Shadowrun
Shadowrun Missions Living Campaign => Living Campaign Discussion => Topic started by: Michael Chandra on <05-04-14/1956:05>
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Unfortunately, since no errata or FAQ is out I need an official ruling on this. I made a call on it myself, but two players took it assuming otherwise and three players heavily disagree with my call on it, so I fear I need an official decision.
Quick Healer
Cost: 10 BP
A Quick Healer recovers from damage more quickly than other characters. The character receives a +2 dice pool modifier to all Healing Tests made on/for/by him, including magical healing.
Here, the "by him" part can be taken two ways. The first is tests taken by him for his own benefit, so basically Resting and any touching yourself with FA/Medicine/Heal. The second is that it applies when you use FA/Medicine/Heal on others. However, the fluff line makes clear that this isn't about treating others, it's about your own recovery abilities, which work both when people treat you and when you simply rest. This interpretation also fits with the name. It's not Excellent Healer or anything, it's Quick Healer, you heal quickly.
Quick Healer
Cost: 3 Karma
A character with the Quick Healer quality receives a +2 dice pool modifier to all Healing Tests made on/for/by her, including magical healing.
Here, the fluff line has been dropped. So has the cost, significantly. Since the fluff line isn't there, some people assume it includes tests made by the character on others. Given how it's been made cheaper, while other ways of getting a +2 are both more expensive and more limited*, I do not believe the SR4 intent has changed. However, without the SR4 fluff, all I have as support are the extremely cheap cost**, the name and a comparable situation, namely Symbiotes***. Unfortunately this is not enough to convince my Missions players, causing bad blood because I made very clear that I am not giving them a +2 when they Heal or First Aid others.
*: Specializations and Mentor Spirits both only give a +2 on either the First Aid or the Magical side of the picture, and are 5~7 karma. In comparison, 3 karma is real easy.
**: I paid 6 karma after chargen for it myself, since as Street Sam you can never have enough dice to recover from damage.
**: Symbiotes note "as a dice pool modifier on healing tests", not stating it's only your own either. However, given how they're in your blood, helping you, it's quite clear the intent is that it only works on yourself. So a lack of full clarity is not something limited to just Quick Healer, supporting that it's quite likely the Quality was simply not written to resist confusion.
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I'm with you on this one. Honestly, I don't see how anyone could correlate your own body's ability to heal quickly with being good at First Aid--they aren't even remotely related. Moreover, being quick while applying First Aid isn't the same as being good. If there was some sort of "Healing Hands" PQ that gave you a bonus to First Aid, Medicine, etc. rolls, sure, but that's not what this is.
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I agree with you. Additionally, as is, that's a very good Quality, even if you buy it for double karma after character gen. In my opinion, what it offers is already very helpful, especially since it assists with recovering from drain and fading, which is a huge deal.
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Here is the problem, your posting in the missions section so I assume this is for missions. We have had one errata, and a missions specific FAQ neither addressed this. So by this logic aside you really should be going by RAW it is a linked and shared world. We loose some freedom for the privilege to play/gm in it, especially as an agent.
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We have had one errata, and a missions specific FAQ neither addressed this.
Because nobody asked the question. Which is why I'm asking for an official decision.
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Besides, if we're going by RAW, then someone can argue that Symbiotes also apply when they treat others with First Aid, so someone is going to grab Used Symbiotes 4 and Quick Healer and claim to have +6 dice on First Aid on others at Origins. There are plenty of ambiguous phrases that can be rule-lawyered one way or another, except that intent is very clear. So I disagree with having to allow the bad way because the RAW can be read a bad way and a good way. If we have to allow rulelawyering while it's obvious what the RAI is, I'm not sure I call that a privilege.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't hold this specific situation against my players. But I disagree with following RAW without a judgement call when RAW is debatable.
Edit: An example would be Power Foci. Both in SR4 and SR5 players have argued that it boosts your actual Magic, which means Power Points and Overcasting. There's two ways to read the rules there as well.
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I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't hold this specific situation against my players. But I disagree with following RAW without a judgement call when RAW is debatable.
Stand your ground on this one, man, and don't feel bad about it. The intent of quick healer is plain and clear, despite the opening for misinterpretation. You have the benefit of added context, even if someone new to 5th doesn't have the piece of extra fluff for reference.
You're still the GM, and this is an RPG, not some cut and dry card game. Even though you're bound tighter by the enforced balance/ruleset of Missions - without the final say from an arguably needed FAQ expansion, you're the Say.
While PalosApep cautions strict RAW because linked/shared world [and that's a valid point towards cutting/refining/homing rules] - I /HIGHLY/ doubt that the majority of experienced GM's would honestly rule towards Quick Healer as applicable for healing others.
- Wailer
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Agreed, the logic is pretty clear on this one. It's very clear that the intent of Quick Healer is only to benefit Healing tests performed on the character possessing the quality, regardless of who performs the test.
Player pushback should be dealt with according the the last line of page 9 of the Season 5 FAQ.
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I'm gonna pass on actually using violence. My players aren't horrid munchkin rule-lawyers that deserve it. ::)
That one guy I heard about who claimed he was constantly keeping 4 Rating 1 Attribute Boosts active even though the drain would have knocked him out within 15 minutes, but that'd require hundreds of dierolls so take it or leave it, on the other hand...
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Beyond the more permissive read making QH almost a no-brainer to take, is there an actual problem with it?
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It only effects the player who has it.
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Alrighty, thank you for the clarification. :)