Story Telling Healing

 One thing you might notice in TV shows or books, is that the ability to heal is somewhat related to how important the PC or NPC is. So why doesn't roleplay have something like it.

Healing System, for Narrative Roleplay.

One way to create amore narrative form of roleplay is to take away the direct nature of certain spells or prayers. Such as Healing.

If a Priest has a 'varied' healing system, which has a possible narrative modifier, this might allow good roleplays to use the information to drive the plot forward.

If healing was a % chance to succeed, and that % affected the die rolls, lets say for example the base rate to perform heal on someone at 1st level is 50% of d4. If the d4 roll is a 3, and the roll is under 50%, its a full 3pts, but if the roll is 75.. since its 'failed' by half, you halve the 3pt roll to 1 (rounded down). 
By making the healing varied, you can now add modifiers, such as PC +20%, important NPC +25%, lord or very important +35%.

This tells the players, is this NPC important to the plot, act accordingly. If the Priest goes to heal a dying child from a recent attack on the village, and the DM tells the priest, you have a -15% to the roll, the priest knows, this is not a vital plot character, and act accordingly, 'attempting the heal, but ultimately, knowing the child is dying, the priest doesn't waste important magics on someone that is not vital to the plot.

The players can still heal the child, but they can understand the consequences better for the plot path, and if later, they need that power, and don't have it, they know the cost involved.

This isn't something new players will grasp or understand, power players will only 'heal' important NPCS, and let anyone else die, so if your running an open world, its not likely to work well.

Though, with player driven narrative, they could 'choose' this NPC is important, to gain the bonus, and make the child a plot point.

All interesting.