LA Pythium affliction healing

[Lingchih]

A question about the Epoptes mages that LA Pythium can recruit. They supposedly have "healing(20)". But in playing some test games, and trying to use them to heal, they never seem to heal anyone. I have them sit in a castle, healing a living commander that just had a limp, for 5 turns. But no healing. I don't think I have ever seen them heal an affliction. Does anyone know if they actually work at healing?

[Lingchih]

Please, don't everyone reply at once.

[Tuidjy]

Bad luck will explain it. I have found them in a EA game (why they would
be there is beyond me, but yeah, there is a random site) I used them as
healers, and they worked as well 20% would make you expect it. They healed
two afflictions off my pretender. They were 1, 2, 3, and finally four of
them, and it took six turns.

I just tried them with LA Pythium. With three of them healing, and three
hurt troopers, they healed one on turn 1, 2, and 5.

[Edi]

They'll heal units, but it takes time. Healing mechanics probably work so that it checks whether the commander manages to use the healing ability (20% of the time), after which it checks against the difficulty of healing a specific affliction (e.g. Never healing wound is much more difficult to heal than a simple weakened or chest wound)

[Lingchih]

Ahh, thanks very much. I had not realized healing worked that way. And thanks for testing Tuidjy. I guess I was just very unlucky with mine.

[Kristoffer O]

Edi is correct.

[Agrajag]

I guess I was just very unlucky with mine.

Not really, you had five attempts with a success chance of one fifth just to use the ability.
Remember that for n attempts each with a chance of 1/n, the chance of not failing rapidly approaches* (1-e^(-1)) as n grows, which is just a ~63% chance.

*-Very rapidly. At n=5 it is already a mere ~67%