The Limitations of Healing Magic

[harvs2]

We have a difference in the though of Deva's. If death bad...not neccessarily. They are ultimate forces of good, but like everything else summoning a servitor of a god, should require you to do something for that god in return.

I have actually never been out to get any players save those who were munchkins.

[Gavin Cetaine]

Thanks, Starfox, I got the rest requirement confused with the 8hr limit on casting then preparing (any spells cast within the last 8hrs count agaisnt the limit for the upcoming day). I didn't mean 1 cleric casting three rounds though, the origional post referred to 3 PC's being clerics. That's how I came up with the high numbers. 3 clerics using their entire spell complement (before bonus spells) of 3rd level and above for remove diseases.

When I mentioned the local clergy, 'If nothing else, they could team up in pairs to try and tend to everyone,' I was referring to the majority of them using the heal skill. I realize that, in the average world, most of the clergy are support staff and acolytes, not active spell casting members of the faith. A good portion of that staff should have points in the heal skill, so as not to waste the 'blessings' of the diety on any but the most serious of injuries and ailments.

As to the 'Planar Ally,' I have to think that any being from the good-aligned planes would take pity on the town for the immense suffering. If the priest were dedicated to any diety other than one containing death as a porfolio then the ally would almost certainly be moved to help the town. The cost would probably not be cheap, but then calling on an ally never really is. If the town is important enough to try to save, the PC's would almost have to agree to whatever the cost. But the GM must remember, the cost should never be something easy, but if the ally is already inclined to doing a task relatively easy to it, then it shouldn't be extremely difficult.

Of course, an ally of a cleric of a neutral diety or one with the domains of death or suffering might care less about the town's suffering. Indeed unless the priest were extremely careful with his word choices and terms, the ally might stop the plague by putting everyone out of their pain.

As to Harvs2's version of the Black Plague, have you read the info about diseases in the PHB and DMG. DC 30? Really. Mummy rot is only a 20. Most of your 11th level PC's should have caught it easily and all of them after repeated or prolonged exposure. And the damage is the loss of half you Con. Where's the 'd' that all the listed entries have?

I used the 'Black Plague' concept before and did some research on the subject to add to the realism. So let me give you a harsh version of it under the 3rd Ed rules set.

Disease..........Type.......DC..Onset....Damage
'Black Plague'..Inhaled...22...2d10*...1d3+1 Con**

* Roll a d4-1 and subtract the reult from the onset time to determine when the character becomes contagous. A contagous character contaminates a room that they spend several minutes (based on room size) in unless that room has significant and constant ventilation. Further, in conditions of less then moderate winds, the character maintains a 5' spread of disease.

** When damaged, character must succeed at another saving throw or 1 point of temporary damage is permanent drain instead.


The why's:

DC 22 is significantly dificult for the average individual and an unattainable 'take 10' for the level 1 healer. Note: You can't 'take 20' because most patients would not last 20 days.

Onset. Containment was made difficult by the wide variation in exposure to infection time. It didn't help that individuals known to be exposed were kept in the area they were exposed in. It was also believed at the time that some individuals could actually infect others before showing signs of the disease.

Damage. While the damage is significant, it is not extreme. Healthy individuals were known to last days demonstrating signs of the plague, however, the greatest portion of those who contracted the disease were anything but healthy by today's standards. Significant numbers of people died of other ailments when weakened by the actual plague.


Even as I propose it, the plague would be more fatal to a DnD town then it was in our world. Assuming that every individual in your 11000 person town was exposed at the same time, immediately went into seperate isolations, and recieved no medical or magical treatment:

At best, 1 in 20 would avoid being infected (5% or 550)

Of the infected, 1 in 400 would prove immune (.25% or 26) [2 back-to-back 20's at the conclusion of the onset time]

Another 1 in 400 could beat the disease [again, 2 back-to-back 20's after onset but before death]

That's about 600 individuals or a 5.5% survival rate among the common folk, excluding the possibilities of multiple exposures. Thus I would suggest lowering the DC to 18 or 20, as it increases the survival rate and decreases the damage to the world you apent so much time and gameplay on.

[harvs2]

I hadn't thought about that...the DC and all though I made a typo the DC was 20 not 30. Very true about the Planar Ally, I have never thought that such summoning spells should be without their price. Actually most of the people died from HP loss from reduced constitution insteads of actually con damage interesting enough.

[Gavin Cetaine]

Ah, I see... well we all make typos. I actually proofed my last post 3 times and still managed to put out a significant number of errors.

I'm not going to go through all the math again, but a DC 20 makes the numbers you gave/used resonable. But I do have one last question. You did pay attention to the rule that a character always maintains at least 1 hit point per level/die despite the loss of Con? The least bit of real damage will likely kill the character, but a commoner will always have at least one hit point until his Con reaches 0.

And, for the record, I believe that ally spells ahould be like the wish. Don't pull out the card if you've got any other tricks left. The ally is always going to get a good deal for itself and or its diety, and you always risk having the ally trying to corrupt the task that you require of it.

J

[Nikolai II]

Originally posted by Starfox

Why? Just summon the outsider and let it make it`s own descision - heal
people, or go home and live with the guild of nor having healed people. It
is the same problem the PCs themselves face.

If you live by the 'pay through the nose' routine for summoning outsiders then you are indebted to him from merely summoning him, maybe in the middle of something important.

And from an outsiders view dying by the plague might be a good thing. It places people where they belong (kill them all and let their alignments sort them out), allowing good victims a good afterlife. It also teaches the survivors humility and the lesson of caring for their lives as they never know when it is going to end.

So what you pay for isn't a crapload of six-second-heals, but rather for the interference in the worlds running.

Now, if it was a demon-spawned disease then healing might be cheaper, but then the adventurers would still have the duty/mission of preventing the return of the disesase by some hefty adventuring to the source.

[Birthright-L]

From: "Nikolai II" <brnetboard@TUARHIEVEL.ORG>

> And from an outsiders view dying by the plague might be a good thing. It
places people where they belong (kill them all and let their alignments sort
them out), allowing good victims a good afterlife. It also teaches the
survivors humility and the lesson of caring for their lives as they never
know when it is going to end.
>

By exactlythe same logic, good characters could then claim that it is a good
deed to do absolutely nothing here. :) Why incur a favor to the forces of
good if what you are asking for is not a good deed?

/Carl


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