Talk:Guide to RP healing

Excellent initiative. A few random notes on what I use/have stolen to add RP flavour to magical healing, or mixing it with the natural sort:


 * A lot of my characters claim magical healing is only as effective as the patient wants it to be. This is a handy RP tool that lets you negotiate situations where healer and patient have different ideas on how effective healing should be. It basically lets the patient decide on how well they want to be after treatment (preserving their RP) while still giving the healer an explanation for why their talents do or don't work as expected (preserving their RP).


 * Auburn is a crappy healer, so I've often said her Light-magic healing only works immediately after the injury was sustained. So, while in battle she can heal injuries instantly and miraculously, as if they never happened, if you bring her a wound you got two hours ago then at best she can make it hurt less and not kill you. She also won't waste Light on trivial stuff - cuts, bruises, sprains, basically anything that won't kill or at least incapacitate you - because Light is always a miracle, and miracles shouldn't be wasted on trivial crap.


 * My feral druid shamelessly copied Silnaen's healing: she claims bodies know what shape they should be, and talking to them will make them be like that again - but healing hurts, and healing fast hurts more, because all the broken bits have to die and rot away so new working bits can grow. When she heals serious stuff, it generally take minutes, involves a lot of screaming on the patient's part, and leaves them exhausted and hungry (because healing takes a lot of the body's energy). When she heals little stuff, it itches like mad until it's over.

Finally, I always feel that magical healing should exist to facilitate RP, not to make injury and sickness trivial. Just because it's magic doesn't mean it should be either fast, cheap or easy. In day-to-day, it means adding RP flavour (as above) to magical combat heals. In extreme cases, it means special plots. I had huge fun with the plot where Aubs, Silnaen and Anadurion gave Elizabetha a single new eye (its not like she needs two, and one's hard enough to make). It wasn't just the healing scene -- it also involved tracking down the right magic, then using it, then fixing the damage it did to the druid who cast it. For the curious, story version of it here: Wasted.

-Auburn

Thanks for the encouragment and input. I've shamelessly "borrowed" your comment about magical healing existing to facilitate RP.

/Nouala 12:12, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

This issue's come up again in RP, with our plethora of druids ... mind if I spruce this guide up a bit to include good RP practice with magical healing?

Auburn(SWC) 12:21, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Not at all. Go ahead and spruce all you want. (I've been a bit lazy in completing this guide...)

Nouala 12:56, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

In regards to Druidic Healing I've always gone at it as if the druid's 'spirit' enters the body and actually views the organs and wounds and such. Then they are able to encourage wounds to clot faster/bones to reset, bad tissue to die etc. This way, a Druid cannot perform miracles but can very efficently mend and correct minor ailments and help ease major ones. Always hated it when after some large-scale battle a Paladin/Priest comes along and with a touch your fine again. Kind of copied it from how Priests of the Source heal in David Gemmel's novels

Entriia 16.58 11 June 2009

First draft done. Feel free to criticise. Auburn(SWC) 16:01, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

I like it a lot. Personally I think it deals with most major problems we have to deal with like game mechanics VS RP. There are a couple of things I am still pondering about though. What about scars and magic healing? I hear some people say if you use magic, the wound completely vanishes and there won't be any scar to remember it by. I personally like to keep scars though (Celegil is riddled with them) but is there any mention in the lore about this?

Another thing I would like to know is "Resurrection". Can it really happen? Is it a miracle or is it something Priestesses of Elune can do on a daily basis?

Good luck with further working it out! :)

--Celegil Moonwatcher 16:10, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Like the first draft ^^ To be honest Cel, it seems to me that ressing is very rare and takes a lot of effort/time/sacrifice. Only time of instant easy rez I can recall in Lore is in the Scarlet Monastry when Whitemane brings whats his face back, though that is immediatly after death, I'd say its a safe bet to assume the longer someone is dead, the harder it is to bring them back.

Entriia 17.15 11 June 2009

Good point on the scars. I added my view, there's no real lore on the subject I think.

I don't think Mograine's actually dead there -- I think it's a classic case of high speed CPR by magic, an incapacitated and near-dead warrior kicked back into fighting form. All roleplay res in my world falls into this category. Given the example of Medivh, my personal take on resurrection will always be, "does not happen", except in lore or via necromantic reanimation as a Forsaken or Death Knight. Auburn(SWC) 16:21, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, guess your right on the "resurrection". Its just that its mentioned a lot in the game through either Necromancy, "Goblin (or was it Gnomish?) Jumper Cables and the power of the Light. I personally try to avoid it whenever I can though. It seems a bit overpowered.

Oh and the scars thing explanation was spot on I think. Nice one!

--Celegil Moonwatcher 16:47, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Added the bit on reference. Okay it's also a cheap shot at trying to make people spend a shocking 4 hours of their life picking up a skill that could help save a human life. :)

But really, first aid training, stuff read when I was studying for med school and talks with a mate who has worked as a paramedic and currently trains special ops combat medics are my primary references when I'm deciding how my healer chars approach injuries (or how I respond to healers treating my chars). Auburn(SWC) 19:41, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Heh, no kidding. I remember doing a course like that when I was 10 (that's now roughly nine years ago) but sadly, I can't remember anything more then CPR and putting their the head to the side so they don't vomit up their longues. *sighs* Perhaps I should read it up again.

--Celegil Moonwatcher 21:14, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

This was great, very helpful - thanks very much! Next project: a guide on roleplaying magic. --Aleithia (SWC) 09:59, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

This is probably a silly idea. I believe that ressurection "right on spot", that is, moments after subject has "flatlined", should technically be possible by any trained healer - of course, that is in case there is no extreme damage to the body (hard to "ressurect" someone who got a grenade to their chest at point blank range). I am more talking about something like today would be a successful immediate direct cardiac massage (or how it's called), more of a "restart" of the person's life functions (and necessary healing of subject's wounds in the process). This would, of course, become impossible after some time has passed due to chemical changes that come with decay. This still should leave the person in a very bad shape, and while postponing death, it wouldn't prevent it to happen again without further treatement, or at least could lead to catatonic state (or similar). I am of course not talking about cases where body most likely don't even exist anymore (Medivh, for example) or is too damaged (the grenade example). Would this be viable? --Serenais 11:25, February 21, 2012 (UTC)