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I have found that my group of players frequently roll miserably when in dire need of healing. Little is more disappointing than watching the cleric drop a minimum heal roll on a cure moderate or better.
Since curative magic is touch based, I'd like to see a mechanic for critical healing. I think that you should still roll an attack, even on friendly characters, with a normal 20x2 crit range. This gives the cleric a chance to double their normal healing on a possible cast, and with some feats might be able to expand their critical healing range.
Also, what about something that allowed a minimum roll on the dice, such as a feat that allowed rerolling of dice equal or less than half your Wis mod?
Just thoughts, feel free to toss out your own ideas here.
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From a 3.5 standpoint, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Improved Critical: Touch, would all apply to all Touch Attack Spells, and Ray for all Ranged Touch Attack Spells, (that yadda yadda).
Further more, should the player choose, they can forgo the Touch attack and make it a part of an unarmed strike, (therefore also utilizing Power Attack, or whatever they want). Not that that would help heals much, but just saying. . .
Why not just havethem roll a d20 with the (appropriate) heal spells? On a 20 deals, that is heals twice as much.
It seems the problem is getting the lousy result not boosting an already good result. How about the dice number be a minimum of the spell level. Such that if you roll below this it counts as the 'minimum'
clw min 1 (no change)cmw min 2
csw min 3
ccw min 4
mclw min 5
mcmw min 6
mcsw min 7
mccw min 8
ie caster casts a csw rolls 6, 1, 1 counts as 6, 3, 3
If you are looking for a critical effect dont add the d20 to the mix just make it for every 8 rolled you get to roll another d8 (small bonus but I reckon it would be fun)
Some thoughts on this:
1) Partially open-ended rolls (already mentioned), each "8" (or "6" for channelling) allows one more die to be added. This REALLY bumps up the channel positive energy potential, allowing more clerical spell casting.
2) Using Wis or Cha bonuses to the roll, in addition to level.
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I use the Heal skill to make low and medium level healing spells worthwhile, with this HR addition.
Augment Magical Healing. Swift Action. Heal skill check DC: Maximum Possible Magical Healing from the spell. Success causes HP recovery equal to their Heal skill, capped by the maximum healing of the spell. +1d4 for every 5 over the DC.
We often don't have a Cleric in the Party, And this allows Wands and Potions of Cure Light Wounds (To say nothing of Goodberries) to serve the party about as well. Though I confess It's usually Dicey in combat.
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Very good ideas all of you! My thanks then for your input.
Here's what I'm walking away with so far, and let me know what you think of it. Rolling an extra d20 when casting curative magic is extra work and further convoluted things. So, I'm thinking of using the "max die roll (8's) roll again as extra dice" version of critical heals. This works well, and gives the players a moderately good chance of getting some bonus healing, which will be greatly appreciated.
Also, as for minimums... I tooled around with a lot of ideas, but I think it would be great to say that for every 5 ranks of heal, then you add a minimum die roll. So, at 5 ranks, your cures treat 1's as 2's. Then at 10 ranks treat 1's and 2's as 3's, etc.
Now be advised though, that what is good for the players is good for the foes as well. I'd be completely fine letting the evil clerics use these rules as well. It would certainly suck to get spanked with a cause moderate! I'm sure that they will accept the trade off though.
Last thought... What about turning damage and healing? I really love how this all works in Pathfinder, but would you allow the critical heals (reroll of 6's in this case) to work? The addition of the minimum rolls would really be powerful too. I'll have to playtest it to see.
What about fiddlin' with the dice instead?
Use (2 + d6) or (4 + d4) instead of d8. Means more mixed math (rolling and adding) but would eliminate low rolls and up the average [5.5 and 6.5 vs. 4.5].
Or leave it as d8 standard and have some feats that boost to (2 + d6) or (4 + d4).
I made a feat that did that once, and it worked fine. I kind of agree that healing can be a little gimp at lower levels, but if you happen to roll an 8, its still pretty sick. I would prefer to see the range of it tweaked a little. Rolling 2d4 gives a better slightly better average, if you're up for that stuff.
I am going to try the open-ended option for d8s and d6s. I won't fiddle with any of the minimums. If they have a chance at great healing, they also have a chance to be on divine "hold" if you will. Will let you know how it goes.
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Necroblivion, that blows past the present balanced cap on healing, as opposed to providing a more certain healing.
I hear you, but the point I am making is that you can do a harm spell of the same level and crit with it, doing double what a curative spell is capable of. There's no consistency, this method is a moderate boost to make it more even.
More of a band aid as opposed to a fix though.
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I hear you, but the point I am making is that you can do a harm spell of the same level and crit with it, doing double what a curative spell is capable of. There's no consistency, this method is a moderate boost to make it more even.
For any Combat Simulator, and D&D is an RPG based on a Combat Simulator, you must have more ability to harm then to heal. Else healing becomes the perfect defense against all types of attack.
If you want a slight chance of a more awesome healing outcome, howabout a Crit is automatically maximized for healing spells? That doesn't throw the math off, for gains and losses, just that you have a 5% rather then a lower chance of getting that max healing. Also it applies to all level healing spells fairly, scales, and opens the door to healing items which have crit range bonuses, OR bonus healing amounts.