If it were a normal attack and I was allowed two swings, it would be more efficient for me to just post both attacks rather than wait (like now) for some result from the DM. I already stated that earlier (and you're conveniently ignoring). When the wait time is so long, for me I don't care if I'm "wasting" a swing, I'll just hit the guy again. If I know the target is weak, I'd give a condition for extra attacks. But in the end, _I_ don't care. So what if the ogre goes down after my first attack, I hit him again anyway, DM, tell me what happens next.
Regarding animals I also said sometimes animals will act in ways that are not normal (which you again conveniently ignored).
I think I'll take that as the lesson. You've proven your worth.
Once more... D&D 5e combat mechanics were NOT DESIGNED with play-by-post in mind. It requires the DM to be a little more flexible and consider posting npc ac/hp so players can assign their attacks like they would AT A TABLE. Attacks are meant to be resolved one after the other. Not all at once.
When you should heal in the middle of combat is part personal choice, and of course without healing potions, all about the healers choice. Lets explore the crazy world of (insert dnd5e gameworld your playing in here).
When you have a long rest (usually sleep) you regain all your hit points - all of them! So lets remember there are no hospitals in this world. Knowing this then yes making sure your target is dead is a sane thing to do. In examples given by others dragging the possible corpse back to the nest to eat and not chowing down immediately (and unless your gm is suggesting unconscious people aren't resting - which leads to the interesting problem of permanent coma's without magical healing) the potential meal will wake up 8 to 15 hours later bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to meet the day.
Short rests allow you to spend your hit die to recover, but you only regain half your level rounded down, minimum of one every long rest, so two days hard fighting will leave you dry / permanently on half a tank of hitpoint recovery gas.
With these two mechanics every player can keep themselves topped up, hurrah no need for the healer! But in those rare cases when your party don't understand sticking their head into wood chippers will hurt then what do you do? lets look at the schools of thought.
LIFE IS PAIN Its harsh but let the ones that continuously bleed die. Its the only way they will learn. This attitude is usually developed by healers who have had to raid heal in MMO'S but it boils down to the fact you only have finite resources, and wasting them could lead to a TPK (total party kill). They heal the Lady up ahead of you annoying the critters so they don't target you, especially if they have done everything to minimise incoming damage. They do not heal - Glass Cannons who are cracked repeatedly, Glory Hunters who charge in assuming healing is for them when they bleed rivers.
BANDAGES FOR EVERYBODY This plan is adopted by people who assume because they are a healer they should heal wounds as they occur, trying to keep people at full health but unfortunately DND5E doesn't like you doing that, spellcasters have a very limited number of spells per day and there are few times when a plan or a precast spell wouldn't ablate more damage incoming than a heal after the wound occurs would restore.
YOUR ALL YOYO'S This school is oddly correct in the current climate. Unless people are being murdered whilst downed it makes more sense to let them fall to zero and heal them upright just enough to keep fighting, as, as you level, the hits you take? They keep getting bigger and you cant out heal them sometimes. The absolute worst purveyors of parmesan espousing the virtues of this school are grave priests and paladins, grave because they maximise healing on downed targets so why do it when the client can breathe unassisted? Paladins are worse in that they are liable to break up their lay on hands ability into 1 point heals and let the current monster of the day play a game of whack a mole with his food.
These are largely irrelevant as the nature of the healer and the party are more likely to determine when you heal, the next consideration. well down the list below them is the type of fight. So from the top.
Bards, Fine healers, no frills, the song of rest tempts them into YOYO and LIFE IS PAIN but their college may trump or curtail their ability to heal, a melee bard is probably going to be burning spells to aid in combat for example.
Clerics generally rely on spells alone, (unless your life with Channel Divinity going wild) they will try to keep you up, but understand they have better spells at nearly every level for ablating damage. There are outliers here - a little off topic, prayer of healing is a 2nd level spell which takes 10 minutes to cast - so not in combat but it heals multiple people, some argue that means its pointless as if you have 10 minutes of peace you usually have an hour to short rest in but lets remember its efficiency and that HD spent are HD you have to wait on coming back.
Druids, most druids will be able to heal, but in a grassy terrain they are usually better off crowd controlling to lower damage so don't expect a player to just be there to spam heal (good advice in general come to think of it) the exceptions being Shepherd druids - who will blatantly violate the healing economy with prancing unicorns and one heal healing everyone. And Moon Druids who will be unable to cast heals in animal form and be using some of there spells to heal themselves in it. Beware them deploying healing spirit though, if your unfamiliar, once per turn passing into it heals friendlies, it lasts multiple rounds. Its up to you to take advantage of this, (some would say abuse it)
Paladins - look, if they want to heal they can but persuading them not to blow those juicy spells on smites is an argument you wont win if Pally wants to smite.
Rangers - When your relying on a ranger to heal you, you have reached a new, desperate low. Even when they could learn healing spirit, it will prevent them from using hunters mark, so good luck with that one.
Celestial Sorcerers. They can heal and they can even twin heal with sorcery points but what else could a sorcerer do, oh that's right blow stuff up if he doesn't fill up all of his LIMITED number of spells known with healing alternatives. They can heal but usually fall into the YOYO camp.
Celestial warlocks. Watch out for these guys, for most of the time your playing they will be able to heal you a little at range, but their spell heals will keep getting stronger and they will only have one or two a rest period BUT they will always burn them on someone before they rest because they get them back. In many ways the celestial warlock best reflects the DND5E world of short rest and synergizes with fighter / monk or moon druids who all recover something valuable on a short rest.
*Rogue, thief subclass (special mention) this nippy little number runs around with a healers kit and the healer feat and can bandage as a bonus action healing quite impressive numbers to everyone once each per short rest till his bandage stockpile runs out. They can then sneak attack someone as well in the same round, probably with that knife they used as a combination bandage cutter and tourniquet.
Where do you go from here? Well lets examine the facts - you don't want the story to end prematurely, you don't want your party to be picked off so you need to learn to assess the threat of what your facing - the type of opponent, the likelihood of more opponents before you can recover expended spells, and how your GM plays them. After all, a goblin who valiantly throws himself on your swords is much easier than one who moves from extreme bow range fires a shot at disadvantage at the least armoured target and refuses to close prefering to run back for reinforcements when out of ammo. Know your fellow players, their style and what they add to your team, how your adversaries react and form a healing plan from there, and always remember moon druids never sleep.
When you should heal in the middle of combat is part personal choice, and of course without healing potions, all about the healers choice. Lets explore the crazy world of (insert dnd5e gameworld your playing in here)...
When you have a long rest (usually sleep) you regain all your hit points - all of them! So lets remember there are no hospitals in this world. ...
Gonna stop you right there. Just because the rules streamline certain concepts to allow for fun gameplay (getting back HP when you rest), does not mean that those rules for the PCs can necessarily be extended to include the entire game world or NPCs therein. There is no RAW way to slit a PC's throat in their sleep and cause instant death; this doesn't mean it isn't happening in the world to NPCs. There's no rules explaining how a PC gets maimed or wounded by losing a limb; doesn't mean it isn't happening to NPCs. PCs get back all their hit points when they take a long rest; this doesn't mean that NPCs the world over recovers overnight from wounds.
The rules of D&D are a game system, not a reality simulator. In most settings, I imagine there are hospitals, wasting diseases, crippled soldiers, etc. etc. etc.... they're out there, even if the game system doesn't force those mundane realities upon the players' heroic larger-than-life characters. Of course one is free to craft a world where every monster, NPC, etc. knows the "rules of the game" and metagame accordingly... but I hazard that that's not how most settings are intended to be read, nor how most DMs run their settings.
Thats an interesting point Chicken, but it doesn't change that this comes from the section on healing in the phb, and isn't countermanded in the dmg, so there we go, you can house rule to make the game more realisitic but then you have the anomaly of the players healing like some troll hybrid.
But lets ignore the villagers healing like this, for monsters it should be noted that this same healing method should be applied to them or you are heading down a rabbit hole where the party attack something (way way above their pay grade) with (ranged attacks of some sort) then flee by distance/speed, the monsters in your worlds does not heal over night, the party comes back and repeat, retreat.
I know it doesn't seem right but this is 5th, customise it how you need to for your entertainment, but think about the consequences and their effect on the worlds rules each time you do. I personally dislike the disharmony between previous editions 'your asleep? Your probably dead when I auto crit you' and 5th's 'their asleep but I missed them because they had a nice dexterity they benefit from in their sleep.' It doesn't mean I'm going to argue an alternative when it happens with a GM, so I can only prepare for what the rules (and house rules I know about) say, and the only rules on healing by rest are magic magic super fun heals when you get up. (But you might still be tired if you didn't hydrate enough yesterday and skipped a meal to go out drinking, as that's two potential exhaustion levels and only one level of recovery from sleep - drink responsibly, In the dnd world a week long stag do can kill people!)
One thing Im surprised I havent seen mentioned is preparing an action to heal if you suspect a party member will go down, regardless of if you heal them or not, and using that prepared heal to immediately get them back up.
Readying a spell can be problematic because it uses your concentration and can potentially waste a spell slot. In theory, you should almost always be concentrating on something important/useful. Spell slots, especially at low levels, can be quite scarce. If you do find yourself in the rare situation that you aren't concentrating on something and have a plethora of spell slots, then readying a spell could be a great use of your action.
Regarding readying spells. You cast the spell, with the stated trigger and reaction, it uses your action and reaction (ready action mechanic) and concentration. If a readied action is held and the trigger doesnt occur your action is wasted when your next turn begins. I infer that a spell if one were readied would also be wasted in this when your next turn began (which is why people ready cantrips not limited use spells) but as you are "concentrating" on it some argue that you could maintain "concentration" on it indefinitely. This rather iffy interpretation is weak and problematic. Concentration spells have a limited duration and concentration, this mechanic normally has a timer ending on your turn, if you discount that it means you could carry spells around with you for the entire day until something occurs, arguments can then be made that on following rounds you could change your mind about the trigger and it boils down into a strange 'overwatch limbo.'
So yes, I agree with Pwhimp, it can waste a slot, however readying spare the dying isnt a terrible idea. (if your out of healing otherwise you should perhaps heal instead or your a meta-gamey grave priest!)
Regarding readying spells. You cast the spell, with the stated trigger and reaction, it uses your action and reaction (ready action mechanic) and concentration. If a readied action is held and the trigger doesnt occur your action is wasted when your next turn begins. I infer that a spell if one were readied would also be wasted in this when your next turn began (which is why people ready cantrips not limited use spells) but as you are "concentrating" on it some argue that you could maintain "concentration" on it indefinitely. This rather iffy interpretation is weak and problematic. Concentration spells have a limited duration and concentration, this mechanic normally has a timer ending on your turn, if you discount that it means you could carry spells around with you for the entire day until something occurs, arguments can then be made that on following rounds you could change your mind about the trigger and it boils down into a strange 'overwatch limbo.'
So yes, I agree with Pwhimp, it can waste a slot, however readying spare the dying isnt a terrible idea. (if your out of healing otherwise you should perhaps heal instead or your a meta-gamey grave priest!)
Readying a spell can be problematic because it uses your concentration and can potentially waste a spell slot. In theory, you should almost always be concentrating on something important/useful. Spell slots, especially at low levels, can be quite scarce. If you do find yourself in the rare situation that you aren't concentrating on something and have a plethora of spell slots, then readying a spell could be a great use of your action.
Yes of course- It's situational, but can still be REALLY powerful, and I was surprised nobody had mentioned it
My players heal as necessary to try and keep anyone from going unconscious, but I am also a "hardcore' DM where the baddies always act like they should. One time the halfling ranger fell as a bunch of ghouls flooded from a house, the rest of the party had backed up to make way for serious aoe casting but the ranger was hurt and they didn't notice, ghouls swarmed and ate him because that is what ghouls do.
Or they are fighting one of the villains and get downed, villain then uses his turn to finish them off, because why would he not? He wants the trouble makers dead. IMO for enemies to ignore unconsciuos players just because breaks immersion. Depending on the situtation and nature of the encounter of course.
But yeah, the group heals when people get around half hp.
Seems fair enough csheet, but how smart you make killer opponents can be telling, ghouls attacking downed targets makes sense. Stopping when the target is just dead, not devoured is a bit much to ask of a feasting ghoul. Does the evil mastermind with one attack on his opponent understand that round after round the grave priest is using spare the dying as a ranged bonus action to re-stabilise them making their blatant act of murder just a waste of attacks? Its great to have characters and those they encounter play smart, but make mistakes because they lack all the information. (used to be hilarious every time dragons used disguise self to change their colour and no one was familiar with the shape of the dragons)
Enjoy the game, and keep in mind that if you can avoid damage, its often better than having to use the same or more magic to heal it afterwards.
Typically the villains finish them off to where it works out they have one fail save, so the melee hit triggers a crit which is the last two and dead as a doornail for the PC.
There was one time where the party had a Black Dragon playing whack a mole with the group to keep them all unconscious as they kept getting each other up.
I was making an extreme argument both for the laughs and for clarity. A head doesn't have to actually be rolling across the floor at zero hit points. A significant part of the throat missing or a hole where the heart used to be or any number of signs of being dead will suffice. We are, after all, genrally talking about someone who died in combat. It isn't like they passes away peacefully in their sleep. Their corpses are going to be mutilated.
when someone hits zero hp they're not the ones with throats ripped out and sword wounds through the heart, those are the injuries caused by massive damage, zero HP drops are the ones that have a cut on a leg another on the ribs maybe a rib broken, a slash on the forearm, and a right ding round the side of the head that knocked them out, while they're out they bleed more they might fall into shock, then they either stabilise or they die. what happens then would depend on species and alignment,
a lion is going to keep gripping the windpipe till it's prey stops kicking and has performed it's death throes.
a goblin may well have a good hack at a corpse it's fun and some of them are stupid enough to waste time hacking at a dead human till there mates get killed and it dawns on them they're about to be surrounded by enemies so it may be time to run away screaming
a lawful good human paladin is going to move on, to mutilate a corpse would be unthinkable.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
All plans turn into, run into the room waving a sword and see what happens from there, once the first die gets rolled
To revive a thread, which is ironic in a thread talking about healing, I have to say there are a couple specific questions to answer: when to trade an attack for healing, and when to heal yourself if you can. The thread has had a lot on what monsters might do to the fallen, but I feel like most times players are dealing with whether to heal an upright ally (or themselves)
Each of these points have been mentioned, but never put into the same post: There are three points that matter in the hit point economy: Are you down? Are you within one hit of being down? and, Are you close enough that you are within one hit of being really really dead?
I would say the question is "when is healing a waste of action or spell slot / ability?", the answer being "if you do not cross one of these three thresholds" To be specific: a 1st level paladin with 12 HP is down to 2. They are fighting something that does about 10 damage per successful round. They could heal themselves for 5, but 7 and 2 are exactly the same in this situation - either way, one hit and they are down, but not at -12. So they would be better off either attacking, hoping to finish the monster off, or disengaging, live to fight another day.
The same is true if it is one of their allies, only with another consideration - not only is it a waste of action to heal, but a waste of healing potential. You heal those 5 points, the fighter gets hit again, and those 5 points are gone forever. If they get hit at 2 HP, your healing brings them back into the fight.
So the thumb rule of "heal when they are at half damage" is not very useful. And "one hit away from unconscious" is incomplete. It is really "can I make a difference in one of the three critical points?"
And it also brings up the superiority of Healing Word over Cure Wounds in many situations - you give up less to cast it, being a bonus action. You still do not want to waste it if you cannot cross a critical point, but it does make the trade-off of "save my ally" versus "kill our enemy" a little less stark
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Galanodel Deacon Tosh - Less-than-Half-Elf Bard - & -Flitterbug - Pixie Sorceress : Meanwhile in the Westwoods Amadow 'Tug' Rioux - Human Psionic Palooka : Revenge Heist - - - Gofer Bayut - Bugbear Paladin Messenger : Shrouded Sky
I think, arguably, the best time to heal someone is when they are on the ground. That way, your heals are coming when their most needed, AND you're getting all those other turns to cast offensive/defensive spells. Like, if you heal a character with a max hp of 60, current hp of 30, and you do it for 20 points, then they'll go to 50 and when the fight finished in a couple rounds, they'll either end with 40hp after taking a few more hits, or you'll end up needing to heal them again. Waiting till you absolutely need to ensure you don't cast more than you need to.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/play-by-post/22322-trial-by-fire-secondary-team?page=6
Look at my post date.
If it were a normal attack and I was allowed two swings, it would be more efficient for me to just post both attacks rather than wait (like now) for some result from the DM. I already stated that earlier (and you're conveniently ignoring). When the wait time is so long, for me I don't care if I'm "wasting" a swing, I'll just hit the guy again. If I know the target is weak, I'd give a condition for extra attacks. But in the end, _I_ don't care. So what if the ogre goes down after my first attack, I hit him again anyway, DM, tell me what happens next.
Regarding animals I also said sometimes animals will act in ways that are not normal (which you again conveniently ignored).
I think I'll take that as the lesson. You've proven your worth.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Once more... D&D 5e combat mechanics were NOT DESIGNED with play-by-post in mind. It requires the DM to be a little more flexible and consider posting npc ac/hp so players can assign their attacks like they would AT A TABLE. Attacks are meant to be resolved one after the other. Not all at once.
When you should heal in the middle of combat is part personal choice, and of course without healing potions, all about the healers choice. Lets explore the crazy world of (insert dnd5e gameworld your playing in here).
When you have a long rest (usually sleep) you regain all your hit points - all of them! So lets remember there are no hospitals in this world. Knowing this then yes making sure your target is dead is a sane thing to do. In examples given by others dragging the possible corpse back to the nest to eat and not chowing down immediately (and unless your gm is suggesting unconscious people aren't resting - which leads to the interesting problem of permanent coma's without magical healing) the potential meal will wake up 8 to 15 hours later bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to meet the day.
Short rests allow you to spend your hit die to recover, but you only regain half your level rounded down, minimum of one every long rest, so two days hard fighting will leave you dry / permanently on half a tank of hitpoint recovery gas.
With these two mechanics every player can keep themselves topped up, hurrah no need for the healer! But in those rare cases when your party don't understand sticking their head into wood chippers will hurt then what do you do? lets look at the schools of thought.
LIFE IS PAIN Its harsh but let the ones that continuously bleed die. Its the only way they will learn. This attitude is usually developed by healers who have had to raid heal in MMO'S but it boils down to the fact you only have finite resources, and wasting them could lead to a TPK (total party kill). They heal the Lady up ahead of you annoying the critters so they don't target you, especially if they have done everything to minimise incoming damage. They do not heal - Glass Cannons who are cracked repeatedly, Glory Hunters who charge in assuming healing is for them when they bleed rivers.
BANDAGES FOR EVERYBODY This plan is adopted by people who assume because they are a healer they should heal wounds as they occur, trying to keep people at full health but unfortunately DND5E doesn't like you doing that, spellcasters have a very limited number of spells per day and there are few times when a plan or a precast spell wouldn't ablate more damage incoming than a heal after the wound occurs would restore.
YOUR ALL YOYO'S This school is oddly correct in the current climate. Unless people are being murdered whilst downed it makes more sense to let them fall to zero and heal them upright just enough to keep fighting, as, as you level, the hits you take? They keep getting bigger and you cant out heal them sometimes. The absolute worst purveyors of parmesan espousing the virtues of this school are grave priests and paladins, grave because they maximise healing on downed targets so why do it when the client can breathe unassisted? Paladins are worse in that they are liable to break up their lay on hands ability into 1 point heals and let the current monster of the day play a game of whack a mole with his food.
These are largely irrelevant as the nature of the healer and the party are more likely to determine when you heal, the next consideration. well down the list below them is the type of fight. So from the top.
Bards, Fine healers, no frills, the song of rest tempts them into YOYO and LIFE IS PAIN but their college may trump or curtail their ability to heal, a melee bard is probably going to be burning spells to aid in combat for example.
Clerics generally rely on spells alone, (unless your life with Channel Divinity going wild) they will try to keep you up, but understand they have better spells at nearly every level for ablating damage. There are outliers here - a little off topic, prayer of healing is a 2nd level spell which takes 10 minutes to cast - so not in combat but it heals multiple people, some argue that means its pointless as if you have 10 minutes of peace you usually have an hour to short rest in but lets remember its efficiency and that HD spent are HD you have to wait on coming back.
Druids, most druids will be able to heal, but in a grassy terrain they are usually better off crowd controlling to lower damage so don't expect a player to just be there to spam heal (good advice in general come to think of it) the exceptions being Shepherd druids - who will blatantly violate the healing economy with prancing unicorns and one heal healing everyone. And Moon Druids who will be unable to cast heals in animal form and be using some of there spells to heal themselves in it. Beware them deploying healing spirit though, if your unfamiliar, once per turn passing into it heals friendlies, it lasts multiple rounds. Its up to you to take advantage of this, (some would say abuse it)
Paladins - look, if they want to heal they can but persuading them not to blow those juicy spells on smites is an argument you wont win if Pally wants to smite.
Rangers - When your relying on a ranger to heal you, you have reached a new, desperate low. Even when they could learn healing spirit, it will prevent them from using hunters mark, so good luck with that one.
Celestial Sorcerers. They can heal and they can even twin heal with sorcery points but what else could a sorcerer do, oh that's right blow stuff up if he doesn't fill up all of his LIMITED number of spells known with healing alternatives. They can heal but usually fall into the YOYO camp.
Celestial warlocks. Watch out for these guys, for most of the time your playing they will be able to heal you a little at range, but their spell heals will keep getting stronger and they will only have one or two a rest period BUT they will always burn them on someone before they rest because they get them back. In many ways the celestial warlock best reflects the DND5E world of short rest and synergizes with fighter / monk or moon druids who all recover something valuable on a short rest.
*Rogue, thief subclass (special mention) this nippy little number runs around with a healers kit and the healer feat and can bandage as a bonus action healing quite impressive numbers to everyone once each per short rest till his bandage stockpile runs out. They can then sneak attack someone as well in the same round, probably with that knife they used as a combination bandage cutter and tourniquet.
Where do you go from here? Well lets examine the facts - you don't want the story to end prematurely, you don't want your party to be picked off so you need to learn to assess the threat of what your facing - the type of opponent, the likelihood of more opponents before you can recover expended spells, and how your GM plays them. After all, a goblin who valiantly throws himself on your swords is much easier than one who moves from extreme bow range fires a shot at disadvantage at the least armoured target and refuses to close prefering to run back for reinforcements when out of ammo. Know your fellow players, their style and what they add to your team, how your adversaries react and form a healing plan from there, and always remember moon druids never sleep.
Gonna stop you right there. Just because the rules streamline certain concepts to allow for fun gameplay (getting back HP when you rest), does not mean that those rules for the PCs can necessarily be extended to include the entire game world or NPCs therein. There is no RAW way to slit a PC's throat in their sleep and cause instant death; this doesn't mean it isn't happening in the world to NPCs. There's no rules explaining how a PC gets maimed or wounded by losing a limb; doesn't mean it isn't happening to NPCs. PCs get back all their hit points when they take a long rest; this doesn't mean that NPCs the world over recovers overnight from wounds.
The rules of D&D are a game system, not a reality simulator. In most settings, I imagine there are hospitals, wasting diseases, crippled soldiers, etc. etc. etc.... they're out there, even if the game system doesn't force those mundane realities upon the players' heroic larger-than-life characters. Of course one is free to craft a world where every monster, NPC, etc. knows the "rules of the game" and metagame accordingly... but I hazard that that's not how most settings are intended to be read, nor how most DMs run their settings.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Thats an interesting point Chicken, but it doesn't change that this comes from the section on healing in the phb, and isn't countermanded in the dmg, so there we go, you can house rule to make the game more realisitic but then you have the anomaly of the players healing like some troll hybrid.
But lets ignore the villagers healing like this, for monsters it should be noted that this same healing method should be applied to them or you are heading down a rabbit hole where the party attack something (way way above their pay grade) with (ranged attacks of some sort) then flee by distance/speed, the monsters in your worlds does not heal over night, the party comes back and repeat, retreat.
I know it doesn't seem right but this is 5th, customise it how you need to for your entertainment, but think about the consequences and their effect on the worlds rules each time you do. I personally dislike the disharmony between previous editions 'your asleep? Your probably dead when I auto crit you' and 5th's 'their asleep but I missed them because they had a nice dexterity they benefit from in their sleep.' It doesn't mean I'm going to argue an alternative when it happens with a GM, so I can only prepare for what the rules (and house rules I know about) say, and the only rules on healing by rest are magic magic super fun heals when you get up. (But you might still be tired if you didn't hydrate enough yesterday and skipped a meal to go out drinking, as that's two potential exhaustion levels and only one level of recovery from sleep - drink responsibly, In the dnd world a week long stag do can kill people!)
One thing Im surprised I havent seen mentioned is preparing an action to heal if you suspect a party member will go down, regardless of if you heal them or not, and using that prepared heal to immediately get them back up.
Readying a spell can be problematic because it uses your concentration and can potentially waste a spell slot. In theory, you should almost always be concentrating on something important/useful. Spell slots, especially at low levels, can be quite scarce. If you do find yourself in the rare situation that you aren't concentrating on something and have a plethora of spell slots, then readying a spell could be a great use of your action.
Regarding readying spells. You cast the spell, with the stated trigger and reaction, it uses your action and reaction (ready action mechanic) and concentration. If a readied action is held and the trigger doesnt occur your action is wasted when your next turn begins. I infer that a spell if one were readied would also be wasted in this when your next turn began (which is why people ready cantrips not limited use spells) but as you are "concentrating" on it some argue that you could maintain "concentration" on it indefinitely. This rather iffy interpretation is weak and problematic. Concentration spells have a limited duration and concentration, this mechanic normally has a timer ending on your turn, if you discount that it means you could carry spells around with you for the entire day until something occurs, arguments can then be made that on following rounds you could change your mind about the trigger and it boils down into a strange 'overwatch limbo.'
So yes, I agree with Pwhimp, it can waste a slot, however readying spare the dying isnt a terrible idea. (if your out of healing otherwise you should perhaps heal instead or your a meta-gamey grave priest!)
Yes of course- It's situational, but can still be REALLY powerful, and I was surprised nobody had mentioned it
My players heal as necessary to try and keep anyone from going unconscious, but I am also a "hardcore' DM where the baddies always act like they should. One time the halfling ranger fell as a bunch of ghouls flooded from a house, the rest of the party had backed up to make way for serious aoe casting but the ranger was hurt and they didn't notice, ghouls swarmed and ate him because that is what ghouls do.
Or they are fighting one of the villains and get downed, villain then uses his turn to finish them off, because why would he not? He wants the trouble makers dead. IMO for enemies to ignore unconsciuos players just because breaks immersion. Depending on the situtation and nature of the encounter of course.
But yeah, the group heals when people get around half hp.
Seems fair enough csheet, but how smart you make killer opponents can be telling, ghouls attacking downed targets makes sense. Stopping when the target is just dead, not devoured is a bit much to ask of a feasting ghoul. Does the evil mastermind with one attack on his opponent understand that round after round the grave priest is using spare the dying as a ranged bonus action to re-stabilise them making their blatant act of murder just a waste of attacks? Its great to have characters and those they encounter play smart, but make mistakes because they lack all the information. (used to be hilarious every time dragons used disguise self to change their colour and no one was familiar with the shape of the dragons)
Enjoy the game, and keep in mind that if you can avoid damage, its often better than having to use the same or more magic to heal it afterwards.
Typically the villains finish them off to where it works out they have one fail save, so the melee hit triggers a crit which is the last two and dead as a doornail for the PC.
There was one time where the party had a Black Dragon playing whack a mole with the group to keep them all unconscious as they kept getting each other up.
when someone hits zero hp they're not the ones with throats ripped out and sword wounds through the heart, those are the injuries caused by massive damage, zero HP drops are the ones that have a cut on a leg another on the ribs maybe a rib broken, a slash on the forearm, and a right ding round the side of the head that knocked them out, while they're out they bleed more they might fall into shock, then they either stabilise or they die.
what happens then would depend on species and alignment,
a lion is going to keep gripping the windpipe till it's prey stops kicking and has performed it's death throes.
a goblin may well have a good hack at a corpse it's fun and some of them are stupid enough to waste time hacking at a dead human till there mates get killed and it dawns on them they're about to be surrounded by enemies so it may be time to run away screaming
a lawful good human paladin is going to move on, to mutilate a corpse would be unthinkable.
All plans turn into, run into the room waving a sword and see what happens from there, once the first die gets rolled
To revive a thread, which is ironic in a thread talking about healing, I have to say there are a couple specific questions to answer: when to trade an attack for healing, and when to heal yourself if you can. The thread has had a lot on what monsters might do to the fallen, but I feel like most times players are dealing with whether to heal an upright ally (or themselves)
Each of these points have been mentioned, but never put into the same post: There are three points that matter in the hit point economy: Are you down? Are you within one hit of being down? and, Are you close enough that you are within one hit of being really really dead?
I would say the question is "when is healing a waste of action or spell slot / ability?", the answer being "if you do not cross one of these three thresholds" To be specific: a 1st level paladin with 12 HP is down to 2. They are fighting something that does about 10 damage per successful round. They could heal themselves for 5, but 7 and 2 are exactly the same in this situation - either way, one hit and they are down, but not at -12. So they would be better off either attacking, hoping to finish the monster off, or disengaging, live to fight another day.
The same is true if it is one of their allies, only with another consideration - not only is it a waste of action to heal, but a waste of healing potential. You heal those 5 points, the fighter gets hit again, and those 5 points are gone forever. If they get hit at 2 HP, your healing brings them back into the fight.
So the thumb rule of "heal when they are at half damage" is not very useful. And "one hit away from unconscious" is incomplete. It is really "can I make a difference in one of the three critical points?"
And it also brings up the superiority of Healing Word over Cure Wounds in many situations - you give up less to cast it, being a bonus action. You still do not want to waste it if you cannot cross a critical point, but it does make the trade-off of "save my ally" versus "kill our enemy" a little less stark
Galanodel Deacon Tosh - Less-than-Half-Elf Bard - & - Flitterbug - Pixie Sorceress : Meanwhile in the Westwoods
Amadow 'Tug' Rioux - Human Psionic Palooka : Revenge Heist - - - Gofer Bayut - Bugbear Paladin Messenger : Shrouded Sky
I think, arguably, the best time to heal someone is when they are on the ground. That way, your heals are coming when their most needed, AND you're getting all those other turns to cast offensive/defensive spells. Like, if you heal a character with a max hp of 60, current hp of 30, and you do it for 20 points, then they'll go to 50 and when the fight finished in a couple rounds, they'll either end with 40hp after taking a few more hits, or you'll end up needing to heal them again. Waiting till you absolutely need to ensure you don't cast more than you need to.