Healing without Cumulative Penalty

[JCurwen3]

Healing has a built-in limitation, that you get a cumulative -3 penalty per successful use that lasts for a day after the last use.

How do you get rid of it? Cosmic, No cumulative penalty, +50%?

Enough Reduced Time levels to reduce that day to instant? Before you jump on board with that one, that takes Reduced Time 43201, +864020%... which not only seems just mildly harsh, but also makes Affliction (Extreme Regeneration) seem pretty darn cheap. So it probably shouldn't be that.

Does the Cosmic, +50% seem fair? It's supposed to remove built in limitations, after all.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

Healing has a built-in limitation, that you get a cumulative -3 penalty per successful use that lasts for a day after the last use.

How do you get rid of it? Cosmic, No cumulative penalty, +50%?

My preferred option.

Enough Reduced Time levels to reduce that day to instant? Before you jump on board with that one, that takes Reduced Time 43201, +864020%... which not only seems just mildly harsh, but also makes Affliction (Extreme Regeneration) seem pretty darn cheap. So it probably shouldn't be that.

Each level of Reduced Time reduces the time by half. To reduce (24 hours * 60 minutes * 60 seconds) 86,400 seconds down to Instant is only Reduced Time 18, +360%.

Does the Cosmic, +50% seem fair? It's supposed to remove built in limitations, after all.

:nods:

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

Healing has a built-in limitation, that you get a cumulative -3 penalty per successful use that lasts for a day after the last use.

How do you get rid of it? Cosmic, No cumulative penalty, +50%?

Enough Reduced Time levels to reduce that day to instant? Before you jump on board with that one, that takes Reduced Time 43201, +864020%... which not only seems just mildly harsh, but also makes Affliction (Extreme Regeneration) seem pretty darn cheap. So it probably shouldn't be that.

Does the Cosmic, +50% seem fair? It's supposed to remove built in limitations, after all.

How about just adding Reliable?
I rarely see it being used that often on a person multiple times per day.
Supers and action typically have no more then one fight a day, and DF of course has many but usually your using spells.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Refplace

How about just adding Reliable?

Reliable caps at +10. Reliable 3, +15%, applied to the Healing advantage, costs 5 character points. Reliable 9, +45%, is the practical cap as the additional +1 from Reliable 10 would be stupid to take on the Healing advantage. Reliable 9 costs 11 character points.

For 5 additional CP, you can use Healing a total of two times on the subject without incurring penalties. For 11 additional CP, you can use Healing a total of four times on the subject without incurring penalties.

Or, for 15 additional CP, taking Cosmic, No Cumulative Penalties, +50%, you can use Healing any number of times on the subject without incurring penalties.

I know which I'd pick!

...

Alternatively, if the Cosmic, No Cumulative Penalties, doesn't sit right?

Decreased Immunity (Psionic Powers, page 21) should work. Moving from level two (cumulative penalty for one day) to level zero (no effect) is +100%. Taking this option makes Reliable more attractive, but for a dedicated healer ...

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Reliable caps at +10. Reliable 3, +15%, applied to the Healing advantage, costs 5 character points. Reliable 9, +45%, is the practical cap as the additional +1 from Reliable 10 would be stupid to take on the Healing advantage. Reliable 9 costs 11 character points.

For 5 additional CP, you can use Healing a total of two times on the subject without incurring penalties. For 11 additional CP, you can use Healing a total of four times on the subject without incurring penalties.

Or, for 15 additional CP, taking Cosmic, No Cumulative Penalties, +50%, you can use Healing any number of times on the subject without incurring penalties.

I know which I'd pick!

...

Alternatively, if the Cosmic, No Cumulative Penalties, doesn't sit right?

Decreased Immunity (Psionic Powers, page 21) should work. Moving from level two (cumulative penalty for one day) to level zero (no effect) is +100%. Taking this option makes Reliable more attractive, but for a dedicated healer ...

Well Reliable is RAW and the Cosmic option is more iffy. Also I dispute your objection to reliable 10 as being stupid to take.
Reliable has other advantages here such as offsetting other penalties and a dedicated healer might find those handy since you get past base IQ, counter crippled limb and disease penalties.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Well Reliable is RAW and the Cosmic option is more iffy.

Cosmic is RAW. This particular application of Cosmic fits under the Cosmic, Ability Other Than Attack Or Defense, umbrella at +50% as there is no RAW Healing specific modifier that performs the effect. Cosmic, as always, is subject to GM approval. Of course, everything is subject to the GM's approval so its' not like its' in its' own special category or anything.

Also I dispute your objection to reliable 10 as being stupid to take.
Reliable has other advantages here such as offsetting other penalties and a dedicated healer might find those handy since you get past base IQ, counter crippled limb and disease penalties.

Reliable 10 is stupid to take for the purpose of further uses of the Healing advantage without incurring penalties, which is the context we are discussing.

Reliable 10 may, or may not, be stupid to take in other contexts.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

How do you get rid of it? Cosmic, No cumulative penalty, +50%?

You don't.

You're not supposed to.

Notice that Hero System also limits its heal-other ability in a similar way, at least in 5th Edition. Unlimited healing is harmful.

Take levels of Reliable. Maybe Limit Reliable to Only To Offset Penalties for Repeated Use. I think that might be -30% or so. Possibly you can talk your GM into letting you buy 12 or even 15 levels of Reliable that are Limited thusly even if the RAW says you can't take more than Reliable 10.

Another solution is to buy Healing twice. That way, your two first uses are unpenalized, and your 3rd and 4th are at -3, while your 5th and 6th are at -6.

If you're really cheeky, ask your GM if you can take the second instance of Healing as an Alternate Ability of the first. I wouldn't try that, though.

[PK]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

Healing has a built-in limitation, that you get a cumulative -3 penalty per successful use that lasts for a day after the last use.

How do you get rid of it? Cosmic, No cumulative penalty, +50%?

Yes. By way of comparison, note that this costs the same as Reliable 10, an enhancement which not only removes the penalty, but gives a net bonus for your first three uses -- but then quickly ceases to stop your activation rolls from sliding into Penalty Hell. Using Cosmic instead to remove that one drawback means that you never get a net bonus, but you can heal one person all day long without special penalties.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Yes. By way of comparison, note that this costs the same as Reliable 10, an enhancement which not only removes the penalty, but gives a net bonus for your first three uses -- but then quickly ceases to stop your activation rolls from sliding into Penalty Hell. Using Cosmic instead to remove that one drawback means that you never get a net bonus, but you can heal one person all day long without special penalties.

In a DF campaign, this is well into the "but everyone would take it" territory for healer templates. FP are much easier to regain by resting than HP.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

In a DF campaign, this is well into the "but everyone would take it" territory for healer templates. FP are much easier to regain by resting than HP.

By the time DF characters have the points for it, I'm not sure it's that big a deal TBH - the Reliable will also help with things like offsetting Low Sanctity penalties, or fixing crippled limbs, or removing difficult diseases or poisons (which certainly do come up in DF games) and never mind cursed wounds that give a penalty to all healing rolls and attempts to heal you.



There's two styles of games that DF is drawing from.

In one, healing is a restricted resource, either costing significant money or restricted in uses per day.

In the other, healing is more of a "thing you do for almost no effort between fights" or in extreme cases, even while you're fighting.

Early D&D tends towards the first type, although this degenerates at higher levels, until folks start being resurrected "in the field" (still requiring money for most editions).

Diablo-likes after the first few levels (extreme noob turf) rapidly turn into type two, even for classes with no innate healing ability - potions drop SO often and you can drink them so quickly even while fighting hordes of demons that your hit point pool is effectively your real HPs plus all those "liquid HPs" stored in little bottles.

D&D 4e is a hybrid between the two, managing a daily resource (healing surges) that can be spent at will between fights, or during fights with the use of special abilities (that usually grant extra healing or some kind of combat-bonus).

If the healer is healing folks for smaller "units" of healing at a time, they have to make rolls more frequently and risk interesting or badly timed critical failures. If the healer is healing folks for larger units of healing at a time and just uses the loss of the cap for "extending the fighting day", they have an extended rest period after each fight where they can be attacked by wandering monsters, ambushing monsters, etc, OR they blow through Paut, which is a consumable resource that costs money so I'm quite comfortable with that.

I'd call it a Power Up and might restrict it to high PI/Holy Might characters (who are already getting big bonuses and therefore don't actually need the benefit as much).