Tag: Healing

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Adventure Hooks: Healing

a-to-z-2014-hTime heals all wounds. Unless you’re a PC in a fantasy role-playing game like D&D in which case there is plenty of healing magic at your disposal. Now divine spells and potions heal all wounds so nobody needs to stay down and out for more than a few seconds.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. This year we’ve decided that every article will provide our readers with new adventure hooks. Today “H” is for healing as we explore way to turn the need for medical assistance into an interesting adventure hook.

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Greatest Hits 2013: Making Healing Easier in D&D Next

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2013. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

Obviously there have been some changes to D&D Next since I wrote this article back in July. As was pointed out in the comments of the original article, there are healing powers at higher levels that do allow the Cleric to provide healing from a distance. But this article is more than a critique on a few powers in a beta version of D&D Next.

The reason I chose to include this article in the Greatest Hits this year was because I think players going from older editions of D&D (including 4e) to D&D Next need to realize that healing magic is special. In D&D Next it’s not as plentiful or commonplace as it was in 4e. Fewer classes can heal wounded PCs and there’s no Second Wind or other mechanic that allows everyone to just heal them self. The lesson here is that tactics must change as the rules change.

Too many players believe that they should run headlong into combat and throw consequences to the wind. They’ve played other version of D&D where the healer will swoop in, heal them, and keep them on their feet. Since that’s less likely to happen in D&D Next while the battle’s still raging on, using smart tactics is more important than ever before.

Players need to be more keenly aware of how many hit points their character has and how likely they are to lose them given each round the circumstances. In D&D Next there are fewer hit points per character per level (than 4e, anyway) which makes every fight life threatening. So as long as healing require an up close and personal interaction with a Cleric PCs should stay near the healer or make sure he can get to them easily.

From July 24, 2013, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Making Healing Easier in D&D Next.

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D&D Next DM Resources

Making Healing Easier in D&D Next

life-giver-elmoreOne of the challenges most commonly faced by adventuring parties is the ability to heal wounds quickly and easily. Time heals all wounds, but in the heat of battle time is a precious commodity. You’re not likely to leave the fight and rest for a few days when you can keep swinging your blade or slinging your spells in hopes of defeating the foe in front of you right now. That’s where magical healing comes in.

In 4e D&D the leader classes took on equal responsibility for healing. The powers to heal were abundant, minor actions that you could throw around from great distances. Let’s face it, in 4e any party with a half-competent leader shouldn’t have suffered many losses. Between Healing Word (or the equivalent) and Second Wind there was plenty of healing to go around. Healing was fast and easy.

As appealing as this abundant healing was to some players (me included), it was a radically different approach than what we’d seen in previous editions of D&D. Traditionally in D&D the Cleric was the healer. Other classes had abilities and powers that let them provide supplemental healing but the Cleric was usually the primary medic. This is the direction that magical healing has taken in D&D Next – it’s back to the Cleric as party healer with Paladin, Ranger and Druid providing back-up support.

Making the Cleric special again by giving them exclusivity in the super healing department is fine with me. However, most healing is now limited to a range of touch. The Cleric has to get up close and personal to heal the wounded or revive the fallen. This is how things used to work and it looks like this is how things will work again. Fair enough. But after playing 4e for so long it’s tough to go back to the idea that healers are hands on.

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Somewhere Between Living and Dying

Normally there’s no real grey area when it comes to the distinction between living and dying in D&D. If you’ve got 1 or more hit points you’re living. If your hit points are between 0 and your negative bloodied value you’re dying. As long as you’re living then you can act on your turn whether you’ve got 1 hit point or 100 hit points. But when you reach 0 hit points or lower you fall down and start bleeding out.

In some cases taking excessive damage may kill you, dead-dead outright, but most of the time you’ve got a fighting chance of waking up. If you’ve got a leader in the party or an ally with a decent score in Heal, then you’ll likely be back in the action by the time your next turn comes around. Most of the time falling unconscious isn’t even a big concern. After all, the way that 4e is designed makes it practically impossible for PCs to die.

However, there will be those rare occasions when the leader can’t help you and the other PCs are in so much trouble that they can’t take the actions necessary to use their Heal skill on you. These are the rounds when all you can do is roll that death save and hope that you get a 20. Being in this situation sucks! What’s even worse is if you spend multiple rounds in a row making death saves and not getting that elusive 20. I’ve played in a few games where the rest of the PCs can’t or won’t help their wounded comrade and that player does nothing but make death save on their turn. This is not fun.

After this happened in a recent encounter where a player was sidelined for over an hour we decided to introduce a new house rule that would minimize this kind of player exclusion from happening again. The proposal was to create a new state somewhere between living and dying.

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Avoiding The Total Party Kill

The party is in the middle of combat and the plan of attack quickly falls apart. Within rounds the party finds themselves with several PCs making death saves. Things have gone from bad to worse and a total party kill is looking imminent. Options begin running through your head, do you go down swinging? Is it still possible to defeat the encounter? Is retreat the best option? If you do retreat what about your already fallen companions?

No matter the cause of a total party kill, it can have devastating consequences on your campaign or adventure session. From derailed campaigns, frustrated players and torn up character sheets every TPK is going to have it’s own ramifications. The key to avoiding these difficult situations is to avoid the total party kill in the first place.

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Editorial

Greatest Hits 2009: I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch!

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2009. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

This was one of the very first articles I ever wrote for Dungeon’s Master. I found it amazing that one of the guys at my gaming table came up with such an interesting way to play his character (in this case, a leader). At first I was kind of upset that this player would be so selfish and not do his job. But the more I thought about it I realized that each player can play his own PC however he wants. If the rest of the party doesn’t like it, then that’s just too bad for them.

When I wrote this I’d only ever played a defender and striker. So even though I agreed with this player’s decision not to heal until a PC used his second wind, I didn’t truly appreciate his point of view until I played a leader. After that I was 100% on board with this attitude.

Too many players assume that the leader’s job it to heal them… and that’s all they’re supposed to do. It’s these players more than any others that I think need to adopt the second wind first behaviour. Until you can appreciate the leader as an equally important part of the adventuring party and not just your personal medic, taking this kind of extreme view to healing is the best way to make your point.

Comments on the original article came down on equally on both sides of this debate. I think in the end it comes down to how the you want to play your PC if you’re the leader and for everybody else it comes down to an issue of respect for the other role and classes in your party.

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The Ultimate Character for the Ultimate Dungeon Delve

Next week I’ll be participating in the Ultimate Dungeon Delve at GenCon. I’ve done my homework and I think I’ve come up with the best possible character for the delve. I’ve only got a few days remaining in which to make tweaks and changes to this PC, so I’m asking you – the readers – to give me your input.

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I’m Your Cleric, Not Your Bitch!

“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.

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