It's an interesting thought, but the heal skill can already do that in 4ed. Allowing someone else to use their second wind is battle triage. It is not only useful when someone is unconscious, but also when they are deprived of actions and would not be able to do so on their turn. Is the pc going to bleed out from their wounds before they have time to apply a bandage or potion to themselves? Ally uses heal. I find it's usually more of an issue with groups making certain choices....
View full commentIt's an interesting thought, but the heal skill can already do that in 4ed. Allowing someone else to use their second wind is battle triage. It is not only useful when someone is unconscious, but also when they are deprived of actions and would not be able to do so on their turn.
Is the pc going to bleed out from their wounds before they have time to apply a bandage or potion to themselves? Ally uses heal.
I find it's usually more of an issue with groups making certain choices. Reward, remind or encourage them to use those options at their disposal. I agree that there are perhaps too many healing surges with each class. Maybe there should be a lot fewer. If there are less, then people are more inclined to take an extended rest after each room.
Not much different than older versions of the game where once the party used their one magic missile (terrible choice at level 1) and one cure light wounds spell then they pretty much had to sleep all day unless they could setup an ambush.
Perhaps the compromise is to have Second Wind require a heal check to activate all the time, or some other skill/saving throw to activate on your own.
I like the idea of limited self healing as it helps the flow of the game. If after every fight the party has to rest for 8 hrs nothing would ever get done or every subsequent fight gets more and more deadly, especially if the adventure has time constraints. It should not be during combat, that is the clerics job or get potions. The Playtest idea is great but may need further scaling if it works out too powerful.
I feel very strongly that the level of healing generally being discussed trashes the 4th wall. Magic allows for a lot of leeway in modelling, but without magic, healing should take place at a rate akin to reality- or at least no better than a typical action film. I hope you create an optional modular rule doing this, because for those gamers that left at the introduction of 4th ed, I think this is probably the largest issue. Imagine in real life (doesn't matter if you are the toughest person...
View full commentI feel very strongly that the level of healing generally being discussed trashes the 4th wall. Magic allows for a lot of leeway in modelling, but without magic, healing should take place at a rate akin to reality- or at least no better than a typical action film. I hope you create an optional modular rule doing this, because for those gamers that left at the introduction of 4th ed, I think this is probably the largest issue. Imagine in real life (doesn't matter if you are the toughest person on earth or a wimpy couch potato), getting beaten down to "one hit point," taking a 10 minute rest to apply antibiotic, band-aids, etc., and being all better, then having the beating immediately resume and again lowering you to 1 hp. This time you go to bed for 6 hours, take a couple hours to shower, relax, and eat breakfast before going back for more of the same, again taking 10 minutes to apply some quick first aid before driving off to work, fit as a fiddle.
Obviously the characters are heroic and the rules will be more generous than real life, but when the above example is actually the one where you didn't get really luck when rolling your hit dice for healing, the system threatens to become more board-game than RPG. Sorry if that was a bit scathing, but I like SO MUCH of the playtesting material that the bad bits stand out even more.
I just wanted to comment that I think this is brilliant design. It allows DMs the flexibility to allow players to be what they want to be, without having to shoe-horn in other classes, or force them to feel like they aren't able to be as successful in what they want by making them deal with cross-class skill restrictions. At the same time, you have an "easy out" as the DM by either forcing class based backgrounds and themes or iliminating them completely. Brilliant work so far, can't wait to see...
View full commentI just wanted to comment that I think this is brilliant design. It allows DMs the flexibility to allow players to be what they want to be, without having to shoe-horn in other classes, or force them to feel like they aren't able to be as successful in what they want by making them deal with cross-class skill restrictions. At the same time, you have an "easy out" as the DM by either forcing class based backgrounds and themes or iliminating them completely. Brilliant work so far, can't wait to see the finished product.
The party background concept makes my spine tingle too. I love it when my party cooperates well and have things in common. It inspired me wildly as a DM.
I'm a big believer in "Getting to Yes." Present the options, all the options, to the players, and see what they latch onto. Then build a game around what they are playing. If they want to play a Tiefling, don't screw them over for wanting to play the Tiefling. Build a story that will accommodate that choice. If the player WANTS to have risks involved with the racial choice (because those risks could be a roleplaying MINE, like having to wear robes to disguise a devilish appearance), that's...
View full commentI'm a big believer in "Getting to Yes." Present the options, all the options, to the players, and see what they latch onto. Then build a game around what they are playing. If they want to play a Tiefling, don't screw them over for wanting to play the Tiefling. Build a story that will accommodate that choice. If the player WANTS to have risks involved with the racial choice (because those risks could be a roleplaying MINE, like having to wear robes to disguise a devilish appearance), that's in the DM's power to grant, but the DM shouldn't screw someone over because their idea of fun is different than the DM's. Of course, if the player becomes a problem to the group, that's an issue, but the most important role of the DM is making sure everyone can have their fun. And part of that means providing all the racial choices, "ICONIC D&D" or not.
My campaign is quasi-historical, so I'm constantly saying no to races I haven't already distorted history to accommodate. I don't care one way or another about the frequency designations, because it should vary greatly from setting to setting.