Elves and Healing

[JD Sivyer]

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Magic flows throughout Cerilia - in fact, the land is magic. It's just
learning how to tap it that is the difficult part. My question is this:
if elves have "sprang" from the earth, composed of a beautiful balance
of the basic four elements, and they can control the flow of magic by
casting realm spells, etc., what's to stop them from creating a spell
that enables them to heal?

That was one of the ways I explained how humans managed to defeat the
elves (that and numbers), because humans had healing and elves did not.
But...what's to stop the elves from creating a healing spell? They've
had thousands of years to come up with one and they are composed of the
elements.

You could easily answer "healing only comes from the Gods", and I could
live with this answer, but I would like to get everyone else's opinion,
and maybe we can come up with a pretty logical answer. But, please, do
not say "game balance", because I already am aware of this answer. : )

Hope this sparks an interesting discussion.

Regards,
Jason.

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Magic flows throughout Cerilia - in fact, the land is magic. 
It's just learning how to tap it that is the difficult part. My question
is this: if elves have "sprang" from the earth, composed of a beautiful
balance of the basic four elements, and they can control the flow of magic
by casting realm spells, etc., what's to stop them from creating a spell
that enables them to heal?

That was one of the ways I explained how humans managed to defeat the
elves (that and numbers), because humans had healing and elves did not. 
But...what's to stop the elves from creating a healing spell? They've had
thousands of years to come up with one and they are composed of
the elements.

You could easily answer "healing only comes from the Gods", and I could
live with this answer, but I would like to get everyone else's opinion,
and maybe we can come up with a pretty logical answer.  But, please,
do not say "game balance", because I already am aware of this answer. 
: )

Hope this sparks an interesting discussion.

Regards,
Jason.



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[E Gray]

- -----Original Message-----
From: JD Sivyer
To: birthright@MPGN.COM
Date: Friday, November 21, 1997 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Elves and Healing


Magic flows throughout Cerilia - in fact, the land is magic. It's just
learning how to tap it that is the difficult part. My question is this: if elves
have "sprang" from the earth, composed of a beautiful balance of the basic four
elements, and they can control the flow of magic by casting realm spells, etc.,
what's to stop them from creating a spell that enables them to heal?
Maybe it's related to being part of the natural order. Causing themselves
to be healed would result in unbalancing the universe or something and would
cause the downfall of all things elven. Maybe there magic just doesn't flow
into those patterns. That makes perfect sense as an explanation..

[abeard@zebra.net (Adam B]

JD Sivyer wrote:
>
> Magic flows throughout Cerilia - in fact, the land is magic. It's
> just learning how to tap it that is the difficult part. My question is
> this: if elves have "sprang" from the earth, composed of a beautiful
> balance of the basic four elements, and they can control the flow of
> magic by casting realm spells, etc., what's to stop them from creating
> a spell that enables them to heal?
>
> That was one of the ways I explained how humans managed to defeat the
> elves (that and numbers), because humans had healing and elves did
> not. But...what's to stop the elves from creating a healing spell?
> They've had thousands of years to come up with one and they are
> composed of the elements.
>
> You could easily answer "healing only comes from the Gods", and I
> could live with this answer, but I would like to get everyone else's
> opinion, and maybe we can come up with a pretty logical answer. But,
> please, do not say "game balance", because I already am aware of this
> answer. : )
I like this. It has always been said that the earth has healing
properties. Also in several fantasy novels I have read(sorry don't have
names) elves were able to heal. I think this is an interesting idea. It
should be a high level spell that is difficult to learn. Therefore it
won't be available to every little elf running around.

Adam Beard

[Bryan Ruther]

JD Sivyer wrote:

> .......what's to stop the elves from creating a healing spell?

Actually, even leaving out Vampiric Touch (elves wouldn't touch nasty
Necromancy anyway), there are at least a couple of spells which allow
mages to cure damage.

Sand Healing - this is from AlQudim, I seem to remember it being 4th
level
Time Healing (or something like that) - from a Dragon article some years
ago
Symbul's Synastadwoemer (again I don't remember the exact name, much
less the spelling) - It's in a FR product, I don't remember which one.
Decastave - from the FR hardcover

These four are just off the top of my head, I'm sure that there are at
least a few more out there.

Bryan

- --
Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation,
the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent
circumstance...
Thomas Paine, Common Sense

[Patrick McCormick]

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JD Sivyer wrote:

> , what's to stop them from creating a spell that enables them to heal?
>
> That was one of the ways I explained how humans managed to defeat the
> elves (that and numbers), because humans had healing and elves did
> not. But...what's to stop the elves from creating a healing spell?
> They've had thousands of years to come up with one and they are
> composed of the elements.

I would guess that the elves never came up with a healing spell because
it was never neccessary. The humans most likely had wars between
themselves before encountering the elves and needed to take advantage of
the powers of healing. The elves on the other hand may have always been
a peaceful people and never really had much use for it.

That's just my opinion.


- --
- ----------
"All questions are obvious; to those who know the answers,
Answers are never known; to those who don't understand the
question."

~Mick


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JD Sivyer wrote:
, what's to stop them from creating a spell that
enables them to heal?

That was one of the ways I explained how humans managed to defeat the
elves (that and numbers), because humans had healing and elves did not. 
But...what's to stop the elves from creating a healing spell? They've had
thousands of years to come up with one and they are composed of
the elements.
I would guess that the elves never came up with a healing spell because
it was never neccessary.  The humans most likely had wars between
themselves before encountering the elves and needed to take advantage of
the powers of healing.  The elves on the other hand may have always
been a peaceful people and never really had much use for it.

That's just my opinion.
 

--
----------
"All questions are obvious; to those who know the answers,
    Answers are never known; to those who don't understand
the question."

~Mick
 



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[Trizt]

On 22-Nov-97, E Gray (grayhome@sprintmail.com) wrote about Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] -
Elves and Healing:

Thanks Grey to reposting the mail without those damned html codes.

- -> From: JD Sivyer

- -> Magic flows throughout Cerilia - in fact, the land is magic. It's just
- ->learning how to tap it that is the difficult part. My question is this: if
- ->elves have "sprang" from the earth, composed of a beautiful balance of
- ->the basic four elements, and they can control the flow of magic by
- ->casting realm spells, etc.,
- ->what's to stop them from creating a spell that enables them to heal?
- -> Maybe it's related to being part of the natural order. Causing
themselves
- ->to be healed would result in unbalancing the universe or something and would
- ->cause the downfall of all things elven. Maybe there magic just doesn't flow
- ->into those patterns. That makes perfect sense as an explanation..

Why must it be a spell, Elves may have been able to heal with help of some
powerful plant which only the elves are able to grow (something like the tree
in D&D which all (?) elven strongholds had which even helped in defence). Let
say that the "life trees" leafs heals 1d4 hitpoints. There is one of thise in
each ot the elven capitals and legends tells that once in the time each elven
city had one. The leafs are sold among the elves as Healing potions among the
other races.


Or what about this:
When an elf sleeps s/he heals one hitpoint per hour of sleep. The elf comes to
a higher spiritual plane when sleeping and can't be awakened by any mean
during the sleeping period. When the elf goes to sleep s/he decides for how
many hours and at the end ot the time a willpower (wis) check is made, if it
fails the elf continues sleeping as s/he has drawn it self to close to the
elemental planes. A hour later the elf gets another try to wakeup, but this
time with a penatly, -1 for each hour longer the sleep has last than was
decided. A 1 result is always a success. If the sleep lasted longer, the elf
will have a -2 penalty on every none spiritual action, while a +1 bonus for
all spiritual actions. E.g. Untamo has been badly hurt during a battle against
th evil humans and decides he will reach the elemental planes and stay there
for 10 hours. Nothing bad happens during the 10 hurs as he is protected by
some elven guards. The dm rolls a 20 which says that Untamo will sleep one
hour longer as the next check is a 2. Untamo has now healed 11 hitpoints, but
has those special penatly/bonus for 24hours.


On 22-Nov-97, Patrick McCormick (flammie@earthlink.net) wrote about Re:
[BIRTHRIGHT] - Elves and Healing:

- ->I would guess that the elves never came up with a healing spell because
- ->it was never neccessary. The humans most likely had wars between
- ->themselves before encountering the elves and needed to take advantage of
- ->the powers of healing. The elves on the other hand may have always been
- ->a peaceful people and never really had much use for it.

Hey, elves did fight against the goblins long before the humans came, so they
have been in need of healning of some kind for ages and they prolly had
someway to heal, otherwise there hadn't been any elves left. Those goblins
have their own healing machines like humans, so the elves surely saw priest
cast healing long before than they saw humans or heared that there was some.


//Trizt of Ward^RITE

-

[Daniel McSorley]

From: Patrick McCormick
>I would guess that the elves never came up with a healing spell because
>it was never neccessary. The humans most likely had wars between
>themselves before encountering the elves and needed to take advantage of
>the powers of healing. The elves on the other hand may have always been
>a peaceful people and never really had much use for it.
>
But the elves had been warring with the goblins for a long time, hadn't
they? That's at least partially why they switched sides at Deismaar.

Daniel McSorley
mcsorley.1@osu.edu

[Mark A Vandermeulen]

On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Trizt wrote:

> When an elf sleeps s/he heals one hitpoint per hour of sleep. The elf comes to
> a higher spiritual plane when sleeping and can't be awakened by any mean
> during the sleeping period. When the elf goes to sleep s/he decides for how
> many hours and at the end ot the time a willpower (wis) check is made, if it
> fails the elf continues sleeping as s/he has drawn it self to close to the
> elemental planes. A hour later the elf gets another try to wakeup, but this
> time with a penatly, -1 for each hour longer the sleep has last than was
> decided. A 1 result is always a success. If the sleep lasted longer, the elf
> will have a -2 penalty on every none spiritual action, while a +1 bonus for
> all spiritual actions. E.g. Untamo has been badly hurt during a battle against
> th evil humans and decides he will reach the elemental planes and stay there
> for 10 hours. Nothing bad happens during the 10 hurs as he is protected by
> some elven guards. The dm rolls a 20 which says that Untamo will sleep one
> hour longer as the next check is a 2. Untamo has now healed 11 hitpoints, but
> has those special penatly/bonus for 24hours.

I like this idea. Sort of a "healing trance-state." It's kind of a cool
idea for a race that doesn't require sleep normally, and gives them reason
to have some fear of the state: no doubt it happens occasionally that
someone gets too far out and never returns, leaving a comatose body behind
for centuries. I don't know exactly what a "spiritual action" is, though.

My own thought was to double or triple the healing supplied by herbalism
proficiency checks, and perhaps from healing proficiency checks as well:
perhaps for a new proficiency called Sidhelien Healing to represent how
different the physiologies are between humans and elves. If the elf has a
cold, for instance, the Sidhelien healer puts him in a dry room with a
large fire to absorb some of the fiery humour, etc.

Another thought that struck me is that perhaps it has something to do
with the magical nature of the elven forests. Perhaps elves regenerate
naturally at some rate as long as they are within an elven forest. Once
humans come in and mess it up, poof, that stab wound remains painful and
debilitating until you find some new stretch of virgin wood. This helps
explain why elves are so rare among human lands, and reinforces their
fierce protectiveness of their ancentral lands. However, if this is the
case, I would rule that they CAN heal if they were in a Source, just to
keep it from being impossible to bring and elf on a campaign. I would also
say that they can benefit from clerical healing, they just can't generate
such healing on their own.

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu

[Patrick McCormick]

Trizt wrote:

> On 22-Nov-97, Patrick McCormick (flammie@earthlink.net) wrote about Re:
> [BIRTHRIGHT] - Elves and Healing:
>
> ->I would guess that the elves never came up with a healing spell because
> ->it was never neccessary. The humans most likely had wars between
> ->themselves before encountering the elves and needed to take advantage of
> ->the powers of healing. The elves on the other hand may have always been
> ->a peaceful people and never really had much use for it.
>
> Hey, elves did fight against the goblins long before the humans came, so they
> have been in need of healning of some kind for ages and they prolly had
> someway to heal, otherwise there hadn't been any elves left. Those goblins
> have their own healing machines like humans, so the elves surely saw priest
> cast healing long before than they saw humans or heared that there was some.

That is a good point, I wasn't thinking about that. Perhaps the reason that they
didn't create it then is just simply they didn't think of it, or didn't know how.
We were communicating with speech before we could write, we sailed in ships before
we had compasses or maps, we also knew about electricity before we had the
lightbulb. And surly there are many things that we are not aware of that could
have been invented long before our time. The elves probably just never came up
with the healing spell, because they couldn't figure out how to harness energy in
that form.

- --
- ----------
"All questions are obvious; to those who know the answers,
Answers are never known; to those who don't understand the question."

~Mick

[Patrick McCormick]

Trizt wrote:

> On 22-Nov-97, Patrick McCormick (flammie@earthlink.net) wrote about Re:
> [BIRTHRIGHT] - Elves and Healing:
>
> ->I would guess that the elves never came up with a healing spell because
> ->it was never neccessary. The humans most likely had wars between
> ->themselves before encountering the elves and needed to take advantage of
> ->the powers of healing. The elves on the other hand may have always been
> ->a peaceful people and never really had much use for it.
>
> Hey, elves did fight against the goblins long before the humans came, so they
> have been in need of healning of some kind for ages and they prolly had
> someway to heal, otherwise there hadn't been any elves left. Those goblins
> have their own healing machines like humans, so the elves surely saw priest
> cast healing long before than they saw humans or heared that there was some.

That is a good point, I wasn't thinking about that. Perhaps the reason that they
didn't create it then is just simply they didn't think of it, or didn't know how.
We were communicating with speech before we could write, we sailed in ships before
we had compasses or maps, we also knew about electricity before we had the
lightbulb. And surly there are many things that we are not aware of that could
have been invented long before our time. The elves probably just never came up
with the healing spell, because they couldn't figure out how to harness energy in
that form.

- --
- ----------
"All questions are obvious; to those who know the answers,
Answers are never known; to those who don't understand the question."

~Mick