Why I'm A Combat Healer...

When the view staff asked me to write this article I was like “sure, no problem” because it seemed a simple question to answer, but as I sat down to write, I realized perhaps it was not as simple as it seemed.  The easy answer is….MAGIC!  I mean, what kid that grew up reading Piers Anthony and Lloyd Alexander and Tolkien wouldn’t want to be able to throw balls of magic at people?  But in truth, I think I became a caster simply because it never occurred to me to do anything else.

I came into the Realms with a small group that was led by two experienced players.  I started coming because the person I was dating started playing and if I wanted to see them on the weekends, it was going to be at events.  Being a history buff who had dabbled in the SCA a little in college, I liked the idea of it and being the overachiever that I am, becoming a caster right from the start seemed the logical thing to do.   I mean, fighters can only fight, but casters can fight AND use magic.  Now before you judge that statement, remember, it depicts my thoughts as someone new, coming into the game, with no idea what I was talking about.

Fortunately, even though I didn’t know what I was talking about, it was clearly the right decision since 16 years into my Realms career I am still a caster and I have never been anything else.  You might think that I have remained a caster throughout my time in the Realms because I don’t like to fight or because I am not athletic.  But I was a three sport varsity athlete in high school, taught fitness classes in college, and practice martial arts today.  I was also squired to one of the best fighters in the Realms.  I have remained a caster because what I do and how I play has a place in the game and filling that niche feeds something at the core of who I am.   To understand what that means and what I feel I bring to the game, you need to understand what I mean by “how I play”.

There are lots of different kinds of casters and most of the spell builds I have seen people use over the years provide some kind of benefit to the game.  You have the quest-y mages who can get divine assistance and help figure out how to kill the monster or solve the puzzle.  You have the shady casters, who may seem like they are only in it for themselves, but who provide an important element to the game because without bad guys or shady stuff, everyone is a good guy which is not only not realistic, but also not nearly as fun.  You have the rogues who pair a little magic with a lot more fighting capability and provide a second line of defense between the heroes in the front and the hero support in the back.  You have the back-line hero support crew that is as essential as every front line fighter in chainmail because they are the ones fixing your stuff and keeping you from being dead.

As for me, I am a combat healer, which used to be more common than it seems to be now.  I am the one on my knees behind the front line of fighters on the bridge battle healing limbs, repairing armor, dragging out dead fighters, raising them when it’s necessary, and trying really hard not to get hit in the face with a pike.  I am the one right behind you in the line battle, healing your limb before you finish saying the word “Leg” or “Arm”.  I am the one feeding dead people back to the backline and calling for stronger healers to put up a circle of healing or lay down the rope for a group healing.   I am like mobile hero support.  If the blacksmiths and healers in the back are the field hospital, I am the medic in the midst of the battle.

What my kind of casting brings to the game is crucial, at least in my eyes, and it should be since I devote a lot of time and energy to playing this game.  I think combat healing is critical to the flow of the game as it keeps fights going longer and provides opportunities for more people to fight.  Part of what I do is resource deployment, almost a kind of traffic control.  I help keep holes in the line filled by calling for, or sometimes physically grabbing fighters and stuffing them into it.  I know if the line is going to push forward, to hold, and when it is about to fall which means I can call for reinforcements or get the line to pull back instead of falling.  But most importantly, I keep people alive and fighting and this makes the game more fun for them because no one has fun when they are sitting around dead.

Earlier I said that how I play feeds something at the core of who I am which may be a little harder to explain.  While it may not seem like it to people who don’t know me well, I like helping people.  Being a healer gives me the opportunity to help keep those around me alive and fighting.  But I get bored easily and like to be in the thick of things, which is why I could never be a straight up healer with a circle safely out of the heat of battle.  I am also a problem solver and I like to solve problems (not puzzles, not questy, pasty type stuff) like the logistical problems that are unique to every battle and combat situation.  Combat healing provides me with ample opportunity to do that as well.  As an added bonus, I also get to throw those balls of magic at people which feeds my need to have a hero moment here and there, even though I am, at heart, hero support.