-

How cure magic works	The "other" cures	Deity's discretion	The careful cure shopper	Better than bandages
Dragon 85	-	-	-	Dragon

Cure spells are the most important form
of magic in the AD&D® game universe.
Now, any character who disagrees with that
can hold up his hand, if he has the strength
-- and if he still has a hand.

It's hard to imagine an adventuring
character who has never needed and received
some sort of healing or curing spell.
Many adventurers wouldn't be alive today
but for the grace of a friendly cleric who
literally lent a helping hand at the right
time. That doesn't necessarily make clerics
more important than any other character
class (I won't dare try to tackle that subject),
but it does make clerics and druids
special and distinctive because of their
ability to offset the ravages of damage.
Unfortunately, it's human nature (or
demi-human nature, if you prefer) for
characters and players to take important
things for granted. (Need a cure? Sure!)
And that's not necessarily bad -- for the
sake of the game, things ought to proceed
simply and smoothly. You don't have to
know how a cure spell works in order for
your character to give or receive one. But a
little bit of understanding, served up as a
side dish instead of a main course, may
make the whole concept easier to digest.
And that's what this article is all about --
examining the cure spells so that we can get
a clearer picture of the ideas and forces that
shape the fantasy world that we all spend so
much time in.

How cure magic works
Why does curing and healing magic work
the way it does? If the magical universe is
governed by ?laws of nature? just as the
non-magical universe is, then what are the
processes that influence the operation of the
cure wounds spells, heal, restoration, regenerate,
and their two cousins, cure disease
and cure blindness?
All except the latter two are classified as
necromantic spells. The dictionary defines
?necromancy? as ?conjuration of the spirits
of the dead for the purpose of. . . influencing
the course of events.? In the case of the
necromantic cure spells, ?dead? doesn?t
mean dead bodies, but rather dead parts of
bodies ? as represented (in game terms) by
lost hit points. Maybe there?s some sort of
cosmic ?hit point bank? where lost points
are stored, later to be withdrawn by the
caster of a cure spell and applied to the
recipient. This bank would also include life
energy that could be drawn upon for the
casting of restoration, and energy used by
the regenerate spell for the replenishment
and revival of lost body parts.
When a character or creature takes damage

or dies, his ?life energy? is deposited in
the bank. When someone or something is
cured, healed, or resurrected, the spell
caster (through his magic) makes a withdrawal
from the bank and is able to resupply
the recipient with some of his lost
energy ? or perhaps all of it, up to the
point where the recipient has regained full
strength and health and has reached equilibrium.
When this state of equilibrium is
attained, the recipient can?t gain any more
energy until and unless his level or hit dice
goes up (which is sort of like improving
your credit rating). This is why a cure spell
can never bestow more hit points upon a
recipient than he had to begin with.
The cure light wounds spell description
specifically excludes certain types of creatures
from being affected by the spell (or its
reverse), and the reasons for these exceptions
are fairly easy to fathom. Noncorporeal
creatures can?t be cured of
wounds because they can?t be touched, and
the touch is obviously necessary in order for
the transfer of energy to take place. Creatures
that are already dead can?t be cured
simply because the magic isn?t strong
enough; the energy needed to bring someone
back from death is much more potent
than, and perhaps even different in nature
from, the energy needed to heal a still-living
body.
Creatures that can be harmed only by
iron, silver, and/or magical weapons can?t
be cured because of their magical nature; it
seems that the life energy of magical creatures
is different from the life energy of
normal creatures (such as characters) and
isn?t drawn from the same ?bank.? Obviously,
though, the necromantic cure spells
can offset damage caused by magical means
? what matters is the being that was
wounded, not the way the wounds were
administered.
As the cure spells rise in level, they increase
in the amount of damage and the
type of damage they can negate. The three
cure wounds spells are good against ?normal
? damage. They may also be useful for
certain specific applications; for instance,
cure serious wounds will restore the recipient
?s skin to normal after he has suffered the
?slime attack? of an aboleth?s tentacles.
(And, presumably, cure critical wounds
would work as well.) The heal spell also
fixes disease, blindness, and certain kinds of
mental disorders (such as many types of
insanity, the idiocy that can result from
defeat in psionic combat, and the effects of
spells like feeblemind and forget). The
restoration spell cures "any and all forms of
insanity" (according to the DMG) in addition

to its primary function of restoring
(hence the name) lost life energy levels. The
regenerate spell, although it doesn?t specifically
replenish lost hit points or life energy,
allows the recipient to become whole again
(bringing him closer to his personal state of
equilibrium) by reattaching or regrowing
severed extremities.
One of the biggest differences between
restoration and the lower-level necromantic
cure spells is that restoration can work on a
recipient who has been reduced to a negative
experience-point total, as noted in the
DMG description of the book of exalted
deeds. In contrast, a cure wounds spell
doesn?t have its normal effect on a recipient
with zero or negative hit points; all it can do
is stop the unconscious recipient from losing
any more hit points from the effects of his
present condition. A character who is
brought back from the brink of death by a
cure wounds spell can?t regain any hit
points from cure wounds for at least a week
thereafter ? but a heal spell is powerful
enough to work in its usual manner once
the character regains consciousness.
The point of all that is this: It is certainly
worthwhile for a cure-minded cleric to pray
for the higher-level cure spells (heal, in
particular) when he is eligible to receive
them, because the difference in what they
can do is more than just a difference in
quantity. An 11th-level cleric with a wisdom
of 17 who?s being counted on as the party?s
first-aid kit could carry as many as seven
cure light wounds spells at once (if his deity
will allow it), giving him the ability to heal
a whole lot of hit points ? but he?d be well
advised to pray for heal, too, because it can
do a lot of things besides ?just? restore hit
points, and in some cases that might mean
the difference between life and death.

The "other" cures
Cure blindness and cure disease are
obviously related to the necromantic cure
spells, but they are properly classed as
abjuration magic because of what they do
and how they do it. The word "abjure"
means "reject" or "avoid," so that abjuration
spells are those that allow the beneficiary
to avoid something (as in a protection
spell) or to expel or counteract something,
as in cure disease and cure blindness.
Neither of these latter two spells is used to
make a withdrawal from the ?life energy
bank,? because the effects of blindness and
disease are not defined in concrete terms
that can be equated to hit points and energy
levels. They don?t necessarily heal physical
damage, and this is particularly true of cure blindness: the spell "will not restore lost
visual organs," according to the DMG. A
character whose eyes are injured or lost
would probably need regenerate, heal, or a
cure wounds spell (depending on the severity
of the injury), followed in most cases by
a cure blindness to enable the repaired or
replaced organs to function properly again.

The cure disease spell seems to have
fewer restrictions on its use than cure blindness.
The spell description says it?s good
against ?most diseases? but doesn?t specify
which diseases it can?t cure. Because it?s
only a third-level spell, we can assume it?s
no good against the ?disease? of insanity,
which isn?t curable by anything less than a
heal or restoration. Its use seems to be
limited to physiological diseases rather than
psychological ones, but within that realm,
there?s little that cure disease won?t cure. In
addition to the ?normal? diseases listed in
the DMG, it removes or negates the
disease-causing effects of monsters, with a
few specifically noted exceptions such as the
lignification effect caused by a barkburr and
the fatal disease caused by the touch of the
oinodaemon Anthraxus. Also worth noting
is the fact that cure disease will not restore
ability-score points that were lost from the
effects of a disease; a heal spell may serve to
do this in some cases, or even stronger
magic (like a wish) might be necessary.

Deity's discretion
The DM has a lot of responsibility
when it comes to moderating and
guiding the actions of cleric playercharacters,
because the DM must play the
role of the cleric?s deity. Concerning the
acquisition and use of cure spells, the DM
must deal with two important issues: How
many cure spells can the cleric carry at one
time, and exactly how do those spells work?
The resolutions of both issues are matters of
judgment ? there are not, and shouldn?t
be, any rules to govern the situations.
Technically, a cleric can pray for as many
cure spells, including duplicates, as the
character is entitled to carry based on his
level and his wisdom score. How many he
actually obtains at any given time depends
on the character?s (and player?s) preference,
coupled with the deity?s (DM?s) assessment
of whether his worshiper?s request is reasonable.
A deity whose sphere of influence is
healing and curing will probably give a
cleric as many curative spells as he asks for
-- or more! -- and might even require that
the cleric overload his spell selections with
cures. At the other extreme, a deity who
disdains healing and favors aggressive
action from his worshipers might forbid a
cleric to carry cure spells at all, even if they
were intended for the cleric's personal use.
The DM's judgment might also be tempered
by his foreknowledge of what awaits
the cleric and the cleric's party in the upcoming
adventure: If it?s going to be necessary
for the party to take on one or more
powerful adversaries in combat, the cleric
might be tipped off by getting an abundance
of healing and curing magic. If the
mission is more of a mental exercise than a
physical test, and combat is unlikely or
inadvisable, the cleric might not get all the
cure spells he asks for. The circumstances,
and the DM?s evaluation of them, will
dictate what judgments the deity makes.
Each casting of a cure wounds spell or a
heal spell will enable the recipient to recover
a variable number of lost hit points. Should
the caster or the recipient, or both, be able
to know immediately how many points were
regained? (In other words, who rolls the
dice ? the player of the cleric, or the DM?)
Again, it?s a matter of judgment or circumstance.
In some campaigns, the players
may not be entitled to know exactly how
many hit points their characters have at any

point while the adventure is going on, so
obviously any ?cure rolls? will be made in
secret by the DM. This makes things
tougher on a cleric who?s carrying multiple
cure spells: Will one, or two, be enough, or
should he dash off three or four in rapid-fire
fashion to get the party?s best fighter back to
peak condition? And what if one was
enough after all, meaning that the others
were wasted?
The DM can take a middle-ground approach,
not revealing how many points
were cured until after the player of the cleric
indicates that he won?t use any more cure
spells for the time being. And if the player
then goes back on his word after finding out
that his cure(s) didn?t work as well as he
would have liked, the DM could rule that
any cure cast after that time and before any
party member takes more damage will be
penalized by (for instance) a -1 or -2 modifier
to the die roll for a cure light wounds
spell, so that it might not work at all!

The careful cure shopper
The various curing/healing magics are
among the cleric spells listed in the DMG
with suggested costs to a purchaser for
having them cast by a non-player character
cleric. An examination of the prices reveals
no great surprises, but at least one fact
that?s interesting: If the DM adheres to the
suggested costs, a cure critical wounds spell
is a pretty good bargain compared to cure serious wounds.

There's a substantial difference in the
cost-per-point-cured figures of cure light
wounds and cure serious wounds. The
lower-level spell costs 100 gp and cures 4½
hit points, on the average, for a CPPC of
just over 22 gp. Cure serious wounds costs
350 gp and heals an average of 10 hit points
per casting, or 35 gp per point. But cure
critical wounds can be had for a mere 600
gp, and it heals an average of 16½ points
for a cost of about 36½ gp per point ? not
increasing in cost nearly as much as one
might expect. If a single casting of either
spell is available for the suggested price, a
mid-level character who can afford the more
expensive cure critical wounds should take
it; the difference in price is minimal ? and
compared to the potential benefit, cure
critical might even be a bargain. But if the
same character can line up two castings of
cure serious for 700 gp, then that?s probably
the way to go, assuming that he needs at
least 15 hit points or so to get back to full
strength.

No matter how you look at it, a heal spell
is terribly expensive at 200 gp per hit point
healed. But if one is available, it may be the
only option for a moderately high-level
character if multiple cure wounds spells of
any strength are not also available. Magic
items that cure or heal are generally much
more expensive on a points-healed-per-use
basis, unless a character is somehow able to
pick one up at a fraction of the recommended
gold piece sale value (although
potions of healing and extra-healing would
probably be fairly easy to afford); the big
advantage of magic items, of course, is that
they?re portable and don?t have to be used
right away.

Better than bandages
Magic isn't the only way to heal or cure
characters' ailments; the rules of the
AD&D® game contain several references to
non-magical methods of getting patched up
-- binding wounds and simply resting to
regain lost hit points are two of the more
obvious. In a sophisticated and detailed
campaign, other avenues are open, such as
the use of plants and herbs that help healing
(as desribed in "Wounds and weeds,"
DRAGON® issue #82).
But the game sure wouldn?t be the same
if healing and curing magic didn?t exist:
What character in his right mind would risk
life, limb, and the pursuit of wealthiness
without the opportunity to get promptly
paid back for the hit points he devoted to
the cause? Adventuring would become an
occupation for the cautious, and for those
with more hit points than hairs on their
heads ? and how would someone get that
many hit points without going on frequent
and perilous adventures so as to rise quickly
in experience levels? It is said that the meek
will inherit the earth, and quite possibly
that will happen. But if the meek ever inherit
the AD&D universe, the game will die
a lot sooner than they will.

OUT ON A LIMB
-
Curing a mistake
-
Dear Dragon,
Kim Mohan's article on healing magic (issue
#85) was very interesting and useful; I have,
however, one major disagreement.

The article states that a cure wounds spell
cannot take a character currently at negative hit
points to a positive hit point total. It says that the
victim must rest at least a week for a cure spell to
be able to restore hit points, not just stop their
loss.

That assertion struck me as odd, and so I read
again the appropriate sections in the Players <CHARACTER HIT POINTS>
Handbook and the Dungeon Masters Guide. <HIT POINTS>
was not able to find any clause that prohibited a
cure spell from raising a character's hit point total
to above zero. Cure Wounds spells are truly
useless if a character is dead, but, according to
the DMG, a player character does not die from
wounds until he reaches -10 hit points.

The correct interpretation, rather, is that a cure
spell can indeed restore a character to a positive
hit point total, as long as that character is alive at
the moment the spell is cast. Once restored to a
positive point total, a character is still bound by
the "Zero Hit Points" section of the DMG: he
will be comatose for 1-6 turns and then will be
essentially useless for a week thereafter while
recovering.

Anthony Ragan
Los Angeles, Calif.
(Dragon #87)
 

I'll defer to Anthony's judgment, which is a
fancy way of saying that he's right. I was confused
(although I didn't know it at the time) by
the second paragraph of the "Zero Hit Points"
section on p. 82 of the DMG, and especially the
last sentence of that paragraph, which seemed to
be saying that only a heal spell was any good
when attempting to revive a character with less
than 0 hit points.

I agree with Anthony's correct interpretation,
and I'd go a little farther in explaining it: A
character revived after being at 0 hit points or less
can be the beneficiary of a cure wounds spell (or
more than one) during his recuperation, but he
won't actually receive the hit points gained in this
way until the week of "uselessness" is over. At
the end of that week of rest, the character will
have gained 7 hit points (1 per day, for
resting) and will also get whatever other hit points
were re-bestowed by cure spells. Then the character
is able to resume normal activity. 

-- KM
(Dragon #87)