Why do healing classes have to be religious?

"I kick arse for the lord!"

Does anyone ever wonder why the healers in RPGs have to look so saintly? Or why every class or character must have this squeaky clean, holier than thou look? I never gave it much thought before I played the priest in the open beta for Dungeon Fighter Online. This is as over the top and heavy handed a depiction of a healer as I've ever seen. (see above pic). This is also the only healer in a game that used Christian imagery so excessively.

Speaking of excessive, note that the healer's weapon is a MASSIVE WOODEN CROSS. wtf? I'm far from what you'd call religious, so I'm not offended by this character, but rather the unoriginality of the entire healer concept. In fact, it really underscores just how overused some RPG conventions have become.

The eastern version of the priest, is the monk. They have the thankless job of keeping everyone in a party alive, so they can have all the fun.

In fairness, I'm sure there's a good reason why healers are portrayed in the way they are. After all, you wouldn't expect warriors (i.e. Cloud Strife or a Barbarian) to be sullen, withdrawn and slow to act characters. Or characters that had little to no combat training and a total reluctance to use it. Fighters are naturally muscular, aggressive and energetic. They are equipped with and learned in the use of armor and weapons, I get it.

Therefore, healers are more passive, reserved and peaceful. They wear little to no armor, and have few things in the way of weapons. Their focus is on preservation, protection and looking after the well being of the group. But then, is that it? Do we have to accept that this is how characters are meant to be? Will we ever break this overly used depiction of RPG character archetypes? I think we should.

This priest in WoW will resurrect you...if she feels like it.

Don't be fooled by the appearance of healers in RPGs. Unless they're scripted characters with dialogue, actions and traits that reveal who they are as personalities. Otherwise, that player created priest you're questing with could in fact be a sadistic psychopath. Or at the very least, an extremely arrogant player who feels that he or she must be needed for their life to matter. They get a trip from knowing that your character's life is in their hands, and if they want, they can make that life more miserable than the mob of monsters that just killed you.

Healers are not necessarily nice, or religious. They can be as petty and warlike as any other staple RPG class. Healers that rush into the thick of battle to be promptly killed, thereby putting the rest of the team in jeopardy. Or healers that are so self-important, that they'll only heal and resurrect the players they like, or the players they feel deserve it. How many times have you heard, "If you die again, I'm not rezzing you." Sounds priestly, right?

That's what was great about a game like Guild Wars, you could break a lot of the old conventions in so many ways. For instance, if you wanted to be a jerk of a healer and look the part, you could play a Necromancer, take monk as secondary, and look like a pale skinned, black clad, half zombie.

The Black Mage - what healers should really look like

This is what I think the new healer should be - closer to the black mage. Reflecting not only the personalities of many of the people who play healers, but drift away from making healers look like they belong more in a church than on a battlefield. We keep the simplistic fashion and clothing sense, we keep their almost non-existant weaponry, but we give them a slightly tougher, more mysterious look. Notice the Black Mage has no real face - what would they really look like? Does it seem as though this mage would care if his comrade was suddenly struck down, requiring his restorative powers? I didn't think so either. He looks like he could just as easily walk past his companion's corpse, loot him, and finish off the boss for the xp.

Request to developers: Let's make the healer class type more varied ok? I mean, what's next? A Rabbi that throws Star of David shurikens? Damn, that would actually be sort of cool...