Healing: Mending Flesh and Spirit

Fate's Edge Player's Guide — Chapter 5

"The [HEAL] tag closes small wounds and eases exhaustion. To knit broken bones or purge a curse, you need greater power — and greater risk." — Lysandra of the Amber Gate, The Threadweaver's Spellbook

In Fate's Edge, injuries are not mere hit points. They are narrative weights: a fractured leg forces hard choices; a festering wound breeds desperation. Healing magic exists, but it is never cheap, never perfectly safe, and always part of the story.

This chapter explains how your character recovers from the two kinds of damage — Fatigue and Harm — using magic, medicine, rest, and willpower.

The Two Faces of Injury

Fatigue is your character's ability to keep going. It accumulates from physical exertion, missed sleep, harsh weather, and the strain of magic. Fatigue is common and easy to remove.

Harm is serious injury. Each level of Harm (1, 2, or 3) imposes a -1 die penalty on most actions. Harm is rare and expensive to heal. When you take Harm, the world takes notice.

Recovering Fatigue — The Easy Work

Fatigue clears quickly with rest, food, or a minor magical touch.

Rest and Recovery

• Short rest (one hour): Remove 2 Fatigue. You must be able to sit, breathe, and drink water. No roll required.
• Full night's rest (8 hours in safety): Remove all Fatigue. If you are in a dangerous or exposed place, the GM may reduce this to 2 Fatigue instead.
• Warm meal and comfort: The first rest after a hot meal removes an additional 1 Fatigue (stacks with the above).

The [HEAL] Cantrip

The [HEAL] tag (typically from the Life element or a Patron of healing) removes Fatigue quickly.

This cantrip works for any magical tradition that can access Life or a healing Patron (e.g., Free Caster, Runekeeper of Oath of Flame, Cantor with healing songs).

Example: Lyra uses [HEAL] on Henry after a fight. She rolls 5d10 (Spirit + Craft), gets 3 successes vs DV 2 — a Clean Success. Henry clears 1 Fatigue. No complication.

Healing Harm — The Hard Work

Restoring a level of Harm (e.g., from Harm 2 to 1, or Harm 1 to 0) requires significant effort — either mundane medical care over time or powerful magic that comes with risk.

Mundane Healing

• First Aid (Wits + Craft, DV 3): Stabilise a dying creature (prevent Harm from worsening). Does not heal existing Harm. Takes 1 action.
• Treatment (downtime, safe haven): Requires a healer's kit and a safe place to work. A scene of treatment plus a successful Craft roll (Wits + Craft, DV 3–5 by severity) removes one level of Harm. Without a healer, Harm heals on its own at one level per week of rest. A critical success clears a second level.
• Surgery or magical cleansing (serious injury): For Harm 3 or cursed wounds, the GM may require a full scene or a quest component (rare herbs, a spirit's favor).

Magical Healing of Harm

To heal Harm rather than Fatigue, add +2 to the DV. That surcharge is the whole requirement — [HEAL] on its own at DV 4 closes a Harm 1, as the table below shows.

A second tag is optional, and what it buys is specificity. It names what is actually wrong, and your GM should let it do more than a generic mending would:

• [PURIFY] — poison, disease, corruption
• [STRENGTHEN] — broken bones, torn muscles
• [CLEANSE] — curses, magical wounds, shadow-damage

The base DV for healing Harm is 1 + number of tags. Healing Harm also adds a +2 DV surcharge. Examples:

The GM may increase DV further for legendary wounds (e.g., a dragon's claw tears your spirit — [HEAL][CLEANSE] + a ritual requiring significant time).

Ritual Healing

Healing Harm 2 or Harm 3 often requires a ritual, not a single action. Rituals take at least 10 minutes (or longer per the GM). During a ritual, interruptions (combat, loud noises, disbelief) can cause the healing to fail or backfire.

Many magical paths have specific healing rites:

• Runekeeper (Oath of Flame & Light): Lay on Hands (Low Rite) heals Fatigue; Cleansing Light (Standard Rite) can remove poison or downgrade Harm at the cost of Obligation (see the Magic chapter).
• Cantor: Healing songs (e.g., Hymn of Restoration) require a Performance roll. On a Partial, the wound heals but the Cantor marks Corruption (see the Magic chapter).
• Witch (Hearth craft): Hedge Gifts like Steady Hand (remove Fatigue) and Knot of Mercy (remove a Condition) are roll-free but limited per scene/session (see the Magic chapter).
• Invoker: Ritual healing with a Patron's Symbol is slow but has reduced backlash. Crack the Seal for emergency healing — at double Obligation cost (see the Magic chapter).
• Summoner: Can bargain with a spirit to transfer wounds (e.g., a spirit of sacrifice takes your Harm). Tick the Leash timer each time (see the Magic chapter).

The Risk of Magic — Story Beats and Backlash

Whenever you cast a healing spell (especially to heal Harm), any 1s you roll generate Story Beats (SB) for the GM. The GM will spend those SB to introduce complications — the healing works, but the world pushes back.

What complications look like:

• Minor (1 SB): The wound leaves a visible scar. The patient feels an odd craving (honey, raw meat, silence). A faint magical residue lingers.
• Moderate (2 SB): A minor spirit or "echo" of the injury appears — it watches the patient for a scene. A Patron sends a dream: "You owe me."
• Serious (3 SB): The healing draws attention from a rival, a witch-hunter, or a territorial nature spirit. The patient gains a thematic Condition (e.g., Phantom Pain, -1 die on rolls involving that limb until they perform a small ritual).
• Major (4+ SB): Reality warps briefly — a corpse nearby twitches; the patient forgets something precious; the healer's own shadow moves on its own for a day.

These complications do not cancel the healing. They are narrative gifts — hooks for future scenes, reminders that power has a price.

Natural Recovery — When Magic Fails

If you have no access to magic or medicine, your body still heals — slowly.

• Per day of complete rest (no strenuous activity): Remove 1 Fatigue automatically. If you also have food, water, and shelter, remove 2 Fatigue.
• Per week of rest (downtime): remove 1 level of Harm, unaided. A successful Craft roll (Wits + Craft, DV 3–5 by severity) and a scene of treatment removes a level without the wait — which is what a healer is for.
• Neglected injuries: If you continue to adventure while at Harm 2 or Harm 3 without any healing, the GM may advance a Worsening Condition timer. When it fills, your injury becomes permanent (a limp, a weakened arm, etc.) or requires extraordinary magic to fix.

Healing by Magical Tradition — Quick Reference

Healing Talents

These talents enhance a character's ability to heal others or themselves.

Steady Hands (3 XP)

Prerequisite: Craft 2+. When you perform First Aid, the patient also clears 1 Fatigue. You may use this talent once per patient per scene.

Healer's Touch (4 XP)

Prerequisite: A healing Patron (Oath of Flame, Inaea, etc.) or the [HEAL] tag. When you use the [HEAL] cantrip, you may clear 2 Fatigue instead of 1. You may do this once per patient per scene.

Bastion of Vitality (6 XP)

Prerequisite: Body 3+. When you take a short rest, you clear 3 Fatigue instead of 2. Additionally, you ignore the first level of environmental penalty from exhaustion or deprivation (e.g., you can go an extra day without food before suffering effects).

Remarkable Recovery (8 XP)

Prerequisite: Body 3+ or a healing Patron. You recover from Harm twice as fast: 1 Harm per 3 days of rest (instead of 1 week). Medical treatment still follows the normal scene-of-treatment rule above. This talent cannot heal permanent injuries or Serious Wounds.

Spirit Mender (12 XP)

Prerequisite: A healing Patron or a Cantor's Path. Once per session, you may remove a psychological Condition (Fear, Guilty Tell, Haunted) from yourself or a touched ally. This is a Full Ritual (10 minutes) and costs 1 Fatigue. On a partial, the Condition is removed but the GM gains 1 SB (the shadow of the Condition lingers).

Summary: Healing at a Glance

Healing Tags Reference

The following tags are commonly used in healing magic. Each adds to the spell's DV as shown.

[REGENERATE] cannot be used alone; it must be paired with another healing tag (e.g., [HEAL][REGENERATE] to restore 1 Harm). The total DV is calculated as described under Magical Healing of Harm, above.

Optional Rule: Serious Wounds

This is an optional table rule. If your table uses it, ask your GM.

When a character takes Harm 3 (the third box of Harm), the table may opt to replace that injury with a Serious Wound — a lasting debility that cannot be healed by ordinary magic.

• The character marks the Harm 3 box as usual.
• Instead of being incapacitated (Harm 3's default effect), they gain one Serious Wound from the table below (or a custom wound agreed with the GM).
• Each Serious Wound imposes a −1 die penalty on all rolls affected by that wound (GM's discretion, but typically broad: physical wounds affect Body rolls; mental wounds affect Wits or Spirit).
• A character can sustain up to Body Serious Wounds. If they would gain another beyond that limit, they are incapacitated as per standard Harm 3.
• Serious Wounds heal only through significant downtime (a full week of rest per wound) or major magic (a quest-level ritual). Mundane healing and [HEAL] have no effect.

Serious Wound Table (d10)

Example: Henry takes Harm 3 from a dragon's claw. The group agrees to use Serious Wounds. He rolls a 4 on the table: "Gut Wound". He now suffers −1 die on Endurance tests until he rests for a week or finds a priest to perform a costly healing rite. He can take up to Body 2 more Serious Wounds before falling unconscious.

Final Advice for Players

• Don't hoard your healer's resources. Fatigue is cheap to heal; use [HEAL] often. Save big magic for when someone is at Harm 2 or unconscious.
• Embrace the scars. A permanent mark from a healing complication is a badge of survival. Work with your GM to make it meaningful.
• Ambient healing is a thing. After a fight, take a short rest. The GM will usually allow it unless you are under active pursuit.
• Protect your healer. If the only person with [HEAL] goes down, your party's recovery slows to a crawl.
• Talk about tone. In Session Zero, discuss how gruesome or light you want healing complications to be. Some tables love body horror; others prefer comedic side-effects.
• Use components creatively. A rare herb or a spirit's favor can make a healing ritual safer and cheaper. Talk to your GM about what you might find on your adventures.

The blade cuts. The spell mends. But the scar remains — and that scar is your story.

"When in doubt, be specific. The Weave rewards precision. When you have a choice, be cautious. The Weave charges interest. When you succeed, be humble. The Weave remembers." — Lysandra of the Amber Gate, The Threadweaver's Spellbook