[Exalted 2nd ed] in-combat healing

[JeenLeen]

From reading the Solar Charms, it looks like in-combat healing is impossible and, even with houserules, hard. Could experienced players let me know if I'm right?

Wound-Mending Care Technique causes you to heal at the end of the day, not at the end of the one-hour surgery (correct me if I'm wrong, please). But assuming that it is house-ruled to heal HP at the end of the Charm, it still takes a lot of Charms to be able to heal correctly.

To do it in one round, you need Flawless Diagnosis Technique as a pre-req to get Instant Treatment Methodology.
To do healing without tools, that is, without sheathing your weapons only to have to re-draw them again and thereby lowering your DV/action economy, you need Contagion-Curing Touch. Also, for most of these, you need an Excellency.
So that's 5 Charms, or 4 if you don't care about needing medical tools. And since the Charms don't innately modify Instant Treatment Methodology (or at least I think they don't; one says something about that Charm counting as a dramatic action or something like that for it, but I don't know what that means), it looks you like you also need to build a somewhat expensive Combo.

Is that reading of the Charms correct? If yes, are there any common houserules? I've recommended to our DM that he let us apply Contagion-Curing Touch and Instant Treatment Methodology for free (or just with paying the extra motes) when 'casting' Wound-Mending Care Technique.

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On a related note, are there common healing Charms for spirits or other Exalts with less pre-reqs? I'm playing an Eclipse, so those are open to me, if the DM lets me encounter and ally/trade with the right spirit. (My mentor is a somewhat connected member of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy who also knows at least one Gold Faction Sidereal, though, so I have some contacts.)

[Tome]

Exalted does not generally do combat time healing. Get that paradigm out of your head straight away. The game does not expect there to be a healer in the circle and no one should feel compelled to try and do so.

A Solar with Medicine charms is not a D&D cleric. He's a doctor, albeit a superhumanly skilled one, not a magic healbot. Healing someone's wounds instantly is a big gorram deal.

That said, there are a few ways to heal in combat time.
Martial Arts. The Art of Victorious Concession, a celestial martial art built on the principles of compassion and found in the Scroll Of The Monk - The Imperfect Lotus, is probably the most reliable and accessible method for combat healing via ancient mystical kung-fu punching.

Spirits. Certain spirits may possess a version of the charm Touch of Grace capable of restoring HLs. Spirit charms generally have significant limitations based on the spirit though.

Sidereals. The capstone of the Sidereal Archery tree is Many Missiles Bow Technique, which allows you to use anything, even abstract concepts such as health, as ammunition.

Certain rare medicines and drugs can restore health levels, though these are in almost all cases both incredibly rare and only work once in a given time period.

Raksha. Yes, they can do it. Expect meschlum to pop in shortly to explain how all your problems can be solved with the correct bit of faerie magic.

A few other options exist for self healing.

[TheCountAlucard]

Meschlum's technique usually involves treating the obviously-magical Celestial Wine as a non-magical substance to be replicated endlessly via an Outward-Facing Oneiromancy.

[SaurOps]

Q: How do I heal in combat?
A: Be a Lunar, Alchemical or Infernal.

Wound-Mending Care was given errata so that it recovers health at the end of the treatment rather than the end of the day, but the cost of using all the Charms to instantly heal someone means that healing in combat should only be done by someone helping in a fight, and only if an opponent is distracted. It also might not heal all of the damage suffered. So really, this is an option that isn't.

Lunars get to be an exception to this due to Lernean Hydra-ing it up with Bruise-Relief Technique and Halting the Scarlet Flow. Alchemicals get a self-repair Charm with more demanding mins. Infernals can dive deeply into the Whispering Flame Charms and get cost-per-level healing almost as good as the Lunars get.

[Friv]

There is a spirit Charm that allows for instant healing, at Essence 2. It has limits, though, and frankly it's a little bit hax, so your ST may rightfully disallow it.

Specifically, the Charm Touch of Grace allows you to spend 3 motes per lethal or 1 mote per bashing, plus 1 Willpower, to heal health levels. You can't spend more than (Essence or Compassion, whichever is lower) x3 motes, and if you can't heal your target completely the Charm doesn't work, so you're going to be limited to 3-health injuries for a while.

The catch is, normally Touch of Grace is an Essence 4 Charm. The dolphin gods of the West, however, are Essence 2, and have the Charm, so you could learn their version at Essence 2 (note that usually, this Charm also allows a bunch of other healing options, which the dolphin gods don't get; on the flip side, they have no extra weaknesses using it). Chief Storms-As-He-Walks, a typical thunderbird war chief, also has it at Essence 3, with the same limits.

[golentan]

Spirit charm rules are less rules than guidelines, and less guidelines than placeholder text.

[Dazhbug]

As has been stated, Exalted really doesn't do combat healing; the game revolves much more around "not getting hit in the first place", either by applying parry/dodge or managing to soak all the damage. I'd give the Exalted Combat 201 (http://www.bazzalisk.org/exalted/201X.pdf) a read-through to get a feel for how combat tends to go. Long story short, if they're actually hitting your health levels, you're about to have a really bad day.

Typically, STs grant some number of Ox-Body charms or extra health levels as insurance against bad luck or sudden ambushes from just killing off a character. There's also a reason that a lot of players quickly grab a perfect defense of some sort.

[meschlum]

Meschlum's technique usually involves treating the obviously-magical Celestial Wine as a non-magical substance to be replicated endlessly via an Outward-Facing Oneiromancy.

Well, yes. Because it works by the book and is far less broken than using other other minor magical trinkets that cost fewer resources.

Anyway, this sounds like a challenge!

Pin of Invulnerability

Named by a somewhat deceptive Raksha, the Pin does not convey invulnerability per se, though it certainly serves to reduce most wounds until they are no more than pinpricks to whoever holds it. Initially meant to assist the Fair Folk in negotiations with the Earth Hedgehog Spiny Norman, it has been lost to antiquity and the foibles of the mortal world. If discovered again, a prospective owner merely needs to sing the Hdgehog Song in a well populated pub, with an offering of dreams and liquor, and the Pin will serve again.

Mechanics
1-dot Oneiromancy
Assumption of Earth Form - it's a stone pin, or possibly a giant hedgehog quill.
Hedgehog Transformation - when the person wearing the Pin is hit, they grow to gigantic size and take on hedgehog traits, reducing the severity of any wounds and causing them to shrink (relatively) so the owner can function as though unharmed. Unfortunately, the size of the wound is not reduced once the effects of the Pin fade, so it's best to tend to them while they're minute.
World Angering Earth Mastery - the shape imposed by the Pin is infused with earth essence, making it even harder to actually hurt the bearer. Chipping off pieces of supernatural stone quills that heal at once will usually do that.
Sovereign Water Shape - the Pin also makes it easier to heal its bearer, though this effect will not stack well with Charms.

The Transformation applies one or more levels of Gargantuan, increasing Stamina (for slightly better soak) and adding a pile of health levels for semi-healing.
The Earth Mastery is (debatably) applied to the damage roll, pre-emptively healing some of the inflicted wounds. It could instead be (entirely legally) applied to attack rolls, thus possibly cancelling an attack completely.
The Water Shape is just a dice adder, constanly granting 3 Charm dice to healing attempts.


But that's a but slow and not really healing per se. Time to raise the level of lunacy and see what happens.

Ring of Healing Shards

Once, a great Unshaped was broken, fragmented into tiny morsels of chaos for the amusement of the lords of Creation. It sought to remake itself and regain the nothingness that it had been, but Creation's cruel laws prevented it. Instead, the Wyld shards took on lives of their own, seeking to rejoin others and reflecting all That Is, showing What Is Not in their depths. When the Raksha find such tortured thing, they bind it into a Ring and offer it to the Creation-born, that they might try to understand what it is they have lost.

A Ring functions by displaying an image of a slightly different Creation, in which the wearer is healthy and other features are likewise improved. When this depiction of What Should Be is altered by Creation's cruelty, the image within the Ring rises to replace its wounded bearer, while the reflection is damaged in its stead. This healing can fail when a blow strikes precisely enough to obscure the Ring's reflection of its wearer, but this is not a simple deed. Immaculates claim that this is a clear case of possession, and that any who wear a Ring overlong will no longer be who they were - but this is, at the very least, a lie. For one who wears a Ring is more themself than ever before, not other. When sorely pressed, wearing more than one RIng is recommended, so that each truer version of Creation can recover from the harm done in this inferior one.

Mechanics
1-dot Behemoth
Assumption of the Person's Heart - the Ring becomes a part of its wearer
Assumption of Dreams and Passion - when callnig forth its image, the Ring creates a better copy of its bearer than the original.
Assumption of Bestial Form - one of the copy's brief improvements is that it is significantly larger than its wearer, and so harder to hurt.
Opalescent Gossamer Raiment - the Ring's image is very hard to harm
Surpassing Excellence - and it is very good at interposing itself between its wearer and incoming strikes

This (ab)uses the Shield Another rules, by replacing you when you are hit, taking a lot of the damage, and then switching you back so you're much less hurt than you were instants ago. It could also possibly swap you out and walk around as you, while you are an immaterial presence nearby, but that's rude. Ideally, the Ring isn't even yours, but the property of a high Essence Raksha, so the image can benefit from massive size boosts. Of course, the image gets an automatic success at being you (which you don't), so that's a nice touch.

If you use a more powerful Behemoth, you can stack the size boosts significantly, gaining more health levels that way, and explore other neat options. Or just use a real Warrior Fair Folk instead, and it can start flickering in to 'heal' you from unblockable attacks too.


Again, not quite healing, though the special effects certainly look that way. Time to remove all the limiters.

Restoration Cloak

Sometimes the Creation-born won't let a peaceful Raksha take a break and recover from their realm's constant unjustified hostility. A consortium of Fair Folk, decrying this poor state fo affairs, set out to recruit amenable dreamers who wished for a better past and established the infrastructure necessary to support the Cloaks, much the way dragon lines sustain Creation's manses. On its own, a Restoration Cloak is merely a well cut garment of iridescent fabric, albeit one with an odd property - when the hood is drawn up and the Cloak fully covers its wearer, it collapses to the ground leaving no one behind.

Often, the original wearer will eventually re-emerge, though others can pick up (and even put on) the Cloak in the interim, to be potentially affected as well. However, when the Cloak is fully empowered, this return is extremely rapid, and the proper wearer returns fully healed and brimming with essence, while others are far more likely to vanish forever. The effects of a fully empowered Cloak can be terrifying, as the wearer can use it to 'disappear' opponents as well as to recover from injury and exhaustion.

Mechanics
1-dot Chancel
The mode of operation is as described, so it typically takes a few scenes to return from the Cloak's interior, assuming the inhabitants allow you to. When a Cloak is fully activated, it is linked to a Raksha Temporal Manipulation Device, allowing any amount of time to pass within the Cloak while single actions take place outside. You then use that time (and standard healing and mote recovery methods) to prepare for your return. Enemies don't get those benefits, and can even be allowed to die of old age (if non Exalted - Exalts are discarded Very Far Away instead, or eaten.).

[Dazhbug]

Restoration Cloak

<Description of Said Cloak>


So it's a Bag of Devouring that someone made into a garment, is what you're saying? Good gods, that's terrifying.

[Tengu_temp]

The most common form of in-combat healing in Exalted is self-regeneration. There's artifact power armor and other items and charms that let you regenerate bashing damage, for a start. Combine those with something that converts lethal damage to bashing and you can just keep on regenerating from everything.