D20 Modern - New Treat Injury Rules

[HUMVEE Driver]

I had always been disappointed in how modern characters were able to be healed, or rather not be healed. The old rules led to injured characters stopping their adventure for a few days so they could heal up. With these rules, characters can still go on from encounter to encounter. I also think they are rather quick and easy to use.

About me, I am a firefighter/medic, and the rules I came up with here all seem fair and reasonable in regard to my experience.

Any thoughts?




Treat Injury Skill (supersedes Heal Skill)

Long Term Care: same as Core Rules

Treat Injury: A Treat Injury Check starts with a DC of 15. Each subsequent time it is used on a specific character in a 24 hour period, add +1 to the DC for that specific character. A Treat Injury Check can be attempted on a character a number of times equal to the injured character’s character level in a 24 hour period. An unsuccessful attempt counts against this. A successful Treat Injury Check restores 1d4 + the WIS modifier (minimum of 1) of the character attempting the check. A character cannot be healed of more than his/her maximum hit points. A single Treat Injury Check takes 10 rounds. You cannot take 10 or 20 if either character is in combat, in a moving vehicle, or otherwise distracted.

First Aid Kit: A First Aid Kit works exactly like a Treat Injury Check, but instead of healing 1d4, a First Aid Kit heals 1d6. A First Aid Kit is good for three successful Treat Injury Checks; meaning a failed check does not result in the First Aid Kit being depleted. A Treat Injury Check with a First Aid Kit counts as a Treat Injury Check in regard to how many times a Treat Injury Check can be attempted on a character in a 24 hour period.

Medical Bag: A Medical Bag works exactly like a Treat Injury Check, but instead of healing 1d4, a Medical Bag heals 1d12. A Medical Bag is good for 3 successful Treat Injury Checks; meaning a failed check does not result in the Medical Bag being depleted. A Treat Injury Check with a Medical Bag counts as a Treat Injury Check in regard to how many times a Treat Injury Check can be attempted on a character in a 24 hour period.

Surgery: Using Surgery requires the appropriate Feat and fully stocked Surgery equipment.

Using Treat Injury on yourself: The DC for a Treat Injury Check on yourself is increased by +5. You cannot perform surgery on yourself.

[Ashtagon]

Treat Injury takes a few days? I'd actually shrug and say that's fairly realistic, possibly even optimistic depending on your interpretation of hp. But I also feel it's not how I remember it...

http://www.12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/Skills.php?Name=Treat%20Injury

Let's take as our models Trevor, a level 3 tough hero with 18 Con and 30 hp; and Carina, a level 3 charismatic hero with 10 Con and 12 hp.

Long Term Care: 3 x level hp per day. Trevor takes three and a bit days to recover, while Carina is at full health after a day and a bit.

Restore Hit Points: This is that "bit" mentioned in long term care.

Surgery: What you should be using to recover massive hp loss quickly. Restores 1d6 x level hp. Carina can be fully healed in a single operation. Trevor may take a little longer; Combining surgery and long term care within the same days means Trevor will have recover a average of 19.5 hp after one day, and be at full health after surgery on the second day.

Even Buffy McBuff, a level 10 tough hero with 20 Con and 150 hp, can gain 30 hp per day with long term care, and an additional 10d6 (average 35) hp per day with surgery on each day. Three days sees him at full health.

Buffy McBuff is a rather exceptional case, and between his ridiculously high Con score and maximised hp, he is at the extreme end of the probability curve. For characters who are at the mid-high ranges, 2-3 days should be plenty. If your average hp per level is 6.5 or lower, the current rules allow you to be Treat Injuried to full health in a single day (two days if your average hp per level is 6.51 to 13).

[HUMVEE Driver]

Actually, the way Treat Injury is now, it would take a few weeks to bring a high level character back up to max.


Restore Hit Points (DC 15): With a medical kit, if a character has lost hit points, the character can restore some of them. A successful check, as a full-round action, restores 1d4 hit points. The number restored can never exceed the character's full normal total of hit points. This application of the skill can be used successfully on a character only once per day.


That's restoring 1d4 hp per day. What is the point of that?

I'm not thinking about long term care. I'm thinking about getting your character patched up after a battle and continuing the adventure; rather than calling time out and sitting in a bed for a week.

I am going with this view of Hit Points:

The first 90% of a character's Hit Points lost are minor cuts, bruises, etc. Close calls, in other words. Only the bottom 10% represent a character truly being hurt.

Think of two duelists fighting it out back in the day with sabers. There will be many glancing blows and near-misses before one gets in a good, solid hit. Those small cuts are relatively easy to treat, and it would take a good medic about 1 minute (10 rounds) to bind a wound like that.

(I also have a Doc class that lets characters Treat Injuries faster.)

[Ashtagon]

There are three different methods for restoring hp using the Treat Injury skill. There is nothing that says you can't use each of them on the same character in the same day.

If you're going to do nothing more for a guy with a broken leg than slap on a bandage once a day, of course it'll take weeks. That's what long term care and surgery are all about fixing.

Your estimate of the time taken is based on a misinterpretation of the rules and in effect, treating injuries with one hand tied behind your back.

[HUMVEE Driver]

No matter how you look at it, under the current rules when a character is low on Hit Points it calls for a stop in the adventure and a trip to the hospital that lasts at least a few days. That does not make for fun gaming. There is no way to quickly bandage up a character, except for the pointless 1d4 per day.

My rules suggestion is both realistic and it contributes to uninterrupted game play. At least, it has when used in play testing sessions.

A broken leg would be represented by a character losing almost all of his/her Hit Points, and then yes of course Surgery/Long Term Care is called for. But not every loss of HP results in a broken leg or even moderate damage.

[Kuma Kode]

No matter how you look at it, under the current rules when a character is low on Hit Points it calls for a stop in the adventure and a trip to the hospital that lasts at least a few days. That does not make for fun gaming. There is no way to quickly bandage up a character, except for the pointless 1d4 per day. Funny thing, eh? Near-fatal gunshot wounds tend to ruin your weekend plans.

If anything, it is too easy to heal up. The healing rules aren't built around the D&D style full-heal between battles... it's based more around TV shows. A character can be nearly killed, and for the rest of the episode they're pretty banged up, but by next week it's like it never happened.

If you want something more cinematic, try Vitality and Wounds (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/vitalityAndWoundPoints.htm). The heroic hit points (the plot shield) are separate from the life-threatening injury points. Vitality points heal back at the rate of 1 per level per hour, so it's pretty easy to take a breather between fights and be ready to go. Vitality damage is scratches, near-misses, and other such shots that occur quite a bit in movies and such. Wound damage is a gunshot to the leg or a bad gash in your gut, and they take longer to heal.