This is one of those strange ideas that popped into my head as I was getting ready to fall asleep. What if healing wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be? What if it was addictive? Generally, healing spells are defined as using positive energy to mend up damage or some other condition. So what if filling somebody with positive energy felt good. I mean really good. This is supposed to the ultimate in life energy in the universe so shouldn’t it? And shouldn’t mortals get a little bit of sensory overload when they’re hit with it?
To the crunchy bits:
Characters can received magical healing once per day without any danger. Each time after the first, the character must make a Saving Throw versus Magic with a cumulative -1 penalty. If the character fails the save then they are addicted to healing and the feeling of being filled with positive divine energy. The character must receive a number of spell level’s worth of healing equal to their level daily or suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls and saving throws. The -2 penalty increases by – for each day that the character doesn’t received enough healing energy. Healing potions do not fulfill the craving. The character will go as far as inflicting injury upon themselves just to get healed.
OK. Now that’s pretty nasty. But wait there’s more.
Less than honest clerics have been known to intentionally get some poor souls addicted to positive energy as tool for material gain, power, or coerced conversion. But then sometimes this scheme will backfire when the cleric can’t provide enough healing and then gets ripped apart by an angry mob of addicts going through withdrawal.
There you go some food for thought and little crazy nasty idea to throw into a campaign.