Heal Spell Drain Value Options

[LukeZ]

Sorry for the noob question, but how is the Drain Value for the Heal Spell calulated?

[Doc Chase]

IIRC, resist the damage you're healing -2, so...If you're healing 4P then it's resisting 2, then sustain it.

[LukeZ]

IIRC, resist the damage you're healing -2, so...If you're healing 4P then it's resisting 2, then sustain it.

So if the target has take 10 Stun Damage and 12 Physical Damage the Drain would be 20 (22-2)?

[Doc Chase]

Just physical, and it's based off the hits of the Spellcasting test.

You've got Magic 6, Sorcery 5 say, so that's 11 dice. We'll go without fetishes 'n foci for a second. You get...oh, say five hits.

Means you can heal 5 Physical from your mook, and you resist 3 Drain, and lose - I think - 5 Combat Turns to sustain by touch until the spell takes.

You'll want to use First Aid to bleed off the Stun before you use Heal to bleed off the Physical. Heal can only ever be used once for that set of injuries.

[Summerstorm]

Magic can not heal stun damage. Only physical counts. Only physical gets healed.

EDIT: Dang...

[LukeZ]

Just physical, and it's based off the hits of the Spellcasting test.

You've got Magic 6, Sorcery 5 say, so that's 11 dice. We'll go without fetishes 'n foci for a second. You get...oh, say five hits.

Means you can heal 5 Physical from your mook, and you resist 3 Drain, and lose - I think - 5 Combat Turns to sustain by touch until the spell takes.

You'll want to use First Aid to bleed off the Stun before you use Heal to bleed off the Physical. Heal can only ever be used once for that set of injuries.

Ah ok!
(I think it should be 6 combat Turns to sustain because it's double the Drain Value)

Thank you!

[Doc Chase]

Ah ok!
(I think it should be 6 combat Turns to sustain because it's double the Drain Value)

Thank you!

There you are - I never used Heal inside combat, so I'm shaky on sustaining rolls. Hope that helps!

[Abstruse]

Always use skill/medkit first for healing, then use magic. It'll reduce drain and it's the only way to get a second check on healing a wound.

[Zolhex]

If your wanting to play a full on healer you play a magic character with first aid & medicine.

First you first aid

Then you heal magic

then if you have the time needed you use medicine

You get to heal one set of injuries 3 times.

[Summerstorm]

But that isn't really neccessary. All characters in SR4 are regenerators. I have not seen applied medicine in my group even though we have someone have a decent skill in it. People just sleep things off on the couch and are back to normal a day after. *g*

[TommyTwoToes]

We always read the drain value for heal was the total physical damage on the character, not just the damage healed.

[Doc Chase]

We always read the drain value for heal was the total physical damage on the character, not just the damage healed.

Could be. Book says it's Damage Value -2, so I always went with what successes were healed.

[Dakka Dakka]

Just physical, and it's based off the hits of the Spellcasting test.

You've got Magic 6, Sorcery 5 say, so that's 11 dice. We'll go without fetishes 'n foci for a second. You get...oh, say five hits.

Means you can heal 5 Physical from your mook, and you resist 3 Drain, and lose - I think - 5 Combat Turns to sustain by touch until the spell takes.

Nope, the drain is based of the damage the patient had before the healing attempt. The healer has to sustain the spell for 2*drain value combat turns. Instead of reducing physical damage hits can be used to reduce the sustaining time by 1 combat turn per hit.

You'll want to use First Aid to bleed off the Stun before you use Heal to bleed off the Physical. Heal can only ever be used once for that set of injuries.

You'll generally want to use first aid before magic, because it cannot be used after the patient has been healed magically.

[Abschalten]

Just chiming in to say that to initiate the spell, you must touch the target. After you get the spell going, you can sustain it without needing to have your hands on them. All Health spells work that way. (Otherwise the more offensively-aligned Decrease (Attribute) spells, and the ability to cast Improved Reflexes on a buddy is sorta stupid and pointless.)

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

We always read the drain value for heal was the total physical damage on the character, not just the damage healed.

We do it this way as well... Could be read either way though...

[tagz]

I personally prefer having it deal the amount healed -2 rather then amount of damage taken -2. Mostly as it means you can select a lower Force Heal to control how much potential drain you could take by capping the max number of hits. It seems silly to me that casting the spell at Force 6 would create the same drain as casting it at Force 1, making it mechanically pointless to cast it at anything other then at your magic score or twice your magic score if you decided to take it in physical damage from overcasting.

[Abschalten]

We do it this way as well... Could be read either way though...

I used to do it that way, but it totally disincentivizes a magician healing a buddy that's on death's door. "You're dying? Fuck that, I don't wanna join you!"

[Mordinvan]

Magic can not heal stun damage. Only physical counts. Only physical gets healed.

EDIT: Dang...

Actually in 4th ed, there is nothing forbidding magic from healing stun.

[Summerstorm]

Actually in 4th ed, there is nothing forbidding magic from healing stun.

AHA... finaly i can prove something wrong. (ah sorry about that *g*)

SR20A Core, Page 207 Description of Health spells:

"No techniques currently known to magic can erase Stun damage or cure psychological conditions"

A bit further up it is stated what magic can do... only physical damage is mentioned. Stun cannot be cured.

[Mordinvan]

AHA... finaly i can prove something wrong. (ah sorry about that *g*)

SR20A Core, Page 207 Description of Health spells:

"No techniques currently known to magic can erase Stun damage or cure psychological conditions"

A bit further up it is stated what magic can do... only physical damage is mentioned. Stun cannot be cured.

It says its not presently being done, not it is unable to be done. I know a bit a splitting hairs, but speaking with the dev's a while about the actual differences (physiological) between stun and physical injuries, it was noted that there is no symptom of a stun injury which is not present in more profound detail and extent in a physical injury.

[Dakka Dakka]

It says its not presently being done, not it is unable to be done. I know a bit a splitting hairs, but speaking with the dev's a while about the actual differences (physiological) between stun and physical injuries, it was noted that there is no symptom of a stun injury which is not present in more profound detail and extent in a physical injury.

I could have sworn, that Street Magic says it's impossible, but I can't find it now.

[IKerensky]

We played it at Damage healed -2 wich is unsatisfying because it usually result in no-very low drain. I think Damage to be Healed -2 sound far better, will used it now.

[Ranarion]

You can Heal Stun Damage by Magic, it takes a while, and you must be an Adept, but then, there is a power for that.

[Mordinvan]

I could have sworn, that Street Magic says it's impossible, but I can't find it now.

I know it was impossible in atleast 3rd, and took the issue up with a dev about 4th, they pointed the rules didn't 'forbid' it, but simply say no one was doing it yet.

[Dakka Dakka]

Cool. I'll add that to my list of spells to make, right next to the Undetectable spell (Improved Invisibility for all senses). Too bad drain can't be healed as of SR4A.