4e Cure Disease badly worded/overpowered

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by maximara

Even magic has is rules....

That's true, but the rules and definitions of magic do not need to match the definitions of modern science.

Originally Posted by maximara

It is definitely more potent — you can cure arthritis, gallstones, cancer, IBS, GERD, and a host of other diseases. That is insane for a spell with a Prerequisite Count of 5

Prerequisite counts were determined arbitrarily by Steve Jackson and (IIRC) Eric Blankenship; they are by no means a balance tool or a measure of spell power. Lightning Armor is almost the same spell as Flaming Armor but has a prerequisite count of 12 to Flaming Armor's 7. Grease is a more powerful spell than Ice Slick with very similar effects, but Grease has a prerequisite count of 1 and Ice Slick has a count of 4. Great Haste is generally considered a much more powerful spell than Light Tread, but has a lower prerequisite count. And so on and so forth.

In an adventuring context, a Cure Disease spell that can cure GERD or cancer is not especially more powerful than a Cure Disease spell that cannot. I suppose if your game is Fantasy House, MD about the antics of a genius mage healer and his apprentices, then it would be too powerful, but running any kind of serious medicine/physicians game with RAW GURPS Magic would be a huge headache anyway.

As a side note, if someone has run a Fantasy House, MD game, I'd love to know the details.