Time to Heal

[Someone]

2) Why do people play clerics and healers in MMO when everyone, in theory, has the opportunity to create what they want and look for a group after?

A few because they like it. Most because they are in high demand and it's vastly easier to get into groups and raids.

 

[Someone]

That seems a fair summary of the blog post.

How does everyone feel about the idea of long term injuries? Something that can't be shrugged off with a quick spell or a skill check? I think the need to avoid them in game lends a bit more risk/reward to the gameplay, particularly the narrative that evolves, and that is further benefitted by what that does to the nature of campaigns, time off between battles and/or adventures, characters aging, etc.

The one thing about 4e hp system that bothers me is that no wound lasts more than 1 extended rest. I wouldn't mind a distinction between "hit points" and "wounds", the latter being rared and meaning actual serious damage and not the combination of bruises and fatigue that hit points are supposed to represent, and it's meant to be healed by long term rest or powerful magic.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

A few because they like it. Most because they are in high demand and it's vastly easier to get into groups and raids.

I ran a guild with over 200 members. We had about 2 players whose main character was a healer. Everyone other healer either had an offspec heals or an alt healer because they wanted to help the guild, not necessary because they wanted to heal. . In my experience, very few people play heals because they enjoy it, though there are some.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

A few because they like it. Most because they are in high demand and it's vastly easier to get into groups and raids.

This.

 

[Hassassin]

A better definition is: The cleric is a healer, in the same sense that a rogue backstabs...

A rogue is the only character that can backstab, and thus expected to. Most of the time, in combat a rogue should be stabbing backs, outside of combat he does something else. Some rogues break the stereotype and try to do something else in combat, usually the party thinks they are worthless when they do.

Ah, but I disagree. For two reasons:

1. Most of the time in a combat, a cleric does something other than heals. This has been my experience in all the editions of D&D I've played. The first couple of rounds in combat there is no one to heal, and most combats are relatively short. Some combats the cleric has no healing magic.

2. No one cares if the rogue is a weaker in combat, because the rogue's main skills are out of combat: reconnaissance and trapfinding, mainly.