D&D General Is Healing Magic Painful?

[Guest 6801328]

What song is to played when casting raise dead?
MJs "Thriller"? ah no that would be animate dead hm,

Reincarnation?
Judas Priest "Victim of changes"?

True Resurrection?
"Forever young" (dunno the band atm)?

Händel.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Edit: In the event HP isn't "meat," does that imply that healing magic doesn't actually do anything? In such a case, I can appreciate the joke of healing magic being "faith healing," but that seems to pose a lot of other questions (which I've seen discussed elsewhere) concerning what is happening.

It would explain why healing is mostly in the hands of divine magic if most HP consist of luck, divine favour, and plot protection. - Bards also get an in due to their relationship with hero stories and destiny.

Certainly portraying spells like Revivify as reasonably traumatic would be fine.

 

[Shiroiken]

There's precedent for magic healing being unpleasant. In the Wheel of Time, it "feels like jumping into ice cold water," but that was also because their magic was primitive compared to the Age of Legends. It really comes down to what the DM wants, and if they want it to have any kind of mechanical effect, or remain thematic.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Typically, healing magic is assumed to fix those injuries.

Do you feel the process would be painful?

Edit: In the event HP isn't "meat," does that imply that healing magic doesn't actually do anything? In such a case, I can appreciate the joke of healing magic being "faith healing," but that seems to pose a lot of other questions (which I've seen discussed elsewhere) concerning what is happening.

I think in the case of HP not as meat, healing magic restores a variety of factors. This likely include aspects such as energy and confidence, as well as aspects whose restoration cannot be directly observed such as luck and divine provenance. In the case where HP are a little bit meat (attacks which would otherwise be deadly inflict superficial injuries) healing also might eliminate such minor wounds, or it might not and instead focus on suppressing the pain caused by the wounds (leaving the injuries themselves to heal naturally).

I would say that, as written, healing spells are probably not intended to be painful. I don't think it unreasonable that sudden and intense pain would likely warrant a concentration check, but healing spells don't (RAW).

That said, it might make for a nice distinction if you wanted to create arcane healing spells (and by that I mean non-bard arcane healing spells). It might make an interesting distinction for arcane healing to focus on brutal efficiency without regard for the wellbeing of the patient, whereas divine magic is gentler.

 

[Fanaelialae]

To continue from my previous post, and this kind of just stream of thought and unpolished, but what about something like this:

Arcane Cure Wounds
Heals 3d8 HP and takes 1d10 damage which cannot be reduced by any means, as their nervous system is painfully overloaded by the arcane energies. The healing and damage are applied simultaneously.

This heals about 8 HP on average, but can heal up to 23 (or simply inflict 7 damage without healing). That's the average of a CW for a cleric if you average the result from a 16 Wisdom (7.5) and 18 Wisdom (8.5), which seems about right. It does add both higher risk and higher potential reward.

 

[Krachek]

I think it is painful for the player who use it!

 

[Coroc]

Since 5e is without built-in grittiness apart from PC death, it also does not make much sense to describe gritty healing.

HP simply is not flesh in RAW, you can roleplay it as being flesh but without any mechanical consequences.
Means, if you assume magical healing of HP aka not-flesh is painful, then, by this logic, taking HD within a short rest or healing total with a long rest should be especially painful.

HP is better described as stamina, including only minor bruises, maybe some hematoma and scratches or something like that, if you insist that dealing out 20 HP equals to a mutilation or your entrails hanging out, then you better check for infections also in the next step.

Did you know that the main reason for wearing armor was not to get hurt less during combat but rather to not get hurt at all? Even the most minor wound in medieval field conditions could mean a deadly infection, that is why.
HP mechanic reflects that very well imo.

 

[R_J_K75]

Depending on the deity Id imagine it would vary. A good deity would try and alleviate the suffering as much as possible, while a neutral one may go either way. An evil deity would make it hurt really bad, if even granting healing magic at all. But again it would depend on the domain/portfolio of each given god regardless of alignment. I never bought much into magical non-divine healing outside of surgeons, village healers, and the such.

My bone is sticking out the side of my leg after being crushed by a rampaging minotaur, some dude breaks into an impromptu rendition of "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. on his lute, and then suddenly my tibia is being jammed back into my body by the chorus.

At that point if that happened to me I'd be praying for death, but the irony being the bard trying to heal them because that's the song they slit their wrists to.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Arcane Cure Wounds
Heals 3d8 HP and takes 1d10 damage which cannot be reduced by any means, as their nervous system is painfully overloaded by the arcane energies. The healing and damage are applied simultaneously.

I know a lot of players that would never cast that based on the mechanics, and a lot more that would never cast it again if they ever rolled less on the 3d8 than they did on the 1d10.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I know a lot of players that would never cast that based on the mechanics, and a lot more that would never cast it again if they ever rolled less on the 3d8 than they did on the 1d10.

Fair enough.