Vital Recovery feat out of combat (Bo9S)

[blargney the second]

How does Vital Recovery work out of combat? Here's the relevant text:

"When you recover one or more expended maneuvers, you heal 3 points of damage +1 per character level. You can gain this benefit only once per encounter."

For a character with an easy-access recovery mechanism like the warblade, how does this feat work out of combat, if it does work at all?
-blarg

 

[RigaMortus2]

I would say it doesn't work out of combat, because you are no longer in an encounter...

I suppose you could argue that an encounter doesn't have to be combat related, but I think it's truly up to the DM to define what an encounter is, and when it starts and ends. Since WotC never defined what they meant by 'encounter'.

 

[blargney the second]

Actually, the end of an encounter is spelled out pretty clearly on p.40 in the End of the Encounter subheading. So I guess what happens with this feat is that one minute after combat ends, you automatically regain the hit points along with your expended maneuvers if you haven't already done so.

Hmm.. can you choose to not use Vital Recovery when you recover maneuvers if you haven't taken any damage yet to leave the ability for later?

 

[Dice4Hire]

It is once per encounter, so leaving it for later makes no sense, as you can just use it again in the next encounter.

I would tend to make sure that all the maneuvers are used only in combat. Come could be very useful in non-combat encounters, like some of the Tiger Claw jump abilities. Keeping all uses of that book to combat encounters makes sense, and helps limit it quite a bit.

 

[blargney the second]

Vital Recovery ROCKS. We had a little romp through a dungeon on Saturday night, and over 9 encounters it healed at least 60 hp. As a warforged, I found this to be a particularly useful feat. As for the out-of-combat aspect, I had it go off automatically 1 minute after combat ended if I hadn't already recovered maneuvers during the fight.
-blarg

 

[brehobit]

Vital Recovery ROCKS. We had a little romp through a dungeon on Saturday night, and over 9 encounters it healed at least 60 hp. As a warforged, I found this to be a particularly useful feat. As for the out-of-combat aspect, I had it go off automatically 1 minute after combat ended if I hadn't already recovered maneuvers during the fight.
-blarg

Agreed.

 

[blargney the second]

There was one situation that came up that I wasn't entirely certain what to do: traps. Do traps count as encounters? If so, you could use this feat to recover maneuvers and heal after getting blasted. I erred on the side of caution and didn't do it, but I wasn't sure which way to go. Warblades can refresh more or less at will, so it would be easy for me to recover after going kaboom.

 

[Nifft]

There was one situation that came up that I wasn't entirely certain what to do: traps. Do traps count as encounters?

My rule of thumb is: did you roll for Initiative? If so, you're in an Encounter. Otherwise, it's just a Hazard.

Thus, traps which summon monsters (as all or part of their effect) do count as Encounters, but not others.

Cheers, -- N

 

[blargney the second]

That sounds like a sensible rule. Adopted.
-blarg

ps - Every time I hear 'rule of thumb', I have to make a Will save to avoid making inappropriate very dark humour.

 

[Nifft]

ps - Every time I hear 'rule of thumb', I have to make a Will save to avoid making inappropriate very dark humour.

I should have added a footnote that when I say "rule of thumb", what I mean is "beat your wife more".

Sorry for the confusion, -- N