Like a Surgeon: Healers & Healing, Part II

While historical fiction is appropriately populated with physicians, Fantasyland seems to run on healers. Their specialties include instant magical healing, mysterious all-curing herbs, and natural talent that seems to obviate the need for any sort of medical training.

Problem one which needs to be dealt with is that there shouldn't be free lunch, even in Fantasyland. There needs to be some level of difficulty to the magical healing, or some price attached, or it's basically a videogame character running through an 8-bit heart and getting their health restored. Even in the Harry Potter series, which does have some instances of instant magical healing, there are several checks on the system. First, it appears to take a level of skill to perform healing spells (more on that in a moment), since doing it wrong results in backwards noses or boneless arms. Second, it's not all instant-- the bigger and more complex the injury, the more complicated the healing process, and it can require potions, pain, and lots of recovery time. Another option is to have the healing process take something from the healer, either by sapping their energy or transferring some of the illness or injury onto them. Mercedes Lackey does this in her Valdemar series, and it provides an effective plot point when there's diseases or injuries that are too big or dangerous for a healer to take on alone.

The second problem is that there's often an emphasis on natural talent rather than training. Again, healing should have consequences (otherwise, why are injuries even a plot point?), and one way to establish that it's difficult and complex is to have the healers undergo serious training. Maybe they have to learn very precise spells, complicated potions, meditation techniques to project their life energy, or any combination of the above. If they haven't gone to the equivalent of supernatural medical school, they shouldn't have the requisite knowledge without a very good in-universe explanation (I could buy someone whose parents were medics picking up a lot of knowledge, especially if they were a de facto apprentice).

Finally, a pet peeve: all-healing herbs. They're a cheap fix for one. For another, it kills the realism. It's difficult to believe your Fantasyland forest is populated exclusively by a mysterious plant species which is relatively easy to find, requires no advanced identification skills or special preparation, and cures any random wounds, fevers, or poisonings that occur. Unlike the other problems, this one has an annoying tendency to escape the bounds of Fantasyland and jump over into historical works (yet again, I'm looking at you Sir Walter Scott!). Either put research into it, or have your viewpoint character be totally clueless and knowledge their own lack of botanical first-aid know-how, but don't use the random 'herbs' that fix all plot points.