How accessible should Healing be?

[Mr. Negative]

I'm also considering (among everything else) running a low/swords & sorcery fantasy game. In fact, I really want to run one set in Lankhmar. In addition, I'm intending to run most games as stand-alones (all set in the same world, with the same characters, but not running over from week to week). I'm envisioning players largely being members of the Thieves Guild (or the Brotherhood of Slayers) and having everyone being relatively combat-capable on their own (so teamwork is an option, rather than a necessity). Also, as members of the guild, most "adventures" will really be more like jobs, assignments, or 'free-lance opportunities' so that it isn't unreasonable that 2-3 people go it alone.

 

 

My concern is this: Lankmar has very little reliable magic available to the Player Characters. While the loss of offensive spells isn't really a problem (as virtually none of the opposition will have any either), the lack of Healing seems to loom large as a problem in the game.

 

For those of you unfamiliar with Lankhmar, while the Gods are real in Lankmar, the priest is a profession, rather than a "character class". Priests get no divine abilites from their god, nor any special insight or communication from them.

 

Wizards themselves are in short supply in Lankhmar, and magic is difficult and dangerous to use. Spells require long, intricate rituals, or must be bound up into magic items to summon. Magic items themselves are exceptionally rare and precious, and even then, are not particularly awe-inspiring (wands of lightning, or potions of shrinking).

 

This all means that magical healing seems to be in precious short supply in my proposed game. Having access to a potion of healing would be, in itself, a suitable goal for an adventure. What I'm looking for is experience from others who have run games either in such a setting, or have run adventures where the PCs had no healing available.

 

Given that there will almost always be sufficient time for recovery between games (as the sessions will be standalone), will this be sufficient?

Will the generally low lethality of HERO combat allow the PCs to face 1-3 combat situations per adventure, or should I really limit the combat to 1 substantial fight per adventure (so they don't have to worry about running out of Body? Does fantasy really require some "in-game" healing to encourage PCs to be heroic instead of avoiding combat like the plague (a problem I had when running GURPS fantasy)?

 

Thanks for sharing any experiences you've had.

[DrFurious]

You could always use the optional rules for minor wounds - i.e. Paramedic roll to reduce each wound by 1 body, and conventional healing - i.e. wounds of 1 body can be healed after combat (up to REC minor wounds in a day).

 

!DrFurious!

[Blue Jogger]

Originally posted by DrFurious

You could always use the optional rules for minor wounds - i.e. Paramedic roll to reduce each wound by 1 body, and conventional healing - i.e. wounds of 1 body can be healed after combat (up to REC minor wounds in a day).

 

!DrFurious!

 

I like this rule. This allows heroes to get into minor scrapes and recover fairly fast, serious wounds in a few days, and near fatal wounds in about a week. Be sure to clarify if conventional healing requires bed rest or can be done with light activity.

 

Unlike their superheroic or high-magic counterparts, they won't be able to ditch a combat, heal up and wade back in. If they start to lose, they may have to cut losses and run. And rest for a few days. If they are, for example, behind enemy lines, then they are going to have to find a hiding space. As GM, you will have to keep this in mind. This is not a bad thing. You can further your plot by having them meet a kind (or not so kind) NPC.

 

If a character is laid up for a long time, however, you may want a backup character for the player to play.

[OddHat]

Agreed on the paramedic option. Also, have a friendly NPC severely wounded or crippled in the first game session; drive home the fact that fights are serious, and that ambush or run away is the best choice. Finally, if you do want lots of fights for a more swashbuckling feel, this is a situation where combat luck and lots of DCV skill levels are very appropriate for the PCs.

[sbarron]

I think you will be fine without magical healing. Generally, the problem PCs run into with lack of healing is on more serial, day in and day out adventuring. A fight today sets up a fight tomorrow, which leads to the boss's henchman and his Lt., and finally the boss, which the PCs can't beat because they have been getting nickeled and dimed on Body over the past week. The PCs need the magical healing to get healthy for the big boss.

 

It doesn't sound like your game will have a lot of this however, and as you said, there will be plenty of time to heal up between adventures.

[Garlak]

You could use healing herbs a la Aragorn.

Not very powerfull but it could help.

Runebearer as some and you can download it free.

I like the idea, maybe you will too.

It would be easy to do with HERO I think.

 

Just a suggestion by someone awaiting is HERO 5th Ed. book.

[Talon]

1-3 combats per adventure might be tough, depending on the specifics of the campaign (what are average defenses, etc.). If you have a bunch of standard thief PCs running around in DEF 2-4 armor, you'll have to be careful.

 

One thing you can do (and which makes a lot of sense for this kind of game) is emphasize non-combat solutions to problems. If the PCs can plan, sneak, or trick their way through a scene, let them -- and plan scenes to go this way. Hopefully your players are not hack-and-slashers.

 

You also have the luxury of allowing extending down time between sessions, so wounded PCs have time to heal.

[Jeff]

Expanding on the herbal route - If you want to keep magic out of the routine but you don't mind exceptional skill-based abilities, you could let the skilled healer-herbalists buy some Healing with RSR - Healing, a decent amount of extra time, maybe gradual effect, and expendible Foci (herbs, poultices, what have you).

[JMHammer]

Defeat in detail

 

I'm not a big fan of things like Combat Luck as it just doesn't feel right to me. If you want to avoid damage, you should avoid the damage with DCV, levels, or whatnot - not by buying damage resistance/reduction with a "Missed me!" special effect. I tend to allow it only for characters who have Super Luck as a power or some precognition, and even then I don't like it very much.

 

Anyway...

 

I've found that access to fairly easy healing makes for a better game, almost without regard to the genre unless I'm simulating "reality" or purposely trying for a more realistic, or at least grittier, game. Easy healing might not make for the best fiction, but players appreciate being able to keep their characters in play. Out-of-battle healing, even if it's not instantaneous, goes a long way toward keeping everyone happy.

 

In-battle healing is OK but tends to make players sloppy and far more reckless than they would be otherwise. In a game, if you know your character will get beaten to a pulp but can be all but raised from the dead you'll go ahead and take the damage in order to accomplish the objective. A person in real life, or a character in fiction, unless totally insensate, at least hesitates before absorbing that kind of punishment even if he knows there will be no long-term consequences.

 

Most fantasy games I've played involve the players defeating the enemy in small groups, rather than taking on every baddy at once. This divide and conquer approach makes sense for small unit tactics as well as big battles. Healing takes the place of reinforcements and permits the story to continue to unfold without undue delay caused by a need to sit around for a month or two while healing naturally.

 

I also like the "paramedic" rule where each character can heal 1 BODY from each wound given a bit of time out of combat to a maximum of REC in BODY per day.

 

John H

[Markdoc]

I ran a 2+ year, once week campaign with both very little access to healing and mostly light armour.

 

Players got cut up a lot, but we had relatively few deaths. As you obviously intend, most adventures were set up so there was time for healing in between.

 

So it's certainly a viable approach.

 

cheers, Mark

[Qamar]

Re: How accessible should Healing be?

 

Originally posted by Mr. Negative

Given that there will almost always be sufficient time for recovery between games (as the sessions will be standalone), will this be sufficient?

Will the generally low lethality of HERO combat allow the PCs to face 1-3 combat situations per adventure, or should I really limit the combat to 1 substantial fight per adventure (so they don't have to worry about running out of Body?

 

You'll need to monitor the damage the characters receive in each combat to make sure that nobody is getting overly whalloped. And I agree with the medic roll suggestion, that'll help ease their pain.

 

Chances are the players will start dealing with situations by not resorting to combat first. If not, a little blood and suffering will show them the error of their ways.

[Old Man]

I agree with the Paramedic Rolls and possible help from herbs/healing medicines. The special herbs could either give a + to Paramedic Rolls or be something like a long term +REC over time requiring rest - only used to calculate healing BODY over time.

[Rene]

Mr. Negative, there is a host of alternatives to Magic Healing right in the HERO System rules if you want to make PC survival a surer thing, without appealing to magic proper.

 

With the right Limitations, Damage Reduction, Luck and it's variants, Combat Luck, even Regeneration Healing could all be used to build non-powered "Powers" helpful to simulate heroes's tendency to never be seriously taken down for long.

 

I'd not recommend it for a realistic game, but it would be adequate for guys like Fafhrid and the Grey Mouser, I guess. They're not superpowered, but they're kinda larger-than-life fellows that wade through lots of danger unharmed.

 

The right Limitations can help to avoid them becoming too invincible. A nice example would be Regeneration Healing with Charges to simulate a hero that can turn a deep wound to "it was just a scratch", but he can do it only once or twice per adventure. I'm sure there is an infinite number of similar abilities that could be built.

[Mr. Negative]

Originally posted by Rene

The right Limitations can help to avoid them becoming too invincible. A nice example would be Regeneration Healing with Charges to simulate a hero that can turn a deep wound to "it was just a scratch", but he can do it only once or twice per adventure. I'm sure there is an infinite number of similar abilities that could be built.

 

In fact, that's kind of what I'm considering, for each character: a Heal Body with a single charge that is also limited by having to be used immediately after taking damage. This would allow the PC to convert what might be a killing blow (one that does loads of body) to a painful injury (like a nasty cut on the face, or a kick in the goolies). This way, a player might still be incapacitated by STUN damage, but could "ignore" one bad (for them) roll each game. However, I don't want to do regeneration, as I don't want this to be a "shake it off" sort of effect, but rather, the sort of vagaries of fate that always conspire to protect characters. I'm unsure how to write it up so that it can save PC's when they are unconscious or stunned, as Healing normally requires a half-phase action. Perhaps some sort of trigger would work, but again, how would a unconscious PC use it, or how would a conscious PC use if if stunned, but not unconscious? I mean, the Trigger could be "whenever PC loses more than 1/2 body in a single blow, or goes to zero body", which would technically work, but seems kludgy. Unfortunately, since it would need to be able to allow PCs to avert death (as the "killing blow" never occurred) it would also have to have the Can Heal Limbs and Resurrection adders. It would also need to be Invisible as there would be no evidence of it having occurred (it is as if the blow were simply less lethal).

 

Thus, the power looks something like this:

 

Nearly Had Me: Healing (4d6 Fixed Effect Body Healing (6 Body), Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection (65 Base Points), Invisible (+1), Trigger (+1/4) (146 Active Points), One Charge (-2) Self Only (-1/2) (41 Active Points)

 

However, that power is 41 points! That seems ridiculous for a power that basically allows the PC to ignore 6 points of BODY once per game. However, I can't think of a better way to write up a power that works "instantly" to retroactively undo a lethal blow.

 

I'm open to other ideas like this, but I would like them to function similarly (like GM cheating to preserve the PC, but under the PC's control). Maybe I should just suck up the points, since I'm granting them to all the PCs (and probably to the most essential central antagonists) and run with it.

 

Thanks for all the useful comments. I was planning on tracking BODY from wounds separately and allowing a paramedic roll for each anyway. The "healing herbs" that I envision being used most are more like smelling salts, in that they heal back STUN, so that you are still injured, but mobile and in less danger of passing out.

[Rene]

You could get rid of the Standard Effect and change it to 3d6 Healing Body. That would allow a PC to heal anything from 1 to 9 BODY, with about 5-6 average. That would cut it down to 33 pts.

 

You could also remove the Invisible Advantage and cut it to 18 points. The rationale being that everyone can see that the character "shrughed off" what "seemed" to be a rather nasty wound, but wasn't so nasty after all. So it isn't so invisible. Or you can technically keep it, but the advantage don't give the character any benefit that I can think of, so it shouldn't cost points, the same way a Limitation that don't limit the character don't give back any points.

 

Or you can just wave the points, like you said.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Mr. Negative

In fact, that's kind of what I'm considering, for each character: a Heal Body with a single charge that is also limited by having to be used immediately after taking damage. This would allow the PC to convert what might be a killing blow (one that does loads of body) to a painful injury (like a nasty cut on the face, or a kick in the goolies). This way, a player might still be incapacitated by STUN damage, but could "ignore" one bad (for them) roll each game. However, I don't want to do regeneration, as I don't want this to be a "shake it off" sort of effect, but rather, the sort of vagaries of fate that always conspire to protect characters. I'm unsure how to write it up so that it can save PC's when they are unconscious or stunned, as Healing normally requires a half-phase action.

If it's a GM gift to PC's, something they can't control or increase, that they're all getting in the same way, something that's just there to preserve the plot by keeping them from getting killed by that one exceptional blow - it's not really necessary to write it up. Just hit them with the BODY back, the blow didn't in fact cause an Impairing or Disabling wound when you think it's appropriate. In fact, if there isn't a mechanic for it, they're that much less likely to try to take advantage of it, which (from the sounds of it) they shouldn't anyway.

 

GM fiat is a convenient thing. It's a nice thing about HERO that we need to make relatively little use of it, but it's still there and ready.

[tetsujin28]

Be sure to just ditch any healing abilities of the Aid power.

[RDU Neil]

I hate healing magic...

 

... but found a way to run a fantasy game with limited healing (so players had SOME control) without the ease of Cure Light Wounds and drink a potion crap that negates any sense of drama or death.

 

If a player had a cleric in our world, and this cleric's god had healing aspects... they basically had two things... appropriate for the culture medical trainining (Paramedics role, KS: Medicine and Herbs, etc.)

 

The best could create the Healing Poultice. It was healing on charges, hard to recover, and only to stabilize the wounded. Basically, healing a couple of body max, with ancient herbs mixed and prepared ahead of time by only the most trained and knowledgeable cleric.

 

To use the poultice took minutes, out of combat.

 

This worked well for keeping players alive... but you never used the poultice lightly, and the real healing still had to be done through rest and attention after being stabilized.

 

Still, clerics were seen as very respected... and the few that could truly "lay on hands" and heal, were nigh worshipped as gods themselves and locked up in their tower where thousands supplicated to them in the streets outside their temples. I think there were 2 true healers in all the lands.

[slaughterj]

Well, you've come to the right place I've played and run FH in Lankhmar, and so has Captain Obvious (I've played in Lankhmar FH campaigns under him many years ago). Further, we're near one another if you'd like to get a beer and shoot the breeze about it sometime

 

Anyway, I've most recently run FH for an extended time in Lankhmar under 5th ed HERO (pre-5e FH book), and here's how I handled healing:

 

The basics:

- Wounds were kept track of separately.

- #days in month (30)/REC was the frequency at which wounds healed by 1 BODY. Thus if someone with a 6 REC received a 5 BODY and a 3 BODY wound in a combat, then 5 days later, each wound would heal a point. Note that this gets a bit complex when wounds were received on different days, but I winged it.

- 1 BODY wounds heal overnight, regardless whether it is initially a 1 BODY wound (i.e., barely got hit), was naturally healed to a 1 BODY wound, or otherwise healed to a 1 BODY wound. Thus if someone with a 6 REC received a 3 BODY wound, it would heal 1 BODY in 5 days, 1 more BODY in 5 days, and the last BODY the next day (i.e., 11 days total)

 

Available advanced healing:

- I let the Paramedics skill serve to bind wounds, but require PS: Healer to recover 1 BODY / wound treated (i.e. a bit more stringent than the book option mentioned by others); while no characters had PS: Healer, they discovered the Physician's Guild south of the Plaza of Dark Delights, where they could pay 1 Gold Rilk per wound to be treated, and it would get automatic success with the PS: Healer result - this could only be done once per wound however. Thus if someone received a 2 BODY wound, they could get 1 BODY healed there, then rest overnight and recover the other BODY, fully healed from that wound.

- For more severe wounds, the characters could pay an additional 1 Gold Rilk per day to stay at the Physician's Guild, which would increase the rate at which they would heal wounds, in effect boosting their REC by 1, which consequently would reduce the days it would take for a wound to heal.

- The most advanced healing found by the characters was by a mysterious herbalist (received prophetic visions and have characters get them too) in the Plaza of Dark Delights. For her herbal concoction, which were in limited supply due to rare ingredients, she would charge 10 Gold Rilks and they would heal 1D3 BODY to 1 wound (think of it as a paste applied to the wound). The healing would take overnight to occur, but the healing salve was good for several weeks, so one could buy one in advance, but often she was out (due to the ingredients, the obtaining of such provided an adventure in itself). This healing was stackable by the Physician's Guild (PS: Healer) treatment. Thus, if one sustained a 5 BODY wound, paid 10 GR for the salve (if it was available) and got a 3 on the roll (if they were lucky), and paid the physicians 1 GR, then rested overnight, the entire wound would be healed (letting it slide that the 1 BODY woudn't technically be until in the morning once the salve had worked, thus should take another day).

 

I found that these results made severe wounds mean something, and often the characters were down some BODY when going into their next adventure (always had things to do and couldn't just sit around for weeks at a time), but that also impacted how they would react to threats.

[GamePhil]

Originally posted by Mr. Negative

Nearly Had Me: Healing (4d6 Fixed Effect Body Healing (6 Body), Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection (65 Base Points), Invisible (+1), Trigger (+1/4) (146 Active Points), One Charge (-2) Self Only (-1/2) (41 Active Points)

 

How about:

 

Nearly Had Me: Armor 6 PD 6 ED, Hardened (+1/4), Only To Prevent Being Reduced To 0 Body Or Below (-1/2), 1/day (-2) [22 Active Points, 6 Real Points]

 

Also, if it's something all PC's will have, anyway, you could just give it to them. I prefer to have it written up, just in case that becomes useful in some way, but there's no absolute need to charge the PC's for it in this case.

[GamePhil]

Originally posted by tetsujin28

Be sure to just ditch any healing abilities of the Aid power.

 

Just a quibble: Healing is no longer a function of Aid, but its own separate Power.

[Chris Goodwin]

The only problem I have with readily accessible Healing is what I call the 600d6 per hour problem. You want BODY damage to be relevant, and if characters can go "I spend an hour out of combat healing Joe; poof, he's fully healed" then there's a problem. IMO, of course.

 

I house rule it that characters can buy Cumulative Healing if they take at least -3 1/2 worth of Extra Time, Extra END Cost, Expendable Focus, and/or Charges. Kinda going back to the idea that in D&D clerical healing is fully cumulative, but they can't do it 300 times in an hour.

[badger3k]

From my experience low healing games can be an eye-opener for players. If you have (for example) D&D players used to mega-healing, their attitudes towards combat are really different. When they switch to low healing the learning curve can be sharp - usually in character deaths.

 

After that, while combat is an option, it takes back place to alternative methods. Depending on the power level, combat is still possible (so barbarians and the like are still very playable), but it doesn't take the forefront of the game as in other systems or worlds.

 

I was going to suggest something else for the power, but I think the armor mentioned before isn't too bad.

[Markdoc]

In my games I want healing to be relatively accessible, but not overly powerful. In other words I want PCs to have access to some healing when they really need it, but not so much that they rely on it.

 

The two recomended methods for applying healing are not suitable for this this. The worst version (you can apply healing per wound) takes too much book-keeping and makes healing too powerful. Heavily armoured characters often end up with many little wounds which can all be washed away in a few seconds, ready for the next battle.

 

The alternate approach (healing can be applied per day) is still powerful: even major wounds can be cleaned up with a day or two rest.

 

My approach was to define the maximum amount of healing that could be done as that maximum that a PC could have "on" at any one time.

 

So a healer with 2d6 healing could give Bob the barbarian 12 points back, in any combination, but once Bob was carrying 12 points of "healed" body he could get no more help until he had naturally healed back some body.

 

Here's how it works: Bob the barbarian gets in a fight one day and takes 7 BOD. Chas the Cleric heals him back up. Bob the barbarian is now carrying 6 BOD of healing. He can't get any more until he has rested long enough to heal 1 BOD naturally: then Chas can give him 1 more point of healing (bringing him back to 6 points of healing.)

 

This requires a player to track two numbers: how much BOD he has and how much healing he has had. But it does 3 things I like.

 

1. It makes healing really useful, when you gotta have it, but it's not something to waste, since it cannot be used repeatedly in a short period of time.

2. It makes even fairly puny healers useful to have around: they can essentially double the speed of healing, since even once they have done their maximum healing, for every BOD you naturally heal they can give you another one.

3. It makes having 6d6 Healing (for example) really impressive, whereas under the "heal each wound" approach that was nearly pointless.

 

cheers, Mark

[Captain Obvious]

As slaughterj mentioned, he and I have played together in just this sort of campaign, and he has already gone over most of my methods (plus a few of his own). One more thing I have to add: Build all (or most common forms anyway) magical healing as an Aid to REC. Coupled with the healing 1 BODY every 30/REC days rule, healing still takes time, even magically, but with magical healing, a disabling wound won't keep a character out of action for TOO long....