NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Badapple" data-source="post: 6012169" data-attributes="member: 71811">Cure Light Wound WandsI think there are two different forms of 3E that are being played.  One has CLW wands and one doesn’t.  I believe, more than any other factor, the CLW wand changes the game experience in so many ways that they are almost two totally different games. CLW wands have a negligible cost, whether crafted or purchased, so there are effectively no resources that are spent when using them.  In games with CLW wands, clerics are free to use up much more of their spell slots for offensive or utility casting and they become extremely powerful characters.  Occasionally if a party member is seriously in trouble a high level spell is used to drastically heal the player.  But otherwise the little nicks and dings of combat are ignored until the encounter is over.  Over time the DM compensates by making individual encounters slightly more challenging since instead of 3 people fighting and one person healing there are 4 people fighting.  When the encounter is over, the party is completely healed to full, with the cleric not expending any of his spells, by simply having everyone hang around for five minutes and healing the party literally one hit point per round with wands of lesser vigor.CLW wands eliminate the attrition that is inflicted on the party from having multiple easier fights.  Over time the DM compensates for this by not wasting the game time with smaller encounters that would only do a few hits on the party before they win, since all involved know it’s a predetermined outcome with no risk and the wands will heal everyone up after the fight is over and no resources are lost.  Because there are fewer, but more challenging adventures in a day, vancian characters shine more than non vancian characters, because one of the primary advantages of a non vancian character is a higher resistance to attrition.  Parties in 3E awaken after a full night’s rest with full hitpoints because they have full hitpoints after each encounter anyway, the night’s rest is to recharge spells not hitpoints. 3E games with CLW wands have: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players healing to full after each encounter after a five minute rest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Clerics casting maybe 1-2 significant heals per fight, but primarily being offensive spellcasters.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The party regaining full hitpoints and spells after a night’s rest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The adventuring day consisting of less encounters, but each encounter being more “at party level” significant challenges, with very few “easy” encounters.</li> </ul>In short, 3E games with CLW wands tend to have more of a 4E feel to them, and 3E games without CLW wands have more of an AD&D feel to them.</blockquote>

Verification