Tweaking the Sentinel's Healing Word

[Nemesis Destiny]

Let me preface this by stating that I like the Sentinel build of the Druid in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. I like that druids can be leaders now, like they sometimes were in prior editions. I don't like that they get a crappy verbatim copy of the Cleric's Healing Word power.

I've cobbled together my own take on a Druid's healing power. I tried to work a few things into it, such as the idea of regeneration (something druids were good at).

Healing Wind
Encounter * Primal
Minor Action — Close burst 5 (+5 per tier)
Target: You or one ally in the burst
Effect: The target can spend a healing surge.
Level 6: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points.
Level 11:The target gains 2d6 additional hit points.
Level 16: The target gains 3d6 additional hit points.
Level 21: The target gains 4d6 additional hit points.
Level 26: The target gains 5d6 additional hit points.

Regeneration: You grant the target regeneration until the end of its next turn. The regeneration equals your Constitution modifier.

Barkskin: You grant the target a bonus to all defences until the end of your next turn. The bonus equals your Consitiution modifier.

So basically, I used Rune of Mending (and all the other healing powers with riders) as a rough guide - I delayed the additional healing until level 6 in favour of some other benefits.

I wanted to make the riders last longer, but I'm thinking it's a tad overpowered that way. I have a couple ideas to fix that.

One idea was to increase the duration of the riders by one round instead of granting additional healing every 5 levels, though this makes the healing itself not scale all that well.

Another thought was to basically do away with the Barkskin part (since there is already a utility that does barkskin), and just focus on the regen. I'd like to have it scale by lasting longer and/or increasing in value, like +1 round duration and Con mod +1 at each 5-level bump. With starting Con of 18, this would put the regen at level 28 in the 12~14hp range, and it would last 6 rounds.

Another idea would be to, instead of actually granting Regeneration in the keyword sense, change all the bumps to say,

Effect: The target can spend a healing surge, and regains an additional 1d6 hit points at the start of its next turn.
Level 6: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next two turns.
Level 11:The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next three turns.
Level 16: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next four turns.
Level 21: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next five turns.
Level 26: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next six turns.

Yet another option would be for the bumps to alternate between more dice and lasting another turn, so it would top out at 3d6 extra hp at the start of the turn for 4 rounds, or 4d6 for 3 rounds.

Thoughts?

 

[ravenheart]

Let me preface this by stating that I like the Sentinel build of the Druid in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. I like that druids can be leaders now, like they sometimes were in prior editions. I don't like that they get a crappy verbatim copy of the Cleric's Healing Word power.

Hear, hear!

I've cobbled together my own take on a Druid's healing power. I tried to work a few things into it, such as the idea of regeneration (something druids were good at).

So basically, I used Rune of Mending (and all the other healing powers with riders) as a rough guide - I delayed the additional healing until level 6 in favour of some other benefits.

Those riders are way too good, at least the Barkskin one (regeneration is more iffy, it is wasted if you drop below 0 hp and is only really good if you're suffer ongoing damage).

I wanted to make the riders last longer, but I'm thinking it's a tad overpowered that way. I have a couple ideas to fix that.

One idea was to increase the duration of the riders by one round instead of granting additional healing every 5 levels, though this makes the healing itself not scale all that well.

Another thought was to basically do away with the Barkskin part (since there is already a utility that does barkskin), and just focus on the regen. I'd like to have it scale by lasting longer and/or increasing in value, like +1 round duration and Con mod +1 at each 5-level bump. With starting Con of 18, this would put the regen at level 28 in the 12~14hp range, and it would last 6 rounds.

I think you're overcomplicating the matter. I'm not a big fan of turntracking (it easily gets forgotten, thus delaying and backtracking in the game etc.). And that's quite a hefty twice per encounter regen you got there (effectively lasting most normal encounters, too).

Another idea would be to, instead of actually granting Regeneration in the keyword sense, change all the bumps to say,

Effect: The target can spend a healing surge, and regains an additional 1d6 hit points at the start of its next turn.
Level 6: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next two turns.
Level 11:The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next three turns.
Level 16: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next four turns.
Level 21: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next five turns.
Level 26: The target gains 1d6 additional hit points at the start of its next six turns.

Yet another option would be for the bumps to alternate between more dice and lasting another turn, so it would top out at 3d6 extra hp at the start of the turn for 4 rounds, or 4d6 for 3 rounds.

This I'm liking, although I'd load it all up into the next round to minimize turn tracking, i.e.

Effect: The target can spend a healing surge, and regains an additional 1d6 hit points at the start of its next turn.
Level 6: The target regains 2d6 additional hit points at the start of its next turn.
Level 11:The target regains 3d6 additional hit points at the start of its next turn.
Level 16: The target regains 4d6 additional hit points at the start of its next turn.
Level 21: The target regains 5d6 additional hit points at the start of its next turn.
Level 26: The target regains 6d6 additional hit points at the start of its next turn.

Still different enough from the cleric.

Thoughts?

Like your ideas, as usual.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Yeah, my gut was telling me that this initial version was a little overpowered. I guess it was right.

The barkskin rider is worth a feat, at least (clerics have access to a similar one), and it is even better in many ways than the Runepriest rider I based it on as the bonus is higher, but only applies to a single target instead of everyone within 5 squares. And you make a good point about the regeneration being wasted if the target drops, doesn't get hit again or is not under ongoing damage effects.

I liked your idea better as well, as it is less complicated. When I initially ran this idea past the player in question (same druid as before), she also complained about the condition tracking. If I limit it to once at the start of the character's next turn, as you suggest, that should keep the annoyance to a minimum.

The thing that I liked about this version is that it has some built-in hp "ping-pong" resistance, so if a character gets healed, then dropped again by a monster, they can still get up again without having another use of healing.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I think, in the situation of regeneration, condition tracking is kind of OK.

I guess, to me, part of the point of "regeneration" is that it should slowly trickle in rather than flood in all at once. Without that round-by-round nature, it's not as attractive to me as an alternative.

To ease up on the hassle, I think going the +1d6/x rounds thing is a good idea, since then you have something to physically do every round. It attaches an action to the rule, which helps as a mnemonic device (it does slow down play a little bit, but each slow-down is the druid going "I'm awesome," which is appropriate for a leader, I think).

Oh, and, yeah, Barkskin is too potent.

But, this is certainly a possible yoink...copypasta powers are annoying stuff, y0.