Biomancy Medical Spells

[Mr. Death]

So, kind of just thinking aloud here/looking for feedback on my wizard healer character for a friend's game. Wanting to suss out just how healing would work without leaning on sponsored magic, mechanically speaking, so I thought I'd jot down ideas for spells and such.

Also, yes, the healer does have the Doctor stunt and a high Scholarship skill.

Bandage
Healing mild physical consequences.
5 shift total
3-shift maneuver to numb pain (i.e., the target can tag it to counter a compel against the consequence)
2-shift maneuver to begin/accelerate the healing process (may not even be necessary -- mild physical consequences going away after a scene anyway)

Disinfectant
Healing poison
3+X shift total
3-shift maneuver to numb pain (if poison is indeed causing pain)
X-shift maneuver to counter the poison (cost dependent on what the strength of the poisoning is)

Strong Bandages
Healing Moderate consequences (Cuts and contusions)
7 shift total
3-shift maneuver to numb pain
4-shift maneuver to begin the healing process

Splint
Heal moderate consequences (broken bones)
10 shift total
3-shift maneuver to numb the pain
3-shift maneuver to support the broken bone (like numbing the pain, this is meant to counter a compel while it heals)
4-shift maneuver to begin the healing process

Surgery
Healing Severe consequences
14-shift total
5-shift maneuver to induce deep sleep
6-shift maneuver to accelerate the healing process once everything's put back in (should it be higher?)
3-shift maneuver to act as a "cast" or bandage, and protect wounds from further infection/reopening/rebreaking (countering a compel)

I'm unsure on the costs and whether they're appropriate -- I figure some of the 'numbing pain' ones may have multiples, or extended durations.

Also curious, would making an incision to start surgery be counted as inducing a mild physical consequence to help cover the cost of a spell?

General thoughts and ideas welcome and encouraged.

[Haru]

Hmm... hmm hmm hmm...

Healing spells are a tricky thing to do. In most RPGs they are pretty much mandatory and will cut down the groups downtime significantly and makes adventuring possible in the first place. In Dresden Files, not so much.

See, the thing that's sort of bothering me with this is that it kind of means that every character potentially has mythic recovery. Given a night downtime, the whole group is as good as new. And at that point, I wouldn't bother with spells, I would simply make that baseline. Decouple recovery phases from milestones and simply say that as soon as you have a bit of time, the doctor can heal people and be done with it. Especially since most of the time, you'll be taking your time in the first place, since fallout on a healing spell will not be very healthy.

If you want to stay with the recovery rules as they are, maybe just give everyone the effects of "inhuman recovery" for free and allow them to take more because the doctor is in the house.

For active spells, I would go for things that are more needed in the moment. Maybe even some biomancy. Pull the poison from a wound, temporarily increase strength, suppress pain (and therefore the use of an aspect) during a fight, etc. Maybe some stuff specific to the campaign, a critter with a particularly nasty poison that keeps a wound from healing or other fun stuff. With a character like that in a DFRPG campaign, something like that should definitely come up. That's where you should be able to really shine, and I feel like that's where your spells should be focused on.


That out of the way, my goto difficulty for a spell like this would be
5 (taken out) + 4 (creating/removing a lasting aspect) + 2*[consequence value]
So a mild (2) consequence would be 13 shifts, a moderate would be 17 shifts and a severe would be 21 shifts to remove. I think it's either a staple of the game (see above) or it's something really difficult to pull off.

Creating a mild consequence to cure a severe one would be equal to reducing the severe consequence by 2 steps. For reducing a consequence, I would remove the "2*" part in the equation above, but add the values together. So reducing a severe to mild would still be 19 shifts, which is exactly what you'd get if you took the 21 for healing the severe and tagged the mild consequence. The incision would mostly be there for dramatic effect.

[Taran]

the tricky healing.

I like that you create an aspect that can be tagged to pay off compels.  That is very smart and a very smooth way to legally "heal" someone in combat since no-one can take advantage of the consequence...although, it doesn't make the consequence go away, so they could just spend a FP to get hit it again...but, I don't think that'll come up often and you always earn the FP when someone invokes your consequences.

The maneuver to heal a poison works well.  Technically, it's a scholarship skill replacement spell since scholarship is the First Aid skill to stop poison.  Maybe you want to expand that and have a powerful enough spell that could be used an anti-toxin or immunization to poison.  An appropriately powerful enough maneuver (greater than the maneuver created by a venomous creature) that can be used to 'pay off' the invoke so that the poison doesn't affect them in the first place.

As for actually reducing/recovering consequences...I don't really have any further input.  I think I tend to lean towards Haru's formula but I've never actually used it in play.

It might have been you who mentioned a healing spell changing the name of an aspect to make it less serious.  A moderate of 'broken rib' becomes 'bruised rib' or something...so a compel has less weight to it since it's 'healing'.

[Sanctaphrax]

They look fine to me. Though I think you're stretching the definition of "maneuver" too far, that doesn't really affect the mechanics.

Also curious, would making an incision to start surgery be counted as inducing a mild physical consequence to help cover the cost of a spell?

Sure, why not?

See, the thing that's sort of bothering me with this is that it kind of means that every character potentially has mythic recovery.

Either you're reading these wrong or I am, because to me it looks like these don't do anything Scholarship doesn't. They just start the healing process, that's all.

That out of the way, my goto difficulty for a spell like this would be
5 (taken out) + 4 (creating/removing a lasting aspect) + 2*[consequence value]
So a mild (2) consequence would be 13 shifts, a moderate would be 17 shifts and a severe would be 21 shifts to remove. I think it's either a staple of the game (see above) or it's something really difficult to pull off.

I'm not a fan. Tougher people shouldn't be harder to heal...if anything, it should be the other way around.

And those complexities seem too low to me.

[sdfds68]

Disinfectant
Healing poison
3+X shift total
3-shift maneuver to numb pain (if poison is indeed causing pain)
X-shift maneuver to counter the poison (cost dependent on what the strength of the poisoning is)

I kind of like this, but I'm also a little bit leery of X-shift rituals for healing purposes, simply because thaumaturgy isn't supposed to be fast. If you need to counter a poison of power X, how many turns of maneuvers and control rolls would actually be needed to get rid of the poison? If the poison is strong enough, wouldn't a character probably be better off getting healed by a one turn scholarship roll plus some fate point expenditures?

The others seem to be line with Recovery and Skills on pg 220 of YS, but given that justifying healing under pressure would almost certainly be faster through scholarship, I'm not sure how useful they are. It seems like justifying consequence recovery after the fact would be the way to go for magical healing, since it probably requires less mess than, say, an impromptu surgery for those inconvenient bullet wounds.

[Haru]

Either you're reading these wrong or I am, because to me it looks like these don't do anything Scholarship doesn't. They just start the healing process, that's all.

If that's all they do, they should be cheaper. I read them as removing the consequences.

I'm not a fan. Tougher people shouldn't be harder to heal...if anything, it should be the other way around.

I use 5 shifts as the standard take out against anyone, toughness powers, lower or higher endurance etc. be damned. It's a good place to start any transformation spell, I think.

[Mr. Death]

the tricky healing.

I like that you create an aspect that can be tagged to pay off compels.  That is very smart and a very smooth way to legally "heal" someone in combat since no-one can take advantage of the consequence...although, it doesn't make the consequence go away, so they could just spend a FP to get hit it again...but, I don't think that'll come up often and you always earn the FP when someone invokes your consequences.

Yeah, it's kind of how like in the more recent books, Harry can keep going for a while ignoring his injuries, but eventually no matter how much pain is dulled, a broken arm just plain isn't going to work right. So these spells provide protection against one or two compels, but not more than that -- so, someone with a busted leg might get a freebie on a sprint, but if they keep trying, eventually the leg's going to give out.

The maneuver to heal a poison works well.  Technically, it's a scholarship skill replacement spell since scholarship is the First Aid skill to stop poison.  Maybe you want to expand that and have a powerful enough spell that could be used an anti-toxin or immunization to poison.  An appropriately powerful enough maneuver (greater than the maneuver created by a venomous creature) that can be used to 'pay off' the invoke so that the poison doesn't affect them in the first place.

That's a good idea, aye.

They look fine to me. Though I think you're stretching the definition of "maneuver" too far, that doesn't really affect the mechanics.

Well, yeah, but I mean, they're not an attack, a block, or a sprint, so what else can I call them?

Either you're reading these wrong or I am, because to me it looks like these don't do anything Scholarship doesn't. They just start the healing process, that's all.

Yeah, they're an excuse to start the healing process; the reason it's not just Scholarship rolls is they're meant to be done outside of a medical facility. This character is a White Council healer, so A. she doesn't want to operate out of a hospital, and B. her patients usually don't want to go to hospitals either.

If they meant to make it substantially faster, that'd add to the cost, reducing the severity of the consequence. That might come as she levels up and gains power.

And those complexities seem too low to me.

They seemed high to me -- I mean, a 13-shift ritual to heal something that's going to heal on its own anyway by the time you're ready to cast the ritual?

I kind of like this, but I'm also a little bit leery of X-shift rituals for healing purposes, simply because thaumaturgy isn't supposed to be fast. If you need to counter a poison of power X, how many turns of maneuvers and control rolls would actually be needed to get rid of the poison? If the poison is strong enough, wouldn't a character probably be better off getting healed by a one turn scholarship roll plus some fate point expenditures?

Oh, this isn't meant to be fast, or done in the middle of a fight. These are regular thaumaturgic rituals. That said, the character I'm designing them for has effective lore for biomancy at 8 (meaning half of them she can do without the extra prep) and Discipline at 4, so she could do them in two, three rounds.

Also, logically, countering poison would require a particular antivenin. If you have magic, that makes it something you could do anywhere, instead of having to have a specific countermeasure.

I suppose you could also divide them up -- have a generalized 3-shift pain relief spell, and then, separately, use the base lore for the actual healing spell. Given her stats, she could actually do the 3-shift pain relief spell almost at will, barring a terrible roll.

The others seem to be line with Recovery and Skills on pg 220 of YS, but given that justifying healing under pressure would almost certainly be faster through scholarship, I'm not sure how useful they are. It seems like justifying consequence recovery after the fact would be the way to go for magical healing, since it probably requires less mess than, say, an impromptu surgery for those inconvenient bullet wounds.

Sometimes you have to heal in the field for one reason or another -- maybe the wizard can't go to a regular hospital, maybe you're stuck on a trip to enemy territory, maybe you really need that tank to be back on his feet, if only for a couple rounds. I have, as a GM, compelled players to attempt to heal right away for drama's sake (said healing involved sponsored magic).

If that's all they do, they should be cheaper. I read them as removing the consequences.

Well, they'd be cheaper if you nixed the pain relief.

[Sanctaphrax]

Well, yeah, but I mean, they're not an attack, a block, or a sprint, so what else can I call them?

In Fate Core they'd be Overcome actions, I think. In DFRPG they don't have any specific name.

They seemed high to me -- I mean, a 13-shift ritual to heal something that's going to heal on its own anyway by the time you're ready to cast the ritual?

True, the mild one isn't so bad. But the moderate and severe ones aren't much harder than it, even though their effect is much bigger.

[Mr. Death]

So, what would you suggest be the additional cost to reduce the healing time of a consequence, like making a Moderate heal as quickly as a Mild, a Severe as quickly as a Moderate, etc?

The Reiki Healing spell is 8-10 shifts, with four shifts representing the consequence being healed, and four as a "base complexity" to represent "that healing magic is partially transformative, though not to the degree of more hostile magic."

So by this logic, would adding a blanket four shifts to a spell have that effect? Or should it scale up with the consequence being healed (I.e., add six shifts to the Surgery spell to make that Severe consequence heal like a Moderate)?

[Sanctaphrax]

So, what would you suggest be the additional cost to reduce the healing time of a consequence, like making a Moderate heal as quickly as a Mild, a Severe as quickly as a Moderate, etc?

I guess I'd use whatever the difficulty of reducing the healing time with Scholarship is (which is a GM call, of course), plus a surcharge of maybe 6 shifts to cover the complexities of healing magic and the benefit of not needing medical gear.

[PirateJack]

I'd have the cost go up by cumulative cost so that a mild consequence costs +2 shifts to heal while a moderate would cost 6 (2 from the mild + 4 from the moderate), a severe would cost +12, and so on.

[Taran]

I'm trying to remember my formula but it didn't take consequences away, it just down graded it. 

So, it was similar to Haru's but that 21 shift ritual would not cure a severe it would down grade it to moderate.  You'd then have to spend 17ish shifts to down grade it to minor and then more shifts to remove it.  But I think a minor was only7 to 9 shifts total.

[Mr. Death]

Okay, so it looks like I'll actually get to use the healing character as a PC, so I've revised these slightly. All the actual "healing" ones have the base of 4 added for the transformative aspect (i.e., that you need to 'take out' someone to make these changes).

Anesthetic: 3 shifts, numbs pain, creates maneuver that can be tagged to counter a compelled or tagged consequence.

Disinfectant: 4+X, with X being the strength of the venom.

Bandages: 8 shift, makes Moderate consequences heal like they're Mild consequences (copied from Reiki Healing - 4 for transformation, 4 for value of consequence)

Strong bandages: 10 shift, Severe heals like Moderate (principle of Reiki, applies to Severe - 4 for transformation, 6 for value of consequence)

Deep sleep: 6 shift, induces deep, lasting, dreamless sleep (4 for 'take out', 2 for duration).

Surgery: 16 shift, accelerates healing of multiple consequences (deep sleep should be administered first, and anesthetic probably before and after - 4 for transformation, 6, 4 and 2 for consequences).

Thoughts?

[Taran]

I like the premise.  I suppose it depends how lenient the GM is for allowing rituals and using declarations to get the shifts.

(deep sleep should be administered first, and anesthetic probably before and after - 4 for transformation, 6, 4 and 2 for consequences).

Like a real operation.  But do you NEED to do all these other rituals?  What prevents PCs from not?

[Mr. Death]

I like the premise.  I suppose it depends how lenient the GM is for allowing rituals and using declarations to get the shifts.

Like a real operation.  But do you NEED to do all these other rituals?  What prevents PCs from not?

Probably the patient would have to roll Endurance and/or Discipline to avoid mental stress from being cut open. Up to the GM's discretion, probably.