General questions-Healing

[GurgleSnuff]

Now is it so that healing herbs or potions is scarce if any in Conan. Are characters left to their own natural healing? When I read the source book there is torturing poisions and fatal herbs. But wat about healing potions and such like in D&D? I know Conan is low magic, but anyways

If characters get really hurt in the middle of an adventure. Left stranded and bewildererd nowhere. The bad guys gets away. And the players are forced to heal a full day to even have a chance to complete the adventure. A healing potion would be nice at a time like that. And not just a flagon of wine.

Maybe Im blind and throwing words out there and have totally missed the big picture!

Teach me!

Thanks!

 

[Daz]

You can do first aid with the heal skill.

 

[GurgleSnuff]

Yes but that only stabilizes hit loss and provides long time care?

 

[XcomSquaddie]

The natural healing rate in Conan is double that of D&D. Additionally, rest & healing skill checks can accelerate that even further.

Magic in Conan is dangerous, corrupting and deadly. Readily available benevolent magic, like healing potions, would be contrary to that trope.

 

[librarycharlie]

All DCs assume that searches are made during Spring. Other times of year increase difficulties significantly.

A skilled herbalist can, with time, find the common deciduous tree Acacia in most temperate areas (DC17 to locate one use, add one use per point over during search).

The DC to create a healing salve with this is quite difficult (30), but can be reduced to 27 by the use of Holly and Mullein as catalysts for successful crafting.

A successfully searched and crafted Acacia salve heals 1d4 hp of damage (DC17/30). Witch Hazel, and even more widespread tree, is even easier to find/craft (DC17/DC22), and heals one point of damage. Comfrey Root can only be found in summer, but also heals 1d4 (DC20/24)

With a skill mod of +8 or so in Craft(Herbalism), including ability mod, racial, and feat bonuses, a small healing potion can reliably be made by (generally scholar or borderer) characters of levels 3+.

Details can be found in Tito's guide, pages 55-56.

 

[Jeffreywns]

The playing style of your characters will be another factor. When I transfered over to the Conan RPG (First Edition) I noticed the " no fear we always get healed" mindset from other games. The first several games had alot of downtime (as did Conan in Conan of the Isles) and I just adjusted the NPC actions and defensive measures to account for it. My GM style has changed alot also, getting straight to the action, skipping all the mundane encounter checks, travel game times, etc. and I think now the characters put more thought into their actions. And as a bonus they always come up with suprises I never account for which makes it very fun for me as a GM.

 

[Soulmage]

There are alternate hit point systems that address that concern. I've got one I'm working on myself! Can't wait until 2E comes out so I can actually apply it! LOL!!

 

[Majestic7]

Yes but that only stabilizes hit loss and provides long time care?

Even succesful short term care through healing gives character a few hit points. I think the amount was Con modifier + level, but I'm not sure as I don't have my book at hand right now.

The difficulty of healing is one of the things I like especially much about Conan d20. It reinforces the importance of not getting hit in the first place, along with the low massive damage threshold. Sure, there are some ways to heal damage instantly, such as the Golden Wine of Xuthal, but they are very rare and expensive.