Psionic: Increased Healing vs. Healing Touch

[Prysus]

Greetings and Salutations. Okay, I started this thread because this is something I've been wondering about. I've looked at Increased Healing, and I just usually can't get behind using it. It's okay on its own, but when I stop and compare it to Healing Touch I haven't come up with a good reason to use Increased Healing over Healing Touch. This is mainly to see if others agree or disagree. Do you use Increased Healing? And I'm asking for beyond that niche 1 in a 100 situations where it might be better. I'm referring to a typical game. While I'm not opposed to the special circumstances (so if you want to defend Increased Healing that is fine), but I'm more wondering if it fits for regular use.


Question (point of the thread):
Do you select Increased Healing and if you actually find it useful on a regular basis? If so, please explain.

Note 1: I don't count "It came standard with the O.C.C." or "I already had all the good psionics and that's what was left" as actual selections. When I ask if you selected it, I mean because it's something you actually wanted (like one of the main choices for powers).

Note 2: I'm seeking people's experience "as written" (canon). I can easily make adjustments to the power/ability if that's all I wanted. So house rules don't interest me much (for the purpose I'm asking).


My Answer/Experience:
I'll start by saying that in 12 years experience (10+ years as a GM) I haven't seen it used once. The only times I've seen a character with the power is when it came standard with the character class or when the character gets X amount of psionics per level and they pretty much have everything they intend to use and now it's just taking powers for the sake of taking them.

I thought about taking it once as a player, but once I really studied the power and the long preparation time (the longest of all the healing powers, I mean you could probably prepare for and FINISH a Psychic Surgery before you're done preparing for Increased Healing), the lengthy time for recovery (I knew this already when I thought about selecting it, but it doesn't do it any favors either), and the fact it costs MORE than Healing Touch just made it not feel worth it after I thought about it.



Example (Break Down of the fact):
I'll give a few details of both that are important in factoring their usefulness.

Healing Touch: Two minutes of meditation; Instant results. 2D4 HP or 2D6 SDC. 6 ISP to use.

Increased Healing: 1D6 hours of meditation, lasts for 2D4 days. 4 HP (first 2 days)/8 HP (after first 2 days) and 12 SDC. 10 ISP to use.

Now, I'll give another small example. For this example, I'll use a Mind Mage (PF P.C.C. that recovers 12 ISP per hour of meditation). For the example, I'll also use maximum times. This means longer preparation time for Increased Healing, but also more days for healing. I'll do my best to be fair.

Increased Healing: Mind Mage goes into a 6 hour trance, after which he can use 10 ISP to use this power. The other character can now heal at an accelerated rate for 8 days. After these 8 days the character will have recovered up to 56 Hit Points and 96 S.D.C.

Healing Touch: The Mind Mage goes into a 2 minute trance, uses Healing Touch for 6 ISP. Rinse, repeat. Do this for a total of 12 uses (72 ISP). This can be broken up with meditation, but for simplicity I included it all together (the end result will be the same). After this he meditates. Now, since the Mind Mage was preparing for 24 minutes and taking one action in between to use the power, I'll count the first hour as "active" (recovers 2 ISP only). That leaves 5 hours of meditation (recovering 60 ISP). After 6 hours, the character has recovered 62 ISP of 72 spent. That means he's down 10 ISP (the same amount if he had prepared for and then used Increased Healing). The end result is that between 24-96 HP (average 60) has been recovered or 24-144 SDC (average 84) has been recovered.

In the examples the averages for Healing Touch are close to the set numbers of Increased Healings, but you only get one (HP or SDC, not both at the same time). This is, of course, less meaning the final numbers are more for Increased Healing. However, the numbers for Healing Touch are all done within the time that the Mind Mage was simply preparing to use Increased Healing. With Healing Touch the character is back up and could continue (maybe not at max) in just 6 hours, while with Increased Healing the character won't really be ready to go for 8 more days.

Maybe that sounded all kind of wordy (my apologies). My point is mainly that Increased Healing takes a LOT of time. Given the time it takes to use, a psychic (not even just a Mind Mage) should be heal up a character faster and recover the ISP spent before Increased Healing is finished. Am I wrong? Am I missing something? While I'm sure I can find those special situational uses, I'm thinking of something that would be used on a regular basis.


Finishing Words:
Anyways, this isn't meant as a rant. This is meant to learn if anyone actually uses Increased Healing. If so, for what purpose? Do you think it's better (or at least not worse) than Healing Touch? I was thinking about the powers (and some other things), and I want to hear people's experiences and personal feelings on the power. Once again, I'm only seeking uses for the power "as written." Sorry to repeat that fact, but for some people (and some of you know what I'm talking about) I felt it was important to repeat it. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!

I see it as a simple "different than" Healing Touch, not better than or worse than.

It simply boils down to intent. If your psychic has to help a few people who are injured, but must be moving on with the rest of the party, then Increased Healing will do the trick! Double Professional rate!?!?! Yes please! Don't need the Psychic to stay close to your bed for Hours (or Days). One use of this Power lasts an average of 5 Days. In that time a person under this Power heals 32 HP AND 60 SDC!!!

Think about it: Only 10 ISP per Patient heals all that! Even though the psychic has gone on elsewhere, the healing continues for 5 Days. And it's 32 HP's + 60 SDC(average).

If you play Psionic PC's then you know the difficulty of ISP management. Spend 10 ISP as above, OR spend 90 ISP per patient to heal an average of 30 HP's and 63 SDC (6 uses of Healing Touch "Set On" HP's [6 X (2D4 = 5 average)] = 30 HP's. Now add in 9 MORE uses just for SDC and we get [9 X (2D6 = 7 average) = 63 SDC].

6 uses + 9 uses (at 6 ISP each) = 90 ISP Vs 10 ISP PER PATIENT!
I know which I would rather spend to help frendly NPC's! I am likely to NEED every point I can scrape together during an Adventure. It takes Mind Mages/Melters 8 Hours of Meditation to recover 90 ISP! With 40 ISP and 14 Hours of Prep-Time + 4 Hours of Meditation I still regain ALL my ISP, help 4 people and still have time to talk with the locals to get any information about our next Quest/Task/Leg of the Road.

ISP management is an art and needs to be taken seriously by the Players and GM's of Psionic PC's!

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[Killer Cyborg]

1. Increased Healing is a "fire and forget" healing power.
Say you're traveling down the road and you see some civilian who's been injured severely. First you can Healing Touch him, to make sure he doesn't die right away, then you can use Increased Healing to make sure the guy will recover.
You can be on your way in as little as 1 hour, never see the guy again, but the guy will have better than professional medical care for the next 2 days at least.
Yes, it could take you as long as 6 hours, but the average is going to be 3.5.

2. It's not an either/or thing. Say the person wounded is a Juicer, and he's down 50 HP and 400 SDC. Which power do you use?
Both, if you want to do any real good. Use Increased Healing to boost him per day, then use Healing Touch as often as you want.

3. Increased Healing doesn't actually heal the person. What it does is to stimulate the person's healing energies to increase the person's healing power. This distinction is important, because a person doesn't have to be wounded in order to have their healing energies increased- you can preemptively use Increased Healing on somebody before they get injured. You could use this power on the entire party the day before a fight, and even if YOU get killed, the survivors will still get healed up at least somewhat without you. (minimum of 8 hp and 24 SDC).

Granted, Increased Healing would be a lot more useful if the trance length was shorter and more predictable, but it's not a bad power, really.

My main issue is that neither ability mentions being able to heal MDC creatures.

[Prysus]

ISP management is an art and needs to be taken seriously by the Players and GM's of Psionic PC's!

Greetings and Salutations. Yes, I do understand that fact. Though if you're worried about ISP, then you should be worried about time as well, yes? After all, if how much time you waste doesn't matter, then how long it takes you to recover ISP shouldn't matter either, right? So, if time matters, then which would you rather have: Something to help you instantly or something that will take hours and then days longer to help you? Maybe it's my mentality which is why I'm asking, because I do want to see what other people think. This isn't my arguing, this is a genuine question. If I'm missing something, then just let me know.

Usually if I need to heal I can think of two situations (barring exceptions). 1) Healing the group in case we get attacked again. ISP is important, but so is getting the group back up and running. If we can afford to take DAYS for this to happen because we have the time, I can burn through ISP with Healing Touch (also counting on normal healing to help out the characters over days) and still meditate and recover all that ISP. 2) I'm healing some NPC either for good relations (politics), to be a good person (just being good), or some other purpose. But, in these cases, I can probably use a simple 2 (maybe 3) Healing Touchs per person, then meditate and still recover ISP faster than Increased Healing. It doesn't help heal as much, but it fills the roll it needs to, and faster.

Again, this isn't to argue. I'm explaining my thought process. If you can poke holes in it, or add something I'm overlooking, then please do so! The only way I can learn is by being wrong. I don't mind, really.

2. It's not an either/or thing. Say the person wounded is a Juicer, and he's down 50 HP and 400 SDC. Which power do you use?
Both, if you want to do any real good. Use Increased Healing to boost him per day, then use Healing Touch as often as you want.

3. Increased Healing doesn't actually heal the person. What it does is to stimulate the person's healing energies to increase the person's healing power. This distinction is important, because a person doesn't have to be wounded in order to have their healing energies increased- you can preemptively use Increased Healing on somebody before they get injured. You could use this power on the entire party the day before a fight, and even if YOU get killed, the survivors will still get healed up at least somewhat without you. (minimum of 8 hp and 24 SDC).

Interesting. I hadn't considered 2 because I primarily play PF and HP/SDC totals are rarely that high. So while I'm asking for PF, I did ask in the general forum just to learn applications just like that. Thanks.

As for 3, hmm ... I knew the fact (that it isn't healing, but stimulating the person's healing), but I hadn't ever considered the "pre-emptive" application before. Again, thanks for giving me something else to think about.


For both (and anyone else):
I did already consider most of the other points and they're processing in the back of my mind. Though I'll go back to asking: Would Increased Healing one of the main powers on your mind for selection? In 10+ years as a GM I've seen people take Healing Touch quite often (it's something at least half the psychics have taken if they could), but I've only seen Increased Healing taken once or twice, and usually because they have to choose more Healing Psionics and they've already taken all the ones they intend to actually use. So basically it would be a free power, but not one they use. But these are the groups I've experienced, so I am looking to other people. Do other people use it more actively? Are the above uses just theory (logically they work), or do you as a player actually try to take the power to use it for these reasons?


For some perspective, I'm doing some work on a possible submission which is why I ask and am trying to learn more. This is also why I said I don't want house rules. I have plenty of new ideas, but right now I'm focusing on what is there. That's why I want to learn more about it, and whether people (beyond my limited experience) actually use this ability. My main hang up has always been how long it takes. If I have time ISP isn't the issue, and if I don't have time then Increased Healing takes too long. But sometimes my thinking is limited and I need a new outlook. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings!

Let me see if I can help illustrate what I run into:

Senario: I am running a 5th Level Mind Melter from Rifts North America, with an excellent 22 ME and an ISP Total of 232 !

If I use Healing Touch enough to Heal 30 HP's and 63 SDC (average) on 3 NPC's, that is going to set me back a whopping 210 ISP !!! That is going to take me 17.5 Hours (standard 12/Hour rate) to regain! In the meantime: I am nearly HELPLESS!!! 22 ISP left!?!?! That is just when something bad happens and I need every scrap of ISP I can get! If a Monster attacks during Hour 4 of my Meditation from having spent 22 left, I'll have only 70 ISP to save my PC's life. Any Party Members' life that is threatened, as well as the NPC's that I just healed! 70 ISP isn't very much, and it CAN be worse: If the Monster shows up after only a half hour after I start Meditating, then, with on 22 ISP to my name, I may well perish, as 22 ISP is not enough to activate most of the really Super Psionics like TK Force Field, Psi-Sword and so forth. Yes, it's better to just use Healing Touch that much if you are SURE that you are safe! Not so good if you are in the wilderness.

In short, if I use Increased Healing on somebody, and a Monster shows up before I'm done with the first Patient, then I have lost either 10 ISP or NO ISP (depending on the GM's reading of these things). That means that I will have either 232 or 222 ISP!

I know that I would rather be at about 200 ISP at the start of a fight rather than 22 ISP!!! If you are in a reasonably safe area - friendly community, then Healing Touch til I need a break (usually at 50% ISP) or I'm done. Otherwise, I'd rather use Healing Touch to stablize then, use Increased Healing for the long term.

The "Pre-Emptive" use is sheer GENIUS! Wish I'd thought of it!

Thank you for your concideration!

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike

[Killer Cyborg]

The "Pre-Emptive" use is sheer GENIUS! Wish I'd thought of it!

Thank you.

If you ever want to know a use for a "useless" power, or creative uses of already useful powers, just ask me.
I can usually come up with something.

[Prysus]

Greetings and Salutations. I'll start by saying a few ponts have given me something to think about. While Increased Healing may still not be my personal cup of tea, if others actually use it and find it helpful, I can accept that. After all, that is what I really wanted to find out in the first place.

Senario: I am running a 5th Level Mind Melter from Rifts North America, with an excellent 22 ME and an ISP Total of 232 !

If I use Healing Touch enough to Heal 30 HP's and 63 SDC (average) on 3 NPC's, that is going to set me back a whopping 210 ISP !!! That is going to take me 17.5 Hours (standard 12/Hour rate) to regain! In the meantime: I am nearly HELPLESS!!! 22 ISP left!?!?!

I agree with this example. That is a horrible way to do it. The better way to do it is to use a few Healing Touchs, then meditate. Use a few more, then meditate some more. In your example ... that's 35 uses (if I did my math right). So, instead of spending all 210 ISP as fast as possible, do something a little more conservative. Use Healing Touch 6 times (for example, and used for the example because it's very easy number to work with). That's 2 each, and probably enough to stabilize them (if they need more to be stable, use a couple more, but as you said you'd use it to stabilize them anyways so this isn't necessarily applicable for the example). Now I'm down 36 ISP (6 uses). That leaves me with 196. Not as good as 222, but far from being horrible. Meditate for 3 hours, and you're back to full. There is a fair chance this will all be done before you used your Increased Healing the first time. Then rinse and repeat. This will still take only 17.5 hours. While yes, this will take time, using Increased Healing on 3 people and meditating to get your ISP back will take about 13 hours anyways. So while Healing Touch took a little longer, those 3 people are good to help me when trouble arrives now. The 3 people with Increased Healing are still badly injured for a few more days and far less use to me if something does come up before then.


For note: I'm only responding for the point of discussion. This is not to try and prove anyone wrong. As I've stated, I wanted to see what people do. While I may not agree on every aspect I respect the difference in opinion, and I did learn some new uses as well (like the "pre-emptive" uses). I have indeed found this thread useful, so please don't take this as blindly thinking my way is the only way.

At the very least, do we all agree that Increased Healing would probably be more useful without the 1D6 hour trance time? I'm not saying no trance time, just not twice (minimum) to twelves times as long as the next longest trance time. Or does anyone think that it's not too bad? Again, just trying to understand the mentality. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

[Killer Cyborg]

At the very least, do we all agree that Increased Healing would probably be more useful without the 1D6 hour trance time? I'm not saying no trance time, just not twice (minimum) to twelves times as long as the next longest trance time. Or does anyone think that it's not too bad? Again, just trying to understand the mentality. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

It doesn't render the power useless, but it certainly hobbles it quite a bit.
If nothing else, because of the unpredictability of it. You don't know when you start if you're going to be sitting there an hour, or 1/4 of the entire day.
1d4 hours would be better.
5d6x10 minutes would be better still, because even though the average time would be almost 3 hours, you'd at least know what to expect.

[GaredBattlespike]

Greetings and Salutations. I'll start by saying a few ponts have given me something to think about. While Increased Healing may still not be my personal cup of tea, if others actually use it and find it helpful, I can accept that. After all, that is what I really wanted to find out in the first place.

Senario: I am running a 5th Level Mind Melter from Rifts North America, with an excellent 22 ME and an ISP Total of 232 !

If I use Healing Touch enough to Heal 30 HP's and 63 SDC (average) on 3 NPC's, that is going to set me back a whopping 210 ISP !!! That is going to take me 17.5 Hours (standard 12/Hour rate) to regain! In the meantime: I am nearly HELPLESS!!! 22 ISP left!?!?!

I agree with this example. That is a horrible way to do it. The better way to do it is to use a few Healing Touchs, then meditate. Use a few more, then meditate some more. In your example ... that's 35 uses (if I did my math right). So, instead of spending all 210 ISP as fast as possible, do something a little more conservative. Use Healing Touch 6 times (for example, and used for the example because it's very easy number to work with). That's 2 each, and probably enough to stabilize them (if they need more to be stable, use a couple more, but as you said you'd use it to stabilize them anyways so this isn't necessarily applicable for the example). Now I'm down 36 ISP (6 uses). That leaves me with 196. Not as good as 222, but far from being horrible. Meditate for 3 hours, and you're back to full. There is a fair chance this will all be done before you used your Increased Healing the first time. Then rinse and repeat. This will still take only 17.5 hours. While yes, this will take time, using Increased Healing on 3 people and meditating to get your ISP back will take about 13 hours anyways. So while Healing Touch took a little longer, those 3 people are good to help me when trouble arrives now. The 3 people with Increased Healing are still badly injured for a few more days and far less use to me if something does come up before then.


For note: I'm only responding for the point of discussion. This is not to try and prove anyone wrong. As I've stated, I wanted to see what people do. While I may not agree on every aspect I respect the difference in opinion, and I did learn some new uses as well (like the "pre-emptive" uses). I have indeed found this thread useful, so please don't take this as blindly thinking my way is the only way.

At the very least, do we all agree that Increased Healing would probably be more useful without the 1D6 hour trance time? I'm not saying no trance time, just not twice (minimum) to twelves times as long as the next longest trance time. Or does anyone think that it's not too bad? Again, just trying to understand the mentality. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

Greetings!

I agree with what you have stated, mostly. I would only change the solution a little; Use Healing Touch 2 times on each of the 3 patients (Cost: 12 ISP, EACH for a total of 36/Heals: [Averages of] 3.5 HP's and 7 SDC) and then, after all 3 patients have back SOME HP's and SDC, then Increase Healing on each(Cost: 10 ISP each, totaling 30 more ISP and 21 Hours of meditation/Heals: average of 32 HP's/60 SDC over 5 days). Notice that I can always go back to use a bit more Healing Touch as needed, yest I will have spent only 66 ISP on the first day. That leaves me with 166 ISP! Much better!

Your ideas are interesting, and I welcome you to share more of them! That goes for you too, KillerCyborg!

Good Gaming, GaredBattlespike