Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 chikennipplz Jul 12, 2009 22:32:51	This is probably just a vent, but i want some input. I have another player in an campaign. Im a player also. He is a Dwarf. One of our healers is an Artificer. If you don't know about them, they use infusions that basically he makes the party's surges a pool of surges. B4 encounters he takes a surge and then can use them on anyone during an encounter. Well our Dwarf/Tank has started to complain that we take all off his surges and then use them on everyone else. I think he is just being selfish. He said it should be more of a voluntary donation to the infusions. We try to make have everyones surges egual. You have 6 left, he has 6 left etc. In a mid rage argument I said so should our other healer just heal himself and not use **** on you and he said YES. I don't that he agrees with any stock. But have anyone else had this problem and what are your suggestions.
#2 Novacat Jul 12, 2009 23:23:21	Let him have his opinion. If I recall correctly, it is only a voluntary donation to make the infusions, so if he doesn't want to give them up, he doesn't have to. Frankly, it's not good tactics to drain the tank of his surges anyways, so in that respect, he's right. The surges should come from characters that don't get hit very often, and so aren't as likely to need supplementary healing, or to use Second Wind.
#3 AttilatheNun Jul 13, 2009 0:04:15	Is this player's character having trouble staying on his feet? If not, then tell him to shut up and get on with the game, he has nothing to complain about. If he is, then there's probably a problem that needs fixing.
#4 grimslade Jul 13, 2009 1:19:16	Also if other people are getting hit alot, then he needs to do a better job as a tank.
#5 lugubrious Jul 13, 2009 8:41:51	While it sounds like he was being a jerk about it, he has a point. What makes the artificer's healing so great is the fact that you can take surges from people who likely won't even be using them (ranged strikers especially). The fighter's surges will probably be used up quicker than the others' because he needs more healing.
#6 slobo777a Jul 13, 2009 9:08:54	The fighter class, and other defenders have more surges for a reason. It is a part of their class abilities, and helps them absorb extra punishment which they should be expecting to deal with. It is indeed unfair to the "tank" to make the number of healing surges equal across the party, if you expect him to be the tank. I'd suggest keeping the number of "pooled" surges low, perhaps 1 per character. Also, share them out pro-rata to maximum surges per day, or at the very least take this value into account. If you could pool stats like Strength, Dex, Con, you wouldn't share them out equally with everyone having 14 (or whatever). That's because the characters need their prime abilities. Same is true, only to a slightly lesser extent, of benefits which are class features, such as healing surges.
#7 the_sword_emperor Jul 18, 2009 13:14:53	I have been in a similar situation. 4th ed. D&D requires teamwork. I recommend that surges be taken from whichever character has "relatively" the most surges. That is to say, if a party defender has six healing surges remaining, and everyone else has only three, it might be wiser to take one of the remaining surges from someone other than the defender. The defender is more likely to actually need to use his in combat.
#8 shinkirou Jul 18, 2009 13:49:17	Then tell him to defend better so no one needs to use them.