The warforged, restoration, and you

[reveal]

Any further castings of restoration do nothing, as half of 1 rounded down is 0

Not true. It's always a minimum of 1, just like you can't do less than 1 point of damage no matter how weak you are.

 

[reveal]

Then how many times do you need to cast Restoration to completely heal a Warforged of ability damage?

Similarly, how many times do you need to case Lesser Restoration to completely heal a Warforged of ability damage?

As many as it takes. There will come a point where the warforged will have 1 point left to heal and both Restoration and Lesser Restoration heal at least 1 point of ability damage.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

As many as it takes. There will come a point where the warforged will have 1 point left to heal and both Restoration and Lesser Restoration heal at least 1 point of ability damage.

Where, exactly, is that rule located?

There's nothing that says "Spells cure a minimum of X points of damage."

There's at least one rule that says, "A successful attack always results in at least 1 point of damage, even if modifiers would reduce it to less than 1."

There's also rules that say that, when rounding, round down.

Minimum Damage: If penalties reduce the damage result to less than 1, a hit still deals 1 point of damage.

ROUNDING FRACTIONS
In general, if you wind up with a fraction, round down, even if the fraction is one-half or larger.
Exception: Certain rolls, such as damage and hit points, have a minimum of 1.

Therefore, it takes infinite Restorations to cure a warforged of all ability damage.

It takes fewer Lesser Restorations to cure a warforged of all ability damage.

 

[Enkhidu]

I'll agree with that one. Heal does say it immediately ends "any and all" ability damage.

So, assuming that this is true, how does Greater Restoration fit into this?

 

[reveal]

So, assuming that this is true, how does Greater Restoration fit into this?

Greater Restoration simply states it works like lesser restoration and it does other things. Heal specifies it removes "any and all" ability damage.

 

[Enkhidu]

Yet Greater Restoration is a higher level spell - I think there comes a time when you have to begin taking relative spell level into account when comparing like effects.

 

[Someone]

In fact, all fractions are always rounded down, except certain rolls that can never be less than 1, such as damage rolls and the hit points you get from leveling. Healing is not one of these, so a warforged with ability damage would be damaged forever. I´d argue that Restoration and Heal can heal an arbitrarily large quantity of ability damage, not just the damage suffered by the target.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Therefore, it takes infinite Restorations to cure a warforged of all ability damage.

Only if you consider that an exhaustive list, which is impossible considering that the warforged is outside the core rules. It seems pretty clear by the use of the word 'certain' that it wasn't intended to be exhaustive. Therefore, healing falls well within that exception. Oh, and lay off the 'infinite' unless you can come up with an actual example.

Just a couple more words on this - it's the effect of the spell (heal 150 hp) that should be halved, rather than the RESULT of the spell (heal 100 hp, because that's all of the damage that the target has taken and the extra healing is lost).

I can see that interpretation. I think the result of the spell is the effect, but your interpretation is equally valid. Good point. I'd do it your way if it's better for the character.

 

[Nim]

Yet Greater Restoration is a higher level spell - I think there comes a time when you have to begin taking relative spell level into account when comparing like effects.

Greater Restoration also heals ability drain, drained levels, and negative levels, none of which Heal will do. So it's not as though you're not getting a benefit for the higher-level effect.

 

[Peter Gibbons]

In fact, all fractions are always rounded down, except certain rolls that can never be less than 1, such as damage rolls and the hit points you get from leveling. Healing is not one of these, so a warforged with ability damage would be damaged forever.

Per the errata, warforged heal ability damage naturally like anyone else, so they would not be damaged "forever."