How much healing does a party need, usually? [Archive] - Wizards Community

How much healing does a party need, usually? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
JulesCARV
02-17-06, 12:28 AM Over the course of a day, how much healing should a party expect to need, do you think, in a typical adventure (accepting that on particularly rough days, they may go to sleep without a large fraction of their hit points, and have to heal up the next day).

Should a party expect to have daily healing available equivalent to, say, half of their total hit points? Twice their total hit points? Is it just too unpredictable to say?

In other words, if you had to say how much available healing was a bare minimum, how much was average, and how much was generous, what would you say?
Nom
02-17-06, 12:45 AM By the time the party reaches level 4 or 5, the real answer to this question is wand of cure light wounds. It shouldn't be unusual for at least one party member to suffer serious hp loss in a CR-equivalent encounter, but it's pretty easily recovered.
TheChilliGod
02-17-06, 12:49 AM Well, since an ideal adventuring day consists of 4 encounters, and each encounter consumes 25% of a party's total resources, The total is 100% hp, which is as many hp as should be healed. I should think that the party cleric should have burned out most, if not all, or his spell slots for cure spells in this case. As for being generous, using your wand of cure light and all your cure spells is being generous.

I'm just taking a guess here, but are you asking this because a cleric (yours or another's) is/might start restricting how many cure spells he should give to the party? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just thought I'd ask.
Iry
02-17-06, 12:58 AM Well, really you're only going to have three situations:
A) You use a Wand and contribute meaningfully to combat. Your combats are balanced so they don't overpower you. Occasionally you drop a Heal to turn the tide.
B) You stock up on healing and your DM makes you use every bit pulling off impossible stunts because you have the capability and he wants to make you feel useful.
C) You stock up on healing and your DM doesn't make you use all of it and you feel kinda let down.

Only one of these wins all the time and doesn't require DM Fiat.
JulesCARV
02-17-06, 01:08 AM Aha! Therein lies the issue: our party has no cleric.

We have an artificer who has a wand that sometimes casts magic missile, and sometimes casts cure light wounds (first, the artificer has to roll 20 or higher on a UMD check for the thing to even be activated, then he has to roll 20 or higher on a d100 roll (I think) for it to cast what he wants it to cast. It kinda sucked when he tried to heal a party member in negative hit points, and accidentally cast magic missile on her instead, but she managed to survive anyway, thanks to DM^H^H divine intervention), and he's scribed a few CLW scrolls as well (once again, UMD needed to cast them).

A wand of CLW would be nice. I'm the party's paladin. I can heal a little bit (4 hp per day. 2nd level paladin with 14 charisma :twitch: ). I'm thinking of becoming a bard1 to provide a bit of healing (why not cleric, healer, or favored soul? My wisdom sucks2, so I think cleric or healer wouldn't be a good route to more healing. Favored soul might work, but I also want speak language and bluff as class skills, since I'll also probably be the party face). Since bards can only provide half as much healing as a cleric on any given level (roughly), and many of my levels will be paladin levels, that won't cut it. Also, at level 6 (level 4 paladin, probably), I'll be taking the feat "Sacred Healing," which allows me to use in a "turn" attempt, to grant all creatures in 60' radius rapid healing 3 for 1 + cha mod turns (does this work for warforged, I wonder?). That would give me 5 oppurtunities a day to give my whole party 9 hit points, starting at level 6. If I can get Eagle's splendor, I can temporarily boost my charisma once I've used all my turning attempts, for two spare turning attempts, these made at 18 charisma, these ones lasting 5 turns, for 15 hp per party member per turn attempt, and also get some more Lay on Hands usage (healing 2 hp more per paladin level).

Overall, this will give me a few cure spells as a bard, and

1. Don't even start on the "you can't multiclass as a paladin/bard!" issue! I'm taking Devoted Performer as a feat, and my GM and I have sorted it out, and it'll be okay.

2. 10 wisdom... my character was supposed to start out as a "Miko Miyazaki" type self-righteous jerk paladin, which I figured wouldn't go well with high wisdom, although now that he's had an unconscious encounter with Tira Miron, the voice of the Silver Flame, I'll try to boost his wisdom whenever I can.
Nom
02-17-06, 05:25 AM You're a paladin. You meet all the requirements for a wand of CLW (the spell is on your class list); in fact, you met them at level 1.

Frankly, you could burn a whole bunch of levels and feats on boosting your healing and still couldn't match what the wand can do for a mere 750 gp.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 02-17-06, 12:28 AM	Over the course of a day, how much healing should a party expect to need, do you think, in a typical adventure (accepting that on particularly rough days, they may go to sleep without a large fraction of their hit points, and have to heal up the next day). Should a party expect to have daily healing available equivalent to, say, half of their total hit points? Twice their total hit points? Is it just too unpredictable to say? In other words, if you had to say how much available healing was a bare minimum, how much was average, and how much was generous, what would you say?
Nom 02-17-06, 12:45 AM	By the time the party reaches level 4 or 5, the real answer to this question is wand of cure light wounds. It shouldn't be unusual for at least one party member to suffer serious hp loss in a CR-equivalent encounter, but it's pretty easily recovered.
TheChilliGod 02-17-06, 12:49 AM	Well, since an ideal adventuring day consists of 4 encounters, and each encounter consumes 25% of a party's total resources, The total is 100% hp, which is as many hp as should be healed. I should think that the party cleric should have burned out most, if not all, or his spell slots for cure spells in this case. As for being generous, using your wand of cure light and all your cure spells is being generous. I'm just taking a guess here, but are you asking this because a cleric (yours or another's) is/might start restricting how many cure spells he should give to the party? I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just thought I'd ask.
Iry 02-17-06, 12:58 AM	Well, really you're only going to have three situations: A) You use a Wand and contribute meaningfully to combat. Your combats are balanced so they don't overpower you. Occasionally you drop a Heal to turn the tide. B) You stock up on healing and your DM makes you use every bit pulling off impossible stunts because you have the capability and he wants to make you feel useful. C) You stock up on healing and your DM doesn't make you use all of it and you feel kinda let down. Only one of these wins all the time and doesn't require DM Fiat.
JulesCARV 02-17-06, 01:08 AM	Aha! Therein lies the issue: our party has no cleric. We have an artificer who has a wand that sometimes casts magic missile, and sometimes casts cure light wounds (first, the artificer has to roll 20 or higher on a UMD check for the thing to even be activated, then he has to roll 20 or higher on a d100 roll (I think) for it to cast what he wants it to cast. It kinda sucked when he tried to heal a party member in negative hit points, and accidentally cast magic missile on her instead, but she managed to survive anyway, thanks to DM^H^H divine intervention), and he's scribed a few CLW scrolls as well (once again, UMD needed to cast them). A wand of CLW would be nice. I'm the party's paladin. I can heal a little bit (4 hp per day. 2nd level paladin with 14 charisma :twitch: ). I'm thinking of becoming a bard1 to provide a bit of healing (why not cleric, healer, or favored soul? My wisdom sucks2, so I think cleric or healer wouldn't be a good route to more healing. Favored soul might work, but I also want speak language and bluff as class skills, since I'll also probably be the party face). Since bards can only provide half as much healing as a cleric on any given level (roughly), and many of my levels will be paladin levels, that won't cut it. Also, at level 6 (level 4 paladin, probably), I'll be taking the feat "Sacred Healing," which allows me to use in a "turn" attempt, to grant all creatures in 60' radius rapid healing 3 for 1 + cha mod turns (does this work for warforged, I wonder?). That would give me 5 oppurtunities a day to give my whole party 9 hit points, starting at level 6. If I can get Eagle's splendor, I can temporarily boost my charisma once I've used all my turning attempts, for two spare turning attempts, these made at 18 charisma, these ones lasting 5 turns, for 15 hp per party member per turn attempt, and also get some more Lay on Hands usage (healing 2 hp more per paladin level). Overall, this will give me a few cure spells as a bard, and 1. Don't even start on the "you can't multiclass as a paladin/bard!" issue! I'm taking Devoted Performer as a feat, and my GM and I have sorted it out, and it'll be okay. 2. 10 wisdom... my character was supposed to start out as a "Miko Miyazaki" type self-righteous jerk paladin, which I figured wouldn't go well with high wisdom, although now that he's had an unconscious encounter with Tira Miron, the voice of the Silver Flame, I'll try to boost his wisdom whenever I can.
Nom 02-17-06, 05:25 AM	You're a paladin. You meet all the requirements for a wand of CLW (the spell is on your class list); in fact, you met them at level 1. Frankly, you could burn a whole bunch of levels and feats on boosting your healing and still couldn't match what the wand can do for a mere 750 gp.