RazanMG wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:18 pm
Why spellcaster with all his possibilities should be almost as hard to kill as war specialist?
As "Warrior" I would be really unhappy, Hit Points Bag is my role. That's not balancing, its simply making spellcasters harder to kill.
Let me offer a different perspective.
ED Health Ratings are a bit of a dichotomy. On one hand, it limits how much damage you take. In that, most definitely, the Utility and Combat Disciplines deserve to be able to take more damage. On the other hand, though, it limits how often you get to use a multitude of Talents - basically, much of the "cool" stuff, especially that you get as you increase in Circle, with costs often increasing for higher Circle Talents. In that, I am very much against the idea that Utility and Combat Disciplines should get to do their "cool" stuff more often. However, since it all comes from the same pool, the only way Magicians can do more "cool" is to increase their Health Rating, which also happens to increase how much damage they can take.
This topic is of the reasons that I'm pretty heavily opposed to the ED4 "Hold Thread." 1 Strain per turn to do something [hold a 'weapon' at the read] non-Magicians get to do for free, and 1 Strain per turn for the Discipline group that is least able to absorb that kind of Strain accumulation. It's ... not pleasant.
While there's no right/wrong way to play, I think cost models like this, along with the widespread use of Strain as cost in higher-Circle Talents, pretty much drives the majority of Magician to use a Group Thread for Durability Improvement.
Regardless, big Health Ratings aren't the only defining characteristic of the more Combat-y Disciplines, it's just one metric. Given the other things involved, especially whether your table allows Magicians to use Shields, I don't think Magicians will be stealing the "I stand and get hit" roll any time soon.