Re: [Slope: Ch 12] New Type of Healing Spell & Death Magic.

[Rick <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi David,
  The reasons below is why I wouldn’t use this spell in my campaign.
I didn’t want healing magic in combat, but I wanted to speed up the 
out of adventure waiting around.

> On Jun 19, 2018, at 7:55 PM, David Bofinger <bofinger.david@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> 
> I think that might be a bad thing: if after healing everyone is OK except the healing wizard has distributed organ damage what does the party do? Wait around for him to get better despite everyone else being healthy already? Risk him being killed but try to protect him? Leave him behind in town? All are problematic. I suppose the best strategy might be to use healing to minimise the wounds of the most wounded character.
> 
> David

  But given the fact that fast healing is being introduced into TFT, I 
was curious what a super powerful version of it would be.  

  The original poster, Melichor, wanted to include a spell where 
healing cost the wizard damage and where there is randomness in 
the healing spells.  When you have randomness, the spell has to 
be a bit better, because magic healing is a resource management 
game, and uncertainty makes it harder to manage your resources.

  It is not hard to make super powerful spells.  The trick is to make 
them interesting.  Steve Jackson’s fast healing with 3:1 fST to point
healed ratio, is dull.  After combat, the wizard and any apprentices 
wait, and soon the whole party is at full ST.  No trade offs, no 
decisions.

  With my spell, after the fight the bowman has 3 points of damage.
Do you, the wizard, take another hit, to heal him?  This is a non-trivial 
decision.  If you take a hit and then roll a 6 for healing, a bunch of 
points are ‘wasted’.  If the bowman had 5 points of damage, ‘should 
we heal him’ is an easier question, but then the question arises, 
take one point of damage or two?  Taking both at once gives a 
bonus to hits healed, but maybe one healing would be good 
enough, if you roll well.  (Another tough decision.) If you heal for one 
damage, roll poorly, then heal again for one damage, and roll poorly, 
you will have buyers remorse, it would have been smarter to do both 
at once.

  My spell is very powerful, arguably too powerful, but it has draw 
backs that in many ways make Steves fast 3:1 healing spell more 
attractive.  And if you prefer THAT spell to my Death Healing spell, 
it says something about what is in store for TFT with the new 
edition.

  Warm regards, Rick.