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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6094447" data-attributes="member: 2067">Sure! My only quibble was with the idea that all healing requires surges to use, and specifically surges that you must, to a certain degree, rely on others to activate.I feel like I'm bringing this up a lot, recently, but I think the 4e Skald gets that sensation pretty right. Not the cleric's basket, the basket of the guy with the Healer's Kit. Either way, though, I agree with defensive abilities like healing being locked away in one character to be a problem, but I think defensive abilities are also broader than HD or surges. Those can be useful mechanics, but they're not essential or unique. And in the case of "Someone else lets you spend a surge," there's weirdness there. But you see the disconnect, there. It's not within my control when to spend my resources. It is like "I have 100 gp, but I cannot spend them unless the party rogue allows me to." That's a pretty clear contradiction of the concept of ownership over your own character. I'm reluctant, mostly because conversations about this generally seem to result in someone with a specific idea of what such a mechanic should look like resisting the alternatives. If one sees no problem in Mechanic X, one is not interested in a fix for those that do have a problem with that mechanic (and I'm not particularly interested in trying to offer fixes for people who don't need 'em!). The call of who gets to act runs pretty deep into the brain, though. Deciding to act is how we control our characters. Changing who makes that decision changes the control scheme. Maybe, and that certainly works as an explanation for why a person can't be healed over and over again. But it's also key, I think, for D&D in particular to meet the already-existing expectations of its audience, and that doesn't necessarily include the idea that healing is exhausting for anyone (except perhaps the healer). Why don't we go the other way, and have fate/morale/plot protection/vigor as distinct from HP, so that a second wind could recover vigor, but not skin?Though I've gotta say, I'd personally use the smack out of any kind of second wind rule, 'cuz I love me some dramatic resurgence. I might tie it to a death flag or a daily ability, or a character motive moment or something, though, so that it becomes DRAMATIC.</blockquote>

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