This topic drew my interest as a future character that will specialize herself in medicine. I honestly always looked at healing magic as a form of advanced first aid. Just like how we have first aid irl. I prefer thinking that spells like cure do tend the wounds. Even the much more deeper and lethal wounds. However it doesn’t magically restore the blood loss that might have occurred during that time interval between the open injury and the actual cure. I also consider the game’s version of “Being defeated/downed†as a form of “He’s still alive but injured past the point that a simple cure can’t help.â€. And raise as a form of combination between cure and heart defibrillation. As far as I know, there’s no phoenix down to replace raise.
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Same goes for things like poison and esuna. I consider esuna as a first aid treatment like sucking poison out of a wound. While leaving the treatment through medicine for cases of long unattended poison. Or for the sake of roleplay other unknown diseases. After all, esuna and cure doesn’t heal headaches, nausea, other unknown diseases.
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In short, my view boils down to Cure/Raise/Esuna = First Aid. Alchemy/medicine = proper treatment for the bad cases. Besides, there’s also things like inflammation and bacteria  that can still affect the body,the moment it is injured. So please be sure to visit your local doctor in the city after being injured. (Shameless self-promotion of my future services ;p )
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Same goes for things like poison and esuna. I consider esuna as a first aid treatment like sucking poison out of a wound. While leaving the treatment through medicine for cases of long unattended poison. Or for the sake of roleplay other unknown diseases. After all, esuna and cure doesn’t heal headaches, nausea, other unknown diseases.
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In short, my view boils down to Cure/Raise/Esuna = First Aid. Alchemy/medicine = proper treatment for the bad cases. Besides, there’s also things like inflammation and bacteria  that can still affect the body,the moment it is injured. So please be sure to visit your local doctor in the city after being injured. (Shameless self-promotion of my future services ;p )