Cure Disease will KILL YOU TO DEATH!

[theNater]

Well, I guess you could always institute a Heal check so that if your raise dead attempt fails, the victim dies.

"I might kill whoever you wanted me to miracle."

 

[CleverNickName]

Well, I guess you could always institute a Heal check so that if your raise dead attempt fails, the victim dies.

Which would, in effect, mean that the spell simply fails. Bingo.

I don't have a problem with Cure Disease having the potential to fail. What bothers me is how it deals damage (possibly even fatal amounts of it) if the Heal check result is less than 30. NPC healers being unable to lift the plague on the land is fine...but to punish them for trying to help by killing their patients? Not so much.

 

[hong]

Which would, in effect, mean that the spell simply fails. Bingo.

Very good.

I don't have a problem with Cure Disease having the potential to fail. What bothers me is how it deals damage (possibly even fatal amounts of it) if the Heal check result is less than 30. NPC healers being unable to lift the plague on the land is fine...but to punish them for trying to help by killing their patients? Not so much.

"Punish"?

 

[Grazzt]

Not only do I love, love, love the notion that Cure Disease can prove dangerous, I'm thinking of adding similar rules to some rituals that don't have it already.

It's a great way of adding a little bit of dangerous unpredictability back into magic--one thing that D&D has never done well--without nerfing the casters' combat abilities.

Sounds like we are on the same page Mouse-.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Which would, in effect, mean that the spell simply fails. Bingo.

I don't have a problem with Cure Disease having the potential to fail. What bothers me is how it deals damage (possibly even fatal amounts of it) if the Heal check result is less than 30. NPC healers being unable to lift the plague on the land is fine...but to punish them for trying to help by killing their patients? Not so much.

Every kind of treatment is dangerous. There are several ways to "simulate" that (including of ignoring it, since we're talking magic treatment). Damage seems like a good way.

A non-heroic NPC at 1st level will, unless he takes fatal damage, be able to function at 100 % (e.g. full hit points) capacity after 4 days if he had to use only Healing Surges. (But if I remember correctly, all healing surges and hit points return after one extended rest anyway)

 

[jinx crossbow]

I like the rule

I'm thinking of curing a disease as more "cut away the infected tissue and drill a hole in his skull to let the demons out."

Singin: Thats the way, ... I like it.

Player: "GM why can't I take a feat to unlearn a skill? ( -5 on skillchecks."
That would make a nice charlatan/quacksalver!

Jinx

 

[Midknightsun]

Yeah, I have no problem at all with this, really. It makes ritual magic less certain, which I think is a good thing since its fairly open for anyone to take. Besides, a little risk makes people think twice before spamming the ritual just to beat the math. . . and as others have indicated, it makes plagues more plausable. But heck, I liked the way Arcan Evolved did a lot of their cure spells (power check) too. I don't see it as "punishing" because it seems the PC should know full well what the chances are going in.

 

[Jer]

Anything that makes curative magic work less like modern medicine and more like medieval chirugery gets a thumbs up from me.

Actually, I like how the mechanics of this particular ritual don't require any magic at all - you could use these same mechanics for a non-magical cure as for a magical one and just change how you describe it to the PCs. I know a lot of people aren't going to like that aspect of it.

(If they could have found a better way to balance them than by limiting access by character level I'd be head over heels about the system. That's the one bit I don't like.)

 

[Kesh]

Maybe this is just a matter of rules blurring out the fluff. Keep in mind that most healing in 4e is "second wind." HP loss represents fatigue, minor wounds and exhaustion. It's not until 0 HP that it represents actual lethal damage to the character. Very few powers grant actual magical healing (healing surge + bonus); most simply let you catch your breath again (healing surge).

Now, keep in mind that we're performing a magical ritual. You're channeling magic through the patient in an attempt to remove a disease from their body. Done properly, you'll simply exhaust them some (HP damage). Done badly, you channel enough raw magic through their body to kill them. Rather like administering an overdose of drugs to a patient, you overload their body with magic.

Does that sound more reasonable?

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't see it as "punishing" because it seems the PC should know full well what the chances are going in.

But from the common villager with a sick child's point of view, her choices are either (a) let her sick child die from the illness, (b) pay the village healer to kill her child before the illness can, or (c) do absolutely nothing and hope a hero walks into town.

There is nothing wrong with "c" of course, except that it puts my story on rails.