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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 9:51AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2004
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I recently judged a mod with a swordmage who had Unicorn’s Touch. After the first encounter everyone was pretty damaged, many were bloodied or close to bloodied. The swordmage player immediately says, "No one spend any surges. I'll heal everyone up to full for free".
I check the power out and he is legit. The power as written is surge free, non-enemy dependant, and an encounter power. RAW it can easily be used to heal a party up to full.
I quickly shot him down saying that such a thing would not happen at my table. The players would be expected to heal using traditional methods. I assured him that his power could still be used in combat or even once outside of combat but no infinite short rest + Unicorn Touchs were allowed.
What would others have done in this situation? This wasn't a cheesed out Rain of Blows that simply annihilates one monster. Unicorns Touch (and its blatant abuse) completely removes a cornerstone of the game's design.
The mod, as written, had no real time limits. The nerfing of the power was purely an abuse of DME. Would it have been better to create an artificial reason why the party could not take multiple short rests? Or should I have just allowed the swordmage to remove the need for surges outside of combat?
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 10:01AM
#2
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He should be able to use the power once every 5 minutes out of combat. There's no reason that you should have disallowed it. However, if 6 people are all bloodied or close to it, it would probably take at least an hour or more for him to eventually heal everyone up to full using this power.
If there are no rigid time constraints in the module, then it's perfectly legitimate and a somewhat clever way to conserve resources. However, from my experience, most of the challenging modules have time constraints that prevent this. Indeed I, like many others, have noticed this power's potential for resource conservation.
As the DM, if you find that players are doing this type of thing in the middle of a particularly dangerous area, you're more than welcome to teach them a lesson by jumping them with the next encounter while they're sitting around at half HP waiting for their turn to "ride the unicorn."
Dave Kay
LFR Writing Director Retiree
dkay807 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 10:16AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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I quickly shot him down saying that such a thing would not happen at my table. The players would be expected to heal using traditional methods. I assured him that his power could still be used in combat or even once outside of combat but no infinite short rest + Unicorn Touchs were allowed.
maybe a tad heavy handed (though i'm sure the actual situation differed from your quick description) to bring it down that way.
i would suggest to the player that even though that may be correct as far as the RAW is concerned, it's contrary to the spirit of the game. you might be surprised at how many players this actually works for.
if that doesn't work, just have all of their short rests after the first get interrupted by something that forces them to move along (the city watch comes along telling them there's no loitering), or a completely non-threatening combat (they're in the wilderness and goblin minions inexplicably keep showing up in 4 and a half minute intervals). you could also find a way to have the next encounter find them.
also, even if the mod doesn't specify a time constraint doesn't mean you can't put one in there, even if it's something the player's aren't aware of. if they're getting full healing in between each encounter, then maybe the baddies have had more time to get reinforcements, making the fights tougher.
you could also let it slide, but actually have the player figure out how many short rests they will need to take. depending on the number of party members, how many hps they're down, and the swordmages con modifier, they may burn up a lot more time they realize.
in general, i've found that just telling a player "that doesn't work that way at my table" puts both parties in an adversarial mindset that can lead to unnecessary and sometimes inappropriate conflicts between the two.
the important thing is that everyone has fun.
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 10:19AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2004
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He should be able to use the power once every 5 minutes out of combat. There's no reason that you should have disallowed it. However, if 6 people are all bloodied or close to it, it would probably take at least an hour or more for him to eventually heal everyone up to full using this power.
If there are no rigid time constraints in the module, then it's perfectly legitimate and a somewhat clever way to conserve resources. However, from my experience, most of the challenging modules have time constraints that prevent this. Indeed I, like many others, have noticed this power's potential for resource conservation.
As the DM, if you find that players are doing this type of thing in the middle of a particularly dangerous area, you're more than welcome to teach them a lesson by jumping them with the next encounter while they're sitting around at half HP waiting for their turn to "ride the unicorn."
Well we're going to have to agree to disagree on a few of these points. There is a very legitimate reason why I disallowed the repeated used of the power outside of combat (see OP). Also, this is hardly clever. It is simply abusing a clearly broken power. You'll note that there is no other surge free, encounter power, non-enemy dependant, non-bloodied healing effects in the game.
I am mainly looking for what others would do in this situation. I have every intention of warning all swordmages that sit at my tables in the future of my view of the power's use outside combat and if I ever sit at a table with a swordmage as a player I will heal via my surges through healing powers or even on my own, regardless of if the judge believes it to be kosher.
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 10:23AM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 28, 2001
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The only time that I've seen people run out of healing surges is when someone was getting too big for their britches and was playing overly aggresive (wizard always on the front lines, melee strikers not attacking the defender's targets, etc).
In other words, the number of healing surges per day is not really a big deal for most people. This only helps those who tend to run out of surges quickly, which I've seen probably once during a core special (and I've played a lot of LFR).
The real limitation on healing is the number of times you can activate them during combat.
What difference does it make if someone ends the mod with 3 surges or 6?
It's a neat power, no doubt. But personally, I find the ability to grant saves a lot more useful.
Check out my free online comic! Familiar Ground Fantasy Humor, Familiar Point of View
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 10:28AM
#6
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Date Joined:
May 28, 2001
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Well we're going to have to agree to disagree on a few of these points. There is a very legitimate reason why I disallowed the repeated used of the power outside of combat (see OP). Also, this is hardly clever. It is simply abusing a clearly broken power. You'll note that there is no other surge free, encounter power, non-enemy dependant, non-bloodied healing effects in the game.
Are you planning on banning rain of blows, power jewels and salves of power in your game as well? Not saying that it's not too powerful, but if you limit this, then why not others as well? Those other powers have a greater effect in PC ability than having an extra two healing surges at the end of the mod.
The ability to use it multiple times out of combat IS allowed by the rules.
If you really hate seeing it used out of combat, then you are on better ground changing the mod so that it doesn't allow the party more than a 5 minute rest before they have to rush off to the next encounter than changing the core rules of the game.
The only limiting factor of encounter powers is that it takes 5 minutes for them to recharge. Nothing limits them from being used once every 5 minutes.
This is similar to the argument that a lot of folks had with using Healing Word every five minutes to conserve on healing surges. It's allowed.
Check out my free online comic! Familiar Ground Fantasy Humor, Familiar Point of View
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 10:30AM
#7
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What difference does it make if someone ends the mod with 3 surges or 6?
I have to agree. Just let them heal. As a swordmage I prefer Armathor's Step anyway.
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 10:37AM
#8
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Well we're going to have to agree to disagree on a few of these points. There is a very legitimate reason why I disallowed the repeated used of the power outside of combat (see OP). Also, this is hardly clever. It is simply abusing a clearly broken power. You'll note that there is no other surge free, encounter power, non-enemy dependant, non-bloodied healing effects in the game.
I am mainly looking for what others would do in this situation. I have every intention of warning all swordmages that sit at my tables in the future of my view of the power's use outside combat and if I ever sit at a table with a swordmage as a player I will heal via my surges through healing powers or even on my own, regardless of if the judge believes it to be kosher.
Regardless of whether you like it or not, the use of Unicorn's Touch as you have described is perfectly legal following the RAW. I can, however, understand why it bothers you. Based on your interpretation of "broken," I will agree that the power is indeed broken.
As Mat has suggested in a previous post, the best approach is to request that the players respect your preferences and avoid abusing Unicorn's Touch for limitless surgeless healing. As an LFR DM, you shouldn't really declare that the power doesn't work in a way that it clearly does... it's not fair to the players or to the integrity of the game and if I were told that as a player, it would spoil the remainder of my gaming experience. However, if you asked that I avoid abusing that power, I would be happy to oblige (I play a swordmage and do not use this power).
What you do as a player at tables with others who abuse Unicorn's Touch is entirely your prerogative. Just remember that as a DM, your job is to facilitate the fun of the players. If the players are following the rules and are having fun, why stop them? You have other options to keep the game challenging, many of them have already been stated in this thread.
Dave Kay
LFR Writing Director Retiree
dkay807 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 11:34AM
#9
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Rumor is the errata team is looking at this since it is the only true healing encounter power. I would just let people use it as written in RPGA until the errata team does something with it, but I wouldn't blame a DM who didn't allow it. I certainly wouldn't allow it in home games where I can tell people ahead of time that it is a daily not an encounter power.
Mike Donais.
Cryptozoic R&D
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4 years ago ::
May 29, 2009 - 11:41AM
#10
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Rumor is the errata team is looking at this since it is the only true healing encounter power. I would just let people use it as written in RPGA until the errata team does something with it, but I wouldn't blame a DM who didn't allow it. I certainly wouldn't allow it in home games where I can tell people ahead of time that it is a daily not an encounter power.
Unfortunately, the RPGA isn't a home game, so DMs really can't just "disallow" it. I would expect a reasonable errata to be something along the lines of:
"The target either rolls a saving throw or, if it is bloodied, regains hit points equal to 5 + your Constitution modifier."
Dave Kay
LFR Writing Director Retiree
dkay807 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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