A Wizard that Heals?

[S'mon]

Basically, it's a "sacred" province of the cleric traditionally since Original D&D (1974). As long as clerics can take fireballs, magic missiles, and cones of cold with no chance of spell failure, I see no problem with letting wizards cast cure spells.

Clerics are already more powerful than Wizards - good BAB, armour, hit points, spontaneous healing, Turning, casting in armour, etc. This is why they should not get fireball or magic missile.

 

[Deadguy]

Though in my current homebrew I have maintained the split between Wizards and Clerics (albeit reworking the Cleric somewhat for a setting without Gods), I think I am tempted when I do my UA redesign to do away with the Cleric entirely, rework the lists, and have a Fighting Spellcaster and a Cerebral Spellcaster instead, with different access and development. The Priest / Wizard divide is a game artefact, it seems to me, with little provenance in fantasy fiction.

 

[Wippit Guud]

I specifically remember Raistlin casting some sort of neutralize poison on Tas at the end of "Spring Dawning", he's about as archtype as you can get.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I specifically remember Raistlin casting some sort of neutralize poison on Tas at the end of "Spring Dawning", he's about as archtype as you can get.

Guess, by that point in the trilogy, it could well have been limited wish?

Edit: Those books were great - pretty much lured me over from WFRP to DnD.

 

[Zappo]

Indeed - you'd think that transmutation/alteration would be a better candidate (think the polymorph spells and the way they add and change flesh)...although it's already the largest school, so they might have been looking for something else to pack into conjuration just to make it more even.

I think the rationale behind healings as conjuration is that they are positive-energy based. They don't directly fix the flesh, instead they pick up a blob of positive energy and drop it on you. It's probably more efficient.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I was thinking...why can't wizards heal? I mean, they can kill people and do magnificant things, why not heal? So...here's what I was thinking...why can't a Conjurer take Cure spells (cure spells are conjuration, for some odd reason)? Granted, cure spells are not on a wizards spell list, but I can't think of any reason they shouldn't be. What are your thoughts on it?

I generally allow specialist Necromancers to develop healing spells that are one spell level higher than the same spell for a cleric. Necromancers study magic relating to death, it makes sense that they'd discover ways to prolong life too.

 

[Gez]

1. Sacred Cow. Wizards can't heal because they've never been able to. Healing and protection and dealing with entities is the main duty of the cleric class. Blowing stuff up is the main duty of the wizard class.

2. There is a traditional anathema between clerical and wizardly magic. Wizards in fantasy and folklore are very seldom seen healing people. Usually priests or wise women do that.

3. If wizards could do that, why can't they do any other clerical spell? Or why can't clerics Blow Stuff Up Real Good? It promotes a definition and seperation between the major spellcasting classes.

It's more 1 & 3 (with "balance" as a reason for 3).

I strongly oppose 2. Healing is not especially divine in nature -- in fact, if you look at how people who studied anatomy were considered in medieval Europe, you could say that the arts of medecine are evil and impious. Wise men and women who knew natural cures were considered like witches (==evil, heretical, and impious), learned men (and women, if they existed) who tried to study how the body works were considered like necromancers (==evil, heretical, and impious).

So, yeah, some hospitalers were gathering the sick in huge dying places where they were all crowded together and would catch all of their buddies' diseases so as to die faster. That didn't make them efficient healers.

Traditional mages could also be considered pagan clerics or druids. Merlin, for example. In less traditional, but still widely accepted, parts of fantasy archetypes... You have Gandalf. He's a wizard. He heals. Remember Theoden's cure and rejuvenation?

The word magus itself is derived from the name of Zoroastrian priests in Persia (modern-day Iran).

The separation of arcane/divine magic is a D&Dism. It's not part of traditional fantasy.

Mages sure can heal in Ars Magica. And in every RPG I've played that isn't copied on D&D.


Finally, a little word about the school of healing. Given that it's the channelling of positive energy, it should be the bringing-energy school, not the bring-beings-&-matter school: Evocation. And most necromancy spells too.

 

[Klaus]

One very minor way to allow wizards to heal is to use Rule Zero on "Disrupt Undead". The spell creates a ray of positive energy that causes 1d6 damage to undead creatures with a successful ranged touch attack. Just rule that an arcane spellcaster can target a living creature and cure 1d6 hit points with a successful hit. Of course, willing targets forfeit their AC and are automatically hit if within range (and with no cover, concealment or somesuch).

That allows an arcane spellcaster to heal 1d6 hp with a zero-level spell. It may be a lot for a 0-level (cure minor only heals 1hp), but it'd be the wizard's _only_ curing ability.

What do you all think?

 

[Particle_Man]

I agree that it's a sacred cow of DnD... simply the way it's been done for years. Don't really see a problem with changing it*, but it does change the flavour of DnD, which is why it hasn't been done... yet.

I think Unearthed Arcana takes a swipe at this one with the Gestalt character classes. IIRC, the spellcaster class is much like a sorceror, but picks spells from the wizard/cleric and druid spell lists.



* - Other than wizard PCs 'having' to learn the spells. Or put up with the whinging when another PC wants healing and figures the wizard 'wasted' a spell slot on fireball rather than cure serious wounds. But that's another separate issue.

I think you mean "generic", not "gestalt".

 

[Henry]

Clerics are already more powerful than Wizards - good BAB, armour, hit points, spontaneous healing, Turning, casting in armour, etc. This is why they should not get fireball or magic missile.

And that's why wizards in my games can't use healing magics. As long as one doesn't happen, the other won't, either.