scarring and magic

[alsih2o]

i have always played undetr the assumption that healing spells keep wounds from developing into scars, otherwise ytou average adventurer would look like the moons surface.

but i wonder how others handle this.

IF you do find yourself without divine healing, what scars?

of course that axe in the chest does...but what about magic missiles? does everyoen who went thru a flame strike look like a g.i. joe who has been under a magnifying glass?

how do you handle scarring?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

It's a nice touch to give if a character has met with death and then raised.

(slight tangent)

I liked the author Joel Rosenburg's take on healing magic. Not only did it heal scars but minor ailments as well. So any old fighter who had recieved a lot of healing potions over his career was almost always in fine health.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

I don't allow magical healing to prevent scars- I just consider it accelerated healing.

However, I usually just allow the players to not what their characters look like. I find some players like to picture their characters as if they were movie stars - always good looking after every battle, and other players like to picture their characters as a realistic result of their battles. Why disappoint either side when it usually does not affect the game?

On the other hand, there are uncommon occasions when I will force such a change on the character.

For example, the rogue imc likes to leave main villians alive, but with a scar trailing down from their eye (as if they were crying).

If one of these villians catchs up to them, then a small scar is going to be the least of his worries.

But the player knows that- as one of my golden rules is "anything the pc's do, so can the npc's"

FD

 

[Furn_Darkside]

I liked the author Joel Rosenburg's take on healing magic. Not only did it heal scars but minor ailments as well. So any old fighter who had recieved a lot of healing potions over his career was almost always in fine health.

That reminds me of something I put in place in 2nd edition.

A large number of a high level party had rings of regeneration and were sucking down healing potions like they were lemonade on a hot day.

My solution at the time was that extensive magical healing slowed and would eventually destroy the natural healing process. That through a wrench into the tactics (or lack there of) in combat.

FD