Mending a Broken Bone

[altpersona]

uhg, three demerits for Sneer.


hey remember that time that our shadowcraft mage used a first level illusion to summon a 300% real solar. but before the solar could act the bard had diplomancied the ancient half troll half demon red dragon into being bff's.

hey remember that time we saw that kobald buy a candle of invocation, we were like dude, wtf are you gonna do with that? you sold all your stuff for a stupid candle? and five minutes later he was a greater god! whoa

hey meber that time i made lighting appear out of nowhere and strike the target i wanted, that was cool.

reality is for some other system, dnd has magic. magic hates reality.

[zugschef]

@SneeR
talking about realism or even semi-realism in this context is kind of ridiculous. for me it makes no sense at all to treat injuries that way (unless you houserule a thousand other things, first of all magic, as well), but of course, everybody must play the game he/she likes...

[Bozwevial]

And yet it makes no sense that a spell capable of healing complex tissue damage and even brain damage cannot mend a bone. Seriously, Mending is a cantrip and does the same thing, it's not a complex task.

Besides, semi-realistic rules are all well and good, but who's the person who is most likely to rack up a broken bone? The melee combatant. Who's the person who is least likely to have the skills or resources to treat a broken bone? Same person. Who suffers the most if you make Cure spells unable to mend broken bones? It's not the healer, I can tell you that.

Now, if you want to maintain some realism while not totally boning the fighter (ahaha), you could rule that you have to heal at least as much damage as the injury that broke the bone dealt before it mends. That way jumping off a building delivers a significant injury (which can be fixed with powerful magic quickly, weaker magic slowly, or natural healing even more slowly), but you don't have to call in the high priest when little Johnny breaks his arm falling out of the apple tree in Old Man Jenkins' yard.^*

*Of course, that fall could very well kill little Johnny under normal D&D rules, but if you're going for a semi-realistic setting you've probably got this covered as well.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

As always, I just steal Aquerra's rules if I want something like that.

[RealMarkP]

I'm thinking of asking the DM to allow me to do some complex surgery. If he house ruled broken bones, I'm going to ask him if I can cut open his arms and legs, down to the bone, and fire off as many heal spells that I can use, and then fix up his wounds using more cure spells. I will ask him if during the procedure, he would bleed uncontrollably, which then I can use some spells to counter that. Similarly for the pain, there are a few spells that help with that.

Since he shoved us into a realistic situation, I'm going to try to convince him of a realistic resolution. I just hope my Heal skill check (+22) will give me enough insight into how surgery is performed. I might put a bunch of points into Profession(Surgeon) next level, if this realism continues.

[Bloody Initiate]

I learned how to set broken bones in Boy Scouts. Your DM's an ass.

EDIT: I agree with other people, bedrest. That's what I learned in Boy Scouts.*

Also your surgery idea sounds horrible, no offense, but if I had broken bones there's no way I'd let you pull that shit on me. I'd defend myself with the sharp edges of my broken bones.

*This is included as further mockery of breaking a tank's bones.

[SneeR]

That solution is hardcore! I wish my players did more things like that.

Have a problem? Cut it to the bone and torch it with healing spells!

[Bloody Initiate]

This wouldn't have been a problem if that tank had been drinking his milk.

[Solo]

I just hope my Heal skill check (+22) will give me enough insight into how surgery is performed.

A 6th level human expert will have a heal check of about 20 if he's geared exclusively for it. This is basically the most brilliant surgeon that would be around us in real life, ie Gregory House.

[archangel.arcanis]

Has anyone mentioned punching the DM in the nose and asking if a cure spell would probably help with that yet? Seriously if he goes off script to break a bone he should be sensible enough to not demand RAW that the spell would fix it. This DM seems to be on a power trip or is so stupid the dog looks like Steven Hawking next to them, either way they probably shouldn't be allowed to DM for a while, at least not by themselves.

[Bloody Initiate]

While it is easy and often entertaining to just hate on the DM, I've seen plenty of decent DMs make similar mistakes. They don't know all the rules and they don't know broken bones don't exist in D&D. It's the same stupid line of thinking that created all the rules for re-attaching limbs when there are no rules for severing them, only it's the DM doing it not the designers.

The DM in question probably had no clue that there were no spells that mend broken limbs before he decided to crunch up the tank, however he should have taken a hint when he realized that he was deciding to crunch the tank and that he had absolutely nothing telling him how or whether he could do that.

Inform the DM of his failure ("There are no rules for broken limbs, you should not have decided to break the players limbs without any support for it in the rules if you were going to decide to make us follow the rules you so gleefully ignored.") and then inform the DM that your +22 Heal check is more than adequate to properly set the bones (It is, see Solo's post, although House is one of the lamest characters I've ever seen), finally, take the bed rest and let the campaign fester. Sometimes you have to carve off a chunk of your own fun in order for people to realize that they've hacked a bigger chunk off already. It'll also show team support for the tank (Always nice to see your group gives a shit about you, although VoP sounds like a lousy tank)

If your DM is the type that thinks the gross shit in the Book of Vile Darkness is the best work WotC has ever done, slap him with your dick hard enough to remove teeth, drop all the books in the world on his head, and exit that clown house.

[Solo]

(It is, see Solo's post, although House is one of the lamest characters I've ever seen)

Its not House's fault he's got a bad leg.

[Bloody Initiate]

(It is, see Solo's post, although House is one of the lamest characters I've ever seen)

Its not House's fault he's got a bad leg.

If only his DM had read the rules...

[altpersona]

1 demerit for me for not also citing the house cat vs lvl 1 pc scenario

[veekie]

One important thing to note, disregarding the realism argument for now. The party is not Hercules and Friends.
The party has capabilities equivalent to Hercules traveling with Merlin, Jesus and Loki at once. So yes, Hercules would be able to survive getting stomped like that, Jesus would heal him and then he'd go back in to sneak attack the bastard with Loki while Merlin rains down fireballs. That's playing as the designers intended, not even playing as optimised.

I'm thinking of asking the DM to allow me to do some complex surgery. If he house ruled broken bones, I'm going to ask him if I can cut open his arms and legs, down to the bone, and fire off as many heal spells that I can use, and then fix up his wounds using more cure spells. I will ask him if during the procedure, he would bleed uncontrollably, which then I can use some spells to counter that. Similarly for the pain, there are a few spells that help with that.

Since he shoved us into a realistic situation, I'm going to try to convince him of a realistic resolution. I just hope my Heal skill check (+22) will give me enough insight into how surgery is performed. I might put a bunch of points into Profession(Surgeon) next level, if this realism continues.

That is hardcore, awesome, and makes up for all the bad if it works.

[altpersona]

i dont think its hercules and friends, i think it was jason and friends, herc was one of the friends.. it was jasons boat, right?

[veekie]

Jason ain't tough enough to handle solo adventuring.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Jason ain't tough enough to handle solo adventuring.

He soloed Freddy, didn't he?

[altpersona]

half zombie vs ghost, should not be a fair fight.

[bkdubs123]

This wouldn't have been a problem if that tank had been drinking his milk.

Fact. I've been athletically active since I could pick up a stick and fight stuff and I've never broken a bone.