[4e] Help fluff healing surges

[Venerable]

Speaking as my group's archivist, the transition to 4e has created an odd problem: I don't know how to describe healing surges. In 3.5, describing healing was easy, since it was usually concrete (e.g. the paladin lays on hands, the rogue drinks a potion). 4e's healing surges are more abstract, and I don't know how to describe them. The best approach I've found so far is to leave it abstract:


As the fighter strikes the bugbear, the rogue takes a moment to heal herself before rejoining the fray.

Unfortunately, healing happens a lot more in 4e than in 3.5, so I've been writing "takes a moment to heal" a lot. Repeating the same phrase multiple times in a single encounter makes for boring reading.

I'm looking for an alternative. I've got some ideas, but I'd like to see what you folks can come up with. Any suggestions?


[Please, no edition chauvinism. My group uses 4e; help me make the most of it.]

[Rei_Jin]

Ever since I first heard about the idea of a Healing Surge, and saw the mechanics, it reminded me of the RL "second wind", where you get an unexpected burst of energy that propels you onwards.

It generally comes about because of adrenaline, but leaves you further down when you do step off that second wind. So it is different in that respect to the healing surge.

Why not something like the following...


As the fighter strikes the bugbear, the rogue takes a moment to focus herself and regain her composure before leaping back into the fray, revitalised.


As the fighter strikes the bugbear, the rogue clears her mind and wraps a bandage quickly around the wound on her arm.


As the fighter strikes the bugbear, the rogue takes a moment to evaluate the situation, deciding on a course of action and steeling herself for the blows to come.

[FoE]

If you think of hit points in terms of severe wounds, then "spontaneous healing" is hard to rationalize at low levels, unless you consider adventurers to be superhuman at any level. But if you think of hit points as something more abstract, ie. a character's ability to stay on his feet, then you can think of healing surges as "surges in energy" that keep the character fighting a bit longer. Combat is pretty exhausting, after all. Zero hit points can be represented as the point where your character has recieved a truly grievous wound.

Of course, this is only an issue at the lower levels. Once you reach the higher levels, especially the Epic tier, you really do become "superhuman." Then you can rationalize it as however you like. (Heck, it can be as simple as you possessing such control over your body that you can command it to heal wounds.)

[Oracle_Hunter]

The easiest route for non-magical usage of healing surges is via morale. So, for Inspiring Word:

"Buck up, Ashram! A couple more swings and the warboss'll be dead and we can go home and spend the bounty!" Buoyed by Culloch's words, Ashram planted his feet and got ready to face the Warboss's next attack. After all, he thought, the fight's almost over...

For observers, you'd say:

Culloch shouts encouraging words to Ashram and you see the fire return to Ashram's eyes.

Remember: HP is an abstract concept to start with. Rather than thinking of it as "how much blood I have to lose" think about it as "how much I can take before I pass out" - a little morale boost can do wonders.

For Short Rests, add in some basic first aid too:
The party settled down for a short rest, looting the corpses of the fallen while keeping an eye out for another patrol. Ashram was on point, but since he wasn't expecting any trouble he leaned his glave against a nearby wall and ripped some clean-ish cloth strips from a nearby corpse. With a grunt, he bound a couple of his worst wounds and washed the blood from his scalp wound with a bit of water from his waterskin. Having taken care of his worst wounds, he settled down next to his Glave and took off his boots, so that his sore feet could breathe a bit. Just as he was getting comfortable, Culloch shouted for them to get a move on, and so Ashram popped on his boots and took up his glave, feeling ready to take on the next baddies.

Remember here that your total Healing Surges basically count as your total endurance for the day. A Short Rest helps you marshal those reserves, but once you're out, you just don't have the will to keep going.

For Long Rests, use a similar route as the Short Rest, and recall how much better even you feel after a good night's sleep. Any major injuries should be treated by more substantial bandaging (like binding over broken ribs), but avoid giving the PCs truly major wounds like broken limbs or lost eyes - not that you'd do that normally.

Hope that helps!

[OneFamiliarFace]

Oracle Hunter's got it there. Flavoring healing surges is one of my favorite parts of 4th. Really, the key is to know, like Oracle says, that each surge might represent something different depending on how it is used. A fighter's are personal will power and fortitude (gritting his teeth and bearing it). A warlord's could be either inspiring words or perhaps certain tactical advice which gives a character a moment of respite, or the ability to push the enemy back for a breather. A cleric and paladin's are good ol' holy healing magic through and through. So what a healing surge means changes between classes, and it changes in and out of battle.

Ask your fellow players what they would like theirs to represent. Heck, if they wanted, they could even switch it up a bit. A particularly pious fighter might receive some holy blessings from his god in the form of healing. A battle cleric might clench his teeth when someone draws first blood and attack with renewed vigor.

Haha, I could do this all day. Random ideas:
Cleric: Touching his holy symbol to his wounds and feeling the pain ebb away.
Fighter: Pulling out arrows and grunting loudly, then smiling.
Paladin: Prayer and meditation.
Ranger: Poultices created with one of his knowledge skills.
Rogue: Shaking it off and making some jokes to keep himself energetic.
Warlock: A short request of his demonic benefactor, and a dim knowledge of the need to repay his debts in full before he dies.
Warlord: Bandages and the knowledge the he must stay strong for his friends.
Wizard: Drinks certain foul-tasting draughts that he has created in his lab.

[Saph]

To be honest, I don't think there's any consistent way of flavouring HP and healing in 4e. If you try to rationalise it, you'll keep running into weird stuff and contradictions. I find the best way to deal with it is not to flavour it at all. HP is HP; healing surges are healing surges. In 4e, it's routine for characters to get hit, go down, get up, go down again, get up again, and go down again all in one combat, then rest up and do it all over again ten minutes later. Injury just doesn't work the same way it does in our world.

From an in-game point of view, since this is how it's like for all the characters, you don't really need to explain it. This is normal for the PCs - it's the way their universe works, so it doesn't seem strange to them. 4e characters are kind of like Orks in Warhammer 40K; they can survive outrageously lethal hits, regenerate from almost anything, and can't be permanently hurt by anything short of death (and even that's only a setback once they hit level 8). By contrast, the 'squishy' races, ie anyone who isn't a PC, find it freakish that PCs can take a sword through the gut and forget about it by next morning.

- Saph

[Dhavaer]

Ever since I first heard about the idea of a Healing Surge, and saw the mechanics, it reminded me of the RL "second wind", where you get an unexpected burst of energy that propels you onwards.

Actually, the ability that allows PCs to use healing surges is called 'Second Wind'.

[The Rose Dragon]

By contrast, the 'squishy' races, ie anyone who isn't a PC, find it freakish that PCs can take a sword through the gut and forget about it by next morning.

- Saph

Saph, it is comforting to know others see hit points as less than abstract as well.

Then again, my D&D games have included high doses of violence, where arms have flown off, lungs were pierced, legs were mutilated and it was all just a flesh wound. You didn't get any penalties until your head was severed.

[Sebastian]

no offense but I suggest this

"As the fighter strike the bugbear the rogue recover X hitpoints""

4e want to do gamist? Go gamist all the way, why have a headache over this things. Treat 4e as a wargame that can be used to roleplay and your life will be way easier.

[Viruzzo]

Another thing to keep in mind is that in 4e almost every power does damage, which is the reflection of the more "abstract" HP system. So if you can recall what the source of damage is you can fluff out healing based on it. E.g.:
You receive a fear effect? "shrugs off the nightmarish visions that are haunting him".
Illusion effect? "force himself to disbelieve the giant wolf and notices that those bites weren't real".
Sometimes you can also pass healing as not being damaged so much (works best with "pseudo-ongoing" types of damage): you suck out the poison or clean yourself the acid off, and prevent some of the damage you would have received.
Also as said above, morale is a good catch-all healing medium.


4e want to do gamist?
No. But thanks anyway.

[Ashtar]

Lidda stepped back and stared at the gaping wound in her arm. She could not believe the orc had bested her in combat. Shouting "This is not going to end like this!", she returned to the fight with a renewed passion.

[Totally Guy]

How about thinking about it like this?

A level 1 Rogue with 13 Con has 25 hit points and 7 surges. So at top end the rogue can recover 42 hit points naturally through the day. Added to the 25 he starts with he actually has 67 hit points in total. But the rogue doesn't have access to these all at once he only has access to his pain threshold and stamina. Unless he rests he can't take as much as his full potential without passing out and puting his lifeat risk.

It makes more sense this way over how it seems to be presented that he is actually closing a wound for example. By paragon tier this rogue has 14 Con 76 hit points and healing surges equal to 152 points. 228 potential hit points of which only 76 are available for the immediate threat.

It's still not the perfect system but I think it's a bit more natural.

[Tsotha-lanti]

The fluff's already there - second wind. You "get your wind back." You take a breather. You take a moment to collect yourself. As your fighter companion takes on the monster, you hang back and gather your breath. As the warlord leads the charge against the enemy, you feel invigorated by his boldness.

And yes, it's important to recall that you're not healing wounds; you're recovering your energy, your stamina, or your fighting spirit. You probably don't have all that many wounds yet, anyway - but if you do, you're just finding the will to fight on regardless of them.

[TwystidMynd]

Personally, I've decided to take a slightly different approach to the 4e mechanics. The 1/encounter and 1/day abilities are all a bit difficult to rationalize. Someone - I don't remember who - once asked on these boards, "If my level 1 Rogue can find a way to trick an enemy into moving up to 5 feet in any direction I want, every time I attack him for 5 minutes, why can't I do that a second time in a day?" That type of question can similarly be asked of Second Wind, so I think that any fluffing of an ability should keep that in mind, hopefully coming up with an explanation as well.

To this end, I've been trying to fluff limited-use abilities as not entirely within the character's control. Sure, I, the player, may choose to use Trick Strike or Second Wind in a particular round, but that doesn't mean my character sits there and says "Hmm. Now, I will move this guy 5 feet to the left!" I imagine that my opponent does something the opens himself up to a technique I learned on the streets - it's a highly situational technique, so it doesn't come up all that often... but when it does, my Rogue is all too happy to exploit her opponent's misstep.
Similarly, with Second Wind, having the healing done reflect various types of situations that aren't necessarily under the character's control help me to reconcile why I can't wrap a bandage over my wound twice in one battle.
Perhaps a person trained in Arcana sees a stray wisp of divine magic float past the battle, and uses her will to absorb it, healing her wounds.
Maybe the Rogue gets a rush of adrenaline when the fighter engages the Hobgoblin that just whacked him, because that Hobgoblin's back is now wide open, and looks like a perfect spot to store a dagger.
The Paladin might have a momentary vision of holiness in the middle of the battle, and be bolstered by it.

Of course, there may be other situations that merit the characters causing the healing to happen as a direct response to actions they do themselves - such as "I bandage my wounds" or "I use my holy symbol to bolster my resolve," but these types of externally-triggered situations mentioned above can add to the library of healing surge fluff.

[Venerable]

Thanks for the suggestions, folks. With your aid, I should be able to figure something out. :smallwink:

[Note: as I transcribe sessions in real time, I don't have time to come up with a fanciful description for healing surges. So I think I'll leave it at that while playing, then fluff it later when I edit the transcript. This might make the transcripts of our 4e encounters more interesting than those of our recently-ended 3.5 campaign.]

[Yakk]

Generic Second Wind: Backs up, and takes a breather.
Warlord: Gives an inspiring word.
Martial self-heals: Shrugs off her wounds.
Cleric/Paladin: Does glowy stuff, or prays.
Arcane Second Wind: Concentrates, and his aura pulses. Possibly conjures a magic defense.

[its_all_ogre]

user Crow came up with a rational explanation for the encounter powers actually.
when weight training you lift a heavy weight a number of times, once you've lifted it so many that you cannot possibly do one more lift you need a rest.

you can easily lift it again in a couple of minutes, but cracking out another one right now is beyond you.

this is encounter powers.
daily powers are the equivalent of lifting something so darn heavy that you can do it once but need a lot of time to recover before trying again...like a day or 6 hours undisturbed rest.

it's not hard once you put it in context. after i've done my work day i could not face another without going home, eating food, chilling out etc. so my work is a daily power...that i wish i could retrain :smallbiggrin:

[Jack Zander]

No. But thanks anyway.

Are you saying that 4e is not gamist?

[Treguard]

Tordek briefly steadies himself against the wall he was spun into, waiting for the room to stop spinning. Upon seeing his hobgoblin opponent turn away from him, he quickly sucks a lungful of wind and bellows a mighty oath at his foe before charging back into the fray!

I agree, flavouring healing winds is part of the fun in combat :smallsmile:

[Tengu_temp]

While it's true that not all HP loss in 4e means physical wounds, it's fun to imagine that every character is a determinator (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Determinator) to some extent.

[Dausuul]

I regard hit points as heroic spirit and will to live. There is not a direct correlation between hit points and physical status. You can be beat to hell physically, but still be driven by a furious will; you can be physically healthy but dying of despair.

As a general rule, when somebody whacks you with a sword, you suffer pain, blood loss, exhaustion, and so forth. All of this is a drain on your heroic spirit. Thus, you lose hit points. When the party warlord shouts some inspiring words, your heroic spirit is restored and you regain hit points. The physical injuries don't vanish, but you grit your teeth and fight on anyhow.

Similarly, if you're grievously wounded and rest for a night, you don't wake up all cured. You're still grievously wounded. But you've recovered your will to go on, so you get your hit points back.

Conversely, when you get attacked by an illusory monster, it's not doing any physical damage. Your body is not being injured. But you think you're taking damage, and that drains you. Hence, you take psychic damage and lose hit points. Enough psychic damage and you just give up and die, even though your body hasn't taken so much as a scratch.

It's very cinematic, of course, but it's internally consistent.

[RukiTanuki]

user Crow came up with a rational explanation for the encounter powers actually.
when weight training you lift a heavy weight a number of times, once you've lifted it so many that you cannot possibly do one more lift you need a rest.

you can easily lift it again in a couple of minutes, but cracking out another one right now is beyond you.

this is encounter powers.
daily powers are the equivalent of lifting something so darn heavy that you can do it once but need a lot of time to recover before trying again...like a day or 6 hours undisturbed rest.

it's not hard once you put it in context. after i've done my work day i could not face another without going home, eating food, chilling out etc. so my work is a daily power...that i wish i could retrain :smallbiggrin:

Some people have pointed out (and as much as I like 4e, they have a point) that it's possible, using this comparison, that once you do Light Strenuous Activity, you can't do L.S.A. for five minutes... but you can immediately do Heavy Strenuous Activity, which will tire you out so much you can't do H.S.A. for the rest of the day. But you'll still be up for L.S.A. in five minutes either way. So Hank can't do one more rep until he catches a breather, but he can immediately lift a car without resting first.

I use the same technique another poster gave: the PC is not in charge of their martial exploits, the player is... and the abstract restrictions the player faces are because the unique combat situations and openings in defenses the PC faces aren't under their control. If you can get your players to think, "My character sees an opening and tries Watermelon Smash," you're halfway there. The player will use Watermelon Smash again after it recharges; the PC will use it whenever they see an opening. In other words, the recharge mechanic is out-of-character knowledge. It's assumed the PC is trying to use the best attacks possible in any given situation.

Like most 4e things, thinking outside the box of "player action A <==> PC action B" can help quite a bit with your game-world descriptions.

[OneFamiliarFace]

While it's true that not all HP loss in 4e means physical wounds, it's fun to imagine that every character is a determinator (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Determinator) to some extent.

This is true, and even though I prefer the hp abstraction, my favorite Knight of the Round was Sir Gareth, who battled the Red Knight from Dawn to noon (when the Red Knight's power was increasing), and then noon to Sunset (when the Knight's power was decreasing), finally defeating him and feeling a little bad about it. They both hit each other numerous times and were quite bloody. But such is the way of heroic fantasy!

@Encounter Powers: I would argue as well that even though these powers have the same name everytime you use them, they don't have to be doing the exact same thing. So a rogue's technique which pushes a guy a square could be anything from tripping him up, to using well-placed dagger thrusts to force him back, to outright bluffing him into taking a step back. It fits with the "whenever the enemy shows an opening to use a move thing." But the bad-guy won't fall for the same trick twice.

@Dailies: Those are harder. For casters, it's just summoning a good portion of power reserves, or asking things their god is only going to grant a limited number of times. For martial guys, it is a rare technique that represents a drastic opening on the part of the bad dude.

For extra long days or encounters, a DM can reward these things back to people. So I like the opportunity over random power method, because it allows for an extra boost when you want to have epic battles.

[Sebastian]

Like most 4e things, thinking outside the box of "player action A <==> PC action B" can help quite a bit with your game-world descriptions.

And that is why I think 4e fails as an RPG. In my book a RPG is playing a character in a immaginary world, but if I have no voice in what are my character actions but only their mechanical results (at best) I can't really play him in a roleplaying sense.

to be clearer in other RPGs what you usually do is go " I hit the monster's legs" (for example) as a result the monster could be slowed, in 4e it is more "I slow the monster" and as a result could succed in make the monster slower. If you want you can even came up with a description on how that exactly happened but is not really necessary. I have stilll to come up with a good justification on how Serpent steel strike works on a ghost or a gelatinous cube, or other monster that don't have legs, don't touch ground and/or are not even corporeal and yet IIRC by the book it works on them like on any other monster.

[Sebastian]

@Encounter Powers: I would argue as well that even though these powers have the same name everytime you use them, they don't have to be doing the exact same thing. So a rogue's technique which pushes a guy a square could be anything from tripping him up, to using well-placed dagger thrusts to force him back, to outright bluffing him into taking a step back. It fits with the "whenever the enemy shows an opening to use a move thing." But the bad-guy won't fall for the same trick twice.
But you just said that it is not the same trick, that every time is a different trick and yet the enemy don't fall twice for it even if it is different every time?

also, if the technique is different every time... then is not a technique at all.

I have to insist, treat is as a wargame, it would make things waaaay easier. Beside I think that narrating the 4e mechanics is to much tiring and time consuming and don't really add much to the game in the end. Take the SSS example, I use SSS on an enemy and slow him,now, sure , I could come up with a good description on how I slowed it and it could even be fun... the first times, but in the end it add nothing to the game, with or qwithout description the monster is equally slowed and to keep coming up with iinteresting and not repetitive fluff for the combat would quickly turn into a chore (to me, at least. in previouse editions if I had a slowing attack that was defined as hitting the legs and the monster don't have legs the DM could say that the attack didn't work on it, in 4e, well, he could still do it by rule zero, but I doubt it would be fitting to the spirit of the rules.

[OneFamiliarFace]

But you just said that it is not the same trick, that every time is a different trick and yet the enemy don't fall twice for it even if it is different every time?

also, if the technique is different every time... then is not a technique at all.

I did indeed contradict myself there. I am merely talking for flavor purposes. You can really imagine it anyway you want. But as far as it being a technique or not, it certainly can be. Your character has the ability to move an enemy 5ft back. Another character does not have that ability in his skill set. Here, combat role-playing is done by selecting how it is your character does it, but he doesn't have to do it the same way everytime. (I know that still doesn't cover my earlier contradiction.)

@Sebastian (unrelated to OP on wargames and RPGs):

I see no need to treat DnD as a wargame over an RPG, unless you are saying he should do both. An RPG is a game in which you get to play a role and in which you decide what your character does (there are an infinite number of possibilities for how much freedom your character has in choosing). I grant that even in wargames I play, I come up with backstories and histories for my guys (heck, I did that for the "wizards" controlling my Magic decks), but an RPG means that those backstories, personalities, and quirks have an in-game effect on play. The fact that DnD is more heavily combat based or has fewer rules governing role-playing does not make it more a wargame than an RPG.

The idea of gaps opening up in enemies defenses (as presented by someone else before I garbled it up) and many of the explanations for healing surges given here are perfectly fine in game ways to explain those events. If people don't want to accept those explanations, then that is personal preference, but I would humbly argue that they only do not see an RPG in 4e because they don't want to, and not because it isn't there. In other words, we're not really reaching for these explanations, and the game still has a rich outside world for PCs to interact with in non-combat ways (something simply not emulated by wargames).

Edit: I think I understand more of what you mean there, so sorry for that small rant! I've always just solved the repetitive problem by only fluffing when the players want to, or when the event is important. As a DM, it is a hint to get a move on with things when players resort to "Does a 20 hit? Okay, I hit him. 8 damage."