Why can't wizards heal?

[SWBaxter]

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

Arcana Unearthed has lots of spellcasting classes, but just one spell list. All casters can heal (if they've readied the appropriate spells that day). Makes for a different dynamic, not in a bad way.

In D&D, wizards are traditionally bad at healing due to niche protection. No real compelling reason beyond that.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

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

Yes. Wizards and (especially) sorcerers should be able to heal, but they should be inefficient at it.

 

[drothgery]

If you want to get nitpicky about it, in 3.x there were a few ways for wizards and sorcerers to heal (one of the most effective being to become an Arcane Disciple of a deity that granted the healing domain).

 

[Lord Xtheth]

It's realy easy to be a wizard that heals. Take the Devine Initiate feat. Its that easy. Learn how to use your magic to heal from a master!

 

[Storm Raven]

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

In my three class version of 3e, I have just one spell casting class. It seems to function fine that way.

 

[SSquirrel]

Arcana Unearthed has lots of spellcasting classes, but just one spell list. All casters can heal (if they've readied the appropriate spells that day). Makes for a different dynamic, not in a bad way.

In D&D, wizards are traditionally bad at healing due to niche protection. No real compelling reason beyond that.

I was going to bring up AU/AE for just that reason. I feel that nuking the arcane/divine split to allow all casters access to healing magic was a very effective way to spread healing around. It is a different solution than what was done w/healing surges in 4E, but I think they are about even in the end. Healing Surges+magical divide=No divide+all casters can heal. Greenbonds were still probably the technically best healers, but a Magister who focused on healing magic was pretty amazing, and the Champion of Life and Wood Witch weren't too shabby either.

 

[pawsplay]

In 3e, bards can heal. Either you come up with some very compelling backstory for bardic magic, or arcane healing is not that hard.

 

[Terwox]

I think there is a good idea in this thread.

I also think it would be fairly easy to house-rule.

Basically, why not let wizards take something like cure light wounds at level 6 as a utility power? (As opposed to it being a level 2 power for clerics.) I think I may houserule this in.

This also somewhat goes against the design rules of the game, though -- not allowing players to make suboptimal choices. Giving wizards a minor action ranged heal seems, well, perhaps not out of character, but not however easy to balance.

It may be appropriate and alright to allow wizards to have the cure light / etc daily utility powers at the appropriate level, though. Hardly gamebreaking when it takes a standard action...

 

[fba827]

For 4e, the idea of divine only for healing is somewhat pushed aside by the fact that there are martial healers (warlord) and arcane leaders (bards) and probably others in other power sources to be announced later.

I think it has more to do with the fact that in 4e, a wizard has been defined as a controller role, not a leader role. Thus, it isn't supposed to be their focus.

Having said that, if you feel it's appropriate for your game, making a cure light wounds wizard utlilty power at a higher level wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Here's my ingame explanation:

All complicated life is imprinted by the mark of the divine. It was the gods interaction with the work of the primordials that resulted in life more complex than simply that of undifferentiated flesh, energy, or oozes.

As such it is extremely simple for clerics and divine casters to manipulate or to manipulate through mundane means, but arcane magic itself which essentially works within the most primitive strata of magical reality finds it difficult to work through the matrix of the divine that surrounds all life.

There are work arounds for this. Dead flesh is easier to work with since it is simply flesh and the divine matrix has already started to break down. The presence of that matrix on the flesh, however, also gives Divine users special privelege over it as well.

Bardic magic's reliance on the magic of song as a matrix makes it the most efficient arcane means of accessing the life matrix due to its combination of mundane materials, increased influence of 'natural' or primoridal mysticism, and the affect of that particular style of magic in increasing the receptivity of the target.