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Wyrmwrath wrote: There is just no way a 15 hp warrior and a 5 hp empath should heal to full at the same rate, since all that does is give one more combat advantage to a path that doesnt need another.

Brian, characterizing this as bestowing an advantage to Warriors is inaccurate. Since the current system heals any character to full in 4 minutes, the modification of this rule would be a disadvantage to high LP characters. While the Warrior path does provide more direct LP than any other, this isn’t about the advantages of any one build. It is, and should remain, a discussion of Phanterran metaphysics. There are plenty of non-warriors who enjoy high LP totals and would have their combat effectiveness decreased because of the proposed change.

Wyrmwrath wrote: I get your contention that a 3 LP wound is different things to PCs with different LP totals, but thats just rationalizing to support a game mechanic you like, and essentially double dipping the advantages in favor of the warrior.

Chris isn’t rationalizing here, he’s explaining the reasoning behind a valid and reasonable perspective. His position is quite logical given his current vision of the metaphysics. Your arguments presume that a higher LP total means a larger “reserve”, but Chris is saying that doesn’t fit the world as it was designed. Describing it as rationalizing dismisses the validity of his position and puts a negative spin on his argument. You are both making arguments in support of your favored mechanics.

Wyrmwrath wrote: I get that the healing was designed the way it was because the initial GMs were looking to make simple blanket rules with rudimentary mechanics, everyone healing form 0 to full in the same time period, while true to what the games initial goal was, its a flawed skill in the games current incarnation and out dated based on the evolution the game has gone through.

Just as you used “rationalization” before, here you depict Chris’ position as “flawed” and “outdated”. By the current conception of Phanterran metaphysics the rules are not flawed, as they accurately represent the way in which the GM’s designed the concept of life. If you feel that they are outdated, great, let’s hear the argument why the conceptualization should change and how it would make things better. I think we all understand that some object to the old system – so be it. Sell me on a new one.

Ark wrote:yes im bringing regen into the discussion, i think all healing skills should be brought into line.
i dont really support the idea of picking the way you want to heal, makes the rules seem unfinished.

I agree with the idea that regen should also be discussed, but picking a preferred mechanic does not need to be an unfinished test run. It could be described as the result of using varied metaphysical methods to accomplish the same task. Just to spitball an example, characters who use Magic to RP their healing might heal per LP, while those who use pure Essence use fractions over time. The existence of variety does not necessarily infer incompletion.

Cirrus wrote:However, we don't consider Health to be a percentage stat - attacks don't knock you down 25% of your HP, they do 3 damage. If we did consider percentage points (10%, 10%, 10% ) it would be a different story entirely. Healing a broken bone or a stab wound would take the same amount of time whether it's Chris or Suh (to use his example).

Points and percentages are just ways of quantifying the abstract concept of health. Our own world shows us that health can cause large variance in both the ability to absorb damage and the ability to recover from damage. Children tend to heal faster than the elderly. Healthy, well fed people heal faster than the ill or malnourished. People with more body mass are more resistant to certain kinds of blunt force trauma. The four natural healing phases: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling all are impacted by biological variances from person to person, so to say that Chris and Suh would have the same healing time for the same wound is likely inaccurate.

What we’ve essentially claimed is that: 1) damage as a fixed constant, with no variance for the 1 LP of damage done by a sword, axe, hammer or fist; 2) the amount of life (not LP, but metaphysical LIFE) that each person has is uniform and universal; 3) healthier (more LP) people lose less of their total LIFE when the damage constant is applied than do less healthy people (less LP); and 4) the healing arts restore LIFE at a uniform and universal rate. Preferring another conception is fine, just remember that preferences are subjective.

For one more conceptual aid, think of the various video games that use health bars. Some games increase the size of the health bars as your character gains more health. This would be consistent with the playtest and suggest a universal measure of LP and larger pools for high LP characters. Some games (such as Skyrim, which inspired this example) never change the size of your health bar – whether you have 10 life points or 10,000,000 life points it is always the same size and a Potion of Ultimate Healing always fills it up. This is representative of the current system.

I'll also follow CJ's example and look at this from an in-character perspective.

First, neither Ambrose nor Chance would have cared either way. If they did have a preference, it would likely be for the playtest, since neither of them had more than 5 LP.

Second, Korrigan has a terrifying amount of LP and has noticed that, as CJ has mentioned, getting back up can be faster if there are multiple healers present. Since he also can heal himself and usually has a steady supply of potions on hand, the chance of him running into a situation where he really suffered because of the new rules is small, but he is the most likely of my characters to be effected negatively.

Lastly, Donovan would have been all for the playtest. Drive-by combat healing was his thing, and being able to restore his own life in point-by point increments would have cranked his effectiveness even higher. Playtest healer + Paladin + Potions + Lightstorm would have been freaking AMAZING.

The best part of the playtest is that as my Healer I feel truly heroic when going into a battle to save lives (one of the foundation characteristics of Marcus).

With Steady Hand I can do awesome scenes like this:

I see someone drop and run to them to heal them. They say they are at "-1", and there isn't too much danger in the area at the moment. I drag them a bit out of sight behind a tree/bush or corner of a building. Then, rather than use a potion (which frankly I've never been able to lay my hands on as any character at either chapter, ever, unless it's from Fionna) or the First Aid skill, I take the 20 seconds to do a Transfusion to get them to "0", and then start my basic Healing.

Suddenly, there is a shift in the fight and a NPC heads our way. I'm 15-20 seconds in, and I look down at the person I am healing and tell them "When you feel the first surge of power, you get up and run." I steady myself to defend against the coming enemy.

Steady Hand lets me keep one hand on my subject and begin parrying the enemy's blows with my hammer, using it's length to keep them at bay. Some hit get through; I don't mind, I have a high soak, Steady Hand, and the best armor for this very reason, not to win combats.

This allows me to finish the seconds left in a single "Heal 1", and I yell over my shoulder at my subject, "Now you run! Run for safety!" After that, I begin fighting the NPC or retreating back into the full-on battleline of my friends, depending on the situation.

It feels very empowering to do.

With the old way, I would have to do the same Transfusion to get them to zero and stable, and then drag them like a sack of potatoes back to somewhere safe.

First of all I am now completely out of the fight because I have to drag them back to safety and then spend 4 minutes healing them.

Also, while dragging them, the inevitable always-bloodthirsty NPC comes at me like a missile because they see two easy targets to kill, and will even throw themselves through the middle of a pack of warriors to get to me (it happened every single time I did this during the night battle during the one-day). Hopefully, I can get the victim back to safety without dropping myself, or worse, be forced to drop them to save myself(also, at the one-day.)

I also like the change to Healing because it gives me a 2nd option to get people above "0" to begin a Healing Circle. If we are strapped for time in a battle, I can spend a LP to do a faster 1LP transfusion on each of them, and start the circle, but if the area is nstead passive, I can afford to spend the extra 10 seconds apiece to Heal them each for "1", and then start the circle.

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Following the example of Metaphysical damage by Taki: Dani(as Fionna) and I (as Marcus) actually roleplay each side of the issue when using the view of healing with our characters.

She is a pure surgeon and healing woman, who uses a needle and thread to fix all the damage with First Aid and Surgery. Then her above-negatives healing is through poultices and healing herbs rubbed over scars and the massage of damaged joints and muscle.

On the other Metaphysical hand, to better portray a Cleric/Paladin feel, Marcus' hand will glow blue, and he reaches into the body's essence and convinces it to heal itself. He coaxes broken bones and rents in the flesh to remember their previous state of completion, and when above negatives, he speeds up the body's natural processes to get them back to how they were to heal away the scars and bruises. I actually roleplay and tell most of my subjects that they will need to eat and drink plenty after they are healed, as their body's energy reserves were taxed by healing them so unnaturally fast.

With each way, more LP lost is more damage to fix. Dani has more cuts and breaks to manually repair, and Marcus has more damage to the Essence to shore up as it was battered from all sides. Each of the two ways allows characters with more LP to sustain more damage before they are incapacitated.

A small tower and a huge walled castle can each be destroyed nearly to their foundation stones, after which they are useless. It takes longer for the castle to fall, but when it does, the castle takes much more labor and far longer to get repaired back up to it's previous state.