Healing Magic

Should there be any healing magic in the world of Conan?

  • Only alchemical and herbal things like Wine of Xuthal.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Maybe something like this feat.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Why not a complete Healing Magic Style?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Healing Magic is only good for weaklings and D&D players!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

Sven

Mongoose
Hi.

Usually healing magic count as scarce in the hyborian age. Scarce does not mean "not available".

I had some thoughts on this subject, creating even a new sorcery style for this, but I was not satisfied with it.

Now (thanks to Vincent Darlage idea about Perform (ritual) and Heal) I had this idea:

Feat
Ritual Healing (General)
You have learned some of the secrets of life, and how to heal the wounded with your inner power, at the risk of your own physical and mental health.
Prerequisites: Heal 8 ranks, Perform (ritual) 8 ranks, Knowledge (arcane) 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks, Scholar level 1 or Dabbler, no Corruption score
Benefit: You can heal another living creature in a special ritual by touching it and spending power points and hit points.
First you must prepare the creature for the healing process in a short ritual (at least 10 minutes). After this you must make a Perform (ritual) (DC 20) If you fail, you must do the ritual at least another 10 minutes. If you succeed, you must make a Heal check (DC 20).
If the roll is successful, you may heal 1 hit point per round. For each hit point healed you must pay 1 power point AND 1 hit point, and you can only heal 1 hit point per round. You can heal hit points as long as you can spend points and hit points. You can never heal more hit points then lost. You can not restore the dead, and you can also not regrow lost limbs.
If the Heal check fails you can still heal hit points, but the hit point cost for each hit point healed is doubled.
You need herbals and incence worth at least 50 sp which must be used during the ritual.
Drawbacks: If the character heals more then 20 points of damage (inflicting more then 20 points of damage to himself) then he must make a Massive Damage Fortitude Saving Throw at the end of the ritual.
Also, having the ability to restore life gives the sorceror a feeling to be like a god, or even more. So, after ending the ritual he must also make a Corruption save with a DC equal to the PP spent.
Finally the ritual counts as a mighty spell, so the character can use the ritual only once per week without risking dangerous side effects and runaway magic.
Special: A scholar can take this feat instead of a new sorcery style (as a bonus feat) if he meets the prerequisites for this feat.
Special: If the character heals himself, he must pay 3 power points per hit point healed, instead of 1 power point and 1 hit point.

Well, what do you think? I tried to make this ability helpful, but not too powerful, and making it a dangerous ability especially for those scholars who only want to use "white magic" to help others.

I have made some additions. (Perform (ritual) check and Heal check mostly, and some additional prerequisites))

Any ideas, suggestions, criticism?

I have also made a poll here with the question:

Should there be any healing magic in the world of Conan?
 
For a healing spell, make it part of the Immortality school. Hit points are transfrerred from a victim to the beneficiary.

Kind of makes it more grim.

Otherwise keep it herbs and Golden Wine.

Mad Dog
 
Got to say I agree with MadDog. Unless it's some type of necromancy, Conan really doesn't need any healing magic. Wounds should be grevious and with the added risk of infection. With a simple method of healing, hit points become more like a tally system, adding nothing to roleplay other than when they drop below 0.

In my games, even the Golden Wine is mythical. This isn't to say there is a problem with your rules. Feel free to add healing magic. Personally, I prefer my Conan games to be slightly more deadly than that.

P.S. One hundred utterly useless unhelpfull posts, baby!
 
I choose option #1 since the Wine of Xuthal is a part of the canon Conan stories and has been established as part of the Conan RPG. It does exist - it could be found or something similar used (with typical Hyborian Age side-effects). None of my players have ever been healed except by rest and wine - but they could someday find the Wine of Xuthol. Conan did.

So, does that make him a weakling? Not a chance.
 
I think the heal skill is pretty efficient in Conan actually. There's no need for flashy "D&D Cleric" style healing magic when, with the healers kit and a few ranks in heal, you can restore hp with ten minutes of work and double people's natural healing rate overnight.
 
Strom said:
I choose option #1 since the Wine of Xuthal is a part of the canon Conan stories and has been established as part of the Conan RPG. It does exist - it could be found or something similar used (with typical Hyborian Age side-effects).
So what we actually need is a spell (or ritual, or pseudo-alchemical procedure) that allows creating this wine.

Just my 2 coppers.

EDIT: btw, good to see you're back on these boards, Sven.
 
Turloigh said:
Strom said:
I choose option #1 since the Wine of Xuthal is a part of the canon Conan stories and has been established as part of the Conan RPG. It does exist - it could be found or something similar used (with typical Hyborian Age side-effects).
So what we actually need is a spell (or ritual, or pseudo-alchemical procedure) that allows creating this wine.

Just my 2 coppers.

That craft diffuclty is in the main book. But it mentions that you need to find the recipe... which would be a neat adventure.
 
Not having magic for healing, transportation, communication, food creation, etc. etc. is useful for maintaining a fantasy setting as a fantasy setting - else you end up with DnD weirdness of wondering how the setting can persist with plagues, famine, ignorance of distant kingdoms, etc. etc.
 
slaughterj said:
Not having magic for healing, transportation, communication, food creation, etc. etc. is useful for maintaining a fantasy setting as a fantasy setting

ehm....food creation ? that would be "fruit of air" from SoS....communication ? what about "sorcerous news" from the main rule book ? :wink:
 
Turloigh said:
Strom said:
I choose option #1 since the Wine of Xuthal is a part of the canon Conan stories and has been established as part of the Conan RPG. It does exist - it could be found or something similar used (with typical Hyborian Age side-effects).
So what we actually need is a spell (or ritual, or pseudo-alchemical procedure) that allows creating this wine.

Just my 2 coppers.

EDIT: btw, good to see you're back on these boards, Sven.
Never been away, only waiting like a spider in its net. (and already planning a new little campaign, uhm, maybe)

The wine is usually made by having the correct recipe, enough material (the wine is very expensive) and craft (alchemy).

It seems that most like the known rules about magical and mundane healing, and do not want a magic healing spell or ritual.

That is okay with me, I wanted this discussion to see what other people think about this topic.

I like the game as balanced as possible, and after re-reading the rules for healing and the Heal skill, I think they may be good enough.
 
I run a very brutal Conan game currently, and I have found the existing healing rules to be a little lacking. Granted they are realistic, but there is just too much downtime in my games when the group loses a player or somebody falls into the negatives, the entire group has to rest.

Some might say this is paranoid, but its probably the smartest thing my group does, as they know that my campaigns can be deadly.

I found a great rule in the Iron Heroes book that is very simple to use, and cut down on my group's downtime significantly.

Essentially, every player gets a pool of "reserve points" that equals your full maximum hit point total. You can exchange these reserve points to heal hit points back after combat, at the rate of 1 per minute. Essentially, it doubles your hit points, but only for the purposes of non-combat healing.

It doesn't affect dying characters unless they are stable, and you can only replenish your reserve points through resting.

But ultimately, I don't think healing magic really belongs in a Conan game, and the existing methods of healing should be fine for most.
 
The feat is going the right direction, but it should really just be an expanded version or augmentation of the Heal skill. Losing HP seems too dangerous for people to make this a regular metthod of healing folks. I mean, you're all sliced up and I could die by ritualistically fixing you up? I don't think so.

There's alwasy falling unconcous and other types of fatigue that can result from this ritualistic form of extra healing. I'll think about it too, becaue it sounds in the Conan vien, but right now is too "magical".
 
I agree with Sutek, it looks like a nice writeup. My main concern is the likeliness of player abuse ("Time to stock up on healing"), and the ensuing sloppy play of the players (because they KNOW they can be healed so why worry). This is all part and parcel of D&D, and since many gamers of the Conan line come from D&D, that thinking is very likely.

I would say if you're going to allow it, both the feat and the means to create the ritual healing, just like alchemical aids, should be rare and difficult to come by. It looks like you've carefully thought out the feat you wrote, Sven, but players, especially power gamers, are constantly looking for ways to stack the deck in their favor, so to speak.
 
Healing works really quickly in Conan and really effectively.

The problem is that the same goes for dying... :lol:
 
A good try but despite having a mix of v.tough and average challenges I've found the healing as is reflects Conan nicely.

imho the alchemy/herbalism route could be expanded (a web expansion, maybe; S&P, perhaps?) perhaps for various potions, poultices and lotions (more herbal/Xuthal, not the magic potion route!!) as that seems more in keeping.
 
I think the idea he's going for is like the scene in the first Conan movie where the treat Conan with the magickal symbols and ritual to heal him. That was more like a long-term spell though, but I can see taking that idea over to simple physical healing. Particularly in bringing someone back from "Left for Dead".

Maybe that's all that needs to be focused on. The recovery from LFD is pretty long term and if there were a healing ritual that sped up the process, forgoing FORT rolls, etc. then that might be more in line with what you're trying to achieve here.
 
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