Re: (TFT) Healing spells in TFT.

["Charles Gadda" <cgadda@earthlink.net>]

> Charles, I agree with much of what you say, but you seem to be
mis-informed
> about the details of the healing spells available in GURPS Magic.

Not so much misinformed as misremembering. I had forgotten Major Healing.

...
> >Interestingly, my biggest objection to not having a Healing spell has
> >nothing to do with the points discussed. Rather it is the inherent,
> >fundamentally violent illogic of magical healing not existing in the
first
> >place. Consider:
> >1. TFT assumes a magical gameworld (admittedly one can disregard Wizard
and
> >play a non-magic world, but this extreme case is not being considered
here)
> >2. Wizards with alchemy talent can make healing potions.
> >3. Wizards with alchemy talent may also make Youth potions, which
> >essentially "heal" aging.
> >4. Powerful wizards may use a Cleansing spell to cure disease (actually
by
> >killing the microorganism, but the specifics need not concern us here)
> >5. Even more powerful wizards may actually ***raise the dead***
> >
> >So let me see if I understand: we have a magical universe in which all of
> >the above is possible, and yet we cannot manage even a simple Healing
> >spell?!?!!?!?!? That's easily the STUPIDEST thing I've ever heard! (well,
> >not really, but you have to admit its pretty silly on the face of it).
This
> >internal consistency hole is so huge and glaring one could sail a Kuwaiti
> >oil tanker through it!
>
> It's a magic system, so like all speculative fiction, it's not hard to
make
> up whatever explanations to get what you want. Disease doesn't necessarily
> involve microorganisms in a fantasy/medieval world. Reversing aging with
> magic doesn't necessarily imply that the wizard understands it on a modern
> medical level, or even that aging works the same way that modern medicine
> thinks it does. The dead-raising magic in TFT either results in a zombie,
> or someone with -5 attributes and ST 1 - I don't think I'd necessarily
> volunteer for their first shots at a wound-healing spell.

Yes, but it is difficult to make a good explanation, given the above, which
was my point. Also, your characterisation of Revival is incorrect - it is
not the spell that takes 5 attributes away from you, but rather the fact
that you *died*... dying takes alot out of you! You can hardly fault the
poor mage trying to put the spark of life back into your hacked and mangled
corpse! It is a true MIRACLE that you are up and about, breathing once
again! Geez you must be tough to work for! Complain complain complain...

Dying is very bad for you, in case you did not know! And you thought you had
to avoid smoking...
>
>
> I don't think it's very hard to explain, if that's what you want to do.
> E.g. for your points above:
> 1) Yeah, there's magic.
> 2) Yes, alchemists and physickers can make healing potions. They take a
lot
> of time, effort, equipment and ingredients, and have fairly modest and
> well-balanced effects. It it takes so much effort to make (and keep
> unbroken) such potions, naturally it must be even harder to try to
generate
> something instantly out of sheer force of will, no?
> 3) Youth potions are even more massively expensive/difficult to create, if
> I recall correctly. Each dose is a major treasure. Whether the effect has
> anything to do with healing, or understanding of science-like principles
> about how to do something, I strongly doubt. Magic tends to be more about
> arcane secrets, calling on dark powers, etc., especially in the Advanced
> Wizard magic system, where a few unrelated spells can be learned based on
> IQ level and devotion of a fraction of your intellect to each spell.
> 4) The cleansing spell is also quite primitive and demonstrates a lack of
> ability to heal injury by magic, as it actually causes damage as it purges
> disease. So a trick has been learned to boil the blood or drive out evil
> spirits or whatever - I don't see that implying a way to re-attach severed
> muscles, arteries and nerves correctly.
> 5) Revival is very powerful but it also does permanent damage and leaves
> the victim completely injured - I don't see how it implies the ability to
> conjure up first aid. It probably has more to do with spirits than with
> healing flesh, it seems to me.

A good answer, but..... ???
You are totally missing my point, which was that wizards had obviously done
a lot of potent and profound magical research covering a lot of areas,
including various types of "healing" as I noted. (note that I did not
mention even more potent wizardry, such as the summoning of Demons, etc.) To
suggest that something as obvious as a simple Healing spell would be
overlooked beggers the imagination. To draw a modern analogy, it would be
like having a hospital capable of administering advanced cancer treatments
yet wholly unable to staunch the bleeding and stich closed the wound of a
stabbing victim...

And in a world as obviously violent as Cidri, does it not strike one as
rather odd that following thought NEVER occured to anyone: "Gee, wouldn't it
be nice to come up with a spell that would stop bleeding and close up a
victim's wounds...???"

Certainly in real history it was battlefield injuries that drove the
development of advanced surgical techniques. Again, it really is
fundamentally illogical to believe that some sort of healing spell would not
have been developed and widely disseminated.

Also, as I noted previous, your interpretation of Revival is grossly flawed.

Otherwise agree with the rest of your message - certainly it must be thought
through. But it is certainly not difficult to come up a sensible approach.
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"