Essential Healing

[hong]

In The Return of the King (the novelisation), Aragorn, Faramir and Eomer fight all day at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and emerge unscratched. Clearly Tolkien was using reserve points.

 

[Someone]

As for my own contribution to examples, in the movie Conan the Barbarian, the wizard prevents the spirits of the underworld from claiming Conan's soul, although I don't know if that is healing magic so much as necromancy (preventitive necromancy?).

That was because Conan was only mostly dead at that point.

 

[I'm A Banana]

In the Princess Bride, they bring Wesley back to life just by visiting an old cook.

It's more common in religious mythology. The Bible is full of healers of the sick, destroyers of the plagues, etc. In many shamanistic traditions, the shaman is responsible for keeping away sickness and combating the spirit that causes it.

Indeed, the belief that infections, insanities, ailments, and, indeed, death, come from hostile spirits and not from physical and biological problems is pretty pervasive in human belief, so the "religious figure as healer" has a strong tradition. Lump that together with the "advanced western medicine," and some times, even in the modern day, missionaries become doctors and care for the wounded. And doctors = witch doctors as far as many tribal societies are concerned.

For my milage, if we're going to let wizards throw fire from their fingertips, we can let clerics make you feel better with a touch.

It also works well with a description of damage that doesn't ALWAYS include a wound. If an hp loss is getting a ligament torn, getting the wind knocked out of you, tripping a little bit, and generally just wearing down your endurance, it's not that the clerics are repairing dagger cuts as much as they are repairing your energy and vivacity.

Magical healing of one form or another is rediculously common in religious myths.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I really like the way LOTR Online uses Morale as a label for its Hit Point mechanic.

I like this as well. Much more heroic. You aren't defeated by the many wounds inflicted on your person, you're defeated because you were overcome by despair. Very Tolkeinesque, if you ask me.

Captains and minstrels can inspire troops to fight on, and Nazgul or dragons can incapacitate hundreds with a single roar. It's a really cool mechanic.

In D&D, I guess the way it'd work is that each "hit" is a strike upon your armor, an attack that gets past your guard (but doesn't inflict a mortal wound), or some other action that makes you doubt your prowess or hurt your morale. It's not until you run out of hit points that you're actually, seriously wounded.

Boxers talk about "heart" and how a strong mind/will to fight is as important as physical conditioning. I think LotRO was going for somewhat the same thing.

 

[Nifft]

I like this as well. Much more heroic. You aren't defeated by the many wounds inflicted on your person, you're defeated because you were overcome by despair. Very Tolkeinesque, if you ask me.

This is why I like the Vitality Point / Wound Point system(s)... same basic idea, just a different label for morale (vitality).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Delta]

The Bible contains examples of healing the sick, even bringing the dead back to life.

Taking this as an example of mythology, can anyone cite specific named examples? Was it only Jesus, a small number of prophets, or an entire priestly class? Was it by touch or prayer or special substance? Did it have to be intentional, or could someone "trick" them by touching the hem of their robe?

 

[Delta]

For my milage, if we're going to let wizards throw fire from their fingertips, we can let clerics make you feel better with a touch.

Of course, part of the motivation for this thread is, "if clerics weren't a class in D&D at all, then how would magic healing occur?" -- but debate on that first assumption is over in the other thread here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=199395

 

[kenobi65]

Taking this as an example of mythology, can anyone cite specific named examples? Was it only Jesus, a small number of prophets, or an entire priestly class? Was it by touch or prayer or special substance? Did it have to be intentional, or could someone "trick" them by touching the hem of their robe?

I suspect that this is heading into the area that this board's "no religion" clause is meant to stop. The caveat "taking this as an example of mythology" probably isn't sufficient, since you're now talking about real people and their real faith.

Feel free to e-mail me off list if you really feel like you need more info.

 

[Delta]

I suspect that this is heading into the area that this board's "no religion" clause is meant to stop. The caveat "taking this as an example of mythology" probably isn't sufficient, since you're now talking about real people and their real faith.

I'm pretty sure there's a distinction between "mythology" and "religion". Otherwise, any attempt to discuss OD&D's Christian Clerics, or 1E Deities & Demigods (Hindu, Chinese, Japanese deities, etc.) would be prohibited on these boards. In this context, I'd still be happy to hear detailed examples for the background stories which inspired the existing D&D Cleric class, or other options.

 

[Delta]

A web page on "Mythology and Medecine", including surveys of Hindu, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Mesopotamian, and Hebrew legends. Usually concentrating on removal of diseases:

http://www.histmedindia.org/mytholgy.htm