[RPG] Why does “Healing” effect only apply to status conditions like daze or hindered

mutants-and-masterminds-3e

Why does "Healing" effect only apply to status conditions like daze or hindered?
Why doesn't heal loss of Toughness defense if toughness the equivalent of the games HP?

Best Answer

That's not what Healing does.

How do damage and Toughness work in 3e?

Unlike D&D and other systems that use HP, the system Mutants and Masterminds 3e does not represent damage by loss of hit points. Instead it represents damage as a status effect, and the process of taking damage is represented as accumulating degrees of Damage conditions.

When a character is damaged, they make a damage resistance check (d20 + Toughness versus DC, where DC is 15 + the damage rank). Their condition worsens depending on how badly they fail the check, where every 5 below the DC is an additional degree of failure. At 2 degrees, the character is staggered for 1 turn. At 3 degrees, they are staggered until they recover, and at 4 degrees they are incapacitated, and then possibly dying.

Toughness is not equivalent to HP. If one had to compare it to anything in D&D, the Toughness power effect is similar to a saving throw for reduced damage. With the Resilient extra, Toughness would be comparable to damage reduction as well.

So what does Healing do?

By default, the Healing effect can remove Damage conditions from a character, thereby making them less damaged.

You can heal Damage conditions by touching a subject and taking a standard action to make a DC 10 Healing check. Each degree of success healing one Damage condition, starting with the subject’s worst condition,and working down, as if the subject were recovering rapidly. If the subject is dying, the highest degree of success stabilizes the subject, removing the dying condition.

The Healing power is very versatile. It can even be used preemptively, so that it would apply the next time the character gets damaged.

You can also grant a subject a bonus equal to your Healing rank on resistance checks against effects with disease or poison descriptors. The bonus applies to the subject’s next resistance check against the effect.

You can attach Extras to your Healing power effect, and remove other status effects in addition to removing Damage conditions. Here are some examples:

Energizing: You can heal the fatigued and exhausted conditions as well as damage conditions: DC 10, one degree of success for fatigued, two degrees of success for exhausted.

Restorative: Your Healing effect can restore power points removed by Weaken effects with the appropriate descriptors, such as injury, disease, or poison.

Resurrection: You can restore life to the dead! If the subject has been dead for fewer minutes than your Healing rank, makes a DC 20 Healing check. If successful, the patient’s condition becomes incapacitated, as if just stabilized.

(The quoted material is from the Heroes Handbook)

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