“I am a defender of the faith, a holy warrior and a vassal of my deity. I am not in the party simply to heal your wounds!”
An interesting debate occurred within our gaming group recently. One of our healers, in this case the Cleric, decided that he will not use his Healing Word or any other power that allows others to use healing surges unless a) they are bloodied and b) they have already used their second wind. He is so adamant about following this guideline that he would rather take no minor action instead of healing the other PCs.
As you can imagine this has made for some very heated discussions in and out of game. Luckily we also have a Warlord and a Paladin in the party so it’s not like we don’t have any other options. However, the player running the Warlord missed a few games recently and the Cleric’s refusal to heal has greatly impacted the direction of numerous battles.
Although it took me a little while to come around I must admit that I like this approach. After all, why should my ally needlessly waste his actions and resources to heal me if I can heal myself?
Healing potions are cheap, 50gp. Most characters have one (or should have one) by the time they reach 2nd level. It may only heal 10 hp, but it still allows for non-healers to use one more healing surge during combat. So if you know that the party has healing potions and can use them as a minor action then why not wait for them to do so?
Where this really gets interesting is when there are Dwarves in the party. Since a Dwarf can use his second wind as a minor action there’s no excuse for not using it before you beg the Cleric or Warlord for help.
More and more, I see players rolling up tanks and run headlong into melee combat to fight monsters. They rarely, if ever, give any thought to healing. What these players need to realize is that when they’re running low on hit points they need to move out of combat and heal. They shouldn’t feel that it is their duty and their right to be in the front line and not have to slow down for anything (like reaching 0 hp). For too long the heavy hitters have claimed that they are more valuable to the fight by dealing lots of damage every round then taking one round off to heal.
To these players I say, too bad! Just because I’m playing a class with healing powers doesn’t mean that I’m here to serve as your personal medic. I may be your Cleric, but I’m not your bitch! If you won’t change your tactics for one round to heal, then why should I?
The only PCs I can possibly see being exempt from the practice above are strikers. They deal so much damage so consistently that it is in the party’s best interest to keep the striker on offense. Strikers should use their standard action every single round to attack. The use of magical healing on a striker means the monsters drop faster and fewer healing surges are used by the whole party. That’s win-win.
Do you agree? Should players need to use their second wind before they’re eligible to receive magical healing? I think this is a great tactic and everyone should adopt it right away. Who’s with me?
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1 2 3 4 Next »Me, I'm all about the roleplay. Here's my view: any discussion about use of divinely given powers that puts mere tactical expedience before the faith-based motivations of the cleric and their deity belongs in the world of MMO gaming, not in a tabletop RPG. Clerics will not want to waste their gods' time and energy dishing out healing to those who still have healing of their own available.
The cleric should also insist that any person who requires healing be willing to say a prayer to their deity with them. Maybe some deities (referee's discretion) will withhold healing from the faithless or from worshippers of other faiths.
Personally, I think it should be left up to roleplaying. If the cleric doesn't want to heal people who he feels aren't looking out for themselves sufficiently, or perhaps only those of his faith or who are willing to donate to the temple, there shouldn't be any meta-game pressure on the player to shut up and fulfill his "party role." On the other hand, the other characters should be free to try to persuade the cleric in character that he's being foolish, or not upholding the tenets of his faith, or even to kick him from the party and try to find a more malleable cleric.
I do agree with you.. I do feel that a healer is absolutely necessary for a party, but I also that players become too dependant on the cleric. I still play 3.5 and like that good/neutral clerics can choose to drop any prepared spell for a healing spell. That was something in 2e that used to drive me crazy.. Almost all your spells per day were taken up by healing spells.
As I said, I play 3.5, but I did adopt the 2nd wind as a way for healering classes to be able to do more than just that... The cleric in my group was also smart and took Brew Potion... And he has actually several times.. when asked for a heal says, "do you have a potion? Well then use it.. My spells are too valuable right now to heal you..." lol
My general reaction is.... no, I'm not. I mean, I see your point. I do. And I hate to ever tell someone how to play their character, so I'm torn. However, refusing to take a minor action so that someone else needs to use their standard (for non-dwarves) seems a bit off to me.
Now, waiting till someone is bloodied, sure that's fine. I mean, non-metagame wise it's not supposed to be that obvious how bad off you are until you hit bloodied... but once you hit that, it should be moderately obvious to people that you are closer to death than not, and if part of what you do is dispense the healing goodness you should probably be thinking about trying to do that. They aren't just out there getting glory for themselves... in theory they are your friends (or at least your useful companions) who are out there taking a beating so you don't have to.
Now, that doesn't mean I can't see situations where withholding healing makes sense.. . but honestly, out of game wise, I'd be annoyed at the player in this situation. To the point where I'd be tempted to not use my powers to their benefit. No getting in the way of mobs going after them. No attempts to mark stuff going after them. No attempts to use my powers to move stuff away from them. *shrug*
While you're referring to a typical 4e game, I would expand it to another dimension. It shouldn't be just the character's choice but moreover a roleplaying tool, why should a divine entity give freely powers to heal without proper conduct by those healed? I think a cleric's first and foremost role should hardly ever be the healer. When it comes to healing necessary, he might be a good point to address, but more importantly he is the resource of his good (or faith) to spread this particular belief in a region. Therefore I would use the idea of "cleric not bitch" more to motivate the players to take care for a proper role as cleric in the game.
Personally, as a DM, if the character has been played in such a way that this type of thing fits his personality, I'd encourage the other players to work around it and learn to play with the expectation that they won't see any healing unless they're really in need.
As a player, on the other hand, this really doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Potions cost money, regardless of how affordable they might be. You get encounter powers back for free when the fight is over. To me, its a math/economics thing. Why pay for something when you can use what you know you'll get for free?
I would be against this as well. A minor action to heal for more than just a healing surge is great, why waste a healing surge with a potion to get less hp back. In my games there are several encounters before an extended rest so getting the most hp for a healing surge is needed. I am all for waiting for them to be bloodied, or at least close to it so no healing is wasted by going over the character's max hp. A cleric at low levels can restore around or over half a character's hp if they roll well and have a high wisdom.
I can see the players point, but helping out on a minor action from time to time can help with table moral; while still sticking to his guns the majority of the time. I think people bog down on only what their character is doing or capable of doing and what action to do next without consideration to the others, sometime that makes the game fun and sometimes not. This is where a DM nudge can help like "Bill this is just one of those times, maybe heal Steve, just this once."
The game is fluid, but the PCs do have roles. As a player who likes fighters, I enjoy playing to the very limit of near death only to be surprised by a boost in health from the healer in the group to drive the final blow home. I also don't mind being the healer that helps someone else in their moment of need and on most occasions the whole parties. Your cleric's rules are cool in my book, as long as it does not kill player moral at the table. If he is there when the players really, really need it the most, then I say don't be the bitch.
Roleplay it out. A group needs to establish SOPs, and healing should be part of that. Keep in mind the cleric is still offering to heal, just on his/her own schedule. A player should feel free to use their character's abilities as they see fit, and the group should respect that.
@everyone
Let me begin by thanking everyone for taking the time to post a comment. I see posts from a lot of first timers, so welcome to Dungeon's Master.
@Lurkinggherkin
I like the idea of requiring a PC who receives healing to offer a pray in exchange. It makes excellent sense from a role-playing point of view. I'll mention this to our Cleric.
What if we run in to this same problem with a Bard or Warlord? The concept of trading faith for healing is kind of moot then. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
@Joshua
This is exactly what's happening in and out of game. The PCs are trying to rely on reason to sway the Cleric into healing them "It's in the best interests of the party, including you." and that kind of thing. It's certainly made the PCs question their own faith.
@Mike E.
There is no doubt that some of the guys in my group are WAY too dependent on the healing powers of others. It's not a new phenomena, and it's not even limited to just these characters, but it's finally starting to bite them since this player started running his Cleric this way. He shares your thoughts that in some cases magic is just too valuable to waste.
@justaguy
It's not just the minor action that he holds back. There was an encounter where he refused to use his attack power "Strengthen the Faithful" because it had a healing component. We needed him to deal out some damage and this power does 2[W]+Str. But because it has a secondary healing ability he REFUSED to use it because the adjacent allies were not bloodied. This specific incident resulted in a lot of out of game yelling (and inspired me to write this post).
@TheLemming
The reason this has only just become problematic is because it's a role-playing quark that this player decided to introduce. His character is Warforged and he thinks very pragmatically. It totally suits his character and it is the way he's been playing him since 1st level. I don't fault the role-playing at all. If anything I compliment this guy for making his character more interesting. It's certainly opened the eyes of the other PCs when it comes to faith in D&D.
@Josh
The DM has been very supportive of the Cleric's decision t play his character this way. The players have had the math/economics discussion with him, but they're kind of hypocritical since the party has something like 20 healing potions that they NEVER want to use. Until such time as they run out of money or potions I don't see the Cleric bending at all. But it's a solid argument otherwise.
@Risan
Getting more out of healing surges is one of the main reasons this Cleric refuses to use his healing magic until you're bloodied. He doesn't want the extra healing to be wasted. On more than one occasion we've been able to complete more encounters because people didn't run out of surges precisely because the Cleric waited to use his magic until the PC was bloodied.
@Shent
Morale has definitely been hurt by this role-playing quark. We're just starting to get over it, but it took many weeks to do so. Recently the Cleric has "seen the light" and offers some magical healing in those emergencies. The trick is convincing him that this is one of those emergency situations that was unpredictable. In most cases it's not and everyone at the table knows it.
@Anarkeith
We've had to adjust our SOP as soon as we realized that the Cleric had these restrictions or beliefs about when he would and would not heal. Believe it or not for the first few levels we didn't even realize he was (or wasn't) doing it. It was about 5th level when we had enough hit points not to go from max to bloodied in one round that we saw what was going on. The group is finally starting to accept that this PC is going to continue playing a certain way and they have to learn to deal with it.
@everyone
Great feedback everyone. I though this topic would generate some discussion, but you guys have really brought up a lot of interesting points and suggestions. Keep them coming.