How would your magical healers deal with this?

[RGTraynor]

So I've got a magical order in my gameworld that (among other things) does flesh shaping. PC got hit with a spell that made the bones in his hands go *poof*, but the flesh, tendons and viscera are otherwise intact. Medical technology is borderline TL 4-5.

Now: the party has a crack healer. Effectively, she's got just about every healing spell in the book short of Resurrection, and the worst skill level she has is 15. But I'm curious about what people think: does fixing the poor bastard's hand require Regeneration? (And if so, can the bones be grown back with it in situ, or does the hand need to be hacked off and start from scratch?) Restoration?

Obviously, I'll make a judgment call (and am leaning towards the healer's belief that this is an amputation/Regeneration situation), but how would you deal with it?

[ericthered]

I'd go with requiring regeneration, but you don't have to hack off the hand. He's missing important structural elements of his body, which is what regeneration is for. That the missing portions are weirdly selected is mostly flavor

[thrash]

Not as a rules-mechanical answer, but an aesthetic one: let the healer replace the missing bones with prosthetics, either steel or some fantasy material (orichalcum, etc.). Still a major surgery + healing effort, but not to the extent of amputation and regrowth. Plus, now the character has *** hands!

[whswhs]

If this were my campaign, I'd probably say that the healer hadn't encountered this sort of thing before and didn't know how to fix it. Then if she wanted to try something I'd figure out what happened.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

So I've got a magical order in my gameworld that (among other things) does flesh shaping. PC got hit with a spell that made the bones in his hands go *poof*, but the flesh, tendons and viscera are otherwise intact.

Unless this is newly discovered or normally secret magic, it stands to reason that there's a method of repairing the damage. Maybe not a special spell, but certainly an application of an existing spell.

The big issue is how badly do you want the boneless effect to screw the PCs? If it's just a nasty new way of dishing out HP damage then the various "heal" spells should work. If you want it to be much more of a threat, then treat it more like a paralyzed or amputated body part.

If you're using Regeneration or Restoration, possibly allow bones, etc. to be regrown for less energy than restoring an entire missing limb (half energy cost?). If you allow bones to be regrown with spells which normally repair HP damage repeated applications might be required over several days. Assume HP restoration requirements of 1x to 2x times the HP damage required to cripple the limb.

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

So I've got a magical order in my gameworld that (among other things) does flesh shaping. PC got hit with a spell that made the bones in his hands go *poof*, but the flesh, tendons and viscera are otherwise intact. Medical technology is borderline TL 4-5.

Now: the party has a crack healer. Effectively, she's got just about every healing spell in the book short of Resurrection, and the worst skill level she has is 15. But I'm curious about what people think: does fixing the poor bastard's hand require Regeneration? (And if so, can the bones be grown back with it in situ, or does the hand need to be hacked off and start from scratch?) Restoration?

Obviously, I'll make a judgment call (and am leaning towards the healer's belief that this is an amputation/Regeneration situation), but how would you deal with it?

In my humble opinion, I, as a GM myself, would ask: what would be more fun for ME? To let the character simply regrow the bones in the boring way, or to watch him scream and debate in the most gruesome way while his hand is savagely sewed off?

In cases like this I say forget the rules, go with the most entertaining option... for the GM.

[johndallman]

This is why experienced healers know Resist Pain.

[tbone]

Hogwarts would prescribe the character a dose of Skele-Gro. New arm bones overnight!

[Lovewyrm]

Well, if magic can remove bone in whichever configuration they are arranged, then maybe a regrow spell can also restore bone in whichever configuration they need to be (after all, it probably does so on a cell level anyway).

But it's probably a better story/drama if the hand has to come off for it, though.

Makes the enemy more menacing, too, although just making bones disappear is pretty damn terrifying in itself without the need to take someone apart to fix it.

[hal]

If we're dealing strictly with GURPS MAGIC as written, several thoughts come to mind.

1) removing anything from the human body sounds an awful lot like Evisceration - but that requires someone to actively cast the spell and remove the object of their desire within the victim's body. It isn't a spell that can simply remove things in their entirety from a distance.

2) as a GM inspired spell, it is likely a regular spell, which suffers a -1 penalty per hex cast. If the victim was the target of this spell, he likely saw his enemy spell caster. One requires a BASE skill of 15+ to be able to cast the spell with either a simple gesture or a simple phrase. Base skill as opposed to effective skill, is where the mage starts at a given skill level, while effective skill is the base skill modified for penalties or bonuses.

3) Trained physicians or anyone trained in the art of diagnosis where Magic works, will know that you can remove any limb or part thereof, and simply cast regeneration on the affected limb/extremity. The "One try" limitation for spell casters means that if you have Mage A casting the spell with two assistants Mages B and C, then none of those three may attempt a second spell casting for that amputated hand - but that mage D could try a second attempt at the same amputated limb. Either way? It shouldn't be a mystery as to whether or not the mage can heal the boneless hand. They can't unless they have either of...

A) Regeneration spells

or

B) A custom spell that can replace bones taken by the first spell that took them.

Net analysis leads me to believe that the correct answer should be as follows:

Anyone present nearby can roll either vs IQ-7 for Thaumatology, or against Thaumatology straight up - when trying to discern who cast the spell or what the effects of the spell were that the mage who originally cast the spell upon the victim.

If I were a player character who was presented with this mystery, I'd go to someone who can perform divinations and ask the following questions:

"The agency in which this man lost his bones, was it a spell that produced this result".

"Was the agency that brought about this transformation, Divine in nature?"

"Did the perpetrator who cast the unknown spell know of a spell that can return the original victim's original bones back in their original state and function properly?"

You get the gist I think. If this was a divine "spell" that caused this, then I'd think twice about going up against a priest who can do stuff like this. If it were a cusotm spell that no one knows about because someone researched it, I'd try and use thaumatology to find out what would the researcher need to research his new 'de-boning" spell and see if I can find out if anyone recently researched this kind of spell nearby.

In the end, my advise would be simple enough - let the healer amputate the hand to regenerate it.