ICRPG MAGIC and Healing vs. COST

icrpg-magic

#1

So this is a pretty straightforward question, but I’m wondering what some of you have done with healing/ the ICRPG MAGIC ruleset. For a magic user to cast a healing spell, they need to pay a COST. but the effect is that they will heal, which kind of negates the ‘cost’ of a spell. This is amplified when the player can simply cast the spell at POWER 4 and heal that much more. It seems quite an easy way to heal A LOT without having to worry about spell usage, and easy to take advantage of.

I am thinking of restricting using healing spells to only heal others, but that doesn’t seem like a solution and I don’t want to restrict usage like that anyways. Does anyone have a more elegant solution to this?


#2

This is my 2 Swedish kronor;

It’s up to you as a GM to put the pressure on the healer and the rest of the group.

Oh no you only have 1 HP left little wizard? Good luck.

Also if the caster is only spamming heal spell after heal spell tell him he has a major magraine for using the same brain-muscle over and over again.

Also they have to Roll to Cast so it’s not as if they’ll succeed every time!
And POWER 4 is alot of Cost.


#3

It is not a problem to begin with.

In theory, healing spells seem to negate the COST of casting spells but healing yourself to cast more spells introduces a huge delay and the caster goes out of actions for a while. Like @GMagnus said, spells need casting attempts and a spellcaster will fail at least some of them.

Long story short, a caster which has access to healing can keep himself alive longer and in theory can cast more but this will take a long time and most casters will learn this lesson quickly. In my experience what they usually do is they go nova in the beginning of an encounter (meaning they cast and cast until they are near death) and then they stop outputting damage. Then they try to heal themselves and everyone else, which takes time, usually multiple rounds.

As a GM, this is easy to predict and therefore easy to counter.


#4

Like others have said…it’s a non-issue. Unless they (the PC magic user/healer) are packing 30 or more HP. Then combats take too long and healing will only add to that.

With 10 HP…getting killed is easy, with 20…pretty hard to get killed in one hit…at 30 there is nothing but a plot point that will take you down in one round, probably 3 rounds with the creature doing 2d8 damage or something.

Healing is choosing between offense and defensive action…if the defensive action does not ensure my surviving the round…I’d probably try to kill the attackers…at 30 or more HP healing starts to ensure survival.

Combat tuning in ICRPG is kind of hard… you are mostly at the mercy of the dice…what players breeze through last game, kills them in a round this game.
Yes, not one player rolling over a 6 for 3 rounds happens…but the risk of death makes it fun! So you let it go where it goes.


#5

TRUE, I always forget how much TIMERS change the dynamic of gameplay. But what if we are in HOURS, or right after a fight? Actually, how should casting in general be handled in HOURS?

My initial thought is to not make them roll to succeed, because over the course of an hour they should definitely be able to cast that spell. Basically ritual casting.

The scenario I keep on thinking of is “Okay, the fights over. I’m at 5 hp, but i’m gonna cast CURE at power level 4, paying 4 hp to gain 4d8.” (GM moves to hours: “Cleric, what are you doing this turn?” “I’m going to spend my time going around the campfire and healing everyone!”

Both mechanically and strategically, I wouldn’t know how to handle this. In D&D 5e the spell slots provide an easy answer to this (one of the few times I’ve ever praised spell slots) but I can’t keep the pressure on the players during such a short downtime. Saying he can only cast the spell once in HOURS feels like a copout too, as the spell usually (game world) takes about 6 seconds to cast.

The CORE rules say over HOURS in a safe space, you can heal 1 HEART without rolling. I like this, and with magical healing in play feel it should be amplified. Though having the whole party completely heal in between every encounter seems a little too generous.

What about using a ‘Ritual casting’ rule where you don’t pay the COST for a spell, but seeing as you are casting ‘slowly but surely’ you roll not for success, but level of success?

i.e my mage wants to spend the next hour around the fire casting ‘Locate’. She doesn’t roll to cast, but lets say (for simplicity’s sake) she rolls a d4 to see how effective the spell is. (say she gets a 3) Then she can choose to either cast the spell at POWER level 3, or cast it three separate times.

Using the same rules, that same cleric can cast ‘CURE’. He doesn’t pay a cost, but rolls a d4 to see the power or number of times he successfully casts it.


#6

What are you trying to convey? If low magic and gritty, then healing is an issue, but if casting level 3 or 4 spells, in my game it would like this…

hour 1 “ healer, are you healing everyone?..give me a roll and don’t roll a 1…Great everyone is fully healed except Baker who took a spear through the arm, he’s at half health but can’t use that arm…you can fix him next round unless you want to do something different”

And that’s only if everyone was hurt…if only minor injuries…I’d ask them want else they where doing this round assuming everyone is healed.

Unless you are adding hard choices (a or b, life or death, hero or zero) to the game, don’t make it about annoying choices, and crappy rolls.

If you need it to be a plot point, add an ingredient needed per heal,
In an hour they can heal 200 hearts of damage but are exhausted, and magical creatures will notice such an expression of power…possibly come to investigate?

You could say those being healed this way need to rest…but they don’t in combat??? Or that they need to eat???

If concerned about having a resource lever to grind down the characters…it’s a different question. Make your combats more deadly, attack the healer, get your players rolling that death die!!!

Hunt the PCs, exhaust them, have them fear timers. Have effects that make all spell casting Hard until a good rest. Or nearly impossible.

Broken bones, blinded, feverish, poisoned, can’t focus, sore toothache, migraine headache…possibilities are endless!!!

Again, not an issue unless your PCs are running with 3+ hearts. At 3+ you need to start getting creative. And I suggest maxing it out, depending on role. But a guardian type with high armor, high con and 4 hearts…gosh but that just makes for long combats…add a couple of healers, and your just used up 2 hours with no changes.

Depending on game type, 2 hearts should be the normal max. Add temporary HP for big battles, or start nova strikes on PCs ( bad guys focus fire on one PC, so you do about 50 points of damage to one PC in one round.
“Kill the Mage first” should be normal reaction among intelligent and coordinated opponents.

Anyway I hope that helps, Getting your mind around a different but similar game, can be hard. Subtle differences get ignored but can make a big difference.

I heal A…I heal B…I heal A…rinse and repeat might be that you are not bringing the pain…make combat filled with choices.


#7

Whether you are in HOURS or some other time frame doesn’t matter.

If you are in HOURS, then everyone gets a SINGLE ATTEMPT per HOUR just like they get a single ATTEMPT per ROUND. Only the time frame itself is different; everything else stays the same. Therefore your cleric cannot heal everyone around a campfire, that is unless they have multiple HOURS to rest. If something like this happens, I let them get automatically healed anyway under most circumstances.

Let me rephrase this. In HOURS timeframe saying “I want to heal everyone one by one during this hour” is the same thing as saying “I want to heal everyone one by one this TURN” during combat. Ridiculous, no?

Let them roll for a single heal SPELL, or make them succeed automatically, or whatever you think is right. If your players are the rules-lawyery type and want to know the rules beforehand, tell them this when they enter a new area. “This filthy swamp is unexpectedly peaceful so when you are resting, your spellcasting attempts will automatically be successful.”

Yes, I can hear your players’ objections: “But this is stupid! It doesn’t make sense!”

I agree.

To make this less metagame-y, I maintain that combat, or anything done with ROUNDS time frame to be precise, is filled with adrenaline so anyone can ATTEMPT to cast a SPELL each ROUND. This is also the default rule. However in normal circumstances, which is any time frame longer than ROUNDS, casters cannot push themselves that hard or there will be consequences. This can be SPELLBURN for 1D4 HOURS or other nasty stuff they can’t even imagine.

Magic is borderline dangerous; it is not like a shovel in the backpack. If you start to abuse it, it will abuse you back.

Obviously how you want to handle these things is entirely up to you. Try different things and see which one you and your players like. Also remember that a timeframe can be anything you want. You are not limited to HOURS or DAYS. I sometimes use MINUTES, sometimes 10 MINS, sometimes 2 HOURS etc. It entirely depends on the story, the mood and the task in hand.

This is the beauty of ICRPG. You can mold and shape it to whatever you like.