NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6094519" data-attributes="member: 2067">Most of these I wouldn't use the "surge" model for. The trainer, the antibiotics, the surgeon, the massage thearpist, all of these I'd describe as another character performing an action on the suffering character, and, as part of that other character's action, the suffering character gets better. Agency-wise, the traits of these people and objects "make you better." Even the placebo effect works like this, agency-wise. When mommy kisses a booboo, it is mommy's kiss that heals you (which is why daddy's kiss doesn't work). It is not your own internal chutzpah. Now, Reed is a slightly different story, since there isn't an outside action. But there's a lot of mechanics that can represent that, too, surges or no. Possibly an "ignore this condition until the end of your next turn" or something. Heck, personally, I think that's the kind of effect I want from my barbarian's rage: the dude's just so dang tough, he pushes on through the pain. I'm not so sure I want my fragile wizards and fading elves to do that, but my doughty halflings and my tough-as-nails warriors, sure!Sure, but the GM has explicit control over all aspects of the game. Other players are generally understood to control their characters, and by and large only their characters. I don't think it's about an absolute preference, I think it's about how the thing feels and flows and what people expect or want out of that. It's just a choice. Like you say, the idea with someone else spending your surges for you is that you depend on that person to spur yourself on, but the consequence of that is then you have a resource that is not really yours and get your character "played by" another player at the table. Which can be fine, but isn't necessarily. Which is why I pointed it out as one of the problems with the system, IMO. It breaks the idea that I control my character's abilities. Which, if you're into immersion, ain't really the best start. For the verb, try "heal." Or the phrasing, "but only if I bind my wounds...or only if B binds my wounds." The skald's aura allows that to happen faster and more effectively (and it's not a perfect solution, either, it just better acknowledges that my surges aren't part of the healer's character, they're part of my character).</blockquote>

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