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Message: <blockquote data-quote="D'karr" data-source="post: 5714273" data-attributes="member: 336">This should come as a surprise to no one.  Without magical healing, advantage 4e. I totally appreciate that, and as matter of fact prefer it.  If I want to have a low magic world, I can finally do it without resorting to all sorts of weird contortions of the rules. When you take into consideration Healing Surges a 4e character will have more available resources to continue adventuring, magic or no magic.However each surge spent can mean more resources lost on average.  Lets take a 5th level 4e fighter as an example.  On average he'll have 50-60 Hit Points and between 9-12 Healing Surges.  Each surge on average will restore 15 Hit Points.  If he is hit for 20 points of damage he will have lost up to 33% of his resources, if he had 60 hit points.  If at the end of the fight he decides to spend a healing surge he will regain 15 hit points.  Using another surge is a waste of resources.  So he goes into the next fight with only 55 hit points.  If he gets hit for 20 more hit points, at the end of the fight does he spend 2 surges or just one.  If he uses 1, he restores 15 and starts the next fight with 50 hit points.  If he uses 2 he starts at full HP but "wasted" 5 hit points.  So the usage of Healing Surges becomes a "tactical" consideration.  The character can go into the fight already "down" HP, or full HP.  But going full HP is not always the wisest option.  If he decided to spend the 3 surges, it means that he has spent 25% (3 of 12) of his adventuring resources for the day.If he is much higher level, then 20 hit points might be the value of only one surge.  But if he had 100 HP to begin with, the value of each surge is 25 points.  5 HP restored are wasted on healing 20 HP damage, so the consideration still exists.4e gives the character a choice to either conserve resources or "waste" them.Is it mechanically different?  Yes, but we already knew that the amount of hit points and perceived survivability of characters was modified in 4e.  That is not a surprise.</blockquote>

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