Two of those are actually defined in the book, under Medicine (Player's Handbook, pg. 178), more specifically, stabilizing a dying companion (or enemy, we're not judging), and diagnosing a disease.
In my games, it sees a lot of usage for "forensics", as you mentioned. I've also seen it used as the to-go skill to judge spread of plague-type diseases, and formulate means to prevent affliction by only observing the symptoms ("Everyone and their cat are coughing and have red spots on their noses in this village. Chew on this cinnamon stick and don't drink the local water.")
I have also seen it used, with Intelligence as the linked ability, to recall pertinent information about medical history.
Hello everyone, as I am currently sticking together a new PC I came to pick the medicine skill for roleplaying reasons.
The Pc is a small Paladin character, who grew up in the woods with a druid as a teacher. He now protects the nature, fey and animals as well as people in need. As he is sort of a recluse and uneducated about the world or social interactions, it didnt make much sense to give him insight or deception. And so I added medicine besides some of the better skills. ^^ I am fine with it, but I try to figure out some more creative ways to use it, since the book description doesnt give you much. So here are some thoughts and ideas, most of them overlap with other skills like investigation or a poison kit use.
- Potions: I dont have a herbalism kit and using it would be an INT check (so says the DM) I doubt there would be much use for it anyway.
-Stabilizing a character (anyone can do it, a paldin anyway, but its always good if you dont need a spell) -Stopping a bleeding wound (unless there is a "bleeding" weapon, pure role play) -Detecting/identifying poison and disease (again always good if you dont need a spell) -Identifying a drug or noticing that somebody is drugged. -Partially identifying poison ("its not wine!") -Improving healing if you tend to somebody during a rest, while not resting yourself or only taking a a short rest ? -Making medicine - for rp reasons or trading, helping out at the hospital or make some money
-Estimating wounds and health of a living creature (These last 2 could be done with investigation as well I guess) -Forensic: What attacked/killed this man? -How long has he been dead?
i would love to toss the standard rules for resting and healing and make the medicine skill and bandages etc and much more important part of a campaign... i mean being breaten to about an inch of your life adn then the next day you are totally fine always seemed odd to me...
It's not like those rules can't be further adjusted to any group's taste, but I am curious, how much more medicine/bandage/healing kit -dependent would you usually go for?
I haven't tried it, but I think combining Healing Kit dependency, Slow Natural Healing, and the Gritty Realism rest variant already make magical healing an absolute necessity (so, either have a cleric in the party or prepare to spend a lot of gold for potions. Assuming they're up for sale - in such kind of setting, I'd expect both would be in high demand and scarce supply).
It certainly drives home the "even a lucky goblin can really ruin your day" feeling.
well i like the idea of making your own potions and ellixers in the party instead of relying on buyng them could be cool and to have an elixer that would help heal more hit dice on a long rest and medicine maxing the amount of hp healed
couple that with only being able to heal 1/4 of your hit dice on a short rest (rounded up) and hlaf your hit dice on a long rest (rounded up) i feel like that will still be able to get people healed no problems but you really want the medicine skill in the party.
What my buddies and I are doing in my friend's campaign, is my necromancer is going to do virtually the opposite of the medicine check. Kind of an anti-medicine check so to speak. Instead of rolling to help set a bone, I can roll medicine to break one. Instead of helping bring someone back to consciousness, to knock them out. Think precise and quick means of hurting someone, due to knowing how their body works and where to hit to do what I intend. Like any spy movie where they know how to hit people to make their limbs go limp and tweak their body in ways it's not supposed to be tweaked.
Just a thought for the more aggressive players who want to use medicine checks for an evil character, and not forfeit the skill.
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Two of those are actually defined in the book, under Medicine (Player's Handbook, pg. 178), more specifically, stabilizing a dying companion (or enemy, we're not judging), and diagnosing a disease.
In my games, it sees a lot of usage for "forensics", as you mentioned. I've also seen it used as the to-go skill to judge spread of plague-type diseases, and formulate means to prevent affliction by only observing the symptoms ("Everyone and their cat are coughing and have red spots on their noses in this village. Chew on this cinnamon stick and don't drink the local water.")
I have also seen it used, with Intelligence as the linked ability, to recall pertinent information about medical history.
For the forensic, you can also use medicine to estimate for how long a creature has been dead. Can help in Agatha-Christie-like campaign.
Also, Medicine checks can be used to identify drugs and/or people affected by drugs.
i would love to toss the standard rules for resting and healing and make the medicine skill and bandages etc and much more important part of a campaign... i mean being breaten to about an inch of your life adn then the next day you are totally fine always seemed odd to me...
Dungeon Master's Guide, pg 266, has alternative rules for healing and rest if you prefer a grittier game (or the opposite).
if that was good enough we wouldnt have this talk
It's not like those rules can't be further adjusted to any group's taste, but I am curious, how much more medicine/bandage/healing kit -dependent would you usually go for?
I haven't tried it, but I think combining Healing Kit dependency, Slow Natural Healing, and the Gritty Realism rest variant already make magical healing an absolute necessity (so, either have a cleric in the party or prepare to spend a lot of gold for potions. Assuming they're up for sale - in such kind of setting, I'd expect both would be in high demand and scarce supply).
It certainly drives home the "even a lucky goblin can really ruin your day" feeling.
well i like the idea of making your own potions and ellixers in the party instead of relying on buyng them could be cool and to have an elixer that would help heal more hit dice on a long rest and medicine maxing the amount of hp healed
couple that with only being able to heal 1/4 of your hit dice on a short rest (rounded up) and hlaf your hit dice on a long rest (rounded up) i feel like that will still be able to get people healed no problems but you really want the medicine skill in the party.
What my buddies and I are doing in my friend's campaign, is my necromancer is going to do virtually the opposite of the medicine check. Kind of an anti-medicine check so to speak. Instead of rolling to help set a bone, I can roll medicine to break one. Instead of helping bring someone back to consciousness, to knock them out. Think precise and quick means of hurting someone, due to knowing how their body works and where to hit to do what I intend. Like any spy movie where they know how to hit people to make their limbs go limp and tweak their body in ways it's not supposed to be tweaked.
Just a thought for the more aggressive players who want to use medicine checks for an evil character, and not forfeit the skill.