d20 UTH: 4e Healing Happy
On one side, the mechanics of 4e from a combat perspective is very well balanced. So far I've found the fights pretty easy to run, though it does help to actually get the opponent info together ahead of time so I can make sure to utilize any nifty abilities.
On the other side, the designers seem to treat everything that happens between the fights as flavor text. Down time isn't fun, after all, so why worry about what happens when characters get hurt. Have them heal and move on to the next encounter. It is not difficult for a character to heal 2 - 3 times their hit point total over a day, and everything heals overnight.
Bzzzt! Not in OzWorld!
While it's no fun to have your character laid up for prolonged periods, the new system removes consequences and risks. As long as it's not a TPK, everything will probably be fine. Everyone can heal up and jump into the next fray.
Under the official system, you can heal 25% of your hit points every encounter by taking a Second Wind to burn a healing surge. Plus, there are a multitude of powers that allow you to use a healing surge or trigger someone else's healing surge. And in between fights while resting you can burn additional healing surges, each one healing 25%. A character will have around 6 - 12 of these surges each day.
In my campaign, it is rare for players to run into more than a couple of encounters in a given day. My world is lacking in random underground trap-filled complexes inhabited by menageries of monsters waiting for hapless adventurers. My world is much more organic and my players are forced to fight less often.
So I'm making a couple of changes:
1) Healing surges are just surges. I have seen uses for them besides healing and will be coming up with more.
2) Second Wind is once per day instead of encounter.
3) Other uses of surges to heal via powers, skills and such will use a different formula. It will be Hit Points gained per level plus Constitution modifier (which is CON bonus plus 1/2 level). So if your character gains 5 hp every time he levels, is 6th level and has a 16 CON he would heal 11 hp per surge.
4) You may only use one surge to heal while resting, and then only during an extended rest.
5) Introducing a Wounded condition. If you take damage > your Fortitude Defense, you are Wounded, taking a -2 to your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution modifiers until the condition is removed.
I'll go into more details in the actual home-brew rules I'll post on my website once Firefox 3 and the file manager for my host decide they are talking to each other again.
On the other side, the designers seem to treat everything that happens between the fights as flavor text. Down time isn't fun, after all, so why worry about what happens when characters get hurt. Have them heal and move on to the next encounter. It is not difficult for a character to heal 2 - 3 times their hit point total over a day, and everything heals overnight.
Bzzzt! Not in OzWorld!
While it's no fun to have your character laid up for prolonged periods, the new system removes consequences and risks. As long as it's not a TPK, everything will probably be fine. Everyone can heal up and jump into the next fray.
Under the official system, you can heal 25% of your hit points every encounter by taking a Second Wind to burn a healing surge. Plus, there are a multitude of powers that allow you to use a healing surge or trigger someone else's healing surge. And in between fights while resting you can burn additional healing surges, each one healing 25%. A character will have around 6 - 12 of these surges each day.
In my campaign, it is rare for players to run into more than a couple of encounters in a given day. My world is lacking in random underground trap-filled complexes inhabited by menageries of monsters waiting for hapless adventurers. My world is much more organic and my players are forced to fight less often.
So I'm making a couple of changes:
1) Healing surges are just surges. I have seen uses for them besides healing and will be coming up with more.
2) Second Wind is once per day instead of encounter.
3) Other uses of surges to heal via powers, skills and such will use a different formula. It will be Hit Points gained per level plus Constitution modifier (which is CON bonus plus 1/2 level). So if your character gains 5 hp every time he levels, is 6th level and has a 16 CON he would heal 11 hp per surge.
4) You may only use one surge to heal while resting, and then only during an extended rest.
5) Introducing a Wounded condition. If you take damage > your Fortitude Defense, you are Wounded, taking a -2 to your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution modifiers until the condition is removed.
I'll go into more details in the actual home-brew rules I'll post on my website once Firefox 3 and the file manager for my host decide they are talking to each other again.
posted by Oz at 10:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home