Keeping Your Character in the Fight
4th Edition Healing Is More Than Just Potions and Prayers
Every character in Dungeons and Dragons will, at some point, require healing. Whether you are the fighter who has vastly underestimated an ogre or the rogue that zigged when you should have zagged or an entire party that really thought they could handle just one more encounter, characters will take damage and need a way to recover hit points both inside combat and after the battle is over.
Every edition of the game has slight variations on how this happens. Each system has merit and is designed to work well within the rules of that game. 4th edition is no different.
So let’s get right to it and take a look at healing in 4e.
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Healing Surges
A healing surge is the basis for all healing in 4th edition. With rare exceptions, every healing action will, in some way, tie back to a character’s healing surge stats.
A healing surge is ¼ of the characters maximum Hit Points (HP). A fighter with a Constitution score of 13 would have 28 hit points at 1st-level (15 + Constitution score). Their healing surge value would then be 7. The class also indicates how many healing surges the character gets each day. At 1st-level, our fighter would have 10 healing surges available to them (9 + Constitution modifier).
We’ll get to how the surges are used in a minute, but the nice thing about them is that the base value is set. It is not a die roll. Each character knows their exact surge value. When they heal, they get to recover that many hit points—every time. In our example, the fighter would get at least 7 hit points back any time they spend a healing surge. You are not at the mercy of a die roll. Nothing is worse than drinking your last healing potion in the middle of a fight and rolling a 1 on your d4.
I should note that when you drink a healing potion in 4th edition, you spend a healing surge and regain 10 hit points regardless of what your healing surge value is. At higher levels, you would use better potions to heal.
There are rules and items that can vary the value at times, but the core minimum value is the same and it makes healing very fast and valuable.
Who Can Heal?
Individual characters can heal themselves by using their Second Wind during combat or drinking a potion of healing. They might also have powers that allow them to spend a healing surge.
Each class generally has at least some powers that allow themselves, or others, to heal.
Just as with other editions of the game, Clerics are the most typical healers. They use Healing Word to allow others to spend a healing surge and gain additional hit points beyond their surge value. Other powers such as Healing Strike allows the Cleric to attack an enemy and then grant an ally the ability to spend a healing surge. Cure Light Wounds allows an ally to recover their surge value without needing to spend a healing surge.
Warlords are more focused on fighting, but also provide healing to their allies. Their Inspiring Word power can allow allies to spend a healing surge and gain additional hit points—much like the cleric. If more than one member of the group needs help, Stand the Fallen allows all allies within 10 squares to spend a healing surge and also gain additional hit points.
The Paladin’s Lay on Hands power allows them to spend one of their own healing surges, but an ally regains hit points as though it were their healing surge.
There is plenty of healing to go around and how it is used can be a huge part of combat tactics.
Outside of combat, any character can use a short rest (5 minutes) to spend as many healing surges as you have remaining to recover hit points.
The Power of a Good Night’s Sleep
After a long day of fighting goblins, I think we can all agree that a solid six hours of sleep can work miracles in how you feel the next day. This is definitely true in D&D.
How many hit points you recover after an extended (long) rest is often a point of contention in different editions of the game. How many hit points should a character recover when they take a full rest?
In 4th edition, and other editions, an extended rest of at least 6 hours allows a character to recover all hit points they have lost. They also regain all spent healing surges. In this way, characters can start each day at full health.
Some would argue this is not very realistic. If you were near death, it is unlikely that you can just sleep it off and be at full health the next day.
There are rules in some editions of the game where you can only ever recover a portion of your lost hit points each day. So if you finished the day with only a couple hit points remaining, you might need a few days before you get back to full health. This does provide for a more realistic approach, but that is not always what we are after. Sometimes we just want our heroes to be able to fight every day.
Healing Alternatives
When talking about healing, it is generally about recovering lost hit points, but that is not the only way you can stay in the fight. There are a number of powers like the Warlord’s Bastion of Defense which allow allies to gain temporary hit points. The fighter’s Unstoppable power grants temporary hit points to themselves. Since temporary hit points are just as effective as regular hit points, these can be a good way to stay in the fight without truly healing.
Other powers like the Paladin’s Shielding Smite provide a boost to an ally’s AC making them harder to hit. The Bard’s Vicious Mockery gives an enemy a penalty to their attacks. And the Halfling’s Second Chance forces an attacker to reroll a successful hit giving them another opportunity to avoid damage.
These are not direct healing, but there are many creative ways that you can keep the entire party in the fight.
Healing in 4th edition is more than just potions and spells. It is an integral part of what every character does during the game. Each character has control over their pool of healing and there are many powers that allow characters to attack while also helping their friends.
What do you think?
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