Why is there Auto Healing

[OTIS]

I just came back from this game after playing Oblivion and realised how redundant auto healing is. It does not seem to add much to the game or make it any easier, in fact it seems to simply erase the need for healing spells.

1: Auto healing is too slow to be of use in combat.

2. While in combat potions are more useful than spells due to the time it takes to cast the spell and the fact that potions are generally more powerful and plentiful.

3: You start with the healing spell anyways, so you might as well just use that to heal yourself outside of combat.

4: Magicka always regenerates so you can keep on casting it as long as no hostiles are around until you are fulliy healed. Not to mention it increases the restoration skill.

5. The main skills in the restoration skill are the healing spells and the cure diesease and cure poison spells. With cure disease and cure poison being available only as potions that leaves only the healing spells.

Since potionss being more effective in combat than spells, and you can rely on auto-healing outside of combat, that renders healing spells completely useless.

The result of this is that Restoration is now practically a useless skill since healing is uesless and cure disease and cure posion are only available as potions. So why bother having auto healing if the only real thing it does is completely negate an entire tree of magic?

[Silvermane]

For vanilla Skyrim, what you say may be correct. Mods change everything.

1. I use SkyUI weapon groups to quickly switch to healing, heal, then switch back to weapons.

2. I use Immersive Potions so potions heal over time and don't stack.

3. I use ASIS to increase the difficulty so I'll die if I don't heal in combat.

5. I use Shouts and Magic Unleashed to make restoration more useful.

This video shows a fight in modded Skyrim where healing is absolutely essential to survive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPfI37mkd0Q
I died many times making that video so I can tell you that if I didn't heal my followers, all three of them would go down and I'd be next.

[portomilk]

Auto healing is more immersive, though. It's very slow healing anyways. If you use creation kit it'll tell you that you gain around 0.6 hp per second, it's unreliable if you're against real foes. It's also immersive and realistic to how are bodies work.

[Kruniac Zio]

Originally posted by portomilk:

Auto healing is more immersive, though. It's very slow healing anyways. If you use creation kit it'll tell you that you gain around 0.6 hp per second, it's unreliable if you're against real foes. It's also immersive and realistic to how are bodies work.

Except you're completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wrong, and human bodies don't heal a sword would in two hours.

[Arvyn]

I always thought that Auto-healing exist so players don't have to bother with manual healing outside of combat. You can talk to an NPC after finishing a quest with 50% HP, only for it to be full after you've completed the conversation. Though in my case, somehow my HP regen is too fast in endgame to the point where I single-handedly defeat three Legendary Dragons with barely any notable issues.

Some people may not like the idea since it renders magic useless, but of course there's mods to change preferences. And perhaps take this problem as a feedback to Bethesda for the VI to not repeating the same mistake releasing a game in half-finished state.

[gnewna]

Originally posted by »LLF« John Wesler:

Except you're completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wrong, and human bodies don't heal a sword would in two hours.

I tend to view the health pool as more a sort of 'ability to keep going', when it's exhausted you're vulnerable and open to a fatal blow. I mean, sword fights don't really work by hacking away at the other guy until you've chopped off enough bits that he keels over dead. You're either striking a killing blow or you're not, broadly speaking. (Well, unless you can cumulatively hit enough times to cause bleeding to death, I guess.)

[KamikaziFly]

Ordinator mod puts some great immersive perks into restoration.
I also use immersive creatures and deadly dragons to make things much harder.

Piddly auto-healing is nice when you stubb your toe on a basket, and you are sick of pulling out your heal spells due to baskets...

[KamikaziFly]

Originally posted by gnewna:

Originally posted by »LLF« John Wesler:

Except you're completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wrong, and human bodies don't heal a sword would in two hours.

I tend to view the health pool as more a sort of 'ability to keep going', when it's exhausted you're vulnerable and open to a fatal blow. I mean, sword fights don't really work by hacking away at the other guy until you've chopped off enough bits that he keels over dead. You're either striking a killing blow or you're not, broadly speaking. (Well, unless you can cumulatively hit enough times to cause bleeding to death, I guess.)

Very good point!

[gnewna]

Also, yeah, I like Restoration - plus, Sun Fire (Dawnguard - think that's the original name, I've mostly used it in Requiem though so the name might be changed??) is jolly useful against vampires/draugr etc, particularly as it only hurts undead, i.e. if a follower or other friendly NPC gets in the line of fire it only wastes magicka, doesn't harm them or cause them to aggro (by my understanding of it.)

It's certainly better with a perk overhaul/larger overhaul (such as Ordinator or Requiem) and/or a mod that adds more interesting spells to the game, but that's true of most/all skills, really. I heal during fights and after them, because it raises my Resto skill which lets me aim for some of the more interesting higher level perks (again, more so in a modded game with new perks, but even so, avoid death is pretty handy and I imagine ward absorb would be good if I didn't suck with wards - I know everyone hates wards but I know at least one person who can do very well with them, they do require a fair bit of patience though, which I rather lack.)