(07-30-2013, 03:24 PM)Miss Marigold Wrote: Please keep in mind that as much as you hate such things, there are those of us like myself who hate when people insist on giving their character basic physical injuries or illnesses. I roll my eyes every time someone nurses a minor wound after battle, partly because it's just so boring and partly because I think the lore says such things can be trivially fixed by a competent healer. The disconnect between being able to repeatedly heal someone when a primal is whacking them in the head and not being able to heal someone when they have a broken toe afterwards just seems ridiculous to me.
If you want your character to have an illness, give them some mysterious magical affliction that's actually interesting and guide the people you're roleplaying with so they understand how it works and what might be the path required to fix it. That avoids the whole question of if esuna will solve the problem and it gives the everyone else something to do other than fuss over the terrible state your character is in.
Of course, if you're playing with people that enjoy providing tender care for someone with the flu, go for it! Just please don't get annoyed if you try the same thing with a random group of people and one of them disinterestedly casts an esuna to solve the problem.
Please keep in mind that no matter how much you hate such things, there are those of us who like to RP as doctors, physicians, medical professionals or researchers, or even White Mages that like to RP the process of using magic to heal. I roll my eyes every time someone completely invalidates things like battle injuries and weakness from loss of blood, partly because it's just so boring and partly because I think it's border-line god-moding. The disconnect between people dying from illness and starvation while conjurers just stand there and being able to heal any wound or debuff within a moment of receiving it just seems ridiculous to me.
That said, your second paragraph is insultingly narrow-minded. RP is what you make of it and creativity is in the prose, not the content. If a typical disease isn't interesting to you, then you're free to RP other things, but you shouldn't insult what people like to RP. You're also free to RP being some kind of magical instant healer, but respectfully, it doesn't make any sense. There's a huge difference between filling someone's body with enough vitality and emergency healing to get them through a fight (making their HP go up in combat) and being able to wave your shiney stick and heal all their ills like some kind of overwrought religious miracle-worker.
Of course, if you're playing with people that enjoy completely overlooking realistic and dynamic injuries in favor of sparkly lights and miracle panaceas, go for it! Just please don't get annoyed if you try the same thing with a random group of people and they treat your character like an idiot for casting Esuna and acting like it helped at all.
(07-30-2013, 10:45 AM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: Setting aside the OOC narrative elements -- for instance, if the other player wants their character to be laid up in bed due to injuries, then healing magic doesn't fix them completely -- I usually treat healing magic metaphysically as being able to repair a person to their normal, to use a Mage: the Ascension term, "pattern." So, healing magics can't raise you from the dead (as the pattern is a dead body in this instance), correct inborn anomalies (since they're part of your pattern), or fix either long neglected injuries or injuries such as scars that you've taken as part of your identity (as they're part of your pattern through time or belief). They can correct "status effects," but not necessarily their underlying causes; Esuna and Cure might make you feel better for a time if you're dying of some disease, but since they don't deal with the underlying causative agent, mundane medical treatment is still required. The IC explanation one could use for this is that everything has a "natural" state, and the channeled Aether of Conjury simply recreates that state as the path of least resistance; requested and not commanded by its user, the Aether simply does the simplest, most natural thing for the creature so infused.
Of course, all of the above is all speculation with no support in lore (other than that it, like other explanations on this thread, can at least account for what we know exists in Eorzea). Take it with between one and several grains of salt.Â
I honestly love this explanation. In TERA I had developed my healing head-canon to the point that I'd actually drawn up a sketch of how I thought mana moved in a body to maintain and heal it. But in ARR, I haven't given it any thought yet. I think because I'm not presently RPing any kind of healer and physician.
I'll need one at one point, though, and I do like yours.