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Old 12-06-2014, 07:30 PM   #1
Rasputin
 
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Default [DF] Healing salves and teas

In an effort to speed up healing in our game (which tends to be slow at the characters' low point levels), one of the players proposed having lower-cost healing salves and teas. These would need preparation, so no one could use them in combat. I ruled these would be part of a First Aid roll to treat shock and thus replace the 1d-3 HP roll with 1d HP (a healing salve) or 2d HP (a healing tea). What I'd like to know is what folks think the cost of these should be? The player who came up with these said they should be half cost, though I'm not sure the lack of speed makes up half the cost.
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Old 12-07-2014, 01:20 AM   #2
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

Half cost seems pretty reasonable to me, as long as there are some restrictions on uses per day - maybe 2x/day for the salve, and 1x/day for the tea. Or possibly a penalized First Aid roll or HT roll to receive any benefit from the second and succeeding applications.
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Old 12-07-2014, 03:16 AM   #3
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

I've converted everything to character points. Healing items use the Healing Advantage with Capped FP, and Recipient Pays FP (which I don't put a cost on since I allow the recipient to reject healing with an HT roll) Then I add 1 use with Slow Reload. Apply that to $10 per CP and I'm done.
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Old 12-07-2014, 07:45 AM   #4
Peter V. Dell'Orto
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

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Originally Posted by Rasputin View Post
I ruled these would be part of a First Aid roll to treat shock and thus replace the 1d-3 HP roll with 1d HP (a healing salve) or 2d HP (a healing tea). What I'd like to know is what folks think the cost of these should be? The player who came up with these said they should be half cost, though I'm not sure the lack of speed makes up half the cost.
Half cost isn't crazy, especially if the time to use is 30 minutes. That would still be $60 and $125 a dose, which is quite high, and would be hard to abuse. Using, say, the salve + a minor healing potion would heal 2d, cost $180, and take 30 minutes and a First Aid roll for half of that healing. Two minor healing potions would cost $240 and heal in under 10 seconds. Half cost might be expensive for all of that.
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Old 12-07-2014, 10:51 AM   #5
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

If there's a strict limit to how much of it you can effectively use - one dose per day, for instance, or perhaps any particular collection of wounds can only be healed once, period - go ahead and make it super cheap.

If there's no such limit and you can heal major damage by chugging a kettle full of tea, half cost might be a bargain.
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Old 12-07-2014, 11:12 AM   #6
whswhs
 
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

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Originally Posted by Rasputin View Post
In an effort to speed up healing in our game (which tends to be slow at the characters' low point levels), one of the players proposed having lower-cost healing salves and teas. These would need preparation, so no one could use them in combat. I ruled these would be part of a First Aid roll to treat shock and thus replace the 1d-3 HP roll with 1d HP (a healing salve) or 2d HP (a healing tea). What I'd like to know is what folks think the cost of these should be? The player who came up with these said they should be half cost, though I'm not sure the lack of speed makes up half the cost.
If you can gather the herbs in the wild, they cost nothing. If you can find them in town, in the market, they would cost maybe 10-20%, unless they're exotic imported herbs, which would cost nearly as much as the usual preparation—the waiting time is compensated for by the greater effectiveness, especially with the teas. The first two options require respectively a Naturalist roll and a Scrounging roll, in addition to the First Aid roll.

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Old 12-07-2014, 11:52 AM   #7
johndallman
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

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Originally Posted by Rasputin View Post
... lower-cost healing salves and teas. These would need preparation, so no one could use them in combat. I ruled these would be part of a First Aid roll to treat shock and thus replace the 1d-3 HP roll with 1d HP (a healing salve) or 2d HP (a healing tea).
In low-level D&D games long ago, where a 1d6+1 healing potion cost 500gp, for the same price you could get six "healing balm." Each of those would cure 1 d6 points, from a single wound, at 1 point per ten minutes. This worked fairly well: the fast potions were still useful in combat, but the balm gave a party more endurance without increasing their capability in a single fight. Obviously, the hit point and cost scales are different in DF.
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Old 12-08-2014, 09:41 AM   #8
Kromm
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

I see nothing wrong with a couple of the models proposed here:
  • Super-cheap, reasonably effective (1d to 2d HP), slow (30 minutes to an hour), but useful only once per day. To define "super-cheap," I'd start with the cost of a bandage ($10 for 6) and apply the 5× for good-quality equipment for 1d or the 20× for fine-quality equipment for 2d. That would come to $8.33 for 1d or $33.33 for 2d. I'd probably call that $10 and $40 in a published work. As this works just once a day, the question of "Why not use two 1d cures for $20 instead of a 2d cure for $40?" will almost never come up, unless someone is so hurt that they need multiple days to get better despite healing spells . . . in which case it's still nice to spend $40 to heal 2d in 0.5-1 hour instead of $20 to heal 2d in 24.5 to 25 hours.

  • Somewhat cheap, reasonably effective (1d HP), slow (30 minutes to an hour), and stackable. Stackable cures force the issue of "What's better? Lots of small ones or one big one?" Bigger healing potions have huge price tags because they're instant – it's much more useful to take a Ready to pull out, a Ready to open, and a Ready to drink once in a battle than two times (six turns) or four times (12 turns!), especially when you're about to pass out. After-combat cures don't have this tactical dimension, so the cost premium isn't as sensible. I'd be inclined to define "somewhat cheap" as $60 for 1d (half the price of an equivalent potion), and let people drink two for $120 and 2d, four for $240 and 4d, 100 for $6,000 and 100d . . .
I guess the above could coexist, even.
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Old 12-09-2014, 12:01 AM   #9
NorphTehDwarf
 
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Default Re: [DF] Healing salves and teas

Maybe you could call the first one Kromm suggested a salve and the second a tea, or vice versa.

edit: Kromm got autocorrected to Kreme thanks to my phone. Heh.

Last edited by NorphTehDwarf; 12-10-2014 at 03:08 AM.
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