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so groups lacking a dedicated healer are now more f***ed than ever, I guess. That's nothing that bothers me on a personal level, but sometimes stuff like that happens. players have to drop out, no one else wants to change character and GMs still want to keep the game going even though the group is missing a Cleric. This complicates things for themso the resonance caps are high enough that they don't matter anyway?I think he's saying they only matter when you spam some limited resource item, such as wand or potion of CLW many times over.Player 1 is down 45 points of damage.
Strategy 1: Cure Light Wounds wand x10.
Strategy 2: Cure Critical Wounds wand x2.One of these is unlikely to run into problems from resonance.
That's definitely a design decision. In the Know Direction podcast, I remember one of the participants (sadly, I don't remember which one) say that they felt that cracking open a CLW wand like guzzling it down like a Gatorade was a crappy system, and one that was not found in any fantasy story ... ever.
I feel the need to point out that in this example, the massive upfront cost of a cure critical wounds wand (unless it was found / looted) would likely keep strategy 2 from ever existing / being pitched as a possible alternative, at least until a party was very high level and gold was being received in much higher amounts.
In strategy 1, the wand has an upfront cost of 750 and the cost of the charges used totals up to 150. In strategy 2, the wand has an upfront cost of 21000 and the cost of charges used totals up to 840. It's very easy to justify spending 750 gold on a healing wand for the party, and even a lower level party can pool resources to nab one. It's much harder to justify spending 21000 gold when there is other gear slots you could fill / upgrades you need to purchase, or trying to convince the entire party to put off a gear upgrade to pool for an advanced healing wand.
I'm not making a case that greater healing achieved in a moment should not come at an increased premium, however when the healing from higher levels spells comes at such a higher cost, it is only reasonable for players to look for a way to make the most of the fact that a more cost effective option exists and that they also the time in which to apply it (regarding out-of-combat healing). I would be very happy if there were better / improved ways to heal higher amounts using resources in 2e, as long as they are more cost effective as well. Perhaps they could be items that heal larger amounts of health for a reasonable cost, however they take several minutes to use and have them take effect. This would keep them from being used/abused in combat, and also prevent CLW wand tattoos from occurring on characters.
All of that being said I have to say that I dislike everything I have read thus far about the resonance system. Forcing every player to keep track of a point system reminiscent of Occultist focus is not a simplification in my mind, it's restrictive when it comes to a player designing their character, and it certainly isn't new player friendly / intuitive. What if a player simply wants a character that does not have to track a daily resource limit like spell slots / ki / focus, etc such as a vanilla fighter? 2e is completely removing the option to roll a character like that any longer? I could also easily see a player running into the following type of situation when finding a shiny new piece of gear:
PF1 - "Cool, enchanted armor! I remove my current armor and put on the new armor."
PF2 - "I drank a few potions earlier, except the last one I actually threw past my head because apparently I didn't want to drink it badly enough, and now I can't figure out how to put on this nice upgraded armor I found. Oh well, I guess I'll try again tomorrow."
The fact that a situation like that could occur in the new system frankly boggles my mind.