Touch of Healing [Reserve] feat from Complete Champion Excerpt
- Thread starter Pyrex
- Start date
I think Henry is right that the trend is definitely evolving towards per encounter resource management instead of per day. However, I'm not going to call end of the world yet.
If we are talking new edition for a second (which I normally hate to do) I could see a general balance with a per encounter notion in mind but still have a few long term resources like action points. If spells are a wizard's meat and potatoes, I don't have a problem with them getting to cast spells in every combat. However, I think it would still be good to have action points and things that do run out, so once in a while you can really cut loose. I also like the BO9S approach to fighters. After a while swinging a sword just starts to look boring compared to classes that can alter reality, so its nice to add a little flair to fighting.
However, what I am worried about is "patching" 3x into a per encounter model, because its not designed for it. I think BO9S is imbalanced with regard to regular melee classes. I think that allowing clerics to cast infinite healing is too good in many games.
I think the take home message is that reserve feats are something a dm has to consider carefully, as they take 3x in a completely new direction. But thank god its still dnd, because DND means its still your game, and its still your choice!!
If we are talking new edition for a second (which I normally hate to do) I could see a general balance with a per encounter notion in mind but still have a few long term resources like action points. If spells are a wizard's meat and potatoes, I don't have a problem with them getting to cast spells in every combat. However, I think it would still be good to have action points and things that do run out, so once in a while you can really cut loose. I also like the BO9S approach to fighters. After a while swinging a sword just starts to look boring compared to classes that can alter reality, so its nice to add a little flair to fighting.
However, what I am worried about is "patching" 3x into a per encounter model, because its not designed for it. I think BO9S is imbalanced with regard to regular melee classes. I think that allowing clerics to cast infinite healing is too good in many games.
I think the take home message is that reserve feats are something a dm has to consider carefully, as they take 3x in a completely new direction. But thank god its still dnd, because DND means its still your game, and its still your choice!!
Stalker0 said:
This is really the moral of the story.
Warlocks (and their ilk such as the Dragonfire Adepy), Tome of Battle, and Reserve feats are specifically aimed at a certain style of play. They are a crutch for players (meaning all people playing the game, including the DM) to make the system more friendly to longer excursions with less worrying about saving your cool abilities for later. The theory being that barbarians want to rage, wizards want to cast spells, etc, and by forcing them to sit and hoard their powers isn't the fun part of the game for them.
Clearly the opposite is true for some people, which is why these things are presented in optional books.
Now the whammy: Would anyone buy a book of variant rules, from WotC or another publisher, which redesigned/tweaked the core classes, feats, and spells to make them fit into the "per encounter" or "at will" style? Rather than just tacking on feats, actually revamp them completely as an alternate set of rules?
fafhrd
First Post
It is a fortunate congruence that Paizo's critical hit deck is coming out right around the same time as this feat. Low hitpoints are kind of a boring consequence of "the long slog" anyways. Some of the critical hit effects make for more interesting resource management decisions.
Um, you still have resource management with the reserve feats in complete mage (I'm not going to mention the reserve healing until I see it in print) since they only work as long as you don't use a spell.
What the reserve feats do is increase the effectiveness of arcane casters at low levels but pretty much are non-even worthy mentioning at mid levels or higher.
Ex: a 5th level mage has the fiery burst reserve feat. Means he can throw around 3d6 fireballs (assuming he has fireball prepared/known) all day long and when compared to his single 5d6 fireball, that's pretty impressive.
Change it to a 10th level mage and unless he has a higher fire spell (which is not a certainity), he's still stuck at the 3d6 point whereas his regular fireball has now jumped up to 10d6. Even if he did have a 5th level fire spell, he's only doing 5d6.
For a 10th level party, even the mooks/grunts are going to laugh off a 5d6 fireburst since they're expected to be able to handle the 10th level mage using his 3rd level spells. In fact, this is equivalent to what a first level spell can do thanks to the cap.
What the reserve feats do is increase the effectiveness of arcane casters at low levels but pretty much are non-even worthy mentioning at mid levels or higher.
Ex: a 5th level mage has the fiery burst reserve feat. Means he can throw around 3d6 fireballs (assuming he has fireball prepared/known) all day long and when compared to his single 5d6 fireball, that's pretty impressive.
Change it to a 10th level mage and unless he has a higher fire spell (which is not a certainity), he's still stuck at the 3d6 point whereas his regular fireball has now jumped up to 10d6. Even if he did have a 5th level fire spell, he's only doing 5d6.
For a 10th level party, even the mooks/grunts are going to laugh off a 5d6 fireburst since they're expected to be able to handle the 10th level mage using his 3rd level spells. In fact, this is equivalent to what a first level spell can do thanks to the cap.
Moon-Lancer
First Post
I read this feat and i don't understand how it works. Its not a complete write up. We don't know if their is a limit or not, or what kind of action it is, or anything. So why argue about it? we do know its a Reserve feat. We don't know how reserve feats work. I my bet is that the key to how this feat works will be revealed when we learn more about reserve feats.
edit*
others seem to know more about reserve feats. What are they?
edit*
others seem to know more about reserve feats. What are they?
Moon-Lancer said:
Reserve Feats were introduced in the complete mage. They allow a mage to use a certain kind of effect as supernatural ability without limit, as long as they have a certain kind of spell prepared (or spell slot for sorcs). The strength of the effect usually depends on the level of the spell prepared.
Now while we don't know how this reserve feats works exactly, considering there are many examples of reserve feats to fall back on right now, you can make some decent assumptions.
ThirdWizard
First Post
Wait wait wait...
PCs in other games start any battles with less than full hp?
PCs in other games start any battles with less than full hp?
Voadam
Legend
Corsair said:
You mean like Unearthed Arcana's Recharge Magic variant does for spells?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargeMagic.htm
Or perharps like Iron Heroes
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=21717&
For me the answer is yes, I've bought both of these and would be interested in a recharge psionics, paladin smite, monk stunning blow, cleric turning, and barbarian rage type of variant rules supplement.
"Unless he has a higher fire spell (which is not a certainty"
Huh? The mage that took the Reserve Feat which grants him unlimited fireballs and you think somehow he'll forget to prepare that? I mean, maybe if they are battling inside a volcano or on the Elemental Plane of Fire, but short of that, expect the characters to use their feats.
And some people do have a problem with the concept of a Wizard able to chuck 5d6 'firebursts' all day long (until he actually has to use his Wall of Fire, or whatever higher level fire spell he memorized).
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