Cleric Healing and Healing Potions curiosity

[martinl]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Is there *any* legal way to get healing on any other character, including stuff from DFMI?

You can always get a good dog.

[ArchonShiva]

That’s the hireling cleric Kromm was saying he expected better than.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Taneli

With 8 points in both Minor and Major healing, they're only two points short of raising their PI by 1 level (assuming that the GM allows this, ours does as it was pointed out in the G:DF line that this sort of munchkin behaviour is in the roots of the genre).

That was after maxing PI at 6 so they could roll in with skill 21* in both the healing spells... and not much else spellwise.


* The Player who did this went 6 and 8 character points for skill 20 in Minor and Major Healing at chargen with his first Cleric. His second Cleric went the full 20 points into these spells (8 and 12) for the 21. He found rolling at 11 was just a scooch too hard, whereas 12 was 'doable'.

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

This bit makes me extremely curious how that occurs.

Ditto... I've never seen a two Cleric party and I've yet to see a Holy Warrior (or even a Cleric) with Faith Healing.

Is there *any* legal way to get healing on any other character, including stuff from DFMI?

Aside from Esoteric Medicine (Druidic or Chi)? Alli... err... Hirelings.

Originally Posted by JackShadow

This was our interpretation of the rules too. You pretty much had to have a Cleric in the group. I was hoping that the Druid and Holy Warrior (i.e. Paladin) would have some lesser healing options to spread the load around.

Holy Warriors can take Faith Healing, but Druids are limited to Esoteric Medicine only. Which is why I house ruled in a variant of Faith healing for them (it requires an Esoteric Medicine check and takes as much time as EsMed).

[Bruno]

Potions and universal charged scrolls are the obvious backups, although there's no end to the possible wacky magic items out there.

When building an "off-template" healing magic item, I would be cautious to make it take time, or consume some kind of expensive resource, or have some kind of inconvenient side effect.

I wouldn't be against giving my players a "body bag of Healing Slumber" that puts the character who uses it to magical sleep for 8 hours (exactly!) and heals all non-crippling wounds. It takes an awkward amount of time and disables the character while they heal, meaning the rest of the party has to defend them while short-handed.

Or a device where you pour in $360 of gems and make an Alchemy roll, and it dispenses fizzing sparkling beverages that (if consumed in 2d6 seconds) act as a Minor Healing Potion (but it makes a horrible loud grinding sound as it smashes up the gems, triggering a wandering monster check, like attempting to bash down a door). Triple cost of a regular potion, chance of excessive excitement, but you can forage for "ingredients" in treasure piles.

[Kromm]

You could add a healing ability to any profession with powers: Clerics and holy warriors already have this, but it would be a reasonable fit to the druid (insert babble about a connection between life energy and healing), not a terrible reach for martial artist (now it's chi and healing), and only really iffy for the bard. Rather than dip into GURPS for a complex build, just set limitations roughly in line with those on Holy Might in general and Faith Healing in particular.

Alternatively, rule that Healer adds +1 HP/level to the 1d-3 HP restored by bandaging. That turns bandaging into a 1d+1 HP heal at Healer 4, or 1d+3 for the cleric who exploits the option to go to Healer 6. This has the upsides of "zero FP cost" and "no penalty for reuse," but the downsides of "takes 30 minutes" and "one attempt allowed per new injury." This is more powerful in the long run, but makes a niche advantage more attractive, though only clerics and druids are likely to have it.

Or you could do both.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I have never had a problem with not enough healing, even with only one healer in the party. Once I start taking wounds that can't be healed magically today, usually everyone wants to stop for the day anyways. Then I use a potion to clean up HP loss (after again getting First Aid, always get First Aid first) and go to bed. I start the next day with a clean slate.

Mrugnak the Barbarian got wounded a couple of times to the point where the rest of the delving band had to figure out how to lug a quarter ton of mutilated minotaur and armor out of the dungeon, and then had to rest for two days to heal him back to full. But those were pretty exceptional fights.

But overall, I agree with Bruno's analysis: 2 Major Healing and 2 Minor Healing per day is 22 HP recovered, plus at least one more from First Aid. It costs nothing and has almost 0 risk even if the Cleric only has Major Healing-15. While that much healing is at least $720 in potions.

[Anthony]

It does mean the MMO-style "I channel healing into the tank" doesn't work, but that's not really a big deal, it's not like anything else in GURPS combat functions much like MMO combat either.

[ArchonShiva]

It also remind me that druids can get healing potions at half price, which makes potions a reasonable backup to a hireling cleric, and have enough Esoteric Medicine to stabilize a mortally wounded cleric, so they can technically get the party back on track once money starts rolling in.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

It also remind me that druids can get healing potions at half price, which makes potions a reasonable backup to a hireling cleric, and have enough Esoteric Medicine to stabilize a mortally wounded cleric, so they can technically get the party back on track once money starts rolling in.

Yes, via Herb Lore, druids get a fairly reliable 50% off healing draughts, which is better than the 20% off that adventurers with Alchemy get. That translates into each quirk point a druid trades in yielding ~7.5 minor healing potions, accounting for occasional failure. A starting druid could go potion-merchant and show up with around three dozen minor healing potions if said druid doesn't mind starting 5 points down. (A starting wizard could have around two dozen by comparison.)

The GM might even be nice and say that since each potion is 0.5 lb. including a 0.25-lb. vial, the actual liquid is 0.25 lb. and a wineskin can hold 32 doses . . . and let heroes guzzle a dose per second to heal quickly. Those 32 doses would weigh just 8.25 lbs. that way, as compared to 16 lbs. in vials. And wineskins don't break when you drop them or fall down. But they do get mistaken for skins full of, um, wine.

It makes for some interesting imagery.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Bruno

When building an "off-template" healing magic item, I would be cautious to make it take time, or consume some kind of expensive resource, or have some kind of inconvenient side effect.

My favorite to date was a Healer's Staff (added +2 levels of the Healer Talent) and allowed the user to freely move Injury from one person to another.

So the party would just transfer all damage over to the Barbarian or Knight and then the Cleric would heal them at advantageous rates (exploiting 20+ HP and Very Rapid Healing).

Originally Posted by Kromm

Alternatively, rule that Healer adds +1 HP/level to the 1d-3 HP restored by bandaging. That turns bandaging into a 1d+1 HP heal at Healer 4, or 1d+3 for the cleric who exploits the option to go to Healer 6. This has the upsides of "zero FP cost" and "no penalty for reuse," but the downsides of "takes 30 minutes" and "one attempt allowed per new injury." This is more powerful in the long run, but makes a niche advantage more attractive, though only clerics and druids are likely to have it.

Ooooh... I'ma totally swipin that.

Originally Posted by Kromm

Those 32 doses would weigh just 8.25 lbs. that way, as compared to 16 lbs. in vials. And wineskins don't break when you drop them or fall down. But they do get mistaken for skins full of, um, wine.

It makes for some interesting imagery.

In one D&D game back in the early days of 3e we had a party that had so many healing potions we started storing them in wine casks... (the premade adventures we played had soooo many potions of Cure as rewards it was unfunny, except as the imagery).