Heal Spell, need help with mechanics Options

[Gronin]

We are returning to Shadowrun after a very lengthy abscence (lots of 1st Edition and some 2nd Edition) and my attempts to search the forums haven't worked so I am looking for some help with the mechanics of 4th Edition Heal spell.

The problem we are having centers around the drain value and just what is meant by "damage value". Is Damage Value the amount you chose to heal or is it the value of the wound you are attempting to heal or is it the value of all the wounds that individual has taken to this point. (the last begs another question - is each wound a character takes considered a seperate wound and thus each "wound is healable once- by magic)

The example that came up in our first session was as follows - a character got hit for 9 points and the mage tried to heal. He had 6 successes on his magic test (which was reduced to 5 as that is the max allowable as his Magic is only at 5). He used all 5 successes to reduce the wound. Does this make the drain 7 (damage value -2) and require a time for permancy (sustaining the spell) of 14 combat turns?

OR as was suggested by one of the other players could he take his 5 successes use three of them to reduce the wound by 3 and 2 of them to reduce the time down to 1. In this case drain would also be 1 as wound value would be 3 and drain value would then be 3 - 2 or 1

Thanks in advance for any help

[pbangarth]

it is a tricky question, because a patient could be subject to different bits of damage over time. I think the "Damage Value" in the Drain description should be the current level of Damage the patient is experiencing, even if it had been reached by multiple sources at different times. The real confusion comes if at time (A) damage had been sustained and partially Healed, and then at a later time (B) more damage was sustained, and then subjected to a Heal spell. The Drain Value should be based on the current level of damage (I believe) but should only heal up to the number of boxes that came after the last Heal spell.

Does this make sense?

[Shinobi Killfist]

it is a tricky question, because a patient could be subject to different bits of damage over time. I think the "Damage Value" in the Drain description should be the current level of Damage the patient is experiencing, even if it had been reached by multiple sources at different times. The real confusion comes if at time (A) damage had been sustained and partially Healed, and then at a later time (B) more damage was sustained, and then subjected to a Heal spell. The Drain Value should be based on the current level of damage (I believe) but should only heal up to the number of boxes that came after the last Heal spell.

Does this make sense?

That is how we run it.

[nemafow]

We do it that way too

[rumanchu]

The problem we are having centers around the drain value and just what is meant by "damage value". Is Damage Value the amount you chose to heal or is it the value of the wound you are attempting to heal or is it the value of all the wounds that individual has taken to this point. (the last begs another question - is each wound a character takes considered a seperate wound and thus each "wound is healable once- by magic)

Unlike (for example) Stabilize, the Heal spell does not have any requirements to cast -- all results are determined strictly based on the net hits (once Essence loss thresholds are accounted for). Therefore, in *my* game, I base the drain off of the net hits assigned to heal damage.

The example that came up in our first session was as follows - a character got hit for 9 points and the mage tried to heal. He had 6 successes on his magic test (which was reduced to 5 as that is the max allowable as his Magic is only at 5). He used all 5 successes to reduce the wound. Does this make the drain 7 (damage value -2) and require a time for permancy (sustaining the spell) of 14 combat turns?

In this case (in my game), the spell would heal 5 damage, the drain would be 3S, and the time for making the healing permanent being 6 turns.

(As an aside: the limit to the amount of successes that you can get on a Spellcasting check is equal to the Force of the spell, *not* your Magic attribute; to make things easier, the rules assume that mages always cast spells whose Force equals their Magic, but a mage willing to resist physical damage is more than welcome to cast any Force up to twice their Magic rating.)

OR as was suggested by one of the other players could he take his 5 successes use three of them to reduce the wound by 3 and 2 of them to reduce the time down to 1. In this case drain would also be 1 as wound value would be 3 and drain value would then be 3 - 2 or 1

Thanks in advance for any help

In *my* game (based on my reading of the spell), the mage would heal 3 damage, which would be 1S drain, and a base time of 2 turns (2 x Drain Value) to make permanent...reduced to 0 turns by the 2 hits assigned to reducing the sustaining time.