[DF] Healing up in Town

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

"Awaken Healing," Kromm? What is "Awaken Healing?"

A typo. Fixed!

[Stone Dog]

... Huh. Hardly seems worth going to a Temple for. Am I missing something?

I mean, sure it is a useful spell to have in the field, but in town it seems like it would be more effective to give somebody a good shake or a coffee rather than drag them down to the Temple.


But I have to say, the Temple of Imhotep is completely awesome.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by munin

I realize that "reality"-checking DF may not be appropriate, but $50/energy for ceremonial casting seems excessively high for most spells.

DF doesn't have jobs or cost of living, remember, and has high inflation driven by adventurers hauling back piles of coin. Also remember that these spells are the exclusive territory of clerics, who have a big, impressive, high-sanctity temple full of scroll-making scribes and novices to support. The moral of the story being that adventurers, by virtue of being rich, get ripped off . . . and the availability of wealth ensures that temples (and wizards' guilds, secret kung fu training schools, etc.) operate rather extravagantly.

In essence, each service-selling pro has a classroom full of newbie initiates to support. These novices don't earn a penny because they have no useful skills yet. Ergo, you're not merely paying the master's salary, but feeding and clothing his apprentices as well. You can opt not to support these clowns, but that won't get your buddy resurrected, will it?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

... Huh. Hardly seems worth going to a Temple for. Am I missing something?

The cleric, who is the only one who can cast Awaken, is hit by a Suspended Animation curse. It's probably worth the copper to get him back rather than leave him to sleep forever.

[Stone Dog]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The cleric, who is the only one who can cast Awaken, is hit by a Suspended Animation curse. It's probably worth the copper to get him back rather than leave him to sleep forever.

Oh yeah, huh. That is one useful thing on an adventurer's list of needs. Thanks for the point out.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I'd charge $1/energy point for anything that a lone caster could manage with one spell without leaving himself a staggering mess or suffering injury (let's call it 10 energy points). Remember that minor-but-permanent magic items go for this rate! Healing in town isn't meant to be a major expense for delvers. The controls on healing in DF pertain to how much of it the PCs can manage in the dungeon, away from safety . . . which is why healing potions and scrolls are so costly.

For things that would require circles of casters or other mass magic – like Resurrection spells – I would simply charge the rates for "charged scrolls" found in DF 4. That comes to $50/energy point, or half what a charged, universal scroll would cost (thus, buyers of the latter can't profit by undercutting the temple).

Kromm, the existence of Power Items doesn't make cost/energy=5$? I mean, I can imagine a highly ornate altar being a Power Item worth millions,, and thus able to accumulate enough energy to cast Resurrection. Now, the head priest's time will be worth something, probably doubling the cost, but this is still 5 times cheaper than what you propose.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Kromm, the existence of Power Items doesn't make cost/energy=5$? I mean, I can imagine a highly ornate altar being a Power Item worth millions,, and thus able to accumulate enough energy to cast Resurrection. Now, the head priest's time will be worth something, probably doubling the cost, but this is still 5 times cheaper than what you propose.

I suspect the highly ornate altar is reserved for civil defense emergencies, where the entire dang town needs a Remove Disease and Major Healing, or Awaken cast on the entire city after some evil faerie godmother gets an idiot girl to stab herself with a piece of household equipment.

[Kromm]

For small spells: Power item recharges cost what they cost because somebody is making a profit on them, and because they're portable. Temples will just use ordinary FP, spent for casting, which are essentially free in most cases. Of course, they'll still charge for this!

For big spells: You aren't really paying for the energy – you're buying divine favor. For all that it matters, the spell per se might be free for the NPC clerics in their special temple. Either way, you aren't benefiting from a power item.

[munin]

And even if it did cost only $5 and minimal time to recharge the altar, they're still going to soak adventurers at the $50/energy rate -- because they can, and because it allows them to support Dead Broke/Poor acolytes, pro bono work, etc. as Kromm said.

It's possible they charge locals the $5/energy rate or the rates I worked out, but adventurers aren't going to see any of that.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by munin

It's possible they charge locals the $5/energy rate or the rates I worked out, but adventurers aren't going to see any of that.

What, you don't think the nice old high priest is going to offer the Nymph local rates when she can't afford adventurer rates? For the sake of the genre, best to assume that the prices are fixed that high for everyone and that peasants just manage to come up with the cash somehow or live without.

-Max