Hello all. I am Lady Saga, and I'd like to talk about Skyrim's health regeneration.

This is one of those topics that attracted a lot of controversy last summer when we all got the official Tweet from Pete. It's Pete that sends the Tweets for Bethesda, right? Or did I get that wrong?

Anyways, first time I heard about it, I was doubtful. But the main reasons I like it are the following

(1). It's not as fast as everyone assumed it would be. During combat especially, it moves too slow to make a difference. Healing spells and sometimes LOTS of potions are still necessary.

(2). Automatic regeneration allows me to spend even more time with my characters.

In Oblivion, we waited an hour to get back to full health, assuming our character didn't heal up. What happens during this hour? Is the PC sleeping? Meditating? Reading a book? Sitting off in a corner, paranoid as hell, waiting for another enemy to show up?

But in Skyrim, I'm finding myself waiting less and less. I much prefer to spend that hour with my character. Whether he or she is walking along the road taking in some air after a bandit raid, sitting at a table eating some apples, or whatever, the roleplay is non-stop, and during this roleplay my character is healing up.

If it's assumed (in Oblivion, DnD, and other games where we wait to heal) that during the time we wait, a natural healing process is taking place, why should we not get to witness this natural healing process?


Thank you.

I always turn it off with a console command. I prefer to heal my characters myself. The are plenty of healing potions to be found in the game, and it is easy enough to create your own once you know what to look for. Besides, they give you a healing spell to start with. I prefer to use that and raise my Restoration skill at the same time. Otherwise it feels like all of my characters are Wolverine, and have some mutant healing power.

Even with the health regeneration, I find Aravi would rather use her magicka to speed up the process. It's still painful after all.

In Oblivion I used a small mod that added in a very slow health recovery. It wasn't as fast as Skyrim's even in combat, but it was a little something.

I find that it’s a non-issue in my vanilla console game. It’s not enough to keep me from healing after a fight (which would be bad), but it is enough so that I can just ignore the annoying stubbed-toe-on-skeleton events.

I guess I see it as a mortal's natural healing power, along the lines of shrugging off a bruise in the game's accelerated time scale rather than re-growing a severed limb or something.

I don't particularly notice it in regards to my characters. After a fight I very nearly always heal right up to full. I have seen the version on followers that has occasionally made me raise an eyebrow.

So I guess I'm down to, 'Health Regen? Never notice it.'

I never had a problem with waiting an hour on Oblivion...It was just What You Do In The Game...Like fast travel...It's what you do...*Shrug*...

The regeneration in Skyrim is good 'cause either you can restore yourself with a spell if you want, or you can amble and like Grits said, anything minor will be dealt with...

I'm quite happy with that meself...For me though, I think there are far more major issues with Skyrim, that are way more important than worrying about the health regen... ...For me though...It's not a snipy comment btw...Just so you know... ...

@SubRosa: I get what you're saying, and some of my characters (my magic-oriented ones) do indeed still use regular magics and potions to heal. I sometimes do still use the wait feature at times.

But I also had a couple fighter characters who were melee-only, used absolutely no spells. With these characters, auto-regen came in handy at times because this means the potions were now being saved. It sucks running out of potions. If the battle is actually over, and Thor could wind up saving a potion or 2 while he investigates the room, and eventually wind up with full health, it increases the roleplay value. For me.

I'm not saying waiting breaks immersion for me, but it's not as immersive as spending 100% of this time with my character.



There ya go. If waiting an hour is supposed to be able to heal, if our characters have some sort of natural healing power, why can't we spend this time with our characters to witness it occuring? That's why I think Beth included this in the first place.




Oh, I agree about far more major issues. But as my first thread at Chorrol, I didnt' want it to be super-controversial. I just wanted to share my basic conclusion as to why auto-health was implemented

I'll admit, my inner warrior unleashed himself in Skyrim! I usually only play as mages, so I love the auto-health, I really can't tell the difference unless my character is running for his life and the battle takes a long time.
And it also helps for those warriors that never use magic!