Waaaay back when I was playing 1st ed., one issue of Dragon featured an article on non-magical healing. The premise was that a half-dead fighter stumbled across an old woman's cottage and collapsed in her herb garden. He gasped out that their cleric had been killed in the first rush, so he had no way to heal himself. She proceeded to take care of him and teach him first aid and wound care without magic - using wine or vinegar to sterilize bandages, using moss to soak up blood, etc.
I'd love to see a re-print of that article or a re-write of it.
I'd love to see a re-print of that article or a re-write of it.
In 3rd edition terms, we're partially talking about the flavor/fluff associated with a heal check.
Back when I was playing 1st edition in the 70s, our characters were big consumers of "Belladona" which, in our campaign, would heal perhaps 1d6 damage.
I love the idea of non-magical, or even magical, herbs and such that have specific healing properties.
I sent in an article query about Alchemical First Aid - these are the kind of things I want to cover. :-D Because it always sucks when the healer gets whacked.
Back when I was playing 1st edition in the 70s, our characters were big consumers of "Belladona" which, in our campaign, would heal perhaps 1d6 damage.
while I like the idea of non-magical forms of healing, via herbs and such, I find the idea of a character eating a poisonious plant to regain HP a bit odd.
hmm yeah, that is fairly suspect. ;)
if i can recall, this article used herbs and plants to make salves and or patses that could be used under bandages and such
kind of like neosporin or bactine for DnD
it was also done in one of the Best of Dragon books many yrs ago
Agreeing on the "fluff on a heal check" comment.
As it stands, with complete bed rest and a non-magical healer, the average PC goes from death's door to completely healed in 1 to 3 days, depending on character class and constitution bonus. I'd say that speed is already sufficiently heroic without adding a die or two of regained HP for this herb or that. It's also scales better as the PCs go up in levels. Getting a bonus d3 HP back for an herb is handy when you're low level, but at mid-levels and above it just one more thing to bog the game down without much effect.
I do remember the article you're referencing. I loved that one. What might work better for putting it in a 3.5 context would be writing the herbal concoctions up in a manner similar to the alchemical gewgaws in Complete Adventurer, with attention to the ones that do things other than simply restore HP. At that point you have to watch out for making things that could be interpreted as drug references, though.
That was a great article.
If a commoner has three hps and they are stabbed for two, that would be like you or me taking a dagger to the gut. You make me any kinda moss salad you want, I'm not going to work the next day. Herbs might cause wounds to heal more quickly and infection free, but regaining actual hit points, like a heal potion, would seem to me to be quite the plant.
I would require a mini quest to attain such a wondrous herb, like the poison cure in Crouching Weasel, Hidden Rooster. Perhaps something that only grows in a remote and dangerous place, or a special plant harvested by a secret religious order that demands blood sacrifice or a hill of silver in trade.
I too wanted nonmagical methods of healing faster than what's presented in the PH, so I wrote a low-magic healing feat for my book The New Argonauts. It's online as a preview for the book:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/skrg/free/002TNA/featpreview.html
As the preview notes, there's a followup feat to this one that allows for greater effects, like curing poison and disease.
I remember that article; it's good for very low-level parties, particularly ones without much in the way of clerical powers. The main things it did...
1. Allowing a second save vs. poison or disease, not necessarily with any bonus
2. A little healing (like, a d2)
3. Another hit point or two per day of natural healing depending on whether you got bed rest, tending by a healer, or both
So, as people have said, Healing skill with fluff. The party pretty much abandoned it by 3rd level, and this was in 1st edition, when the clerics weren't going to get another healing spell until 7th. The party had good enough saves that poison & disease weren't a problem, unless they were lethal, in which case the healer didn't have a chance to whip up a batch of chamomile tea or rub some aloe on the wound, and if the fighter's down 20 hp, adding one more because you didn't let him get up in the middle of the night to go fight the wandering monster doesn't help the guy that got mauled by said monster much.
I'm busy tonight, but I'll see if I can dig it up tomorrow and scan it for usefulness.
MERP and ROlemaster had a very extensive system of herbs for different forms of healing...from hit point healing to complete organ regeneration. Granted we're talking a game with critical hit charts that actually decribe getting your spleen ripped out. While I think these herbs would be severely overpowering as they stand now, I think it is a really good idea, and yet another use for the Survival skill....foraging.
I had a character in a MUD several years back that spent most of his time foraging for herbs. Healing others was quite a lucrative business, but the issue was when you healed another, you took the wounds on yourself, so you needed to heal the wounds. Herbs were a great aid in that way.