Refresh actions heal very little vitality?

[elbkhm]

Am I reading the rules incorrectly, or are refresh actions really bad?  Give up your opportunity to act, to maybe regain some vitality and wounds, IF you're not targeted by any attacks that round?  It's a hard sell to begin with, but when you only regain 1 action die worth of vitality, I don't understand why anyone would ever do it, except maybe at level 1.

By level 3, even a 10 con Mage should have 18 Vitality.  1d4 exploding means, if successful, their refresh action would restore (on average) 3 or 4 hit points (20% of total).  And this gets worse and worse as you get higher level.  To illustrate, a level 20 soldier with 14 Con would have 280 vitality, and would regain 6-7 (2% of total) from a refresh action.

Am I reading this right?  If I am, does any have any suggestions for house rules to make this a little more useful (maybe multiply result by career level?  Or 1/2 career level?)  Is the main benefit the fact that it restores wounds as well?

[Agent 333]

Frankly I see AD healing as something to do with your leftover AD at the end of the session. Almost never does it happen in combat.

[Krensky]

I've seen it done a few times for the wound healing. It's also worth noting that Lancers, Martial Artists, Dwarves made of stone, and Qi chain users have bonuses or special rules that make it more useful.

It's largely for recovering wounds in combat though.

[Mister Andersen]

Yeah, refresh actions are basically that bit where the hero tucks their guts back inside their abdomens and press on.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

It's also important for those types of characters who have problems with magical healing: elves, constructs, and undead.

[Krensky]

Burden of Ages applies to all Vitality recover, natural, magical, action die based.
Constructs and undead heal Vitality normally, so they benefit from that part of magical healing.

[Sletchman]

If I am, does any have any suggestions for house rules to make this a little more useful (maybe multiply result by career level?  Or 1/2 career level?)  Is the main benefit the fact that it restores wounds as well?

It is a bit shit, but the idea to multiply it by career level is pretty interesting.  I kinda like it.

I've only ever seen it in games where the player has something that keys off it (like a feat/class ability that uses a refresh action to achieve something that isn't just a few HP).

[Coyote0273]

Also depends on the game and character. Right now I have a chance monkey in my game, and I'm using the Campaign Quality that has dice explode on highest and lowest. So if my monkey refreshes, he'll get 20 or 30 points out of a d4 action dice, since it explodes on 1, 3, and 4. 

[tfwfh]

Yes, the main purpose of the Refresh action is to regain wounds.  It's also worth noting that not every party will have frequent access to magical healing.  Priests may may not have the Path of Life, or may not have 2+ steps along it.  Mages may not know healing spells, or at least not good ones.  A party might not even have a caster, or the setting might not have magic at all.  Remember that magic is a campaign quality after all.

For a certain kind of game, there is a definite appeal to needing to fall back when you're injured and relying on the defense of your companions to keep you safe long enough to catch your breath.

[Krensky]

Plus, never count a Martial Artist with action dice down until they're dead. 

[magustoad]

Plus, never count a Martial Artist with action dice down until they're dead. 

Hehe.  This ^ 

One of our group took a really nasty crit and survived the day from the MA's core skill.

[elbkhm]

Plus, never count a Martial Artist with action dice down until they're dead. 

But the martial artist best exemplifies this problem to me!

Let's say you have a level 10 Martial Artist, with 10 Con.  They should have 120 vitality. They get beaten down to 20 vitality, and the party mage is already down.  They decide now is the time for a refresh action!  They refresh, burn ALL their action dice, roll their 4d6, and get back 17 vitality, putting them at 37.

So, in exchange for their turn, and all their action dice, they get back about 15% of their vitality.  Which amounts to, what, 1 hit?  1.5?  Less than one?

Yes, the main purpose of the Refresh action is to regain wounds.  It's also worth noting that not every party will have frequent access to magical healing.  Priests may may not have the Path of Life, or may not have 2+ steps along it.  Mages may not know healing spells, or at least not good ones.  A party might not even have a caster, or the setting might not have magic at all.  Remember that magic is a campaign quality after all.

For a certain kind of game, there is a definite appeal to needing to fall back when you're injured and relying on the defense of your companions to keep you safe long enough to catch your breath.

Absolutely, I agree!  And it's for these reasons I wish the Refresh action actually did restore a respectable amount of Vitality, at least 1/4 or 1/2 of total.  I mean, it's a risky manoeuvre to begin with, since if an enemy attacks you, you lose the opportunity altogether.  A risk like that needs a worthwhile reward, otherwise you're better off just using your turn to attack, and hope you don't get hit, or using Total Defense or something.

[tfwfh]

That's a fair point.  In most games, the Refresh action just isn't the main way a party will heal itself, but in a very limited magic, or non-magic setting, a better Refresh action might be necessary.  For such a game you might house rule that in addition to the normal healing from Refresh, you also gain VP equal to your career level.  Or perhaps that you get the maximum for each action die you spend.

Let's say you have a level 10 Martial Artist, with 10 Con.  They should have 120 vitality. They get beaten down to 20 vitality, and the party mage is already down.  They decide now is the time for a refresh action!  They refresh, burn ALL their action dice, roll their 4d6, and get back 17 vitality, putting them at 37.

So, in exchange for their turn, and all their action dice, they get back about 15% of their vitality.  Which amounts to, what, 1 hit?  1.5?  Less than one?

Frankly in that situation, Healing probably is the wrong use of the Martial Artist's turn and action dice.  If the healer is down and one of the main fighters is almost down, this party needs to put an end to this fight.  That probably means running away, and in that case, the Martial Artists turn would be better spent recovering the mage and his Action Dice would be better spent boosting his defense.

You should also consider that Refresh is only a little worse than other sources of healing.  FC has this in common with 3e DnD.  Unless a member of the party is assured to not survive the next hit they take, the healer's time and resources are almost guaranteed to be better spent trying to eliminate the enemy and prevent them from doing more damage rather than patching up the damage that's already been done.  That applies whether you're the mage healing other people, or the soldier healing yourself.