Clerics of Zon-Kuthon and healing.

[BlueMagnusStormCrow]

Are healing spells anathema to clerics of Zon-Kuthon?

Their anathema in the gods section says that provide comfort
to those who suffer is anathema. Healing somebodies wounds is
removing their suffering so it seems like it might be forbidden.
The same with helping to remove a damaging persistent condition
from somebody.

[Garretmander]

Just insult them while you do it and you should be golden.

[Lanathar]

I'd definitely say Medicine skill is a no

Healing spells is a trickier area. Removing damage is not the same as suffering I would say. HP is an abstraction after all

Now a persistent condition could be more of an anathema

But isn't the point of ZK worship to suffer but be alive to suffer (and woship though it). So dying doesn't help. At least that lets yourself off the hook I would think

But perhaps a party should be worried if their planned main source of healing is a priest of ZK. Questions would need to be asked!

[James Jacobs]

You can provide healing and medicine to someone without providing comfort. It's all about bedside manner.

[Quandary]

Bedside manner, LOL. "Sure I can heal you, don't mind this crippled condition, I think it's kind of fun."

Yeah, at most I could see argument they shouldn't heal them to FULL.
But if healing was really verboten, then Zon-Kuthon wouldn't grant it in first place.
(not as Divine Font, but still on spell list)
Really there is questions on how to apply it, even outside of healing.
What about setting up a camp to get proper rest? What about Foraging for Food?

[Reziburno25]

I could easily see Cleric of Zon-Kuthon healing someone who near death just to then inflict pain, heal a great tool to keeping your artwork alive.

While Shelynites pratice drawing and pottery Kuronites use live models as their art pieces.

[James Jacobs]

And remember, anathemas, more so than edicts, are really left for GMs to adjudicate, or to inspire players of those characters. They're not contractually bound laws that you have to pedantically follow.

[Arachnofiend]

Reziburno25 wrote:

I could easily see Cleric of Zon-Kuthon healing someone who near death just to then inflict pain, heal a great tool to keeping your artwork alive.

I think any interpretation of the anathema that makes this impossible would be a very poor portrayal of Zon-Kuthon.

Golarion is a world where how close you are to death is a relatively easy-to-track number, and medical care for someone who has been brutalized is actually quite effective and cheap; being able to torture someone nearly to death, heal them back up to perfect health, and then torture them nearly to death all over again sounds like a Kuthite's dream.

[Lord Fyre]

Reziburno25 wrote:

I could easily see Cleric of Zon-Kuthon healing someone who near death just to then inflict pain, heal a great tool to keeping your artwork alive.

While Shelynites pratice drawing and pottery Kuronites use live models as their art pieces.

They make art until someone dies.

[Thebazilly]

Lanathar wrote:

I'd definitely say Medicine skill is a no.

Really? Because I was about to make the case for using the Medicine skill.

Putting alcohol-based disinfectant on wounds or applying sutures without anesthetic would be a rather uncomfortable experience. Not to mention things like pushing a broadhead arrow out the other side of your body to remove it. Seems like the kind of things Kuthites would be all over.

Edit: As a follow-up... you could also describe the magical healing a Cleric of Zon-Kuthon provides as painful or unpleasant. There's nothing in the Heal spell that says it has to feel nice. At the very mildest, the annoying itchiness you get from a scabbed-over wound would be plausible. Up to things like broken bones snapping back into place.

[Ventnor]

Obviously, Kuthonites who use medicine don’t use anesthetics and way more stitches than are needed.

And also make you pay through the nose because you don’t have insurance with the church back in Nidal, the most painful cut of all.

[Lanathar]

Thebazilly wrote:

Lanathar wrote:

I'd definitely say Medicine skill is a no.

Really? Because I was about to make the case for using the Medicine skill.

Putting alcohol-based disinfectant on wounds or applying sutures without anesthetic would be a rather uncomfortable experience. Not to mention things like pushing a broadhead arrow out the other side of your body to remove it. Seems like the kind of things Kuthites would be all over.

Edit: As a follow-up... you could also describe the magical healing a Cleric of Zon-Kuthon provides as painful or unpleasant. There's nothing in the Heal spell that says it has to feel nice. At the very mildest, the annoying itchiness you get from a scabbed-over wound would be plausible. Up to things like broken bones snapping back into place.

No - I made a snap judgement without thinking about it. I didn’t even consider how unpleasant old timey medicine could be. My tired brain went to modern medicine which is not what it means at all

[Nyerkh]

Hordes of overzealous kuthites medieval dentists.
(Does Nidal have the best dental of any country ?)

Yeah, kuthite medicine/healing is absolutely a thing. Besides, Nidal still needs to be a functional country, so the people need to be healthy enough to work and pray. They do not however need to enjoy the "care".
Plus you don't want to encourage those crazy disease cultists of Urgathoa or Trelmaryxian.

[Lord Fyre]

Nyerkh wrote:

Hordes of overzealous kuthites medieval dentists.

(Does Nidal have the best dental of any country ?)

Dentist

[PossibleCabbage]

Birth is a curse, and existence is suffering. So in the long run we maximize suffering by prolonging existence as long as possible.