Non-Divine Healers

[Steve]

If there are no gods that provide healing effects (ie no clerics with divinely provided miracles), but healing magic exists, what are some ways it could be done? These are the ways I've come up with, but I'm wondering how others have handled this.

 

Alchemy: Your basic healing potions and ointments.

Empathic: The healer takes all or a portion of the damage themselves in order to heal another.

Sorcery: A spirit is summoned to apply healing.

White Magic: Provides Cleric-like healing but is a non-divine spellcaster.

 

In the case of white magic, I've read stories where a spellcaster who is able to heal is not able to cast harming magic.

[Ndreare]

We have always treated healing as just another domain. Like air magic fire magic or time magic.

 

Our group has some people who are very conservative Christians (me the gm for one) so we have never played with powers granted by gods.

[Chris Goodwin]

The games I've been in have treated it as either just another domain, or as just another spell.  Like wizards can cast healing spells the same way they can cast flying spells or fireball spells. 

[Markdoc]

Same here: healing is the domain of what civilized cultures call "Biomancy" - the study of "life-magic". Just as few pyromancers know the water-breathing spell, few magicians of other skills learn healing magic. Those who do are sought after as useful professionals, much as doctors are in our world. In my games, however, there is a tendency to associate healing magic with temples, simply because temple-based priests tend to have connections to their local community and therefore study magic that would be useful. This is not true of all religions, of course, but it's a decent rule of thumb.

 

cheers, Mark

[mhd]

I wasn't "raised" on D&D, so non-divine healing is perfectly normal to me. Actually, divine magic in general is still not my cup of tea (I like my deities either remote and "unknowable" or running around in the setting, not having time to "grant miracles").

 

In the game I wasted my youth on, healing was elven magic. The two most popular spells being your run-of-the-mill "laying on hands" type and a serious boost to the nightly regeneration. Both in line with the "nature magic" aspect of elves, as they mostly enhance what's already there.

 

Of course, curing poison was a human invention.

 

I also liked what the "witches" were doing: They could, erm, have a sleepover, and either grant you their nightly regeneration or take yours.

[Ndreare]

Up until now I liked sleep overs.

[mhd]

Let's put it this way, it isn't exactly a viable way of getting the whole group back into in fighting shape.

 

NTTIAWWT.

[Lucius]

Let's put it this way, it isn't exactly a viable way of getting the whole group back into in fighting shape.

 

NTTIAWWT.

NTTIAWWT?

 

LA

 

p

[Markdoc]

"Not That There's Anything Wrong with That"

 

Cheers, Mark

[mhd]

Ah, fell into the trap of "using acronyms popular on other fora" again. At least it's harder to misconstrue this, as opposed to the time I signed off with "IANAL".

 

(I Am Not A Lawyer.)

[Steve]

It sounds like going with Alchemy for healing potions/ointments and White Magic (or maybe calling it Biomancy) would work for my needs.

 

White Magic could also probably assist in anything involving life, such as life creation as well as disease eradication and healing.

[DShomshak]

Then again, in Poul Anderson's Operation: Chaos, it was mentioned that a military medic had the Evil Eye. He used it medically by glaring at disease bacteria through a microscope. By sympathetic magic, he similarly cursed and killed the disease bacteria in the patient's body.

 

D&D wasn't my first experience with fantasy, either, so I don't see healing magic as specially "divine." The most important questions, I think, are how powerful, available and, I'm not sure how to put this, "problem-erasing" you want healing magic to be. D&D clerical healing represents an extreme case of powerful healing magic that is easy to use with no special conditions: If a cleric has sufficient level, bam, he can cast a spell to perform any definable feat of healing without proactical difficulties. It sort of goes out of its way to be a resource to manage rather than a source of stories.

 

OTOH if the only way to heal a wound is to inflict an equivalent wound on someone else, that's a far more restrictive system with fairly significant implications for the setting and stories.

 

More questions: In your setting, Steve, what can healing magic do that mundane medicine can't? Is there anything mundane medicine can do that healing magic can't?

 

Dean Shomshak

[Steve]

Those are very good questions.

 

For the most part, in the setting I am working up magical healing vastly speeds up the process of normal healing and minimizes instances of scarring. It is much more expensive than regular medicine for non-fatal injuries and illnesses. For example, the common cold can be purged with an alchemical brew, but it is pricy due to the lack of mass production ability for such things. Pharmacies frequently keep an alchemist on staff to brew such potions on request as their shelf life is limited.

 

Advanced healing magic can replace a lost limb or even a damaged organ, but it can't raise the dead. Cancers and most illnesses can be eradicated through magic, but there are some that are magically resistant, thought to be either curses of Unseelie make or pathogens that migrated from Arcadia with the Fae. Once brain activity ceases, there is nothing magic can do to save the spark of life. Magic takes a bit of time, so bleeding out is also a risk before someone can be saved.

 

Some lesser illnesses have been all but eliminated from the world, such as venereal diseases. Along similar lines, birth control can be accomplished by an alchemical tablet that somehow prevents an egg from accepting a sperm, with no apparent side effects. Such magical-medical advances came about by 1970 on this world, so the Seventies had a "free love" atmosphere to it even more widespread than on our world.

[Christopher]

If there are no gods that provide healing effects (ie no clerics with divinely provided miracles), but healing magic exists, what are some ways it could be done? These are the ways I've come up with, but I'm wondering how others have handled this.

 

Alchemy: Your basic healing potions and ointments.

Empathic: The healer takes all or a portion of the damage themselves in order to heal another.

Sorcery: A spirit is summoned to apply healing.

White Magic: Provides Cleric-like healing but is a non-divine spellcaster.

 

In the case of white magic, I've read stories where a spellcaster who is able to heal is not able to cast harming magic.

As others my first forrays into Fantasy was not D&D and frankly thier limitation of healing to Divine Casters was more of a "artifical Limitation for game balance". They did give it a fluff expalantion, but that was it.

My first Fanatasy Settign was The Dark Eye (germanies Captain Ersatz for D&D). It used just about every type of magic user from Fairytales and made them into a Class (and later went Shadowrun Style classless).

The Primary healign spell was uni-shool. Just about everyone could learn it, from Combat mages to magic diletants.

Druids had the ability to improove healign herbs effects (might mix that one up with D&D though)

Jesters (humans raised by fairies) had very benign and "fun oriented" magic. Among the a spell that healed by inducing laughter (laughing is literally the best medicine in this case).

Shamans had Ritual magic, wich included stuff like summoning healing spirits or grabbing into the body to correct a bone (without having to cut open first).

Witches could enchant thier Saliva. And they had something like that Sleepover Spell mhd mentioned.

The alchemy is a simple skill without required magic abilities, but mages could invest power to make the result more potent.

 

 

White Magic and not damaging:

At the very least, white magic should damage undead. It does so in several settings that clearly work without divine magic. While it is propably based on D&D's Positive/Negative Magic thing, it became so common an widespread you should consider it.

 

Cancers and most illnesses can be eradicated through magic, but there are some that are magically resistant, thought to be either curses of Unseelie make or pathogens that migrated from Arcadia with the Fae.

Cancer is ironically a diseases that is based around the lack of death/overflowing life:

All our bodies cells have a self destruct command, called Apoptosis. Cancer Cells stopped reacting to it. In fact that is what makes them Cancer cells - they jsut won't listen to thier death command ("no, you really should not grow there. This is not the right place for mutated liver cells").

Most anti-caner medicine is either about "finding out what the new self destruct button looks like and hitting that" or about causing Necrosis (killing them through trauma, as selectively as possible). Both processes cause serious harm to other cells.

[mhd]

Another question to ask is how common and effective healing herbs are. If the local flora contains plants that can miraculously cure wounds, this changes a lot. The usual trope to keep this from being peasant health care is restricting it to dangerous areas, like fey forests or mountain tops.

I think it's especially appropriate for diseases, although I'm not a big fan of games where those are common enough, apart from the occasional plot point.

 

And Christopher, we don't talk about the Dark Eye changelings. Ever.

[Shadowsoul]

And Christopher, we don't talk about the Dark Eye changelings. Ever.

 

Why? Do they belong to Fight Club?

 

Here's my two pennorth.  I would say that healing can very easily come under non-divine 'Life Magic' which draws on natural forces and is not necessarily 'good' or 'nice', after all a shark is alive, as is a fungal infection.

 

Blood Magic, (a form of Life Magic which certainly isn't pleasant), can inspire regeneration or cause the patient's blood to destroy disease cells, (though that is a traumatic experiencefor the patient).

 

Earth magic can heal as well because of its links to nature, (unless you regard Earth magic as only relating to rocks, soil and lava).  Water magic can heal because it is associated with cleansing and balms and is also a protean element capable of reforming around any change to its shape.  Fire magic can burn out infection, though it might kill the patient in the process, (that is pretty much what the body is trying to do to itself when it develops a fever).

 

I also love the idea of Biomancy as a kind of cross between sorcerous magic and b-movie style genetic engineering. So a Biomancer may know how to cure disease but they may be two busy grafting giant claws to their pet tiger to bother.  That's the style of magic I'm going to use in my Rockworld setting.

 

Steve. Do people in your setting research new spells or kinds of magic? Could there be magical laboratories trying to find a way to resurrect the dead?  (Just because it can't be done doesn't mean people don't try it). 

[mhd]

Why? Do they belong to Fight Club?

More like an "inbred cousin Jedediah" thing...

[Markdoc]

I also love the idea of Biomancy as a kind of cross between sorcerous magic and b-movie style genetic engineering. So a Biomancer may know how to cure disease but they may be two busy grafting giant claws to their pet tiger to bother.  That's the style of magic I'm going to use in my Rockworld setting.

 

Steve. Do people in your setting research new spells or kinds of magic? Could there be magical laboratories trying to find a way to resurrect the dead?  (Just because it can't be done doesn't mean people don't try it). 

 

And this is exactly how it works in my game. Dedicated biomancers can repair or replace lost limbs, or heal pretty much any disease. They can also make "monsters to order" (where did you think chimeræ came from?) and are notorious for experimenting on themselves (they would say "Improving" themselves). Everybody likes a little magical healing, but dedicated orders of biomancers like "The Minglers of the Blood" in my setting make most people rather ... uneasy. Indeed, the Minglers of the Blood are the only group that the mighty Dymerian Empire didn't try to outright annexe: they just set up some trade deals and thereafter left them alone to rule their little city-state. It's the place to go for all your catgirl needs, if you know what I mean.

 

cheers, Mark

[NuSoardGraphite]

Herbalism: The use of natural plants and fungi to develop cures and medicine.

 

Alchemy: mystic knowledge of mixing chemical compounds and elements to generate various effects.  Theoretically capable of healing any affliction IF the ingredients are available.

 

Healing Energy: (Reiki, Chakra healing, Laying on Hands):  The ability to transfer or move the natural energies of the body to promote health and healing.  Almost every culture has a version of this from the legends of saints with the ability to "Lay on Hands", to Reiki, to acupressure/acupuncture to Chakra-alignment.

 

Empathic Healing: Kinda like Healing Energy, but the "healer" takes the wound on to themselves, transferring their own healing energy to the patient, rather than using their energy to cause the patients energy to respond in kind.  Considered a dangerous technique.

 

Witchcraft: Kind of a combination of Herbalism, Alchemy and Healing energy, Witchcraft can be used to heal and relieve all manner of afflictions.

 

Sorcery: Sorcery should be able to heal by dint of manipulating reality to change the nature of the body from sick to hale.  May be more or less effective than other types of healing, however energy costs tend to be higher.

 

Necromancy: drawing power from entropy/death, this should not be able to heal in the traditional sense, but may be possible to replace or augment afflicted organs with necromantic replacements that work as well or better than the original.  yes,that's as disgusting as it sounds.  (Frankenstein's monster comes to mind)

[Lucius]

And this is exactly how it works in my game. Dedicated biomancers can repair or replace lost limbs, or heal pretty much any disease. They can also make "monsters to order" (where did you think chimeræ came from?) and are notorious for experimenting on themselves (they would say "Improving" themselves). Everybody likes a little magical healing, but dedicated orders of biomancers like "The Minglers of the Blood" in my setting make most people rather ... uneasy. Indeed, the Minglers of the Blood are the only group that the mighty Dymerian Empire didn't try to outright annexe: they just set up some trade deals and thereafter left them alone to rule their little city-state. It's the place to go for all your catgirl needs, if you know what I mean.

 

cheers, Mark

Thanks, I'll have to look them up. I keep losing catgirls to raiders from P.U.T.A.A.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary explains that's People for the Unethical Treatment of Anthropomorphic Animals