# Dresden Files nitpick **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671 "2008-05-17T17:53:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/1 "2008-05-17T17:53:20Z")
For all his power, wizard [Harry Dresden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_files) does not seem to have any spells that will heal hurts. Whenever he gets knocked about in his adventures, and he usually does, he always has to wait for his wounds to heal naturally, if they ever do. He still has to wear a glove on his disfigured left hand. Yet some wizards in his world, such as Nuccio and Ebenezar McCoy, are **centuries** old! How can they manage such extraordinary longevity if ordinary medicine is beyond them? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/2 "2008-05-17T19:07:48Z")
Are you talking about the books or is the show still on the air? It dissapeared from my Tivo awhile back, so I assumed it got cancelled, but the thing is whacky and sometimes just decides that it no longer feels like recording a certain show. Traditionally, in fantasy, healers are a breed unto themselves, separate from other spellcasters. Maybe Nuccio and McCoy have someone else healing them, or maybe they don’t go around getting hurt all the time. Alternate answer: a wizard did it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/3 "2008-05-17T19:10:09Z")
Wizards don’t get cure spells. That’s reserved for Clerics and Bards. 😃 With the obligatory D&D joke out of the way, my WAG is that magic in Harry’s world is primarily about using your own energy to manipulate things. I’m only midway through the third book in the series, but he frequently uses internal energy to power his spells. Presuming the magic follows some pseudo-physical laws, it would make sense that you can’t receive more than what you give. Healing himself would probably expend far more energy than he’d get back, and would otherwise be a waste of time. ETA: It’s also possible that he simply can’t use any magic to affect himself. I’ve yet to see him use a fly spell or anything similar. When he does need to use magic to affect himself, he brews up potions to be drunk at a later time. Who knows, maybe he does have a recipe for Cure Light Wounds, it’s just never mentioned in the books or show. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/4 "2008-05-17T20:04:18Z")
I recently read _White Night_ and I seem to remember it being mentioned by Harry that wizards are naturally long-lived. Part of this could include better recuperative powers than “normal” people. The damage to his left hand seems to be slowly healing itself; he was told that he would never have the use of it again, and it was recommended that he just have it amputated. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/5 "2008-05-18T00:29:46Z")
Yep, wizards are different from normal humans. In Dead Beat, his pal Butters confirms that his hand is healing, along with other old injuries. This is probably the cause of wizardly longevity. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/6 "2008-05-18T02:16:23Z")
Hey, this might prove interesting. It doesn’t answer the question you asked, **BG** , but it’s an explanation for why Harry doesn’t have healing spells. Book 3, Grave Peril, chapter 22 (sorry, I can’t give an exact page number): > [@](#): > > Working magic directly on a human body is difficult. It’s very difficult. Conjuring up forces, like my shield, or elemental manifestations like the fire or wind is a snap compared to the complexity and power required to change someone’s hair a different color - or to cause the cells on either side of an injury to fuse back together, closing it. It’s a model of magic that involves directly manipulating nature, it seems, rather than simply saying “Let it be so!” ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/7 "2008-05-18T05:29:05Z")
Thanks for the OP. Cool beans, book 10, [Small Favor](http://www.amazon.com/Small-Favor-Dresden-Files-Book/dp/0451461894/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211088437&sr=1-1), is out. Off to interlibrary loan… Aaaarrrggghhhh! 36th in the queue! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dresden-files-nitpick/449671/8 "2008-05-18T13:01:14Z")
It’s a couple of things. First of all (as others have said), it’s been established in the books that wizards are naturally long-lived, and that they are also naturally quick-healing. Harry’s hand _is_ healing, just slowly. For a regular person it wouldn’t ever have healed at all. Also, it’s been established that different wizards have different strengths. Harry is good, as he puts it, at “Finding things. Following things. Blow[ing] things up.” His apprentice, Molly, is good with emotional and mental magic. It could be that there are wizards whose particular strength is healing. But we haven’t met any of those yet.