Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Suggestion: Auto-Heal After Combat

Hi Everyone!

First off - Thank you Larian for bringing us the greatness that is Divinity: Original Sin. Thank you also for aiming so high with DOS 2.

My suggestion is a time-saver since I've heard you are trying to make combat more fast-paced. One of the biggest time sinks in DOS for me was healing after combat (number 2 after searching for those damnable hard to find switches).

I'd love to see everyone just auto-heal after combat without using any skills/potions, but that may make the game too easy. How about, instead, your characters automatically use whatever healing spells they have to heal up after combat. That way, I don't have to keep an eye on cooldowns just to make sure I don't get stomped in the next battle.

Make it work! You guys are great, thank you again.

Something like an autocast which only applies on healing sells out-of combat, you mean?

With multiple character knowing healing spells, it shouldn't take very long to heal after most combat. Automatic healing would just remove any difference between doing well and barely getting through alive. Personally, I think it is fine when each fight is meant to be a separate puzzle / challenge, but dislike it in games where you are exploring open areas.

I recall extending a fight because a character already low in health got hit with a damage over time spell. I didn't kill the last bad guy until I threw an extra healing spell on character to make sure he didn't die once things went back to real time. Adds an extra element to the turn based system.

I'm also against this. Makes healing skills useless and that way compromises diversion.

I don't like this as gameplay becomes too easy. I've seen this feature in some jRPGs before and is likely used due to the endless fights and grinding = non-stop potion gulping. And also, in the older games with limited save points.

Not that I'm in favor of this idea, but what he actually said was auto-heal OUT of combat. There's still plenty of need to heal during combat or else you will die. Auto-healing is often used in games which tune the combat difficulty so that most fights are a challenge.

Yes, I know he meant OUT of combat. Doesn't change the fact, that this for example would affect the outcome of a fight. I.E. - half dead would be the same as almost untouched, and very well influence consecutive fights.

Edit:
Or in other words, as long as you don't take a lethal amount of damage during a fight you would never need a real healing skill.

(Again, not saying I agree with the OP, but) In the OP, he recognized that a free heal without skills or potions might be OP, so he suggested an auto-use of healing spells that the party already has.

In D:OS 1, I just finished a fight with a bunch of people half-dead, and it didn't matter much because I used healing spells to get everyone back up to full.

As long as someone has a healing spell available, I think it's quite harmless to auto-heal everyone once a fight is done. I remember it was partly annoying to fully heal everyone after a hard fight, waiting for the cooldown between each cast. And that was only with 2 chars.

Maybe after a few seconds have passed though, as I can envision a few exploits with this suggestion, like getting into combat on purpose just to get the auto-heal. For, like, getting through a trap-filled room or something.

This proposed feature would play havoc with a party member's ability to backstab one another (competitive gameplay).

In one of Larain's demonstration videos they showcased a party member happening upon (and killing) another party member who was standing around wounded after finishing a difficult battle. ( https://youtu.be/-QGsmYQaM88?t=188 ) Toss auto-healing into the mix and opportunities like that go poof.

Another example shown was Swen coloring a poison potion to look like a healing potion and sneaking it into Thomas's inventory. From players being annoyed that the game automatically uses (or avoids) such potions during post-battle auto-healing, to the game auto-healing up the damage from such a trick far quicker than a sabotaged and confused player might react, there's just all kind of issues that pop up here.

While I personally have no use for competitive gameplay, it seems to be a pretty large part of D:OS 2's design and needs to be kept in mind when determining how suggestions can impact balance.

Actually, I'm more partial of going the OTHER way, hardcore style.

No auto-regeneration of HP or Mana at all. If you want more, use potions, rest, etc.
But out-of-combat healing can even be a negative for you since you would enter the next battle with less mana.
Probably not going to happen since spells are AP rather than mana-based though (no objection from me for both ;))