Strike of Righteous Vitality for a Warblade

[Mort]

One way I'm planning to house-rule Devoted Spirit healing maneuvers to avoid the problem of summoning a creature just so that the crusader or warblade can hit it is to rule that they don't actually heal hit point damage. In one of my games, I'm planning to use a variant VP/hp system, and Devoted Spirit maneuvers will only restore VP. In a more standard game, they could provide temporary hit points equal to the amount that would have been healed, subject to the cap that a creature's actual hit points plus his temporary hit points cannot exceed his normal hit point total. These temporary hit points expire at the end of the encounter if they were not used up by then.

This doesn't address the extra effects of Strike of Righteous Vitality, but it does cut down on most of the hit point recovery issues (at least for me).

The problem you have with that house rule is that the strikes become a lot less attractive than the alternatives (there are a lot of great manuevers) and then you get tempted to house rule the others too, and it becomes one big slippery slope.
I think the strikes that heal, are pretty balanced by their level, the fact that your opponent must be a different allignment and pose an immediate direct threat (really any DM that allows use outside of a hostile combat situation is being way too liberal, the intent is abundantly clear), and that you only get one attack which if it misses (a decent possibility at any level really) is completely wasted, unlike a cure spell.

 

[jasin]

summoning a creature just so that the crusader or warblade can hit it

 

[Nail]

Basically, as a DM, I'd allow the PCs to use it whenever, but if they try to artificially create combat in order to use it, I'd make the combats turn all too real.

See, this is the kinda stuff I expect from you: flagrant use of common sense combined with unmitigated creativity.

 

[castro3nw]

This is exactly why you take your friendly neighborhood Paladin to the bar, get his detect evil groove on, and go around picking bar-fights with every blip on the radar. And after.. The next round of drinks are on you.

 

[hong]

All things considered, and given the _other_ 9th level maneuvers the warblade could be using, strike of righteous vitality is probably innocuous. Personally I wouldn't allow its use outside combat though, or maybe only a limited no. of times per day.

 

[hong]

PS: But I do take your point -- that the availability of this maneuver makes combat into an odd reward mechanism. "Ooo, if only that ogre had died one round later, I could've healed Bob..."

This came up in my game last weekend. The only healing is from the dwarf crusader, so the only time they get healed is when there's a fight. We were joking that the giant lizards they left behind them were a healing battery: when anyone got hurt, they'd go back to the lizards and smack them a few times to get hp back.

 

[blargney the second]

We had a fun little fight last night with some Emerald Claw soldiers where our party ended up with net healing as a result of Righteous Strike.

 

[Nifft]

This is exactly why you take your friendly neighborhood Paladin to the bar, get his detect evil groove on, and go around picking bar-fights with every blip on the radar. And after.. The next round of drinks are on you.

That's the best use of Lawful Stupid I've ever seen.

-- N