1. - Top - End - #21
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Imp

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    England
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: A comprehensive list of use of skills in 5e

    Spoiler
    Show
    Quote Originally Posted by prismfalcon View Post
    Medicine is mainly a knowledge based skill (like history, religion, nature) with certain applications (mainly stabilizing people). Most of the applications of medicine in the real world just won't carry over- because, lets face it: One remaining point of Laying on of Hands from a level 1 paladin is superior to 20 points of the medicine skill, when it comes to keeping someone alive. For that reason I'm in favor of changing what the medicine skill does to become more useful, since right now it seems to be the least useful skill in the game. Most of theses ideas will fall under house rules, though I think that most DMs would be likely to allow at least some of them, especially those which fall under roll playing, as opposed to combat. For instance, I prefer to allow players to pick which skill to use in a situation as long as they can reasonably justify how they want to use it.

    BTW, while the definition says that medicine may be used to detect disease, dis - ease classically refers to any condition which causes a person to be unwell or "not at ease" from a medical perspective. Thus, most sources include poison in their definitions of what constitutes a disease.


    Medicine as information: The skill and knowledge of Medicine has limited crossovers into Insight/Investigation and Nature skills. For instance, a good healer wouldn't just realize that a person is poisoned- they would be able to make a guess at what poisoned them from the person's symptoms (ingestion, venom, parasites, etc). Also, while they wouldn't be able to tell if the problem was caused by a spirit, a divine curse or by malevolent magic, they could be reasonably certain as to whether the wound or aliment is natural in origin or not, if their medicine skill is high enough to recognize natural verses unnatural causes. Certainly a character could read clues as to how long ago a person died, and what injury or poison they died from. Again, the higher the skill, the more knowledge and experience a character would possess, which means that a higher medical skill is equivalent to, say, 20 years as a doctor, and a character with that skill level could glean much more information of this sort from situations. This makes the Medicine skill more useful the higher it is.

    There are also certain crossovers into the Survival skill, like the possibly to detect poison or other contaminants in food. This could be manifested by a roll with a certain DC level, which the player could do to allow them to see that the meat has spoiled, or that the potions they just got smell strongly like an herb which (he knows) can be used in small amounts to cure a wound, yet in large amounts will kill someone.

    Medicine could give a bonus to information rolls on monsters- relating to the monster's abilities to cause harm: "I once treated a man with ghoul-paralysis," or "My trainer said that giant spiders usually have fast acting venom." This is a good roll-playing benefit to knowledge checks, as someone who's been trained as a doctor or healer would certainly have treated patients who've been attacked by monsters in the past, and so they have a reason to "remember" these monster attributes. Again, more knowledge can be "remembered" for a higher level skill or higher level roll.

    Healers and apothecaries should have a knowledge of herbs and medicines. Note that this doesn't help them to find plants in the wild, just use them, which lets them use their environment in between dungeon crawls.


    Some possible house rules to give medicine additional applications could include:

    Decreasing the effects of status aliments, or keeping a wound from becoming infected (this could be a viable point if you can't heal the party to full health after a battle).

    Some people suggested giving a person with medicine some kind of bonus when using med kits. For instance, increasing the number of points healed based on the user's medicine skill, or by allowing the healer to roll 2 dice and use the larger number.

    One person suggested that players should be limited to only spending one hit die to recover health during a short rest, unless someone in the group makes a medicine skill check with a DC of 10. If they make a DC of 15 then they can use 2 dice, and at 20 the characters may spend as many as they can. This DC roll could be limited to characters who have a proficiency in medicine- thus encouraging all players to at least learn the basic treatment needed to staunch wounds. This could add to good roll playing, as it's unrealistic that people who decide to make their living by fighting monsters for gold, vengeance, glory, etc, will risk life and limb on a regular basis without even a basic knowledge of how to heal themselves when (not if) they get into trouble.

    Note that none of these are useful during combat.


    Other uses for medicine could result from completely rethinking the definition of what constitutes medicine. Western medicine is founded on certain tenants which have endured almost unchanged since the Hippocratic oath was recorded around 300 BC. This includes concepts like, "Do no harm," doctor patient confidentiality, don't use poison, don't perform abortions, don't assist a person's suicide, and pass on all beneficial knowledge, but don't give medical knowledge to people who are likely to abuse it. This is generally consistent with what would be expected from a doctor, or a good cleric/healer. That being said, Western medicine is not the only school of medicine, and a neutral or evil character could find additional uses for it. All of a sudden more roll playing possibilities or creative ways to incapacitate someone open up, when a N or E character has points in the medicine skill.

    A person with medical knowledge might arguably have advantage to rolls to subdue or incapacitate someone, due to their knowledge of the human body, herbs and medicine, or from experience with people with temporary mental issues such as delirium from a fever. Also, it's entirely reasonable for a doctor to carry a vial of ether on them... and not beyond the realm of possibility for him to throw it at an attacker during an emergency.

    A character with the requisite know-how could use slight of hand to drug an opponent's water skin and then return after the opponent is unconscious as an alternative to violence. In fact, someone could argue that a medicine skill is needed to accurately drug someone enough without a risk of killing them with an overdose.

    The understanding of what ails or poisons a person could be used to cause instead of cure. An understanding or medicine and herbs would help a lot in that regard, especially considering that most substances used for medicine do become toxic in high enough quantities.

    Knowledge of medicine is also knowledge of anatomy, and a thief making sneak attacks or attacks on an immobilized (surprised or restrained) person would likely benefit in some way from an understanding of anatomy. A slight damage increase or the ability to add light bleeding damage or the ability to cause a status ailment like silence could be a house rule option that could take place on a successful melee sneak attack (it could function like divine smite). State the intent and then roll high enough vs. the DC, failure results in reduced damage or a penalty. Maybe add a daily limit to the number of times it may be applied.

    Of course, even though some would concede that these options are entirely plausible, some of them may not be playable due to a character's alignment or philosophy. I wanted to include them because it gives people more options in role playing, by using this skill in ways they may not have before considered.

    I know that some people will take exception to these ideas, but I hope that this list will be helpful to others who want to get more out of their characters by expanding the possibilities of a (currently) very limited skill.


    When talking about medicine, it isn't just healing, it is the science of the body as a whole.

    - The Nature skill might identify a plant or substance as poisonous. The Medicine skill will identify the correct dose and/or preparation technique to use that same substance as a stimulant, narcotic or hallucinogen (recreational or otherwise!), or even as food.

    - Massage/raiki; for sexy times advantage on a Persuasion check, perhaps...or Intimidation...

    - Knowledge of Chi flows/acupuncture (help a Monk re/gain Ki points, maybe?)

    - The effects of poor diet
    *At the clinic*
    Peasant: "Doc! Doc! We're all suffering from a pestilence! Call the Cleric!"
    Doctor: "Calm down, son, you just need to eat something other than just porridge"
    OR
    Noble: "I have a recurring malaise that the most expensive magic cannot permanently cure. Help me and be richly rewarded."
    Doctor: "Eat less red meat and more vegetables, drink less wine and take this distillation of garlic essence daily with this cleansing tea and it should clear up in a few weeks."

    - A character with Medicine will know the limits of the body and how far you can push those limits before it will start to buckle...or break. Good for physical training, forced marching, extended alertness (see point on stimulants) and other such physical activities involving endurance or fatigue. The knowledge alone might help in judging how soon an army might arrive and in what state, for example, but physiotherapy may also help recover levels of exhaustion faster.
    Last edited by JellyPooga; 2017-02-23 at 01:12 PM.
    I apologise if I come across daft. I'm a bit like that. I also like a good argument, so please don't take offence if I'm somewhat...forthright.

    Please be aware; when it comes to 5ed D&D, I own Core (1st printing) and SCAG only. All my opinions and rulings are based solely on those, unless otherwise stated. I reserve the right of ignorance of errata or any other source.