Why can't wizards heal?

[Joe Sala]

I know, it's for balance reasons, and one of the core assumptions of D&D. In other games, like Ars Magica, wizards can magically heal.

But what's the in-game reason? Why in no D&D/AD&D game setting a single mage has developed a "cure wounds" spell? Come on, it's only moving a bit of flesh, not stopping time or conjuring and enormous hand from nowhere. Are the gods preventing it so the clerics don't loose their monopoly? Or maybe the "magic force" can't do that? Did Gary Gygax justify it?

And what would happen if wizards and sorcerers could cast healing spells?

 

[tenkar]

And what would happen if wizards and sorcerers could cast healing spells?

Why can't clerics cast wizard and sorcerer spells? Hmmm... we could just have one spell casting class i guess. It would simplify things.

Seriously, the same argument can be made as to why can't clerics cast fireballs... the basic casters are specialized to some extent.

Just like I wouldn't bring my kid to a mechanic when he is ill, I wouldn't be asking a wizzie to heal me.

 

[Nifft]

But what's the in-game reason? Why in no D&D/AD&D game setting a single mage has developed a "cure wounds" spell?

All gods hate smart people. Well-known fact.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Joe Sala]

Seriously, the same argument can be made as to why can't clerics cast fireballs... the basic casters are specialized to some extent.

This is logical, since the gods decide which spells they grant to their followers. But pure magical energy should do anything if the wizard is powerful enough to manipulate it.

 

[Nadaka]

Because in chainmail, wizards were fantasy artillery pieces. Their lightning bolt & fireball had the same area of effect and damage as the wargame artillery that they were based on. Artillery doesn't heal.

 

[jeffh]

This is logical, since the gods decide which spells they grant to their followers.

Surely that depends on the god. Some of them have good reasons to want their clerics to cast Fireballs.

(Of course, in 3E, those clerics sometimes can come fairly close to casting Fireballs.)

The best explanation might be some sort of SALT-type treaty among the gods, so that it's not so much "my god doesn't want me doing this" as "if my god let me do this, the rest of the pantheon would band together to kill him and take his stuff".

 

[zoroaster100]

I think wizards should be able to heal, just not as well as clerics. After all, clerics have very powerful damaging area effect spells.

 

[Remathilis]

Wizards CAN heal, in 4e...

Wizard, like any ritual caster, has access to the following rituals...

Cure Disease
Raise Dead
Remove Affliction

And a wizard, like anyone, can use the heal skill to trigger a second wind in combat.

 

[Rechan]

Because this is a D&D sacred cow. Divine and Arcane magic are separate.

 

[Particle_Man]

Wizards can cast rituals. If they train in the Heal skill they could remove disease or raise the dead, just like a cleric. Wizards can also, with the right ritual, make potions of healing.

So in 4e, wizards can heal, a little.