So, I picked up Street Magic today, and it talks about allowing mages to heal drain as a way of making the game less gritty. Now, I was unaware of a specific rule against this, other than the rule that says you can't use the heal spell to heal stun damage.
I have a mage in my game who routinely overcasts so he can then heal his drain damage. I've been allowing this because, to my knowledge, that's the letter of the law. Was I mistaken, or what?
Full Version: Healing Drain?
That rule is nowhere that I can find 
strange, i could have sworn that when SR4 was new, people talked about you now being able to heal drain just as easy as any other damage.
That's what I thought. It's a cheesy thing for him to do, but it's legal. And it can bite you if you aren't careful.
| QUOTE (hobgoblin) |
| strange, i could have sworn that when SR4 was new, people talked about you now being able to heal drain just as easy as any other damage. |
I'm pretty sure Street Magic was referring to normal drain, which is stun, and thus not heal-able. Physical wounds from overcasting drain would still be heal-able, at least from my reading of the rules.
The issue of healing Magical Drain was overlooked in the basic book and will be addressed in the FAQ. The effects of Magical Drain will not be possible to heal by any magical means. Street Magic already takes this correction into account with a Tweaking the Rules option.
| QUOTE (JonathanC) |
| I have a mage in my game who routinely overcasts so he can then heal his drain damage. I've been allowing this because, to my knowledge, that's the letter of the law. Was I mistaken, or what? |
You're not doing it "wrong" for what it's worth
. You're just doing it differently.
| QUOTE (Synner @ Aug 30 2006, 07:19 AM) |
| The issue of healing Magical Drain was overlooked in the basic book and will be addressed in the FAQ. The effects of Magical Drain will not be possible to heal by any magical means. Street Magic already takes this correction into account with a Tweaking the Rules option. |
So..even the physical damage caused by overcasting? Well, that actually makes a lot of sense to me; healing your magical drain, even if it is physical only, seems a lot like patching a bullet wound by shooting yourself. As it is now, though, you can pretty much cast infinitely if you overcast, assuming you've got a decent magic rating and the heal spell.
Which is precisely why it shouldn't work that way. 
Your mages know what they're doing is wrong. They just don't want to admit it.
Your mages know what they're doing is wrong. They just don't want to admit it.
Naah. They probably don't know it's wrong (it's in the rules, after all), but they should suspect there's something suspect there 
.
A lot of people already seem to use it as houserule. Myself, I don't, because my players haven't tried it yet.
.A lot of people already seem to use it as houserule. Myself, I don't, because my players haven't tried it yet.
| QUOTE (Synner) |
| The issue of healing Magical Drain was overlooked in the basic book and will be addressed in the FAQ. The effects of Magical Drain will not be possible to heal by any magical means. Street Magic already takes this correction into account with a Tweaking the Rules option. |
ah, the faq. allso known as the draft for SR4 companion
When can we expect to see the FAQ available?
| QUOTE (JonathanC) |
| When can we expect to see the FAQ available? |
HA!
i believe this link should provide you with all the answers you need, Jonathan.
The other SM rule that implicitly says physical damage drain cannot be healed is that for the Sacrifice blood metamagic on pg. 139. Only if normal physical drain is unhealable through magical means does the option to inflict Sacrifice damage on yourself for drain reduction makes sense. That you can heal magically.
so does this only apply to the heal spell or to all forms of healing (i.e. can first aid heal physical drain?)
| QUOTE (fool) |
| so does this only apply to the heal spell or to all forms of healing (i.e. can first aid heal physical drain?) |
Gotta be just magical means of Healing. I guess Awakened Aspirin is good for the soul, not just the body.
| QUOTE (fool) |
| so does this only apply to the heal spell or to all forms of healing (i.e. can first aid heal physical drain?) |
Hell, if I remember correctly (and I may not), First Aid will heal Stun Damage ... even that taken due to Drain.
| QUOTE (JonathanC @ Aug 30 2006, 03:54 PM) | ||
So..even the physical damage caused by overcasting? Well, that actually makes a lot of sense to me; healing your magical drain, even if it is physical only, seems a lot like patching a bullet wound by shooting yourself. As it is now, though, you can pretty much cast infinitely if you overcast, assuming you've got a decent magic rating and the heal spell. |
Don't forget that the Physical damage is going to make casting harder in two ways:
1) There is a -1 dice pool modifier for every three boxes of damage;
2) The DV for the heal spell is (Damage Value - 2).
If the mage takes 3 boxes of damage, she is -1 dice to heal and has to resist 1 drain.
If the mage takes 6 boxes of damage, she is -2 dice and has to resist 4.
If the mage takes 9 boxes of damage, she is -3 dice and has to resist 7.
| QUOTE (JonathanC) |
| When can we expect to see the FAQ available? |
Adam is on record as "before Christmas". I'm not sure he was bold enough to stipulate before this Christmas. I do know that Synner and Bull have been working on some prelim stuff for it.
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