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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 272429" data-attributes="member: 5435">Solution: Healing spells work normally only if the person is at positive HP.  If they are at negative HP, they only stabilize the character, heal one point of damage per spell level, and at best bring the character to zero after which they must recover normally.I seem to remember that the original poster was talking about a medieval/ren-fair type setting.  In our own history, people took a very "magical" view of everything around them, religion included.  The sacramental host, for example, was thought to have healing powers and there are documented cases of farmers stealing hosts from the church and burying them in their fields to increase their productivity.  The blessings of a priest, baptisms, etc. were thought to offer genuine protection against misfortune and sorcery.Don't even get me started on the mighty powers assigned to sacred relics and the various saints--examples abound even to the present day.As for arcane ("non-religious") magic, it was of course greatly feared thanks to church propaganda.  According to some priests, even the healing powers of herbs were considered unholy, on the theory that the devil must have taught people this knowledge. (This on no other grounds than it was effective, and because it was unexplained it seemed like witchcraft. But it was not a common attitude even in the dark ages.)  In the dark ages arcane magic consisted pretty much of the usual schtick: healing, protection, luck, love, and cursing charms in wide variety.  Some cultures (e.g. the Norse) attributed a much wider variety of powers to their system of magic.  Towards the renaissance, self-proclaimed magicians grew more sophisticated as well and employed more complex symbolic systems (e.g. Tarot, Zodiac, Alchemy, Numerology/Kaballah) to achieve more interesting effects.  Non-religious magicians were generally thought to draw on alliances with spirits (demonic or otherwise) in exchange for their powers; some "white magicians" claimed to manipulate the powers of angels in their work.--Ben</blockquote>

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