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Old 09-22-2012, 12:54 PM   #1
simply Nathan
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Default [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

The -3 per repeated casting of Minor or Major Healing (as well as the Healing advantage that I never touch) serves an obvious and useful purpose. I just always thought that having it work based on a specific combination as one spell from one source of magic when used on a specific subject felt a bit clunky. I'm all for clunkiness from time to time, but this specific rule always felt to me like it had no logical basis justifiable in-universe as written and applied.

I don't mind using the rule as it stands, I just want to go over and discuss alternative ways to put limits on healing. And being the kind of player I am (and the kind of GM I might become), ways to reduce overall difficulty slightly are great in my book, so long as some limits remain.

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One justification I heard tossed around for the penalty was that the body is being made to heal unnaturally fast, and the difficulty spike is a result of how difficult it is to do this. The problem with that is that separate wizards can cast Minor Healing on a guy at no penalty, or a caster can use Minor Healing and Major Healing both at no penalty.

If it were about the body of the person being healed, I would expect the penalty to accrue based on the number of HP-recovering spells the person has been subjected to that day, regardless who cast it and whether it was Minor or Major.

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If the penalty is a part of the spell, I could see it being a penalty to use the same spell multiple times a day regardless of subject (I could even see this applying to magic in general, though I wouldn't want it to). Say, -3 to skill for each casting of Minor Healing and a separate -3 for Major Healing when used by the caster no matter who benefited from them. Copies of the same spell from different sources would still get penalized separately, as usual.

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An idea I've been mulling over is to simply cap the amount of healing a person can receive in in a day, without regards to its source. A character would have a Healing Tally, and while the magic spells, healing potions, and Healing advantage could all grant recovery without penalty, once a person has been healed a certain amount nothing more you pump into him will make a difference.

If he had no Healing Tally left at the end of the day, he would not get his roll to recover HP; first aid would stop bleeding, but would not recover HP at this point.

My gut would set this tally at HP+HT, with +5 for Rapid Healing while Very Rapid Healing would do the better of +15 or doubling it (because it doubles the amount recovered by natural HT rolls; that sounds really imbalanced to me so maybe just a flat +15 would be better). So a normal person could be healed by 20 HP in a given day, which is about 6 healing potions or castings of Minor Healing. Heroes of the sort to need more healing generally have higher stats to benefit from it.

Great Healing would cause a person to heal by his entire remaining Healing Tally, and thus would still be limited to once per day; it would be rendered less useful though, so maybe its cost would need adjusting.

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If I went with the above, I would either drop one of Minor or Major Healing, or I'd try to find ways to differentiate them better. Particularly since Major Healing is simply Minor Healing with -1 to skill and double effectiveness, and counting as separate skills for the standard penalty. Perhaps Major Healing doesn't benefit from Physician's insurance against critical fails, or still gets -1 or -2 to skill after each casting?

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I'm not sure if I'm coming across coherently, but I'd like some more thoughts on the subject.
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Old 09-22-2012, 01:45 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

I charge an additional 1 FP/HP healed, of the Healed, not the Healer. This represents the body's stress of quick healing.
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Old 09-22-2012, 07:06 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

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Originally Posted by primanator View Post
I charge an additional 1 FP/HP healed, of the Healed, not the Healer. This represents the body's stress of quick healing.
I do the same in my current fantasy campaign.


I also made healing slightly harder by making the -3/repeat be specific to target and spell, regardless of who was the caster.
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Old 09-22-2012, 07:21 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

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Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans View Post
-

One justification I heard tossed around for the penalty was that the body is being made to heal unnaturally fast, and the difficulty spike is a result of how difficult it is to do this. The problem with that is that separate wizards can cast Minor Healing on a guy at no penalty, or a caster can use Minor Healing and Major Healing both at no penalty..
Yeah, while I clock Minor and Major Healing separately, I include the penalty if another person has used the same healing spell on the same target that day.
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Old 09-23-2012, 03:22 AM   #5
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

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Originally Posted by weby View Post
I do the same in my current fantasy campaign.


I also made healing slightly harder by making the -3/repeat be specific to target and spell, regardless of who was the caster.
How does that work from the internal perspective of the character doing the casting? And at what point in time does he realize that his casting process is subject to an initially unexpected penalty of -3 or -6 or worse?
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Old 09-23-2012, 09:42 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

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How does that work from the internal perspective of the character doing the casting? And at what point in time does he realize that his casting process is subject to an initially unexpected penalty of -3 or -6 or worse?
Probably about the same point that he would become aware of a Magic Resistance penalty, which is also "secret". Which I believe is "at the point the dice are rolled" at a meta level, so "at the completion of the ritual" I would assume.
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Old 09-23-2012, 09:55 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

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Probably about the same point that he would become aware of a Magic Resistance penalty, which is also "secret". Which I believe is "at the point the dice are rolled" at a meta level, so "at the completion of the ritual" I would assume.
So it occurs during the "ohshitohshitohshit"-moment where the character realizes that he's gonna "roll" at a penalty but can't retract his decision to "roll"?
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Old 09-23-2012, 10:14 AM   #8
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

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Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen View Post
How does that work from the internal perspective of the character doing the casting? And at what point in time does he realize that his casting process is subject to an initially unexpected penalty of -3 or -6 or worse?
While casting the spell of course. No, they don't get forewarning if they weren't informed that the person had already been healed.
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So it occurs during the "ohshitohshitohshit"-moment where the character realizes that he's gonna "roll" at a penalty but can't retract his decision to "roll"?
Yup. But let's face it, it's not like the consequences are likely to be serious.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 09-23-2012 at 10:19 AM.
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Old 09-23-2012, 12:17 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

One wonders about booby trapping the wounded by casting a "Trivial Healing" spell, capable of curing no more than 0.001 points of damage on them a couple times before abandoning the field to the other side's medic corps and watching the critical failures from a safe distance.

Seriously though, if you want logic, consider redefining these not as penalties but required success margins. If somebody has already cast a healing spell on you and you aren't cured, then the wound approachs too severe for that spell to heal, so the next effort needing a better success margin to do something for it makes some in context sense.
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Old 09-23-2012, 12:50 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Magic] Different ways to limit Healing

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Seriously though, if you want logic, consider redefining these not as penalties but required success margins.
I like that idea. You could redefine healing based on margin success divisors.
Thus a light healing might heal HP = MOS/2, while a major does HP = MOS. Successive castings on a wound must exceed the previous MOS to heal additional HP damage. So a skilled healer could still be useful as he could more likely than not add some points to a lesser casting.
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