Thread: HEAL spell?
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Old 05-30-2018, 05:19 AM   #46
tbeard1999
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Tyler, Texas
Default Healing in the Dungeon Crawl

As noted, I think that the main purpose of healing spells should be to enable the classic dungeon crawl. Otherwise, I think that the existing physicker/master physicker talents (or magical equivalents) are more than adequate. (I would, however, allow some version of Rick's magical healing that speeds up recovery between adventures).

A look at the iconic dungeon crawling RPG, AD&D, will show why I designed the spells the way I did.

I always assumed that starting TFT characters were about the equivalent of 2nd level AD&D characters, so that's the basis of this comparison.*

In the examples below, assume that the AD&D fighter is 2nd level and has 11 hp; the starting TFT fighter has ST 11-12; the AD&D cleric has 4 1st level spells (Wisdom 14+); and that the TFT wizard has ST 10, DX10.

The basic AD&D healing spell, Cure Light Wounds, heals 4.5 hit points on average. If the cleric takes 4 cure light wounds spells, he can cure 18 hp of damage. That's 1.6 times the hit points of an average AD&D 2nd level fighter or TFT starting fighter.

To give a TFT wizard roughly the same healing ability as the cleric, you have to take into account the ST cost of the spell and the fact that a TFT wizard has a 50% chance of casting the spell successfully while the cleric's spells are always successful.

To match Cure Light Wounds, a TFT healing spell should cost 1 ST and heal 3.6 ST. The TFT wizard will use 10 ST to successfully cast 5 spells and fail at casting 5 spells. Those 5 successful spells will heal 18 pts of ST.

By comparison, my cinematic healing spells only heal 2 points of damage per ST used casting, so they are only about half as powerful as Cure Light Wounds.

As noted, I don't think that Steve's healing spell -- 3 ST expended to heal 1 point of damage -- is gonna be very useful. Most of the time, I think a party would almost always be better off firing a 3d lightning spell at an opponent. I'd usually rather do 10 points of damage to the enemy than heal 1 ST on a friend.

*Note: I calibrated this many years ago by comparing combat performance between AD&D and TFT fighters. A 2nd level AD&D fighter, with broadsword, scale and small shield will last about 7 rounds against an identical foe; a ST11, DX 13(10) TFT fighter with broadsword, chain and small shield will last about 7.3 turns against an armored foe. Based on these kind of matchups, I estimate that 2 TFT points very roughly work out to 1 AD&D level.

Last edited by tbeard1999; 05-30-2018 at 11:15 AM.
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