Eberron House Question

[NecessaryWeevil]

My Mark of Healing character is offended by the idea of charging for healing. What, if anything, would be the consequence if he said, "I'm going to heal whoever needs me, whenever I can"?

[nickl_2000]

I would imagine that you would become an Excoriate.

Excoriate. When a dragonmarked heir defies their house, they may be cut off from it. In the past, your mark would be flayed from your body. Although this mutilation is no longer practiced, such exiles are still called excoriates. If you’re an excoriate, consider what you did to deserve this punishment. Were you a criminal? A charlatan? Or perhaps a sage who engaged in forbidden research?


This has some good stuff in there as well.

https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Excoriate

[Evaar]

The position of House Jorasco is that maintaining the requirement of charging for healing ensures the house continues to survive and, because the existence of the House means people receive healing, is a net good.

Basically, House insiders would see you as threatening the security of the House. They might reprimand and try to educate you to persuade you, but if you keep doing it they may very well make you an excoriate as described above.

Jorasco wants to ensure that it receives compensation for its services so it can continue to offer its services; if it gives in to pressures to deliver its services for free then that's a slippery slope to financial ruin for the House and the cessation of any advances in the healing arts. Beyond them needing to eat and live somewhere too, spell components aren't free.

One could argue the various Kingdoms could enter into contracts with the House such that its citizens receive healing services for free and in exchange the House would be allowed to use a tract of land, seek reimbursement for costs incurred, and additionally receive a stipend to ensure its members individually have compensation for the use of their talents. But, you know. They don't. Because of taxes or something. I'll stop writing now. Fantasy worlds require unsolved problems, or else the characters don't have anything to do.

[Bobthewizard]

I think you'd need to keep this secret and your character would know that. If you were a part of the House and then became vocal about this, I suspect Jorasco would see you as a threat, trying to undermine their pricing. They might actively try to stop you. You and your DM can work that out however you want, but I don't advise openly antagonizing any of the Houses without talking to your DM first.

[NecessaryWeevil]

Very helpful responses. Thanks all.

[Nifft]

Eberron is enough of an interconnected economy that suddenly doing a formerly-expensive service for free is a sure sign that you're trying to put someone out of business -- presumably because you want to take over that business in that area.

IRL that's "Dumping (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy))" and there are laws about it, since monopolists use that tactic to remove competition locally, before increasing prices.


Put a face on the local business which the PC is disrupting. Have the local healer representative come by, hat in hand, begging the PC not to take away his livelihood -- since House Jorasco could do so if it wished, it's a big monopolist and has big corporate power -- begging the PC to come to terms which will allow him to stay in business.

House Jorasco might not appreciate the negative publicity of its favored member shamelessly price-dumping. ("If you wish to do such things, you will do them discreetly, and only after you've been granted permission by the House.")

[NecessaryWeevil]

Put a face on the local business which the PC is disrupting. Have the local healer representative come by, hat in hand, begging the PC not to take away his livelihood -- since House Jorasco could do so if it wished, it's a big monopolist and has big corporate power -- begging the PC to come to terms which will allow him to stay in business.

House Jorasco might not appreciate the negative publicity of its favored member shamelessly price-dumping. ("If you wish to do such things, you will do them discreetly, and only after you've been granted permission by the House.")

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something about Eberron - isn't Jorasco already the only game in town?

[Nifft]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something about Eberron - isn't Jorasco already the only game in town?

Clerics, Druids, Adepts, and so on do also exist.

Also, if your PC is more blessed or favored than whoever is in charge of the local Jorasco enclave, then you'd be price-dumping against your own House.

The point is you're harming someone's business. Put a face on that someone.

[RedMage125]

OP, you've gotten a lot of good responses. But as far as canon, there's also a lot of Jorasco heirs who are genuinely selfless and enjoy helping others. Your one-man-crusade to pass out healing won't impact the House's coffers significantly. If you want an answer that doesn't make your character at odds with his House, it could be possible that the House views your...aberrant ideas on charging money for healing to be odd, but still something the House can profit from.

That profit being...Public Relations. With you out there giving "free samples" of the kind of healing miracles that the House sells, you are basically a walking advertisement for the House's capabilities. For example, you guys visit Thaliost, and you pass out a bunch of free healing to lower-class individuals who otherwise could not afford it. Well, after you leave Thaliost, those people who got healed (or heard about your deeds) know that House Jorasco provides quality healing. And even though "free heals guy" isn't there anymore, they know that they will be getting a high-quality service.

But adventuring Jorasco heirs aren't required to charge their companions. It's not like you're obliged to be a "healing vending machine" that must take payment. But I assume you meant healing NPCs and such.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something about Eberron - isn't Jorasco already the only game in town?

Clerics, Druids, Adepts, and so on do also exist.

While Clerics, Druids, Adepts and Gleaners (like Adepts, but connected to druid traditions) are able to heal, you don't go to an NPC cleric and offer to treat the miracles of their faith like a commodity. Adventuring Clerics and Druids can and probably will heal their allies, but they don't sell those services.

For the purposes of "people that everyone expects to go to for healing/medical care" Jorasco is certainly the biggest and best "game in town". And for magical healing, they kind of are the "only game in town".

But an army might have medical corpsmen of any race, or there might be a bonesetter/apothecary/herbalist in a small town who can provide nonmagical healing. These people may or may not be Jorasco-trained. Going off what 3.5e sources said for Houses like Cannith and Ghallanda, a non-Jorasco doctor might have a silver blink dog emblem on their business, to demonstrate that they recieved their training and medical certification by Jorasco. Which means they provide Jorasco-quality nonmagic healing. A business run by a Jorasco heir (especially a dragonmarked one) might have a gold blink dog emblem.



Proclaiming something "objectively" true or false does not excuse you from proving it so.

I know this was your signature, and not your post, but I like it. I have to make this exact point to a lot of people more often than I wish were true.

[Dr.Samurai]

My Mark of Healing character is offended by the idea of charging for healing. What, if anything, would be the consequence if he said, "I'm going to heal whoever needs me, whenever I can"?
Immediately? He will be out of healing spells all the time.

Less immediately, it really depends. Redmage gave a very thorough answer. The idea is that one halfling isn't going to impact the bottom line of House Jorasco that much.

I had much the same thought that Redmage did insofar as your character could be good PR for the house. However, you specifically note that your character is offended at the idea of charging for House services.

Your character healing without payment will not run the House out of business or make them try to take you down. But if you go around criticizing the House for charging people while also freely healing people, now you're giving them a bad name. That's a different story. It all depends on how the DM wants to handle this. They may put pressure on your character to do what he wants but stop criticizing the House. It kind of depends on what the DM does with your character's actions. Really though, the major power players want Jorasco's services, so they will not be moved by a single upstart heir.

Likely, there are very little consequences.

[Inqy]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something about Eberron - isn't Jorasco already the only game in town?

Sort of. House Jorasco runs the healers guild and has an effective monopoly on magical healing, but that doesn't mean that every individual apothecary, midwife or barber-surgeon is a family member. There's still a market, it's just one where House Jorasco runs all the professional associations, owns all the best magical equipment and who sets guild rates etc. So a Jorasco scion who is undercutting local healers is very likely undercutting someone who pays dues to the House.

Although as other people have said, giving out Cure Wounds for free isn't likely to impact the local economy in any meaningful way, as the kind of injuries represented in the game by hitpoint damage aren't really the sort of thing that comprises the majority of a healers work. Lesser Restoration is a *far* more important tool in the typical village healer's arsenal. (Or arguably Goodberry, which can effectively feed a family for free.)

[Evaar]

Sort of. House Jorasco runs the healers guild and has an effective monopoly on magical healing, but that doesn't mean that every individual apothecary, midwife or barber-surgeon is a family member. There's still a market, it's just one where House Jorasco runs all the professional associations, owns all the best magical equipment and who sets guild rates etc. So a Jorasco scion who is undercutting local healers is very likely undercutting someone who pays dues to the House.

And just for a little more context, someone offering healing services who isn't a member of the Healers' Guild would likely be seen like an unlicensed doctor. You don't exactly know what you're getting there. Maybe it's a deal, maybe it's a scam.

[NecessaryWeevil]

I know this was your signature, and not your post, but I like it. I have to make this exact point to a lot of people more often than I wish were true.

Oh! Thanks!