Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

[Stone Dog]

In the Iron Kingdoms, healing magic hurts. I don't have the full rules with me right now, but Cure spells pretty much suck ass in some way, which is why alchemical healing is a better option for most people.

 

I'm trying to think of a way for Healing as a power to only restore Body and to do something nasty on the side. Probably just to do Stun instead of healing it, which would make it rough going in combat, but I'm open to other options as well.

 

Perhaps a linked STR drain as the spell eats up the target's vitality to power the magic?

 

Or a side effect Transform to leave hideous scars?

 

The main problem is that Side Effect doesn't seem to scale automatically. It is set up in chunks. If the Side Effect is equal to the AP of the Healing power, then eventually it can suddenly become more of a disad than it used to be.

 

Any hints?

[tesuji]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

not sure of what effect you are looking for but one thing i have done in the past is to give the healing powers, or whatever power you want, a side effect called TAINT.

 

in game terms it could be a transform, a rather small one, so that getting one healing spell is not a problem, two, probably not but three or four etc and the transform from each accumulates over time and eventually it hits your double body score and - whatever bad happens.

 

also best if it works with partial transform so ou get signs.

 

one possibility for this would be -

healing based on getting blood from regenerating lizard folk- slowly transform into ugly half-breed.

 

another could be - aging - as it heals you it also ages you, drawing on your life force - cosmetic at first then more serious consequences. Eventually, when it reaches double-body, you die of old age.

 

or you could add - addiction - and gradually give them a psych lim for "wants more healing" as it just "feels so good" and it gets stronger and stronger the more they get healed. i would base the transform off ego for this one.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

Could be something like damage transference. Basically, you heal the damage to someone by taking on the damage yourself. So if you heal 3d6, you may have a side effect stating that you take on any damage healed.

[Stone Dog]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

The Transform is a really neat idea.

 

A buddy of mind suggests that it could be a Transfer from the target's Stun to the target's Body. We'll ponder this for a while.

[Old Man]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

You don't want to go with

4d6 Heal, Side Effect 4d6 no range EB?

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

There was one idea in a certain Fantasy series, (possibly Wheel of Time), in which healing a wound caused the patient to experience all of the pain that wound would have caused them if it had healed naturally but condensed into a moment of pure agony. You could build that as a Major Side Effect, Does Stun Damage

[Stone Dog]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

You don't want to go with

4d6 Heal, Side Effect 4d6 no range EB?

 

We went round and round with that today and it doesn't seem... elegant. Side effects don't seem to scale very well, they seem to be set effects.

 

A transfer from Stun to Body seems to be what we are looking for. Healing that hurts like hell and leaves you drained, but scales with how much is healed. You'll never get a few body back, but a gigantic amount of Stun that way.

[mayapuppies]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

The Transform is a really neat idea.

 

A buddy of mind suggests that it could be a Transfer from the target's Stun to the target's Body. We'll ponder this for a while.

This is exactly how I would do it...

 

In fact I am going to log this away for future use.

[Stone Dog]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

This is exactly how I would do it...

 

In fact I am going to log this away for future use.

 

We had a good laugh about making it a transfer from REC to BOD, but then decided that we'd rather take the damage then have that happen.

 

Which may be in theme, but is really rather nasty. We'll have to look at the books sometime in the near future.

[Roth]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

Why does a magical healing hurt? What's the reason behind it? What is the actual effect of the hurt?

[Stone Dog]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

Why does a magical healing hurt?

Not all of it does. There seem to be plenty of different types of alchemical potions and salves that don't deal with the issue.

 

What's the reason behind it?

The gods of the setting seem to have very strict opinions on how dependant on them humans should really be. Coming back from the dead is much harder in the setting (all the spells are bumped up to higher levels) and divine healing magic seems to suck so that people don't go running to the priests every time they break an arm or sprain an ankle. If you want divine healing, you better be sure that you really REALLY need it, because it is not going to be fun.

 

What is the actual effect of the hurt?

actually, I'm not sure. I'm just riffing on the basic idea without any conversion specifics in mind. There is a table though, I think.

[dragntyr]

Re: Iron Kingdoms-ish healing

 

In the Iron Kingdoms, healing magic hurts. I don't have the full rules with me right now, but Cure spells pretty much suck ass in some way, which is why alchemical healing is a better option for most people.

 

I'm trying to think of a way for Healing as a power to only restore Body and to do something nasty on the side. Probably just to do Stun instead of healing it, which would make it rough going in combat, but I'm open to other options as well.

 

Perhaps a linked STR drain as the spell eats up the target's vitality to power the magic?

 

Or a side effect Transform to leave hideous scars?

 

The main problem is that Side Effect doesn't seem to scale automatically. It is set up in chunks. If the Side Effect is equal to the AP of the Healing power, then eventually it can suddenly become more of a disad than it used to be.

 

Any hints?

 

Here is what I have created for my IK Conversion that I am still working on...

 

Pain of Healing (How it worksin my game)

This game system is very different than D&D so this will be a full new conversion and I will strive to make it function similar but because there is no levels in the Hero system this will be different.

 

Curing, Healing, Raising, and Resurrection Spell changes chart

 

• Mass Heal, Mass Harm and Raise Dead are now a 9th level spells
  
• Heal and Harm are now 6th level spells
  
• Reincarnate is only available to clerics of Dhunia, and Druids and is now a 7th level spell.
  
• All Cure Spells are still at the same level as they are in the regular D&D game but are subject to Pain of Healing
  

Note: If the healing or resurrection spell is not listed above then it is not in Iron Kingdoms and is not available for use.

 

Hero System Mechanics for Pain of Healing.

 

• Cleric can heal a number of Body per day = to 2 X your EGO Score. If you exceed this amount then you must roll on Table 5-1 Personal Pain of Casting by the cleric and table 5-2 Personal Pain of Casting by the subject. You can increase the multiplier by buying additional levels See below or if you are using a different conversion that uses levels then you can use that.
  
• You can not heal anyone that is a member of a faith that opposes your faith See chart below.
  
• If you are using the optional rules for alignments then you can only heal alignments that are one step off of your god’s alignments by one. With out any ill affects. How ever if the person’s alignment is completely different then that of your gods then there is a 15% chance per step that the spell will fail and you and the subject will suffer the affects of the Pain of healing Tables.
  
• If you are healing someone of a different alignment than your god, you suffer a +1 step penalty when you roll on the Pain of Healing charts.
  
• Death Domain: Cleric and subject are automatically required to roll with a +1 step penalty to the roll on the Pain of Healing charts.
  
• Healing Domain: Cleric get a one step increase on the multiplier chart below for free, and if they have to roll on the pain of healing chart get a -1 step bonus to the roll.
  

 

 

Body per day Multiplier chartLevel - Multiplier - Cost (CP/EP1 - Ego X 2 - Free

2 - Ego X 3 - 5 Points

3 - Ego X 4 - 10 Points

4 - Ego X 5 - 15 Points

5 - Ego X 6 - 20 Points

6 - Ego X 7 - 25 Points

7 - Ego X 8 - 30 Points

8 - Ego X 9 - 35 Points

9 - Ego X 10 - 40 Points

Note: You must buy each level before you can gain access to purchase the next level.

 

God Vs God chartYour Faith

• Opposing faiths
  

Menoth

 

• Can only heal those of His own faith, If you do heal those of other faiths you suffer a +3 to your Pain of healing roll on the PoH charts.
  

Cryss

 

• If you heal followers of Menoth then you will suffer a +3 to your Pain of healing roll on the PoH charts.
  

The Devourer Wurm

 

• If you heal followers of Menoth then you will suffer a +3 to your Pain of healing roll on the PoH charts.
  

Dhunia

 

• If you heal followers of Menoth then you will suffer a +3 to your Pain of healing roll on the PoH charts.
  

Thamar

• If you heal followers of Menoth then you will suffer a +3 to your Pain of healing roll on the PoH charts.
  

Nyssor (Elf)

 

• If you are healing a member of any other race then you will suffer a +2 to your Pain of healing roll on the PoH charts.
  

Scyrah (Elf)

 

• If you are healing a member of any other race then you will suffer a +2 to your Pain of healing roll on the PoH charts.
  

Note: If it is Your faith is not listed on this chart then you do not suffer any additional ill affects to the Pain of Healing chart rolls.

 

I hope that this will help. I created this as a stand alone house rule just like the D20 Version you do not need to use it in your game but it does add flavor to it.

 

I will not be using the alignment stuff or level stuff at all I will just not allow apposing god heal members of other faiths. It should also be of note that I Have not tried this system yet. It is untested and would need some Play testing to get the feel right.

 

The arcane Healing is as follows: It will never heal Body damage but will heal every thing else.

 

If you need help converting the rest of the charts just let me know.

 

PS. Sorry for the formating it is cleaner in my Doc. file.

 

Dragntyr