The Ultimate Regenerator?

[Doltan]

Lately, I've been equipping my barbarian with a load of regeneration equipment to see if this is a viable strategy. I'd be interested in your opinions on whether this is workable, and how you would make the "ultimate regenerating PC".

So far, my guy uses blackrazor, a ring of Gax, a ring of regeneration, and some stone that gives regeneration (sorry, forgot the name). They all seem to work together, as far as I can tell.

[koz-ivan]

don't forget potion of regeneration. tob has an axe that regenerates too.

[humanflyz]

Are regeneration cumalative. I mean, can you have Ring of Gaxx and other weapons that regenerate, will the regeneration be added?

[Doltan]

Regeneration being cummulative seems to be my experience and is really the key point of this question. If it isn't cummulative, then why build a super regenerator?

By the way, my guy also has 22 CON (19 as a half-orc, +2 from hell, and +1 from something else). Isn't that supposed to give him some kind of natural regerating ability as well?

[HighLordDave]

Doltan-
According to the old rules (this must have been my day for dusting off old books) published in Monster Manual II (Gary Gygax; Lake Geneva, WI: TSR Inc. Books, 1983, p.7) a CON score of 22 should give you a regeneration of 1 HP every 4 turns (40 minutes game time) or about six times faster than a normal person. A CON of 22 should also give you +2 to save vs. poison.

Converted into real time, that means you should regenerate 1 HP every 4 minutes. By comparison, a Ring of Regeneration heals you 1 HP every 3 seconds (real time) or 2 HP per round. There are 10 rounds in a turn, so the ring heals you every 20 HP every turn, or 80 HP in the time it would take your natural CON to heal you 1 HP.

Still, without any healing other than plain bed rest, you heal 1 HP per day. That means that your character with a CON of 22 heals about six times faster than a normal person.

[fable]

Definitely cumulative. My party has 2 rings of regen and an ioun stone. When the rings are worn by the same person, the regen rate is easily double that of wearing only one ring.

[sigurd]

You are wrong about CON and regeneration. i have 21 and get a HP every 20 or 30 sec. 22 should be faster.

[Dimensional]

OK I think that high lord dave's stats are from 1st ed - I also remember a higher rate of regeneration for high con somthing like 1hp/turn for a con of 20 = 6 hp per hour game time = 1 hp/min real time higher con should be faster.

also regenerating items i can remeber from BGII SOA (haven't finnished TOB yet)

Ring or regeneration
Ring of Gaxx(faster than ring of regeneration i seem to remeber)
Ioun stone (pale green I think but could be wrong)
blackrazor
dragonslayer longsword(can't remeber it's exact name)
cloak of the sewers (use to turn into a troll) - although i don't now if this will stack with other regeneration
can't think of any regenerating boots, armour, bracers or amuluts

the question is however is the regeneration from all of this enough to counterbalance the los of abilities/hits taken because of not using other perhaps more useful items.

be interested to see how you get on with this.

[Armadin of Clan Geddin]

Wong Fei's Ioun Stone
Ring o'Regeneration
Ring o'Gaxx
Blackrazor
Axe o'the Unyieldin'

=> 41 hp/ 30 secs

Pretty good, though not even near The Nameless One.

[Silvanerian]

I've had an odd experience with the cloak of the sewers.
If your character is hasted when he turns into a troll, he regenerate twice as fast. Well, mine did anyway. (could be a bug that has been taken care of, and I just haven't downloaded it yet)

-Silvanerian

[beaver_cheese]

Well, the haste spell is supposed to double the rate of time passage for anyone affected by the spell, which is why you get pooped if you keep using the spell (no such drawbacks for improved invisibility). Since time goes twice as fast, shouldn't it be logical that you heal twice as fast? Just my opinion.

[Doltan]

Originally posted by Dimensional:
<STRONG>
dragonslayer longsword(can't remeber it's exact name)

be interested to see how you get on with this.</STRONG>

I forgot about the dragonslayer. If I wanted to be true to the regenerator aspect, I'd have to give up using crom faeyr.

My experience so far has been very positive. Keep in mind, however, that my barbarian has 210+ hp at level 23 (forgive me if I get the specifics wrong, I'm at work), is dual wielding crom faeyr and blackrazor, has a -5 or -6 base AC (high dex plus some good non-plate armor), and has some high natural resistances to damage types as a barbarian. If the battles lasted a bit longer or if he had fewer hp, then the regenerating strategy wouldn't work so well. As is, however, he kills just about everything quickly (and in bunches), typically takes 60-80% damage against the real baddies, and then shoots back up in hp without ever having to rest. My estimate is that any given battle where he nears death (80% of his total hp) reflects about 120-150% of his total hp in actual damage done to him. If he had a better AC and resistances, but had a lesser ability to deal damage, he could last a long time. It's a pretty fun strategy, but doesn't exactly require a lot of skill. Keep in mind that it's good to wear complementary armor that increases resistances to hold, fear, charm, and death magic. Damage can be absorbed, but these other things incapacitate.

Also, I've tried a similar regenerating strategy with my illusionist/thief solo PC. My experience in that case is that I can make him sufficiently un-hittable (with blur, stoneskin, etc.) that he regenerates hp as fast as he takes damage, which is to say, quite slowly. The only bad thing about this strategy, where battles last a long time, is that the spell protections occasionally wear off.

Well, just thought I'd throw that out there. I'm always on the look-out for alternative strategies. Thanks for all of the interesting replies.

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: Doltan ]

[Craig]

Don't forgett the spell!