[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

[*]In order to be exciting/fun, fights have to be difficult. There should be at least a perceived risk of player characters dying and/or of the heroes being defeated and starting the next session in some unpleasant situation like being enslaved and trying to think of a way to escape from a salt mine.

I totally agree with this. My games tend to have a fair body count and I really think that a genuine fear of character death creates the dramatic tension that generally makes campaigns successful.

[*]In order to avoid long boring pauses in the game, wounded characters need to more or less full health at the next fight. In particular we want to avoid a situation where some of the party is healthy and wishes to continue, but are held back by the most wounded members.

Agreed. I'm personally ambivalent about allowing healing during combat. As noted, I want the ability to heal between fights, though not necessarily completely.

As an aside, here's a sudden thought. Create a Healing spell that requires several minutes to cast (therefore they won't work during combat).

It will restore ST lost from physical damage up to the figure's starting ST. Another casting (in the same 24 hour period) will restore ST to starting ST minus 2. A third casting will restore to starting ST minus 4. And so on.

A recipient of a healing spell cannot be further healed by a physicker/master physicker. If the figure is injured again, he can be healed by another healing spell OR by a physicker/master physicker (but not both).

Example - Bob has ST12. After a combat he's down to ST3. A healing spell is cast and he is restored to his starting ST, or 12. In the next combat, he takes 4 points of damage and is at ST8. After that, a healing spell is cast on him, and his ST is restored to starting ST-2, or ST 10. He takes 5 points of damage in a third combat. A third healing spell is cast and his ST is restored to starting ST-4 or ST 8. At this point, he's starting to think hard about leaving the dungeon. Instead, he decides to drink 2 doses of healing potion, raising his ST to 10. He takes 7 points of damage in a 4th combat, then receives a 4th healing spell, which restores him to ST 6.

I would also limit the amount of ST restored to (say) 18.

This creates a diminishing returns situation, which might be good. It is a bit fiddly, though.

[*]For various reasons I can enumerate if required we don't want player characters dying very often.

…[*]Therefore, bring on the easy convenient effective healing as Steve proposes. In fact, make it easier and even more convenient.

Well, I agree with the sentiment, but I really don't think Steve's spell is very useful, for reasons I already covered. If an average high level wizard has (say) ST 12, you'll use 50% of his ST to heal a paltry 2 points. I just don't see that as very useful.

Gotta run; will respond to other items in detail later. But I largely agree with you.