[Kirk]

Poor Steve, he throws some bait in the water and the sharks attack! ;)

But really, all good ideas here, and after a overflight jets interrupted sleep am thinking that either we need to leave healing spells out completely or risk some fundamental changes, not necessarily good ones, to TFT OR perhaps have a somewhat equivalent spell or spells that mimic Physicker and Master Physicker talent.

There are already precedents for this, whether silent movement or door unlocking, etc.

So maybe something along the lines of two spells to avoid the IQ plateauing I mentioned, and have them mimic an equivalent talent in a wizardly way, though. Rope and Greater Rope (I can't remember its name) come to mind.

Something, roughly, like IQ 14 Heal that costs a set amount for living creatures under 20 basic ST, say 3 points to heal 2 points, and IQ 16 Greater Healing for creatures of any ST, 3 points to heal 3 points.

One could limit the healing to a Physicker-like approach, one spell per incident of damage, to keep things from becoming ridiculous, as has been mentioned, with cleric style characters as Insta-Heal abusers.

The two spells allow for a *reduction* of damage, like Physicker, and then that's it. Over several combats, it can be critical to keeping the Party moving, albeit at a reduced effectiveness, as it should be. Often Physicker is helpful to bring someone who is a dead weight unconscious fellow to being able to move on his own, or to avoid ST penalties (like -3) to low ST characters.

I don't think healing should be much more than this, for all of the reasons previously stated in this and other posts.