My problem (illustrated by the lengthy now-deleted example that I guess you read half of?) is still that any mechanical differences between CLW and healing surges only last a day, no matter how badly you were injured. To me, that's like saying they're basically identical in effect, given the nature of injuries, it's just that CLW has a temporary advantage attached to it.
Sure, a cleric's healing does work differently than the warlock's inspiration power, but both of them work differently from a paladin's Lay on Hands, and I definitely don't envision that as wounds disappearing from the layee's body and appearing on the layer's (which he then endures through willpower), or some sort of psionic shit like that. I think of it as working the same way as clerical healing/surges, which has identical effects and complications as a healing surge (including blood loss/infection if you want to tack those on)
And when I think of fantasy healing not based on DnD, I think of several things (and I don't even have to use the p-word to do it!) that aren't "okay you're absolutely perfect now!": the first and most obvious is the magic speeding up your natural healing processes, which is equatable to the free healing surge analogy I mentioned earlier, which will result in some wound closure, but doesn't erase it perfectly even if you're technically at "full" hp. There is "your wounds are still there but I magically strengthen your chakra/ki/Essence so you heal faster." aka "homeopathy really exists and I'm using it now, kthnx." It's still magic.
I also conceptualize hp and healing surges as representing different things from each other, whereas in yours, a healing surge expenditure changes what a wound is represented by (at first it was represented by HP loss, now it is represented by a lost surge). I think of HP as the net effect of wounds on a person; healing surges are the willpower to ignore them (also your body's ability to clot them and resist infection). Neither of which require "divine perfection," even if they might be aided by deities if you really need it.
I tend to think of clerical healing as letting your god shoulder your burden without depleting your reserves. Lay on Hands then involves the Paladin shouldering the burden without depleting the woundee's reserves.
Somehow though I feel we've had this argument before in a different context. It might help if I can see where you're coming from on this too?
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Sure, a cleric's healing does work differently than the warlock's inspiration power, but both of them work differently from a paladin's Lay on Hands, and I definitely don't envision that as wounds disappearing from the layee's body and appearing on the layer's (which he then endures through willpower), or some sort of psionic shit like that. I think of it as working the same way as clerical healing/surges, which has identical effects and complications as a healing surge (including blood loss/infection if you want to tack those on)
And when I think of fantasy healing not based on DnD, I think of several things (and I don't even have to use the p-word to do it!) that aren't "okay you're absolutely perfect now!": the first and most obvious is the magic speeding up your natural healing processes, which is equatable to the free healing surge analogy I mentioned earlier, which will result in some wound closure, but doesn't erase it perfectly even if you're technically at "full" hp. There is "your wounds are still there but I magically strengthen your chakra/ki/Essence so you heal faster." aka "homeopathy really exists and I'm using it now, kthnx." It's still magic.
I also conceptualize hp and healing surges as representing different things from each other, whereas in yours, a healing surge expenditure changes what a wound is represented by (at first it was represented by HP loss, now it is represented by a lost surge). I think of HP as the net effect of wounds on a person; healing surges are the willpower to ignore them (also your body's ability to clot them and resist infection). Neither of which require "divine perfection," even if they might be aided by deities if you really need it.
I tend to think of clerical healing as letting your god shoulder your burden without depleting your reserves. Lay on Hands then involves the Paladin shouldering the burden without depleting the woundee's reserves.
Somehow though I feel we've had this argument before in a different context. It might help if I can see where you're coming from on this too?