Heal + Heighten

[Micron]

As always, I apologize if this has been discussed before, I've run a quick search and couldn't find anything.

It appears that Heighten has no effect on Heal and Mass Heal, yet it increases their spell point cost, which is a bit unfortunate. For those of us who like to heighten their offensive spells or max their RS healing aura, this means either wasting a noticeable amounts of spell points or frequently turning Heighten on and off, which is tedious.

Did I miss something or is there any workaround for this? If not, it would probably be worth suggesting for devs to disable Heighten for the Heal and Mass Heal spells, sort of like they did for Maximize and FoD back in the day. In any case, the meta shouldn't increase the spell point cost if it doesn't enhance the effect.

[thegreatneil]

Healing spells have a Dc (half damage, will save) to damage undead.

Channels powerful positive energy into a target to wipe away injury and afflictions, restore 10 hit points per caster level (up to a max of 150 hit points at caster level 15), and remove ability damage and the conditions blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, and poisoned. Against undead this spell acts as Harm. Undead who make a successful Will save reduce the damage by half.\n\nD&D Dice: Heals 10 hp per caster level (max 150).

*Note*
I have no idea why heighten would affect a lvl 9 spell (mass heal)

[Calebro]

It's allowable because Heal is an offensive spell as well when used against undead. It's the opposite of the Harm spell if used against us (or living mobs). These undead get a save for it for half damage. Any highly (subjective use here) damaging spell that allows a save for half damege can be Heightened to increase the DC of said save.

[Fishcatch22]

Would it be too much trouble to make it not affect a spell if it heals, rather than harms the target?

[Calebro]

Would it be too much trouble to make it not affect a spell if it heals, rather than harms the target?

By the time the individual effect is taken into account the SP is already spent.
Cast > spend sp > target rolls save > healing/damage is calculated
You're asking to modify the cost of step 2 based on what happens in step 4
The game doesn't differentiate between healing and harming, it's simply a blast of positive energy. The mobs' reaction to that energy shouldn't affect the cost from the game's point of view.

If you throw a Maxed, Empowered, Heightened Cone of Cold against a Frostmarrow Knight, it still gets Heightened. Some concept.

[Micron]

Oh right, I didn't think of that. It increases the DC when used as an offensive spell against the undead.

Still a bit unfortunate imo considering how often it's used to heal vs to cause damage, but it makes sense. Thanks for the replies!

(And yes, Mass H can't be heightened as it's max level already. Sorry about that, it's still early morning here, brain cells are only waking up. )

[arjiwan]

Thank you for this post. I always have heighten on (coz im lazy). Eventhough I also heal the undead, I have this meta always turned on in non-undead themed quests.

Kinda still shocked I am wasting all those sp for nothing.

Thanks again =)

[Micron]

To be honest, I wouldn't bother with Heighten anymore if it wasn't for the healing aura. Other than that I only use it for Destruction and BB. In epic content you don't use Destruction at all and you hardly ever kite stuff through BB as you usually want to stun/hold/CC everything and have the melees take it down. The few extra hit points it does on the healing aura are nice though.
However, last night I was healing the Sally group in ToD and I kept Heighten on for the aura to heal the guys flanking the boss while I was chucking spot Heals on the tank. It was a hate tanking barb with no AC, so quite a few Heals needed and I realized how much mana I was wasting.

So.. Either turn Heighten off when I know I'll be spot healing a lot, or give it up completely and take something else I suppose.

[Anthorin]

Would it be too much trouble to make it not affect a spell if it heals, rather than harms the target?

Ah, but what about a group fighting a load of undead and you cast mass heal in the middle. Your group get healed but the mobs get harmed. It will start to get messy.......

[ElfedLied4]

I'm taking the thread on a tangent.

For those of us who like to heighten their offensive spells or max their RS healing aura

I wouldn't bother with Heighten anymore if it wasn't for the healing aura...The few extra hit points it does on the healing aura are nice though...I kept Heighten on for the aura to heal the guys flanking the boss while...

http://ddowiki.com/page/Heighten_Spell

I haven't played too much with my RS cleric, but I don't see what effect heighten should have on auras.

(more of an aside, but I'd also like to know which of the metas effect the aura and burst [especially if aura and burst have different metas effect them] . I've heard that extend was patched to no longer effect auras, but a list all in one place would be appreciated.)

[Micron]

I'm taking the thread on a tangent.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Heighten_Spell

I haven't played too much with my RS cleric, but I don't see what effect heighten should have on auras.

(more of an aside, but I'd also like to know which of the metas effect the aura and burst [especially if aura and burst have different metas effect them] . I've heard that extend was patched to no longer effect auras, but a list all in one place would be appreciated.)

I could swear I played with aura and heighten a couple months ago and was convinced it was boosting it by a couple hit points per tick. However, I just tested this in game again and I must have been horribly mistaken then because it does indeed do nothing. Either I was seeing things or they have changed it recently, in any case I can confirm that Heighten has no effect whatsoever on the aura at the moment.

So you can happily ignore everything I previously said about that in this thread... And I can happily turn Heighten off when I'm healing and only turn it on when I'm using offensive spells.