[SR3] Heal Spell Options

[Acenoid]

Hello!

If a character casts a heal spell on himself and is not happy with the result, is he allowed to drop the spell and cast it again, hoping for a better result?
I ruled that the spell may be re-cast as often as he like, but result in terms of damage boxes healed cannot be better than in the first attempt.

What's your input, or is there a specific rule I missed maybe?

[freudqo]

In BBB p. 178, it's clear that the spell is effective while sustained before it becomes permanent. So technically, you're healed while the spell is sustained. If you drop the spell, your wounds reappear. And since you cannot get healed twice for the same set of injuries, I'd rule you can't drop and recast.

[Kren Cooper]

I would agree - one attempt only on the healing. It doesn't finish and grant the boxes until the end of the sustain period (making the caster vulnerable and needing protection), but it counts as the "you can only heal a wound once" from the start of the casting. Otherwise, it devalues re-rolls, and robs a lot of dramatic tension from the process.

What's that Mr Street Sam? You're stuffed full of cyber and bioware, have no essence, and we're in a gunfight and you're on a nasty wound - and my target number to heal you is 16s? I'll just cast, see that I've only got 1, decide not to sustain it, drain the spell, then recast, over and over again, until the dice roll nicely and I get a bunch of successes....

I'd much prefer to have the caster blowing re-rolls, sinking karma in, and struggling to get the number and getting one or two successes and not a big handful, and having a load of dramatic tension and fear on the characters part over if they're going to survive.

If you don't get *any* successes on the casting, then drain, and you can cast again though... obviously any expendable foci are burnt, so you'd need new ones of course...

[Acenoid]

thanks! Good advice. Will do it like that and allow only recast if nothing was healed.