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Thread: Arcane healing

  1. #1
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    One of the big advantages of humans in Cerilia has always been their access to divine magic. Elves & even to some extent goblins have had great difficulty dealing with human forces because of it.

    The introduction of the 'cure light' spell to the bard in 3rd ed has therefore posed a little bit of a problem. If you can cast it on yourself what's to stop you healing a unit?

    Personally I like the bardic ability as it brings a little uniqueness to bards as opposed to the other arcane casters but in the case of Cerilia it can cause some serious queries.

    My suggestions are the following:

    The 3rd ed bard is only available to humans, essentially a new ability created by the human attempt to learn spellsong. You could then rule that the cure-light is a result of the human's close tie to their gods. This then requires a slightly modified bardic class for elves if you want one (loremaster maybe).

    Another tack is to look at the nature of healing magic. Generally described as pulling positive material energy from the associated plane, this is justified as being divine magic because the gods, being extraplanar, give better access to this kind of magic than the plane bound arcane powers of the prime material.
    So we could have arcane healing magic, but make it much higher level, perhaps 5-6 for weak healing, 7-8 for moderate & 9 for heal like effects. This could be covered by claiming that it takes a lot of brute force to yank things between planes.
    So bards have a short cut because their spells are much less powerful on the whole than the sor/wiz and can therefore slip the energy accross rather than yank it through. But this effectively caps them at very weak healing until getting something say at lvls 5-6.

    So let's stipulate:
    cure minor sor/wiz 5, bard 0
    cure light sor/wiz 6, bard 1
    cure moderate sor/wiz 7, bard 5
    cure servious, cure disease sor/wiz 8, bard 6
    cure critical, neutralize poison sor/wiz 9
    minor restoration sor/wiz 7, bard 5 (?)
    restoration sor/wiz 9 (?)

    I'd rather keep heal, & the bring back from the dead spells exculsively divine.
    These level suggestions are just that. A different game might require lower or higher
    levels thus adding or removing from this list.

    Other changes could be to make this easier/harder for the wiz as opposed to the sorceror. Instinct vs. learning, which is better in this case?

    Finally, to get back to how this affects Cerilia. Elves would have some battle healing, but only their most powerful casters could perform it and they would have to thin out their usual repertoire to do so.

    The unique nature of divine magic, and most notably the sheer mass of human divine spellcasters as opposed to elves who have fewer who bother getting to the higher spellcaster levels, still makes a good case for humans overrunning both the elves and goblins in their mutual war.

    If you've got this far, thanks for reading.

    have a rest
    ([_]

    and let me know what you think.

    ta
    me

  2. #2
    Senior Member marcum uth mather's Avatar
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    if elves had divine magic they would have faired a lot better then they did. even with the high level restriction on cure arcane magic there should have been enough elven casters to turn the tide. any way i belive it was dragon lance wear rastilin used healinh on tasselhoff. but in duing so he lost what he gave the kender. i think both bards and wizards should have to live by that rule. if you want to heal, be a cleric or palidin otherwise you cant

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    Hiya again,

    just adding a couple of thoughts.

    Giving access to healing magic via arcane means is definately a big step. Most campaigns won't want it, and that's fine.

    Considering the chaotic nature of elves, it seems unlikely many would achieve the high levels of caster needed to cast such powerful magics. And of those who do it would seem reasonable that few would want to be battlefield spellcasters.

    I see quite a few of the mightiest spellcasters dying, assassinated by goblins or even at the hands of the real competition, other elves.

    On a different note. One of my players has suggested denying bards access to the battle magic feat & giving them a battle song feat in it's place. Thus allowing them to use their bardic song abilities on entire units.

    Thoughts?
    me

  4. #4
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    Originally posted by CaineThe 3rd ed bard is only available to humans, essentially a new ability created by the human attempt to learn spellsong.
    The easiest solution would be that the bard class was created when humans attempted to learn spellsong, but now anyone can become a bard (although many elves see it as demeaning ;))

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    Lord Rahvin wrote:

    >> 2.) Bardic healing is not the input of new energy, but rather the
    >> speeding
    >> and/or enhancement of the natural healing process. This link could be
    >> made
    >> clearer by ruling either that the casting of the spell as an arcane
    >> spell
    >> takes much longer, or that the time until the effect is produced is much
    >> longer than with the divine version. In other words, a bard can heal,
    >> but it
    >> takes the duration of a calming, energing song before the healing takes
    >> place, making the spell effectively a post-combat rather than a
    >> during-combat spell. Or else the healing only takes place after a
    >> night of
    >> rest, and represents an enhancement of the hp regained due to rest.
    >> Either
    >> seem like they would work fine as limitations and yet still be useful
    >> spells, although the later is more limited as nightly disturbances may
    >> negate the spell.
    >
    > If you like this interpretation, there are other d20 systems that
    > interpret
    > arcane healing as something that doesn`t actually recover hitpoints.
    > Instead it makes the wounds less hazardous and easier to heal,
    > allowing the
    > body`s natural recovery to take over. A common mechanic used to
    > represent
    > this is that the damage is converted to subdual damage.
    > -Lord Rahvin

    While I shun the Bard as casting divine heal spells and up to now would
    rather have seen a bard as in 2E that has been limited in his
    spellcasting, I like the idea of this kind of healing.

    Making wounds heal not at the regular 1 hitpoin/level/day but at 1
    hitpoint/level/hour by tranforming damage into subdual damage leaves the
    cleric still as the only one capable of "miracles" of healing and is not
    too powerful to give the Birthright bard as replacement what the core
    PHB bard loses.

    However to fit the theme of the bard this should work with a song, not
    just a spell.
    bye
    Michael Romes

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  6. #6
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    Lord Rahvin wrote:

    > 2.) Bardic healing is not the input of new energy, but rather the
    > speeding
    > and/or enhancement of the natural healing process. This link could be
    > made
    > clearer by ruling either that the casting of the spell as an arcane
    > spell
    > takes much longer, or that the time until the effect is produced is much
    > longer than with the divine version. In other words, a bard can heal,
    > but it
    > takes the duration of a calming, energing song before the healing takes
    > place, making the spell effectively a post-combat rather than a
    > during-combat spell. Or else the healing only takes place after a
    > night of
    > rest, and represents an enhancement of the hp regained due to rest.
    > Either
    > seem like they would work fine as limitations and yet still be useful
    > spells, although the later is more limited as nightly disturbances may
    > negate the spell.
    >
    > If you like this interpretation, there are other d20 systems that
    > interpret
    > arcane healing as something that doesn`t actually recover hitpoints.
    > Instead it makes the wounds less hazardous and easier to heal,
    > allowing the
    > body`s natural recovery to take over. A common mechanic used to
    > represent
    > this is that the damage is converted to subdual damage.
    > -Lord Rahvin

    Ooo, where is this interpretation? I've never liked the healing spells as they are and would love to see how this modification works for me in BR. Please, if you have one, give me a link! ;)

    Charlie

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    >> If you like this interpretation, there are other d20 systems that
    >> interpret
    >> arcane healing as something that doesn`t actually recover hitpoints.
    >> Instead it makes the wounds less hazardous and easier to heal,
    >> allowing the
    >> body`s natural recovery to take over. A common mechanic used to
    >> represent
    >> this is that the damage is converted to subdual damage.
    >> -Lord Rahvin
    >
    > Ooo, where is this interpretation? I`ve never liked the healing spells as they are and would love to see how this modification works for me in BR. Please, if you have one, give me a link! ;)

    Whenever possible, I like to use The Wheel of Time d20 RPG to talk about new
    mechanics, because they had some really good rule ideas in that book which
    was meant to reflect a campaign world similiar to Birthright.

    I`m not sure exactly what you`re asking me for in the above paragraph, but
    here`s some quotes describing the nature of Healing:

    "The Talent of Healing involves repairing damage done to the body and mind;
    the fine work of accelerating and assisting the body`s natural healing
    processes. Ironically, though, the same skills apply to damaging the body
    and mind -- hence, a number of weaves within this Talent involve inflicting
    pain, damage, and death. Fortunately, most of these weaves are either rare
    or lost."

    Description of the heal weave(spell):

    [Air, Spirit, Water] (Common)
    Level: 0-8
    Casting Time: see text
    Range: Touch
    Target: Creature touched
    Duration: Instantaneous
    Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
    Weave Resistance: Yes

    You lay your hands upon a living creature to convert its wounds from
    standard damage to subdual damage. The damage thus converted heals at the
    nomral rate for subdual damage. The amount of damage converted depends upon
    the casting level and your class level. This weave cannot be used to heal
    subdual damage. This weave can only be cast once per target per day.

    Casting Casting Converted
    Level Level Hit Points
    ------- ------- ----------
    0 1 action 1
    1 full action 1d8 + caster level
    2 1 minute 2d8 + caster level
    3 10 minutes 3d8 + caster level
    4 10 minutes 4d8 + caster level
    5 20 minutes 5d8 + caster level
    6 20 minutes 6d8 + caster level
    7 30 minutes 7d8 + caster level
    8 30 minutes 8d8 + caster level


    I`m not sure if this is what you`re looking for, but I hope it helps. If
    you have any other questions or want interpretations from other d20
    products, feel free to email me privately.

    -Lord Rahvin
    LordRahvin@softhome.net

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