[DF] Gem of Healing questions

PseudoFenton · 05-10-2016, 07:49 AM

I've just taken a closer look at the Gem of Healing, and noticed that it clearly lists itself as a Spell Stone, and that it casts Major Healing when activated. All well and good. Looking at how spell stones work, they must concentrate for a second while crushing the spell stone to activate it, and you roll to cast the spell the next turn. Here's where I'm needing some clarifications.

It's easy enough to assess the casting roll, the items Power is marked at the lower of spell skill or enchanting skill, but DF simplifies this to a default skill of 15 or 20 with a CF bump. The tricky bit comes when you do this more than once... Major (and Minor) Healing suffer penalities if used more than once per day by the same caster on the same subject. So, assuming this affects the items power, which seems likely, how often do you end up with the same person enchanting a stack of these gems? There is no way of knowing who made them, so there's no way of judging if it's the same caster, so do you always apply the penalties, or never?

Additionally, its clear a spell stones requires active use, in the form of crushing it. There seems to be two forms, one where the spell will be cast for the caster, and one where its cast on the caster. It seems like the standard Gem of Healing is the latter, but its not really clearly stated. The question is though, is it ever possible to use one to heal another person? Can you put one in the hand of an unconcious person, squeeze their hand around it to crush the stone, and trigger it? You need to concentrate to cast the spell so it seems like this is impossible, but if the Gem allows you to cast the spell for yourself, you could always target another person as the subject of the spell.

This all may seem trivial, and I could just say they always work, without a roll (or penalities) and you can use them on other subjects just as easily as on yourself - however I'm more interested in their benefits and drawbacks compared to potions, and these seem like some of them.

05-10-2016, 07:49 AM	#1
PseudoFenton Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Land of the Britons	[DF] Gem of Healing questions I've just taken a closer look at the Gem of Healing, and noticed that it clearly lists itself as a Spell Stone, and that it casts Major Healing when activated. All well and good. Looking at how spell stones work, they must concentrate for a second while crushing the spell stone to activate it, and you roll to cast the spell the next turn. Here's where I'm needing some clarifications. It's easy enough to assess the casting roll, the items Power is marked at the lower of spell skill or enchanting skill, but DF simplifies this to a default skill of 15 or 20 with a CF bump. The tricky bit comes when you do this more than once... Major (and Minor) Healing suffer penalities if used more than once per day by the same caster on the same subject. So, assuming this affects the items power, which seems likely, how often do you end up with the same person enchanting a stack of these gems? There is no way of knowing who made them, so there's no way of judging if it's the same caster, so do you always apply the penalties, or never? Additionally, its clear a spell stones requires active use, in the form of crushing it. There seems to be two forms, one where the spell will be cast for the caster, and one where its cast on the caster. It seems like the standard Gem of Healing is the latter, but its not really clearly stated. The question is though, is it ever possible to use one to heal another person? Can you put one in the hand of an unconcious person, squeeze their hand around it to crush the stone, and trigger it? You need to concentrate to cast the spell so it seems like this is impossible, but if the Gem allows you to cast the spell for yourself, you could always target another person as the subject of the spell. This all may seem trivial, and I could just say they always work, without a roll (or penalities) and you can use them on other subjects just as easily as on yourself - however I'm more interested in their benefits and drawbacks compared to potions, and these seem like some of them. __________________ ...like a monkey with a wrench.