Healing

[Keerith]

I can see why there are not as many healer sorts in RP, especially given how much less likely it is for people to quibble over the efficacy of a fireball vs. a cure spell.  Magical healing is magical after all, and, say, only letting a Cure spell shave a week off of a months long recovery for a wound purely for the sake of machismo does a disservice to the healers.

 

Now, with regards to "but healing magic kills off my ability to have drama", we do have instances in game where characters with immediate access to instant magical healing still suffer lasting and dramatic consequences (in spoilers at the end). So obviously, curative magic, no matter how magical and miraculous, does still have limits - loss of limbs, neurological damage, excessive trauma - but by the same token, fixing cuts and puncture wounds should be fairly negligible.

 

Edda and the head of her adventuring party, Rhauban losing an arm, the lalafel from the Company of Heroes who went blind, Ser Haurchefant Greystone, RIP. :cry: On the other hand, when Ser Aymeric takes a near fatal stab wound ("He would have died in moments if he had not received aid"), he receives prompt treatment and is in good enough shape to be up and about shortly after you arrive on scene.

 

[LiadansWhisper]

I can see why there are not as many healer sorts in RP, especially given how much less likely it is for people to quibble over the efficacy of a fireball vs. a cure spell.  Magical healing is magical after all, and, say, only letting a Cure spell shave a week off of a months long recovery for a wound purely for the sake of machismo does a disservice to the healers.

 

Now, with regards to "but healing magic kills off my ability to have drama", we do have instances in game where characters with immediate access to instant magical healing still suffer lasting and dramatic consequences (in spoilers at the end). So obviously, curative magic, no matter how magical and miraculous, does still have limits - loss of limbs, neurological damage, excessive trauma - but by the same token, fixing cuts and puncture wounds should be fairly negligible.

 

Edda and the head of her adventuring party, Rhauban losing an arm, the lalafel from the Company of Heroes who went blind, Ser Haurchefant Greystone, RIP. :cry: On the other hand, when Ser Aymeric takes a near fatal stab wound ("He would have died in moments if he had not received aid"), he receives prompt treatment and is in good enough shape to be up and about shortly after you arrive on scene.

 

 

 

Edda was an unskilled, inexperienced Conjurer, who apparently wasn't all that good at what she did. Raubhan was most likely deliberately denied magical healing. Though he obviously was at least triaged, given that he had bandages, the fact that he needed bandages indicates that a magical healer almost certainly never saw him (because had one seen him, they should have at least been able to close the wound and leave it bloodless, eliminating the need for bandages at all). Haurchefant was not in range of healers, it appears (although I screamed at my computer screen because HI I'M STANDING RIGHT HERE WITH BENEDICTION YOU TWITS). Also, I've noticed that NPC Ishgardian "Conjurers" don't seem all that concerned with actual healing of serious wounds. There's one in Whitebrim, for instance, who just stands in the middle of some dying men and is like, "The Fury is super happy with y'all." No visible attempt at magic (even to ease pain). Given the emphasis they have on chirgueons (I can't spell it - you know what I'm talking about), it's possible that there simply wasn't a magical healer available.

 

None of this is an indication that, in game, magical healers couldn't have treated each person in each situation. It just means that either the magical healer was incompetent (in the case of Edda) or never saw the patient in question (Raubhan, Haurchefant).

 

And yeah, ain't it interesting that Aymeric got instant attention and apparently was just fine an hour later?

 

[Aya]

Healing moves at the speed of plot! I think that's a good general rule :-D

 

As such its usually a plot mechanic rather than an individual mechanic, which I think tends to play into its lack of popularity.

[LiadansWhisper]

Healing moves at the speed of plot! I think that's a good general rule :-D

 

As such its usually a plot mechanic rather than an individual mechanic, which I think tends to play into its lack of popularity.

 

Yeah, and it's also one of those things that's very personal. A common complaint I hear is that some healer players just walk up to people and heal them, without first checking with the other player as to whether that's okay, or how the other player wants the healing to go. Thing is, you can't just heal someone without their permission. I mean, you can, but that's godmodding and no one likes to be godmodded.

[Kaiya]

When I heal I tend to base it on the guild/Free Company I'm a part of. Sometimes there are groups that get injured very regularly and so they need very regular healing to be up for the next event or what have you. So that might mean there's a need for quicker heals and more shortcuts taken. Other guilds have requested injuries that come with more consequences, so for that I use more traditional medical practices and make magic less effective. 

 

In general, I tend to use magic to circumvent procedures that would take a lot more time, effort, and detail, especially when there are multiple people to heal or someone is unconscious and is in no position to respond anyways. When things need to be removed from the body I use surgery, but when bones need to be put back into position because of a break I tend to use aether to save time for everyone. It still takes time to heal in the end, and recovery can still play a large role in the aftermath regardless of aether being involved.

 

As a rule of thumb, I try to make sure everyone getting healed by me knows that it is completely up to them how effective the healing truly is. I may say it will take some two or three days to recover, but they're free to make it a faster or slower recovery. I give guidelines based on context and people are free to do what they want with them.

[supersinger472]

I prefer to view HP as a sort of abstraction of your stamina, when you heal someone in battle, you give them a boost of energy and the ability to keep fighting, potentially closing up any life threatening wounds.

 

More serious wound treatment (say someone lost an arm or something) would require time and resources, and even then they might never be fully healed. If you don't choose to rely on healers, or none are available, then you would definitely have scars I think.