The warforged, restoration, and you

[reveal]

Three scenarions. Bear in mind this line from Races of Eberron:

However, spells from the healing subschool and supernatural abilities that cure hit point damage or ability damage provide only half their normal effects to a warforged.

1) A warforged is down 6 points in STR. A cleric casts Lesser Restoration on the warforged and the player rolls a 4 on a d4. How many points of STR does the warforged get back?

2) A warforged is down 14 points in STR. A cleric casts Restoration on the warforged. How many points of STR does the warforged get back?

3) A warforged is down 100hp and 14 points in STR. A 15th level cleric casts Heal on the warforged. How many hit points and how many points of STR does the warforged get back?

 

[Infiniti2000]

By "being down in STR" I assume you mean ability damage.

1. 2 points.

2. 7 points.

3. 50 hp and 7 STR.

 

[reveal]

By "being down in STR" I assume you mean ability damage.

1. 2 points.

2. 7 points.

3. 50 hp and 7 STR.

Yes, I do mean ability damage. I was thinking along the same lines as you, but a player in my campaign doesn't. I want to see how others view it before I make a ruling.

 

[Infiniti2000]

It's always a minimum of 1, though, so a lesser restoration will cure 1 on a 1-3 and 2 on a 4. It's very much a raw deal for warforged, but better than nothing I suppose.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

1) A warforged is down 6 points in STR. A cleric casts Lesser Restoration on the warforged and the player rolls a 4 on a d4. How many points of STR does the warforged get back?

Restoration heals 1d4 points of ability damage. Therefore, the warforged is healed of (1d4)/2 Strength points. In this case, that's 2 Strength damage.

2) A warforged is down 14 points in STR. A cleric casts Restoration on the warforged. How many points of STR does the warforged get back?

Here's where it gets interesting.

Restoration doesn't heal a particular amount of Str damage. Rather, it heals "All of it." In other words, the spell heals anywhere from 0 to 9,999 points of damage. It doesn't care how many points the target is down.

Restoration cures all temporary ability damage

In other words, you could just as easily look at this spell as healing an infinite amount of ability damage. Like all healing, those points healed over and above the normal total are wasted.

Similarly:

3) A warforged is down 100hp and 14 points in STR. A 15th level cleric casts Heal on the warforged. How many hit points and how many points of STR does the warforged get back?

A 15th-level Cleric, when he casts Heal, attempts to heal up to 150 points of damage (in addition to the other effects).

It also cures 10 hit points of damage per level of the caster, to a maximum of 150 points at 15th level.

Points of healing over and above the normal amount are lost.

Accordingly, the 15th-level Cleric casts heal on the Warforged, and he heals 150 / 2, or 75 points of physical damage.

Similarly, he casts Restoration or Heal on the Warforged, and he removes all ability damage.

Elsewise, it's not possible to heal a Warforged up to full health (HP or ability damage) with either of these spells; D&D rounds down, and minimums of 1 only apply to damage.

EDIT:

For those who disagree with this interpretation, consider the following scenario:

A warforged has taken 2 points of hit point damage. A cleric casts Cure Light Wounds, healing 1d8+1 hit points. The cleric rolls a 6, for a total of 7 points of healing.

How many hit points is the warforged missing?

 

[reveal]

Restoration doesn't heal a particular amount of Str damage. Rather, it heals "All of it." In other words, the spell heals anywhere from 0 to 9,999 points of damage. It doesn't care how many points the target is down.

And that's my sticking point. The player, and you, see "All" as non-quantifiable. I, and apparently Infiniti2000, see "All" as quantifiable. I see "All" as all the points the warforged has taken in ability damage. So if the warforged took 14 points of ability damage, all = 14.

Damn semantics.

I wish Wizards had the search feature back. I would love to search the Keith Baker FAQ for this.

 

[Arkhandus]

Don't think so Patryn.

Heal and Restoration heal "all" damage of the relevant sorts. They do not say they heal "infinite" amounts. And "half" of "all" is just that; half of all the character has suffered at the moment. The Warforged didn't take infinite Strength damage, he took 14 Strength damage, and Restoration cannot heal damage that isn't there to begin with. Ergo, it heals 14 Strength damage, because that is all the Warforged has suffered so far. Ergo, the Warforged actually heals 7 Strength damage because of its own inherant traits that halve healing magic effectiveness.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Don't think so Patryn.

Heal and Restoration heal "all" damage of the relevant sorts. They do not say they heal "infinite" amounts.

Really?

So, if I had a creature, who had a Str score of Infinite, and had taken Infinite -1 Str damage, and I cast Restoration on him, how many points of Str would I cure?

And "half" of "all" is just that; half of all the character has suffered at the moment.

I disagree. You can most certainly cure something for more hit points or ability damage than it has currently lost. The remaining points are merely wasted. See my example above (last post).

The Warforged didn't take infinite Strength damage, he took 14 Strength damage, and Restoration cannot heal damage that isn't there to begin with.

Actually, it can. Just like Cure Light Wounds can heal damage that isn't there to begin with.

 

[Infiniti2000]

In other words, you could just as easily look at this spell as healing an infinite amount of ability damage.

No, you can't. That's a logical fallacy because an "infinite" amount of damage or an "infinite" ability score can't and doesn't exist. So, stick with a real example, not a strawman.

 

[Nim]

So, if I had a creature, who had a Str score of Infinite, and had taken Infinite -1 Str damage, and I cast Restoration on him, how many points of Str would I cure?

Uh, that sounds like a question for the rules board for whatever game you're playing that allows a Str score of 'Infinite'

However, I agree with you on the hitpoint damage. The effect of Heal is halved for a Warforged, which should reasonably mean that it heals 5 hp per caster level, max 75, instead of the 10/level max 150 that it would heal for someone else. Assuming a 15th level caster, the Warforged with 100 points of damage would heal 75, not 50.