people who really love Eternal Wands are the new specialized caster classes like Warmage and Beguiler. They can use Eternal Wands even if they couldn't normally cast the spell, because they're still arcane casters.

That's the whole points behind eternal wands in Eberron, so that magewrights (a NPC arcane spellcaster/crafter class with a limited spell list) could lend arcane battlefield support during the Last War (the really big war that lasted a 100 years).

 

[Rashak Mani]

There has always been a major effort in D&D to avoid "Heal X a day" items... so this belt seems cheap actually. Potion wise its cheap for sure in the medium term.

There is the "Helm of Glorious Recovery"... swift action 4d8+7 healing once a day... wow... for 5600 gp. Its expensive... but worthwile.

Are there other "Heal X a day" items in the Magic Item Compendium ?