Non-divine magic based “clinic/medicine” shop? Plus planar scholar

[EoNhOeKnOwS]

Hi everyone so I’m making a campaign and I’m trying to think of how a medicine shop would look like, I’m assuming alchemy but I feel alchemy is not enough. As far as divine magic goes I’d rather the shop, clinic? Not rely on a deity or druidtry - the shop keep may be an archivist, which I guess would solve the problem, there is also an artificer.

Also, is there a class, or mayhaps a tag name for a planar scholar? Like I’m looking for a high level npc, a Gandalf if you will, of planar knowledge, to be honest if there’s also a class that focuses on all religions, instead of its single deity, that’d be kool too, as well as mayhaps how the buildings for these people to look like.

It’s a pretty small town, small enough that there’s only a single shop of whatever there would be, but well enough that they can have a good clinic lol

Thanks!

[Troacctid]

In Eberron, House Jorasco runs healing houses that rely on mundane uses of the Heal skill as well as the Mark of Healing for more severe cases. Various Eberron books have more information about them.

[Nifft]

Bards are good at healing and also good at knowledge.

You might be able to cover all these roles with a mid-level Bard of some variety.

[Psyren]

Psionics offers an alternative to divine magic for some of the more powerful or practical healing effects. You need a specialized class for it (e.g. an Ardent with a mantle like Life, or the Sangehirn prestige class) but it's doable.

Pathfinder goes a step further; in addition to a much more fleshed-out Alchemy system, Pathfinder also includes the Witch class as a "semi-divine" arcane caster that gets a decent amount of healing magic baseline, and can be tailored into even more of a healer via archetypes (e.g. Hedge Witch.) Furthermore, Pathfinder introduces an all-new type of magic called psychic magic, several of the practictioners of which also have access to healing magic.

[Silly Name]

Class-wise, what you're searching for are Experts with the necessary fluff: one is a healer/doctor, with a bunch of ranks in Heal (and perhaps Survival and Craft (medicine)), whose shop looks like an apothecary: lots of dried herbs and powders neatly stored in jars, instruments and tools on display in a glass cabinet, the very important and dangerous stuff is locked down and kept away from the public's direct gaze, and in the back there's the clinic where they perform surgeries as needed (there should be a back entrance to this clinic for ease of access and not contaminating the shop). Perhaps they have some assistants if the city is big enough. Make everything more or less rough depending on the feel you want to convey.

In the baseline medieval fantasy assumption D&D runs on, though, I think it'd be very hard to differentiate alchemy from medicine based just on looks: you're still looking at somebody mixing herbs and powders and even animal parts, crushing them, boiling them and eventually creating some sort of drink or ointment or troches. The difference is that in D&D alchemy is supposed to be actually magical and have different properties, but there's no way you can convince me you need to use spells to make acid.

The "planar scholar" and religious scholar are just learned people, possibly modelled on classical philosophers or medieval monks, having devoted their life to study and research. Their likely titles are "doctor" (as in, doctor of philosophy or doctor of law, not as doctors of medicine), "scholar", "wise", "master" and so on. They will probably have a few students who come to learn from them, some truly dedicated to this knowledge, others being sent by their wealthy parents or whoever takes care of them in order to have them learn some stuff before being sent to the army or whatever nobles and rich people do in your setting.

If they don't work for some sort of scholarly institution, they like teach from their own homes in a dedicated room or garden, at which point the architectural style depends on the technology level of the city.

All of this is mechanically simulated with very little trouble by the Expert class in conjunction with the Skill Focus feat and other feats that give a small bonus to certain skills, but in all honesty I don't think there's any serious need to properly stat out those NPCs: at the end of the day you want them to have whatever knowledge is necessary of them and to be able to perform whatever medical operation the plot demands.

[Uncle Pine]

Clinics ran by Martial Spirit Crusaders renting Devoted Spirit amulets are the fantasy equivalent of anger rooms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_room).

[Vizzerdrix]

Pathfinder goes a step further; in addition to a much more fleshed-out Alchemy system.

See. If someone had said that to me years ago, I'd have swapped over.

[Fizban]

Define "clinic/medicine shop." Do you want a place where normal people go when they're sick, or where adventurers buy combat supplies?

Either way, 3.x alchemical items have next to nothing. But as you have noted, Archivists and Artificers can make the items players would be looking to buy. Further, there's no reason a Cleric has to be attached to a temple or pushing their religion, nor are they required to have a specific deity, and there are in fact trading/commerce/etc domains. Adepts are also not bound by deities, are an NPC class, have most (though not all) of the standard status removal spells, and get familiars which could make them be mistaken for arcanists or otherwise reinforce a non-clerical image. Bards on the other hand lack Restorations and disease removal, making them quite bad at the job.

[ShurikVch]

Ghustil - healer in githyanki society; their magic is neither divine nor arcane

[Nifft]

Might be fun to see an "evil" atheist Ur-Priest trying to undermine the gods... by underselling them.

Only if your players would enjoy the humor, of course.

[Mike Miller]

If you specifically want a class for the planar scholar, check out the Manual of the Planes or Planar Handbook for PrCs. The Planeshifter may be a good bet.

[EoNhOeKnOwS]

Thanks everyone I love and appreciate all your suggestions

[Bohandas]

Hi everyone so I’m making a campaign and I’m trying to think of how a medicine shop would look like, I’m assuming alchemy but I feel alchemy is not enough. As far as divine magic goes I’d rather the shop, clinic? Not rely on a deity or druidtry - the shop keep may be an archivist, which I guess would solve the problem, there is also an artificer.

The artificer could have the [Graft Flesh] feat (from Fiend Folio and Lords of Madness) and possibly levels in the fleshwarper prestige class (Lords of Madness)

Bard is also a fit, as they have arcane healing spells.


Also, is there a class, or mayhaps a tag name for a planar scholar? Like I’m looking for a high level npc, a Gandalf if you will, of planar knowledge, to be honest if there’s also a class that focuses on all religions, instead of its single deity, that’d be kool too, as well as mayhaps how the buildings for these people to look like.

Archivist (Heroes of Horror) and to a lesser extent Spirit Shaman (Complete Divine) work well for cleric of multiple deities. Archivist is also mechanically designed for scholarlyness.

There's also the loremaster, whicn is the quintessential scholarly class. Also, there's always the bard, with its bardic knowledge class feature.

For the planar angle, there's the Planeshifter PrC (Manual of the Planes) and the Cosmic Descryer epic PrC (epic level handbook)

Void Disciple (Complete Divine) also seems like a possible fit

[Endarire]

The Spheres of Might system for Pathfinder 1e has the Alchemy spheres for salves.

[Segev]

If you're willing to look at Pathfinder-compatible psionics (i.e. Dreamscarred Press's work), there's the vitalist (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/psionics-unleashed/classes/vitalist/). Has ludicrous healing capabilities, and an empathic healer vibe if you play it up right.

[Fizban]

It also occurs to me that the Mini's Handbook Healer, while also divine, has the same lack of deity requirements as the cleric and an even more dedicated spell list. Furthermore, if you're pricing their stock based on their direct capabilities, the Healer has a number of important spells a level lower than normal. Which would make the Healer based shop actually cheaper, as well as Stone to Flesh which Clerics don't have (usually having to ask for a ruling that Break Enchantment works), for a "clinic" that has no crusadey blasty heavy armor rawr owner and actually better healing access because of it.

Or if you want to write your own alchemical items: the secret is that the best ones, that people actually use, are actually close to the price of wands, not potions. The cost for a single wand charge is 15gp*spell level*caster level, and notice that acid and alchemist's fire are 10gp and 20gp, while the Wand of Cure Light (or Lesser Vigor) is considered the standard for hit point restoration. So take whatever you effect you want, maybe obscure it behind a bit of rewording so it doesn't look exactly like the spell, round or rough up the formula result to a nice looking number, and you can just write the entire list of hp and status removal spells as alchemical items. You can write a feat that speeds up their crafting if necessary, but poisons and some other items just flat out say in their description that they craft faster, so you can do that with these too.

You could also take it a step further, and make some of the treatments non-instant and/or non-portable. Bitterleaf Oil in Races of the Dragon speeds up natural healing, you could make something that speeds up natural ability damage healing, or lets drain recover naturally (these items should be far cheaper than an instant item). You could have "spa" style longer term treatments that require the patient to spend most of a day there, soaking in a tub of anti-negative juice or somesuch. But if this is supposed to be the primary source of healing items, the PCs need healing items.