I basically go with whatever the other person wants, honestly. It's their story; when L'yhta is using healing magic, she's a support character in that story, and so her level of success or failure is dependent primarily upon the needs of the other player's narrative. My metaphysical explanation for this is that healing puts a pattern back to "how it should be," which is largely how the person being healed believes it should be. The bigger the deviation being repaired, the harder it is to do, and long-term deviations (an old scar, a limb that's been missing for years, a birth defect) are not correctable at all. In this model, because healing isn't entirely under the metaphysical control of the healer, unexpected events can occur.
Beyond all of this, sometimes to get things to heal correctly, you may have to cause further injury (breaking a bone to get it to mend properly, cutting off septic or dead flesh, and so on). It might not be feasible to do that in the heat of the moment for a variety of reasons.
At any rate, I personally have no problem with instant healing, because there are many ways to make a story interesting even where serious physical injury isn't a particular threat. I may also have been exposed to far too many "medical dramas" in MMOs, though, to have much of a taste for them any more.
Beyond all of this, sometimes to get things to heal correctly, you may have to cause further injury (breaking a bone to get it to mend properly, cutting off septic or dead flesh, and so on). It might not be feasible to do that in the heat of the moment for a variety of reasons.
At any rate, I personally have no problem with instant healing, because there are many ways to make a story interesting even where serious physical injury isn't a particular threat. I may also have been exposed to far too many "medical dramas" in MMOs, though, to have much of a taste for them any more.
The Freelance Wizard
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
