Touch of Healing [Reserve] feat from Complete Champion Excerpt

[Rystil Arden]

Yeah, just goes to show you never know what the problem encounter is going to be. I never thought there'd be any problems with the ogre zombies either, but the fighter went down fast, while the t-rex earlier was relatively easy.

Wow, I'm impressed. I don't know if we could have killed that thing with the entire team at full health and spells if we hadn't just kited it from a place where it couldn't hit us because it was too big. This is probably because our team was an Illusionist (mindless==immune), a Mountebank (Mindless==Immune to most) with no bludgeoning weapon, a Ranger with no bludgeoning weapon who specialises in many minor attacks (that wouldn't usually penetrate the skeleton's DR), a melee-incompetent 10 Str Cleric (admittedly, he had that Mace of St. Cuthbert because we used illusions to scam it out of Jenya), and me, a buff-focused Archivist. There's not enough in there to kill the thing before we would have all died :\

Weird, though--any group that killed the T-Rex with its 127 HP and +18 to hit (for 3d6+13--Owwww!) should have been able to stomp all over the Ogres with their 55 HP and +9 to Hit, and inability to attack you if you stay at least 50 feet from them at all times--plus those Ogres were turnable on a modified 16 for our Charisma-loving cleric and his Improved Turning.

 

[satori01]

Resource management is still inherent to the feat, the question becomes when will you cast the big spell and take the hit to Infinite healing. In my campaigns the story often revolves around quickly resolving something, or trying to stop X from doing Y at Z hour.

If you have 10 minutes to storm the BBEG fortress and stop the ceremony releasing Barfufla the Duck of Death unto the world, then you really do not have the time to spend siting around for 3 minutes healing people up.

I like Max Q D&D, I hate big expansive, industrial style complexes with lots of filler combats. Sunless Citadel was full of those, kick open door, shot bugbear w/ bows, rinse repeat. I would much rather have fewer, bigger, badder, better combats then lots of smaller ones. Ironically these reserve feats encourage this. You can reduce the amount of resources you expend fighting the mooks, and feel confident to laying down the bomb for the BBEG.

 

[Piratecat]

If this is the direction 4th ed is heading, I don't want to go. Farewell lifetime hobby, it was nice knowing ya. Cancel Dragon, cancel Dungeon, then finish off the mortally wounded beast with some Reserve feats.

Holy cow, I just had a flashback to seven years ago.

I understand your displeasure, but I'm a big fan of not making snap judgments on a rules system until I can actually see, hold and read it. In my experience, taking things in isolation usually results in inaccurate conclusions.

 

[Drowbane]

First the dragon shamans Fast Healing aura, now this.

Yea...

Awesome, no?

 

[Jer]

Hrm. Doesn't seem that bad to me, really. But then, I'm all for changing the focus from a "per day" resource management task to a "per encounter" resource management task anyway. This feat basically gives the cleric the ability to cast unlimited less-powerful-than-average Cure spells for his level that can't be affected by meta-magic feats, require touch delivery, and only affect one character at a time. At the lowest levels it will impact the game a lot, but the mid and higher levels (where everyone seems to get healed up completely between encounters anyway), not so much. And since the cleric can't get it until 3rd level minimum, it's only going to really be helpful for a few levels before you get to those higher levels.

I can kind of see the "suspension of disbelief" arguments, as the village cleric providing unlimited healing to his village seems like a stretch at first. But then again, a village cleric of 3rd level probably could be providing the equivalent of "unlimited healing" to his village in the current D&D system anyway, since these are Cure Wounds spells for dealing with damage, and not Cure Disease spells, and that type of thing isn't going to come up all that often. I don't have a problem with the village cleric always having a "lay on hands" ability handy for when Timmy falls out of a tree and cracks his skull open or when Farmer Brown gets kicked in the gut by his horse. That seems like exactly what divine magic would be used for in a high-magic D&D world to me. OTOH, that same cleric is going to be just as taxed dealing with a plague sweeping through the streets as he is without the feat, so the major medical threats to the village are still there.

I'm somewhat more interested in the Domain Reserve Feats like Protective Ward and Fragile Construct. Those seem to be available to 1st level clerics, which breaks one of the assumptions that I had about Reserve Feats (that they wouldn't be available to starting characters). Providing even a +1 bonus to AC for a 1st level character that can be "always on" and can be granted to another character is a nice effect. Not necessarily overpowering, but a nice thing to have.

(I like the idea of Fragile Construct too, not to use against constructs, but for 1st level PCs to use against doors...)

 

[kayn99]

The group I play in, we use the Grim and gritty system. We usually have a lot of role playing and less fights since they are so deadly. This feat in the GnG system would be extremely powerful. As with all new things published, you need to look at the feat/class/race and decide does it fit in to my world and how does it balence with everything else. The game is about having fun and if adventuring made easy is fun for the group of players; wonderful. If harder tougher adventures is what you seek do not add some of the stuff. It is all about what yoru group enjoys. I am sure we do way too much role player for some players on this board while others would enjoy it.

In addition I am sure that they are testing out new items for the 4th edition. Heck if you a company and could have people pay to play test items, then give feed back; you would do it. I like the concept of reserve feats, but they need to be handled carefully in a game.

Kayn

 

[Kahuna Burger]

If resource management is so meaningless to you, maybe you should go play a superhero game. Or XboX.

Ah, the "if its not D&D exactly as I like it, it's a video game / superhero game" line... Does that one ever get old? [sblock]Yes.[/sblock]

The joy of day long resource management has never overcome my dislike for the feel of x/day abilities. If you can do something, you can do it. Maybe it has some effect on you (fatigue, damage, a skill check to activate that gets harder each time you do it) that effectively limits the number of times per day it can happen in practice, but just "you only have this much rage in you today" doesn't work for me.

This isn't a videogame or superhero feel to me, its a fantasy feel. And sicne I see D&D as a tool for playing out fantasy adventures rather than a genre unto itself, however you can change D&D to get a better fantasy feel works for me.

 

[jcfiala]

Reserve feats are an interesting idea.

For some, they allow the party to adventure more between rests. (And if a party is able to figure out a way to rest securely or semi-securely every 4-5 encounters, then what's the difference between "Day 1: encounter 1, encounter 2, encounter 3, encounter 4, <rest and nothing happens>, encounter 5, encounter 6..." and "Day 1: encounter 1, encounter 2, encounter 3, encounter 4, encounter 5, encounter 6..."? After all, if anything the second block removes a chance for the wizard/cleric to choose spells that better fit the dungeon.)

For others, they allow a mixture of non-vancian magic with the vancian.

And for people who don't like it? Just ban Reserve feats, or to be more drastic, ban the books that contain them. There's folks who play with the basic three books still who won't encounter them, or folks can play with 3+4 (basic three and the first four Complete books) and still not have to deal with them. There's no base classes that depend on them, there's no prestige classes that rely on them, and so it's easy as anything to simply exclude them if you don't want them in your game.

 

[Henry]

It's funny - while I wouldn't terribly mind losing "X per day", I don't want to lose it to "always on, all the time" which is the direction that Tome of Battle, Complete Mage Reserve Feats, Factotum Inspirations, and Star Wars Jedi Force powers seem to be going. I've played plenty of games where you refresh after each battle -- Feng Shui is one, Mutants and Masterminds is (more or less) another -- and while they're great games, they don't have the kind of feel D&D has to me. Resource management has always until now been a big part of the game, and it's one that, to me, the game will be worth playing without.

We've had many discussions in this vein ever since Tome of Battle came out, and as it creeps forward with every new release, it's not one that I can support; it's no fun to me, as DM or player, if the only way an enemy can defeat me is to crush me flat RIGHT NOW.

 

[backbeat]

I am ok with the idea of the feat. I think as written it is too powerful. I hate the idea of always having to stock up on wands of CLW, but I think the Cleric can heal too much too fast with this feat.

As is, if a Lvl 7 cleric can use a 4th lvl spell and heal 12 hp/round. Assuming an average of 8 HP per level, that heals a party of 5 from 0 HP to full in 3 minutes.

As a DM there will be no wearing down your PCs. Fighters will always be at 100% when they role initiative. I would be happier with the feat if it let you heal 1 Hp/round.