GilesTheCleric
2015-03-27, 06:55 AM
You say you'll change the constitution...we all want to change your head
Stat-boosting spells and items are par-for-the-course for lewt and go-to item purchases. But, what about when that stat boost isn't to a primary stat like int for wizards or str for barbarians? Healing, whether it's in-combat or outside is never an enjoyable prospect. But, maybe with enough hp from con increases, it wouldn't be a problem... right?
Increasing max hp in order to make healing more efficient isn't doable until level 11 at least (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18964106&postcount=27). Until then, it's Wands of Lesser Vigour (SC 229) at 750gp a pop for most folks. Now, these are wands so they give quite a lot of bang relief (what sound do spells make anyway?) for your buck. In fact, with the WoLV each hp only costs 1.36 gp to heal. Even the forum-renouned Healing Belt (MIC 110) only achieves 27.7 gp per hp, though it is of course more useful in combat.
With the WoLV as a given for most parties, how does it stack up to the amount of health PCs will typically have?
https://s6.postimg.org/c92ds6mtt/Giles_Typical_Con_Bonuses_zpsnp4d0dvy.jpg
By level twenty, a character can easily have a con score of nearly 40 with some investment. However, prior to obtaining a +5 inherent bonus, either through tomes (DMG) or multiples Wishes, 30 is a more reasonable upper limit to expect.
Bear's Endurance, Righteous Might, and Greater Visage of the Deity (SC 231) used as example buffs. VoP refers to Vow of Poverty (BoED 48), which will give a total +8 enhancement bonus by level 19 which increases max health by another 20 points.
https://s6.postimg.org/k1t1k60ip/Giles_HP_increase_zpsg5h0feht.jpg
In the above image, each vertical box is one charge consumed from your wand. Starting at level 1, one charge will heal most characters to full. But by the time the party is level five, it might take three, four, or more charges -- and that's per character dropped to zero! Not only will this run your wand down quickly, but it also takes a lot of time; four uses of the wand will take over four minutes of waiting for the entire healing effect to complete.
Efficiency of the efficient, or, to be efficacious
Let's take a gander at a graph of how many charges are required to heal to full, to save the pain of counting all those little boxes and the sighs of reluctance at the shared party fund being slowly consumed.
https://s6.postimg.org/f35j5mha9/Giles_Number_of_Charges_zpsqtpg97d8.jpgWell, that seems like a fairly large number of charges, especially when remembering that this is per character -- most parties will have three more folks who may also need healing. But don't fret! Putting everything into perspective should provide enough sugar to make this easier to swallow. For perspective, let's include in our analysis how long a wand will last. WotC has set the average number of encounters per level to 13.3, each of which should use up roughly 1/4 of a party's resources (such as spells, consumables, hp). Can a whole party make it an entire level -- or several -- on a single wand? Let's see.
https://s6.postimg.org/p0gjyoh69/Giles_Consumed_zpsvnsc1qll.jpg
Wand costs at low levels
Well, look at that. See? Maths saves the day once again! With only one wand for the whole party, it's possible to almost make it to level 4. Of course, WBL probably doesn't allow a party to purchase a 750 gp item at level one, even by pooling their resources. However, even if maths can't... oh wait, it can. According to my calculations, a party will use, on average, .24 of a wand at first level, .4 of a wand at second, and .6 of a wand at third. However, knowing this only helps when we remember the partially-charged wand rules from DMG 214 (and MIC 227 implies that we should probably stick to increments of 10, which seems reasonable anyway). So at first level, a 1/5 charged wand will cost only 150 gp (37 gp per member), and at second a 2/5 charged wand will be 300 gp (75/member). At level three, WBL increases from 900 to 2700, so purchasing a full wand should be a reasonable choice, especially given that it should last for the entirety of level 3 and a good chunk of level 4.
If the party uses nothing but Wands of Lesser Vigour for their healing until level 11 (when Heal, the most efficient conjuration (healing) spell, typically comes online), they'll spend roughly 10k on wands (healing everyone for about 7700 hp total!). For an entire party, this constitutes 5.1% of their wealth (196k total), a pittance. However, if your GM allows a custom magic item of endless healing (say, a command word-activated ring of cure minor for 900gp, or a ring of cure light for 1800), those will start to be more efficient cost-wise than WoLVs after level three for CMW (~970gp will have been spent on WoLV total), and before level five for CLW (at which point ~2500 gp will have been spent on wands. At a level-vs-level comparison, CMW will cost less than WoLVs at 6th (1000 gp spent for this level), and CLW at 9th (1800 gp for wand charges to make it through the level). Of course, GMs likely will not allow a magic item of infinite healing, and the drawback to the slotted item would be that a character is required to spend his or her standard actions every round, for what will probably be 30 rounds (three minutes!) per character.
Metagaming (more than we already have!)
Now, if the GM really is strictly following the 1/4 resources rule, the best way to make the wands last longest is actually to have less hp. In contrast, GMs who consider consumable resources to not continue to count against WBL after use wouldn't be penalizing buying many wands, so having high con in that case is fine. For those who fall in between those two ends of a spectrum, a combination of wands with other options like class features (spells, vigour auras, etc) and items (the trusty Healing Belt) should do the trick -- essentially continuing to play the way that your group likely already does. There's no need to change how you stat your character or buy items; Wands of Lesser Vigour will always be affordable.
Further graphs -- homebrewed con score increases for low-magic games, those that eschew the use of WBL for ability score increases, and the PHB2's recommended item progression.
https://s6.postimg.org/onp5skyxd/Brew_Old_Trees1_25_zps9a6grbhn.jpghttps://s6.postimg.org/t9la0x50x/Brew_Old_Trees1_50_zpsvpskefum.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16416299&postcount=21
https://s6.postimg.org/swtvuqugx/Brew_Dei_zpswsckpmni.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?241299-Low-Magic-No-thanks!-INTERESTING-MAGIC-Yes-Please!-(Group-Project-Idea)
https://s6.postimg.org/6kw31dii9/Brew_Giant_zpslvkw2oom.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357810-Chopping-Down-the-Christmas-Tree-Low-Magic-Item-Rules
https://s6.postimg.org/mj4srha5d/Brew_Ladybug_zpsy0scrqqz.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?278041-Common-Magical-Effects-and-You-Averting-the-Christmas-Tree-Effect-3-5
https://s6.postimg.org/ffwxbvzkx/Brew_PHB2_progression_zpsssnhlsh1.jpg
Stat-boosting spells and items are par-for-the-course for lewt and go-to item purchases. But, what about when that stat boost isn't to a primary stat like int for wizards or str for barbarians? Healing, whether it's in-combat or outside is never an enjoyable prospect. But, maybe with enough hp from con increases, it wouldn't be a problem... right?
Increasing max hp in order to make healing more efficient isn't doable until level 11 at least (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18964106&postcount=27). Until then, it's Wands of Lesser Vigour (SC 229) at 750gp a pop for most folks. Now, these are wands so they give quite a lot of bang relief (what sound do spells make anyway?) for your buck. In fact, with the WoLV each hp only costs 1.36 gp to heal. Even the forum-renouned Healing Belt (MIC 110) only achieves 27.7 gp per hp, though it is of course more useful in combat.
With the WoLV as a given for most parties, how does it stack up to the amount of health PCs will typically have?
https://s6.postimg.org/c92ds6mtt/Giles_Typical_Con_Bonuses_zpsnp4d0dvy.jpg
By level twenty, a character can easily have a con score of nearly 40 with some investment. However, prior to obtaining a +5 inherent bonus, either through tomes (DMG) or multiples Wishes, 30 is a more reasonable upper limit to expect.
Bear's Endurance, Righteous Might, and Greater Visage of the Deity (SC 231) used as example buffs. VoP refers to Vow of Poverty (BoED 48), which will give a total +8 enhancement bonus by level 19 which increases max health by another 20 points.
https://s6.postimg.org/k1t1k60ip/Giles_HP_increase_zpsg5h0feht.jpg
In the above image, each vertical box is one charge consumed from your wand. Starting at level 1, one charge will heal most characters to full. But by the time the party is level five, it might take three, four, or more charges -- and that's per character dropped to zero! Not only will this run your wand down quickly, but it also takes a lot of time; four uses of the wand will take over four minutes of waiting for the entire healing effect to complete.
Efficiency of the efficient, or, to be efficacious
Let's take a gander at a graph of how many charges are required to heal to full, to save the pain of counting all those little boxes and the sighs of reluctance at the shared party fund being slowly consumed.
https://s6.postimg.org/f35j5mha9/Giles_Number_of_Charges_zpsqtpg97d8.jpgWell, that seems like a fairly large number of charges, especially when remembering that this is per character -- most parties will have three more folks who may also need healing. But don't fret! Putting everything into perspective should provide enough sugar to make this easier to swallow. For perspective, let's include in our analysis how long a wand will last. WotC has set the average number of encounters per level to 13.3, each of which should use up roughly 1/4 of a party's resources (such as spells, consumables, hp). Can a whole party make it an entire level -- or several -- on a single wand? Let's see.
https://s6.postimg.org/p0gjyoh69/Giles_Consumed_zpsvnsc1qll.jpg
Wand costs at low levels
Well, look at that. See? Maths saves the day once again! With only one wand for the whole party, it's possible to almost make it to level 4. Of course, WBL probably doesn't allow a party to purchase a 750 gp item at level one, even by pooling their resources. However, even if maths can't... oh wait, it can. According to my calculations, a party will use, on average, .24 of a wand at first level, .4 of a wand at second, and .6 of a wand at third. However, knowing this only helps when we remember the partially-charged wand rules from DMG 214 (and MIC 227 implies that we should probably stick to increments of 10, which seems reasonable anyway). So at first level, a 1/5 charged wand will cost only 150 gp (37 gp per member), and at second a 2/5 charged wand will be 300 gp (75/member). At level three, WBL increases from 900 to 2700, so purchasing a full wand should be a reasonable choice, especially given that it should last for the entirety of level 3 and a good chunk of level 4.
If the party uses nothing but Wands of Lesser Vigour for their healing until level 11 (when Heal, the most efficient conjuration (healing) spell, typically comes online), they'll spend roughly 10k on wands (healing everyone for about 7700 hp total!). For an entire party, this constitutes 5.1% of their wealth (196k total), a pittance. However, if your GM allows a custom magic item of endless healing (say, a command word-activated ring of cure minor for 900gp, or a ring of cure light for 1800), those will start to be more efficient cost-wise than WoLVs after level three for CMW (~970gp will have been spent on WoLV total), and before level five for CLW (at which point ~2500 gp will have been spent on wands. At a level-vs-level comparison, CMW will cost less than WoLVs at 6th (1000 gp spent for this level), and CLW at 9th (1800 gp for wand charges to make it through the level). Of course, GMs likely will not allow a magic item of infinite healing, and the drawback to the slotted item would be that a character is required to spend his or her standard actions every round, for what will probably be 30 rounds (three minutes!) per character.
Metagaming (more than we already have!)
Now, if the GM really is strictly following the 1/4 resources rule, the best way to make the wands last longest is actually to have less hp. In contrast, GMs who consider consumable resources to not continue to count against WBL after use wouldn't be penalizing buying many wands, so having high con in that case is fine. For those who fall in between those two ends of a spectrum, a combination of wands with other options like class features (spells, vigour auras, etc) and items (the trusty Healing Belt) should do the trick -- essentially continuing to play the way that your group likely already does. There's no need to change how you stat your character or buy items; Wands of Lesser Vigour will always be affordable.
Further graphs -- homebrewed con score increases for low-magic games, those that eschew the use of WBL for ability score increases, and the PHB2's recommended item progression.
https://s6.postimg.org/onp5skyxd/Brew_Old_Trees1_25_zps9a6grbhn.jpghttps://s6.postimg.org/t9la0x50x/Brew_Old_Trees1_50_zpsvpskefum.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16416299&postcount=21
https://s6.postimg.org/swtvuqugx/Brew_Dei_zpswsckpmni.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?241299-Low-Magic-No-thanks!-INTERESTING-MAGIC-Yes-Please!-(Group-Project-Idea)
https://s6.postimg.org/6kw31dii9/Brew_Giant_zpslvkw2oom.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357810-Chopping-Down-the-Christmas-Tree-Low-Magic-Item-Rules
https://s6.postimg.org/mj4srha5d/Brew_Ladybug_zpsy0scrqqz.jpghttp://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?278041-Common-Magical-Effects-and-You-Averting-the-Christmas-Tree-Effect-3-5
https://s6.postimg.org/ffwxbvzkx/Brew_PHB2_progression_zpsssnhlsh1.jpg