I’m drawing the attention of the community on this question about clerics (or whatever) casting several cure spells in a row.
I’m drawing the attention of the community on this question about clerics (or whatever) casting several cure spells…
I’m drawing the attention of the community on this question about clerics (or whatever) casting several cure spells…
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So what exactly is the problem? What do you need to deal with?
This would be my question too. Maybe it’s the right time to ask questions?
Yeah, what could I do do deal with it? Isn’t it bad for the fiction?
Why would it be? Maybe it’s showing what is special about a class? (Or whatever the name of the move is)
First step: Ask questions.
Cleric, what happens when you heal? What’s the sound? Are you praying or chanting? Is there a light? Does it smell like incense or frankincense? What happens to the blood that’s already spilled? If you’re curing a poison, what happens? Is it vomited up?
Everybody not being healed, what are you doing? Standing around staring at the miracle? Waiting in line for your turn? Standing guard? Looking around? Cool, roll Discern Realities (let’s find out if you’re being watched while you heal).
If any of these offers a golden opportunity, then take it — not to be a jerk, but because its a golden opportunity. It doesn’t have to be dealing harm, duh. Make it something like “you see goblin shadows on the walls; they’re in the caves and they’re coming to investigate the chanting/light/whatever.”
Maybe when someone Spouts Lore, you take the chance to tell the cleric that these goblins are known for dragging off clerics and finding ways to steal their healing for themselves. Not to be a jerk — but a golden opportunity is your turn to talk and make things true and exciting.
Or, just let them heal until they roll a miss. What’s the big deal? Or: suggest that if they’re spending THAT long healing, they’re actually Making Camp.
Just some ideas.
Daniele – in what way?
Was this during a stressful moment, or in ‘downtime?’
I’ve actively discouraged overuse of healing abilities during ‘downtime’ with the simple expedient of asking the players why they’re not just taking a rest instead – it’s more effective, requires less die rolling, and is indicative of all of those actions taking place anyway as part of the rest period. However, if a rest is not viable, due to, say, the proximity of enemies or something neat and fictional going on… why is it a problem?
It was in downtime.
Ugh. Yeah. I’d just suggest to your players that they take a ‘rest’, and use that move. If they’ve got enough time to throw a bunch of spells – which is the old-school, mechanical way – then I’d suggest they simply handle it via the rest mechanic/move.
but then you need to consume rations and maybe you don’T want to do that…
Tim – if your players are in a situation where they have downtime, and are resting/healing/fixing things, then they’re activating the Make Camp move. The move has a consequence of ‘consumes a ration’ in addition to the positive benefits.
As a GM, I’d point out that one of the cardinals of DW is, simply, that moves are a two way street: you have to have the fiction to make a move, and the fiction can also force an appropriate move as well.
I’m not a DW designer, but, seriously – it’s not like old-fashioned D&D. A cleric casting a spell should be fictionally miraculous. It should be an event – something worthy of a lingering cut in a movie. If my players insisted on avoiding the consequence of losing a ration would have to accept the potential consequences of vend-a-healing during downtime.
kinda because it’S not that simple.Book advice:
Whenever you stop to catch your breath for more than an hour or so, you’ve probably made camp.
Right.
So what we want to avoid is the vendahealing – where the cleric casts some spells, loses access to the spell, then meditates it back up again.
If he’s just casting once or twice? That’s not an issue – especially if it’s in among the bad guys. If the expectation is ‘I can heal, get the spell back if I flub, and I’m good’ … well. That’s another problem.
I think, as a GM, I’d draw the line at that – if you are going to meditate, this graduates to Make Camp. Otherwise, you carry consequences forward to the next part of the story.
Edit: and I just realized this thread is from last year February. Apologies, was searching for something cleric related.
My group doesn’t have a problem with this. I let them cast any time they feel like it. They often choose not to, because of the chance of failure. On a failed spell casting roll, something bad WILL happen. They know from experience that it is a lot safer to rest if they can.
Some example fails might include “something is tampering with your connection to the divine, corrupting it, the wound tears further open, and your target howls in pain” that sort of thing would be an extreme example, but you see how it goes. I don’t recommend being that extreme every time, but make consequences. Maybe there is a huge flash of divine light that attracts nearby enemies. The powerful pulse of divine energy attracts demons and other enemies of the gods.
There are so many ways to deal with this problem without forcing the party to use the Make Camp move.
Mike Wice, thank you for sharing your experience with us. I asked this question more than a year ago and now I realize how it was silly, but at that time it was a serious problem to me.