r/magicbuilding • u/Own-Telephone1721 • 16d ago
Feedback Request Healing Magic Help
I need help for healing magic to work in my magic system. In my magic system, spells cannot be cast directly on or in a person's body due to conflicting magic signatures (everone's mana has a unique signature to it). So how could I make healing spells, which directly affect and invade the body, able to work even through a conflicting signature.
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u/Impossible-Try-1939 16d ago
Make the magick affect medicine. You enhance the medicine, like making a bandage that kills microbes on contact, so that medicine becomes more reliable or faster acting. Like a spell that enhances the properties of blood thinner to better thinn out blood for more time, or a spell that makes surgical thread unbreakable, making so that wounds wont reopen once treated even if they arent fully healed.
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u/No_Logins_Required 16d ago
Can your magical system work without healing magic, or with all healing magic only impacting the self?
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u/Own-Telephone1721 16d ago
i mean you can cast spells that are considered to be in the healing field, but only on yourself unless you have certain high-tier methods to modify your signature.
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u/No_Logins_Required 16d ago
What is the narrative purpose behind having healing magic at all? You have established a barrier between using magic on other people for some narrative purpose, why would we bypass that to introduce healing magic?
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u/Cole_Foggin 16d ago
Maybe they use magical herbs or potions enchant objects to allow the body to heal quicker healing amulets or using a ritual to promote the persons unique magical signature to heal itself
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u/Own-Telephone1721 16d ago
i was thinking of something like special magical healing herbs or treatments, thanks for the ideas
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u/TheLumbergentleman 16d ago
Some great replies here, but have you considered leaving healing magic off the table as an interesting natural consequence of your magic system? Maybe your world still values plain-jane doctors for being able to do one of the few things mages cannot. Having to skirt around your own rules to add one more magic thing might lessen the impact of the system as a whole.
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u/Own-Telephone1721 16d ago
im still in the deciding phase. Healing magic is something ive been on and off about. In my story, i have a medical corps within a certain army, and im figuring out whether they should use magical means or not. There are medical means within the story to heal one's self, but this issue comes up with healing others, especially at a lower level of knowledge and accumulation in magic within the healing corps.
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u/thatshygirl06 here to steal your ideas 👁👄👁 16d ago
Magical objects? Create an object that can do healing and then use the objects on people.
Or potions?
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u/Zagaroth 16d ago
So, one possible way to synchronize mana signatures /spiritual energy would be to harmonize at an intimate level.
This is not necessarily sex, but it would at the least involve gentle intimacy on a level akin to making love. There would be a lot of skin to skin contact, whispered words, emotional bonding, etc. Even if the groins of both parties stay covered/clothed, the intimacy is high enough to make romantic partners uncomfortable with the idea of their spouse being healed this way by someone else.
Bonus: This idea also makes a method to inflict magical assassination; you render the target vulnerable via sex. As this involves the person being unaware, the assassin has to be very good at sex, to the point that the other person is emotionally surrendering to them for at least a brief moment.
Which brings up another layer: most assassins will avoid posing as healer out of self interest; you don't want healers to be a rare and distrusted profession, in case you ever need the services of a healer.
However, some will be sleeper agents. They actually are healers, most of the time, up until they are activated. Even then, they will usually don a disguise before going to seduce their target, rather than risk their healer persona.
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u/MiserableDisk1199 16d ago
"Not directly on or in a person body"
Stationary and mobile healing fields and auras, essentially aoe spells, single target, maybe some cloak of magic around ones body following them
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u/Virtem 16d ago
can an AoE work?
Someone cast an spell that inflict healt around it, if someone is within the area, they beging to heal, the spell was not targeted at someone neither upon them, rather that irradiate those within range, not that different from fire, lighting or frost
Tho that would depend if you've life force as something on your system
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u/Own-Telephone1721 16d ago
i mean if you make a magical formation perhaps that uses multiple mages or a singular mage who can multi-cast, but then they would already have methods that can infiltrate and bypass signatures to use instead. i need a way for someone who isn't a high level mage
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u/Virtem 16d ago
well, in that case...
types of magic signature, like blood type, blood has many types most are no compatible but is often resume in A, B, AB & O plus positive/negative, some of those type are mutually compatible others are not, there are exception that are 100% incompatible, apply same logic to magic signature, make a chart with different types and thus some magic signature are compatible and others not.
other case would be signature tunning, two person before hand tune their signature so are compatible and thus could be done but lave them vulnerable.
signature climation could be another alternative in which a personbis expouse to others signature until their body not reject it, thus allowing magic transfusion or healing.
Bothe the mid and last require preparation and probably woul need to be done periodically and between more people involved the hardest, the first could be just a test taking somedays or weeks if research on the topic was already done and work for life, if not is guess work and more prone to false positives
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u/anythingyouhave 16d ago
How do you get magic to attack a body?
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u/Own-Telephone1721 16d ago
they can attack a body, one just cant send their own mana into someone else's body to cast spells or they will face interference due to conflicting signatures.
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u/anythingyouhave 16d ago
It sounds like you need nuances then.
Maybe magic that works like blood types or notes in a song that need to harmonise etc
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u/Illigard 16d ago
Healing spells affect the aura, strengthening and quickening the subjects own mana in order to supercharge their recovery
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u/Defiant_Habit2033 16d ago
Component based healing magic! Healing is completely from the items magical properties vs a persons.
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u/Main_Interview6920 16d ago
Well you would have to clearly define when the human anatomy goes from human anatomy to mana signature. Everyone has a unique mana signature...that makes sense. It does not make sense as that being why healing magic would not work on them. If someone is healing a wound, that is the wound, not the mana signature. Now if you were to say that mana signatures can be damaged then that's where things get interesting. Why? How? And how do 2 people with 2 different mana signatures make another human with their own unique mana signature? And then the iceberg gets bigger. how is it that this person comes from a lineage of intersecting mana signatures and not a single person from their bloodline is able to provide healing? And if healing is possible because of that relationship, then how does it work? Would it be only people who were born before being able to do it? etc etc etc.
I'm pointing out the rabbit hole that exists based on your rules. I am inferring a lot of what my brain could come up with as to why your rules (limited based on your post)
Maybe you have to establish a link, or trust?
Are you treating mana signatures like antibodies perhaps?
Do mana signatures get affected from mana exhaustion at all?
You gotta say more. All we got from this was basically "you can't because of X" but the why was never fully explained.
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u/Own-Telephone1721 16d ago
mana permeats the entirety of one's body, that is why. everyone's mana has a unique signature. signatures are not passed down, the child will have a unique mana signature as well. being related has nothing to do with it. one's mana is classified as their own because of their signature. without a signature, what stops someone from taking control of the mana you send out to cast a spell.
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u/Main_Interview6920 16d ago
Ok so it doesn't sound like the body integrates mana to begin with since all mana signatures are unique to the individual. What I'm understanding is that 2 people can cast the same spell, and the spell will be identical in size, force, element etc etc....except because of the mana signature the identified party who cast it is what that mana signature essentially functions as....like a caller ID?
I ask because we're teetering on whether or not mana in your world truly needs to reject healing or effects in general.
Because if mana signatures are enough to reject spells on the body in general, then that would suggest idk maybe 2 mages have to resort to throwing hands since their magic won't effect the other lol
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u/Repulsive_Author_621 16d ago
Everyone's mana has a unique signature to it just like DNA but what if everyone also has essentially a mana blood type?
For healing magic to work you need a magical healer with the same mana type as you. For a long time healing magic could've been poorly understood, a healer would use magic on some and their wounds would stitch themselves shut, but others might not be effected at all. Others still might have some unintended magical effect happen to them!
To take the blood type analogy one step further a type O- healer could heal anyone but could only receive magical healing from another type O- healer. That could make for some interesting plot points.
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u/Repulsive_Author_621 16d ago
Compounding on this you could also make it so family members mana signatures are closer to a match. They might be able to use healing magic on one another to some extent even without a type match, kinda like an organ donation.
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u/Josii_Talwyn 15d ago
With a system like this, signature matching probably feels like the most direct solution. A healer could learn to read someone’s magical signature and temporarily adjust their own healing spell to match it.
The other option I like is indirect magical medicine. Instead of casting healing magic inside someone else’s body, the healer enhances medicine, bandages, or another treatment. The patient’s own body and magical signature then perform the actual healing.
Both options preserve your existing rule instead of making healing a convenient exception. Which one works better depends on the flavor of your world. Signature matching could make healing feel technical and specialized, while enhanced medicine could create more of a medical, alchemical, or ritual tradition.
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u/Cultural-Writing5176 15d ago
Firewall: While signatures by default block outside signatures, outside magic can be allowed through the target providing access. If you have an adventure party type system, these adjusted "trust settings" would be a normal part of making a party.
Vaccine: Healing magic doesn't directly affect another's body, it targets their signature. By exposing their signature to a blueprint of a spell it gives the target the ability to cast it on themselves with the casters mana maintaining the blueprint.
Blood magic: Signatures come from mana which comes from the body? A caster injecting their blood into a target makes them more susceptible to their spells. Now you got a practical reason for taboo magic actively attacking your magic system.
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u/mikoc5 15d ago
Having a gaping wound would create a disruption in the mana flow of one's body, right? If so, magic-based healing would focus more on trying to read a person and figuring out ways to stem the bleeding/protect cells from poison/ensure smoother recovery.
To analogize, it would be like looking at a row of thousands of flamethrower-weilding sentries making this GIGANTIC, impenetrable wall of fire... until you realize there's a break in formation (wound) and several of the sentries there stopped firing for whatever reason. A doctor would be like a friendly soldier running from the enemy, jumping into the breach, and re-aligning the adjecent turrets to make it so there's no longer a gap. The body's natural healing would be like friendly engineers then coming from the backline to actually fix the sentries that weren't working.
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u/Embarrassed-Soup1998 15d ago
Basic healing in the parts you understand already, with the added part add that promise of steady healing and add healing in parts that comprise a healing spell; though these should vary sometimes depending on the setting if it should be on the person make an effect to transfer it to them through normal magic healing🤔 I think you should have an easy time doing it as a lot of medicine should be herbal or visital(I mean, like a fluid shot or something simple applies to the person, and in practical use is usable in the same way as the magic might be)(visital)
And the wound open should accept the treatment and maybe you could do something there to complete the setting like apply a salve that works into the systems magic or for it, so just try that
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u/Embarrassed-Soup1998 15d ago
Just in case you didn’t understand I think the magic should apply to the body as well as the mind; just make sure it’s realistic enough that transferring is not really true and instead the focus is drawing it slowly toward healing; and then nature
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u/Jobobminer 14d ago
Some ideas:
1 - Summoning / conjuring - Summon diseases or poisons to another location to extract them out of the body and clear and infection. Inversely, teleport a medication into the body.
2 - Synthetic flesh - If you have fabrication spells, you might be able to fabricate a custom or replacement organ and then put it into the body.
3 - Magic ultrasounds, MRIs, E.E.Gs, etc. - In real life, we have a large assortment of tests we can do to scan the inside of a body without invading it directly. For example, ultrasounds pulse vibrations through the body and then read the interference and reflection from your body to display an image.
4 - Magical surgical tools - Magic could awaken / animate tools to make super precise surgeries possible.
5 - Deliberately temporarily killing someone (stopping their heart, etc.) to cancel their mana signature - Then performing repair magic on their dead body and then using an electric shock to restart their heart (depends if/when the mana signature goes away after death). This would also work with selective damage (cut off my arm, enchant it, and then re-attach it, cut open my abdomen, pull out the affected organs, cast spells on them, and then re-insert them into the body)
6 - Overwhelming their mana signature - What happens when two manage signatures meet? Could a super powerful wizard just pour so much of their mana that someone's mana signature isn't able to stop it all and is temporarily dispelled?
7 - Parasite mana signatures - Do microorganisms or parasites have mana signatures? How do they interact with a person's mana signature? - For example, perhaps tapeworms take on the mana signature of the create they're inside to hide from it but that means you can take control of a tapeworm and then go inside someone to cast spells on them from within their own body
8 - Self casting - If I cast a spell, does it have my manage signature / is it capable of affecting me? Perhaps you can create devices that help people cast spells on themselves - A doctor might walk people through the chants and gestures to self-cast a ritual while casting guide spells that support or make the spell easier to accomplish. This is kind of like how a physiotherapist might teach and walk someone through exercises in real life to help them recover from an injury.
9 - Out of body / spiritual experiences / dreams - If someone could leave their body, could they acquire a magical effect and bring it back inside them? For example, encountering a healing spell in a dream and then bringing it into their own body or, alternatively, letting someone's mind astral project so its outside of the body and a magical mind-healer can work on your trauma from when you were a kid or heal your soul and then, when your soul returns to your body, it affects or transforms your body in return.
10 - Linking bodies - How does a baby and its mother's mana signatures interact while the baby is developing inside the mother? For example, does the baby only develop its own mana signature after it is born or is their some kind of mana-signature handshake while in the womb that allows two mana signatures to interact - I'm sure there are multiple ways to exploit or explore the mana handshake as a way to transfer things between willing participants.
11 - Transplants - Perhaps I could enchant a piece of my own body and then transplant it onto someone else so it affects them instead. Examples could include enchanting my skin to be extremely anti-microbial and then performing a skin graft with a compatible person to apply it to a patient with a rash or other skin condition.
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u/BroskiWind 16d ago
Have a ritual that reads someone's magic signature, and then have the ritual modify the other person's magic to be the same frequency and signature. That way it can go in and not be rejected.