Can a Wizard make a Healing Spell?

[Khaalis]

Bards HEAL, and they are ARCANE casters.

Technically this is true. My only problem, and its not with you, its with the way the class was designed... is that Bard is a FUBAR class design. They couldnt decide if it is a specialist Rogue, an Entertainer, a Traveler or a rendition of the first edition Bard. They try to cram too many disperate ideas into one class. The "healing" aspect really has no sense in the rest of the class' design. Personally in my system I split Bards into 3 camps. Non-casters, arcane casters and druidic casters (the true celtic ideal of the bard). Thats JMHO on Bards.

But strictly speaking, Bards do cast arcane healing. However, why cant they teach that to other classes (similar to the Bard only spells...). Makes no sense.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Two thoughts.

1) I don't see why there couldn't be some kind of arcane healer. In general, I'd want to make a prestige class that handled this. The prerequisites might include things like Heal and Profession (herbalist). I might also require that the individual know several abjuration spells (there just seems to be a natural fit between abjurations and healing).

2) Breaking my own professed rule above, I've allowed a sorcerer character in my campaign to learn Cure Moderate Wounds. The reason is mostly practical. The characters are thousands of miles from the nearest friendly civilization and there are no clerics in the group. The character is an elf, and I justified it by saying that, for decades, this particular elf grew up in the company of druids; and since sorcerers get their power from mysterious sources anyway, I figured there wouldn't be a problem.

Dave

 

[mercucio]

There is no reason why a wizard should not be able to cast healing spells except for tradition and maintaining differences between divine spellcasters. Rather silly, actually. Somewhere along the way (real early) D&D and it's players became fixed on the idea that wizards blow up stuff, and cleric's heal. This could be further from the truth. What truly makes clerics different wizards is their ability to channel divine energy (turn/rebuke undead, ect).

As for wizard healing spells, if you want I would simply duplicate the exisiting cure spells, but make their wizardly versions simply convert lethal damage into subdual, and then require the subject to heal the subdual damage normally.

- Mercucio

 

[Faraer]

In the Forgotten Realms, wizardly healing has always been there, but apart from a few cases such as the Simbul's synostodweomer, the spells haven't been published because they contradict core AD&D and D&D design principles. But in Realmslore, including at least one recent novel, Art can certainly heal (though less well than the Power of priests).

 

[Oscar carramiñana]

Anyone remember the wizard spell Time Heal I really miss this spell sniff
With this spell the wiz be better than any Cle now the Cle are better class

 

[steelgrave]

For those of you using FR, the Simbul has a healing spell.... (I believe it's 9th level and forget how it works, but it's listed in FRCS I think)

 

[Aust Diamondew]

From in an in game logical sense they should be able to.
But as far as balance goes they shouldn't.

Then again clerics get divine fire as a 5th level spell, which is on par (actually a tad better than) cone of cold or fire ball. There for clerics encroach on a wizards right to be the 'destructive spell caster'.

Logically there for if clerics get blow the crap out of you spells a few levels later than wizards do. Wizards should be able to 'cure light wounds' as a 3rd.


Also clerics get instant death spells like wizards and with the right domains can get teleport and other spells that are generally wiz only. They also are just as good if not better at summoning. Then you top it off with better HD, saves, BAB and casting spells and armor.
It starts to seem less and less that wizards shouldn't be able to do at least some healing.

 

[d12]

I was going to cite polymorph and the simbul's synodsdweomer as two examples of wizard spells that heal. There is also a spell in magic of faerun that allows a wizard to transfer some of his own hp to another character. The lesson I learn from all of this is "wizards can heal but it is really hard."

So, if a player want to research a spell with similar effects to Cure Light Wounds as wizard spell I would probably okay it and make it a 4th or 5th level wizard spell. I might also give it a casting time of 1 minute, so it would only be good for post-combat healing. I would NOT let it be called "Cure Light Wounds" because then wizards would be casting it off cheap wands.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

There are some things that Divine Magic doesn't do -- at least, outside of domains. One of the first that comes to mind is Instantaneous travel -- Teleport and Dimension Door spells. Without taking the travel domain, those spells are out of reach to a cleric. And, at higher level, those spells are as important to party success as healing spells are, one could argue.

You might look to arcane magic to do something like speed up time -- so that over the course of ten minutes, or an hour, the spell would speed up time in a localized way that allowed the subject to heal as if she had just had a night's rest. That would be a healing spell that did not rely on divine magic or energies, but simply the natural healing ability of the subject. This would be a sort of low-end regeneration -- it wouldn't restore lost limbs, etc., but it would allow for some faster recovery time. The closest thing to a precedent for this spell would be the natural healing that Polymorph provides -- perhaps the spell would be related to that, a sort of transmutation.

Also, the spell's casting time would be a minute, not a standard action, so it would not be a good combat spell, but only really suitable for non-combat situations.

As far as staging the spells would go, you could create a first level version that allowed one day's rest to pass in a minute's time. The second level version would allow for two days. And so on up to 4th leve. 5th level, just like the Cure Wounds sequence, would be a mass version of the first level spell.

Another option: Allow the caster to maintain the concentration for an additional minute for every caster level, but require a successful concentration check, DC 10+ 5 per minute level for each additional minute (added on cumulatively). So a 3rd level wizard could cast the first level version this, foster natural healing for his barbarian friend over the course of three minutes, needing to make no concentration check for the first minute, a DC 15 check for the second, and a DC 20 for the third. If he succeeds and is not interrupted, the Barbarian will recover from his wounds as if he had complete rest for 3 days.

Because of the way hit points work in the game -- and the way PCs recover hit points over time -- it will take roughly 8-10 days of rest to restore a fighter to full strength from 0 hit points. To do so with the Rest And Recovery spell, it would mean casting the 4th level version AND maintaining it for a second minute, or maintaining the first level version for 10 minutes (which would build up to a stupidly high DC on the concentration check)

Oh, and throw in a +2 synergy bonus on the concentration check for 5 ranks in heal.

-rg

 

[PugioilAudacio]

As I said before, in a cinch a couple planeshifts makes a nice party heal.