It works as a knowledge skill. Can use it as a detective/forensics thing.
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We have no spellcaster in the group.
Also, if we fall under 0 HP, even application of curative magic can't temper some drawbacks due to injury aftermaths ; unless the character receives a high enough Heal skill check, or is healed of at least half his HP with magic. Drawbacks include Dazzled, Bleeding, Sickened, Blinded, Unconscious, and Death.
Short verion : yep, I'll take all the Heal checks you can apply, thanks.
It's used often in my campaigns, even at high level, to determine the level of health of another creature -- to assess anything from, for example, whether the beggar really is ill (and what he is ill with) to determining just how close to death an enemy is. This of course isn't an actual described use of the skill in the rules, so I guess it's a house rule, but I can't think of a better skill to use for the purpose.
It's also come in handy to stop bleeding.
I've also seen it used to treat poison and disease when the party healer wouldn't be able to have the appropriate spell prepared till the next day (or are unable to cast it).
In low magic games it's invaluable because of course you end up being much more reliant on its ability to speed HP recovery from rest.
I think sometimes healing magic is so prevalent in the typical fantasy game that it doesn't get used that often, but I've definitely put ranks into it as a player and seen fellow players do the same--and been very glad for it!
My group uses Heal checks to get a sense of how far down a monster's HP are.
We use it to stabilize a character who has dropped below 0 HP.
We use it to increase natural healing during a rest period. This one is especially important at lower levels when the cleric runs out of heal spells but the party isn't full up yet. This also allows them to heal ability score damage at double the rate (important since the fighter just got hit by 4 striges in one round in the last session).
We use it as an Aid Another to help a character pass the fortitude save for poison (when the poison hits in subsequent rounds).
So, yeah, we've found a lot of uses for the Heal skill. All of the above (except the first) are pretty much stright out of the Core Rulebook.
It's specifically spelled out for caltrops as the way to remove the slow effect. I use it for the forensic aspect as well since my party went through a story arc dealing with an assassin. Good for removing hangovers too. :D
Its a house rule, but a Caster Level check is used to heal bleed damage when you cast a cure spell.
Alternately you can use a Heal check to do the same thing. Plus its always a good choice to save those spell ranks as it speads healing from rest.
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Admittedly, it's used for actually healing injury more at low levels - especially with the treat deadly wounds application, before the party has enough cash for lots of wands or potions, as well as long term care to double natural healing. I don't think I've been in a 1st-3rd level game where it wasn't often used.
It's used often in my campaigns, even at high level, to determine the level of health of another creature -- to assess anything from, for example, whether the beggar really is ill (and what he is ill with) to determining just how close to death an enemy is. This of course isn't an actual described use of the skill in the rules, so I guess it's a house rule, but I can't think of a better skill to use for the purpose...
How high do you set the DC's for these type of checks? Do the players need realtively high ranks or is a few points enough?
Just curious, I might use in my game.
All the time.
Mostly cause of death. But also in aiding in poison saves, stabilize checks, disease symptoms.
Our cleric's made good use of it even at mid levels (6th-7th). In one situation, we had to retreat from a bad fight but needed to charge back in as soon as possible and re-engage the enemy. We had pretty much exhausted all of our potions and we didn't want to drain the cleric's healing because we'd need it for the upcoming fight. We managed to get a night's rest with the cleric using the Heal skill to double many of the characters' hit point recovery. We were able to charge in the next morning and re-engage the enemy with the bulk of the cleric's channel energy capability intact.
At mid to low level it can be really helpful for dealing with poisons and diseases when you don't have many options on how to get rid of them. It also helps save spell slots later when they come up.
I use it to deduce if an enemy has DR or not.
me "I shoot an arrow"
DM "it hit"
me "does it cause damage normally"
DM "roll your heal check"
I allow Heal checks as a move to scan the battlefield to assess how injured everyone is.
Torture is one use of the Heal skill, I'd say. I would hope it's not something that often comes up in a campaign, but still...
I've used it a number of times. Players (and GMs) frequently forget the wide variety of uses listed for this skill.
A use that can be beneficial even at high levels, is to determing if the subject is deseased or not, and if so, with what.
Ex: fighting creatures that can cause desease with a claw or bite attack, did the people hurt contract the desease? (in game mechanics terms, did they fail a save? if so, this is an in game way for the PCs to know which PCs need a remove desease spell).
Ex: Lycanthropy, did a PC contract it from fighting that ninja wererat?
Ok, I don't play Pathfinder Society.
I'm kind of surprised to see so many people find uses for it. I never thought of using it for "forensics," that kind of thing is done by magic in my play experience.
Interesting how things play out differently in different games.
Isn't it an 8 hour skillcheck which means you can't rest if you want to improve the HPs gained for another one?
While magic can certainly remove poisons and diseases, it cannot really identify them right off the bat. So unless you take a leap of faith, you could very well waste a spell trying to cure one when it's actually the other.
It's used often in my campaigns, even at high level, to determine the level of health of another creature -- to assess anything from, for example, whether the beggar really is ill (and what he is ill with) to determining just how close to death an enemy is. This of course isn't an actual described use of the skill in the rules, so I guess it's a house rule, but I can't think of a better skill to use for the purpose...How high do you set the DC's for these type of checks? Do the players need realtively high ranks or is a few points enough?
Just curious, I might use in my game.
For determining type of poison or disease, use the poison/disease's save DC. (That may even be an actual rule...)
For determining how healthy a foe is, I use a base DC 15 for common creatures (e.g., most humanoids and animals), and add by degrees of +4 for how unusual the creature is/the creature's anatomy. An ooze will be considerably harder to determine its level of health than a kobold (and a very unusual creature that the party has never seen before may stump them, or require a Knowledge check first to see if they know anything about this kind of creature before analyzing their anatomy). Also, the higher the result, the more information the roller gets -- so rolling 25 on a DC 15 check of a human will show "he is one dagger stroke away from death" rather than a more vague "he looks very bad off."
In short, a few ranks would do most of the time, but if someone kept training it, they'd be rewarded with more specific answers.
I have had it used in 3.5 a lot to take enemies prisoner after they dropped. The thing to recover double hit points through resting is nice. If it is not the person with the heal skill down.
If its a class skill for what I am playing, then always. I buy healing kits and use the skill if we have down time to avoid wasting charges of a wand or spell, plus you can use it to help your teammates make the poison and disease saves before you can cast/afford to do it yourself. Also use your teammates to assist another and help you, if they can beat a DC 10 wis check your golden.
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If I play a character that gets the trained bonus, I tend to get a rank, so I can take 10 for 15, to give long term care. It's a nice option to have when your GM loves ability damage. Used to play with one who threw ability damage at us like crazy.
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For determining type of poison or disease, use the poison/disease's save DC. (That may even be an actual rule...)For determining how healthy a foe is, I use a base DC 15 for common creatures (e.g., most humanoids and animals), and add by degrees of +4 for how unusual the creature is/the creature's anatomy. An ooze will be considerably harder to determine its level of health than a kobold (and a very unusual creature that the party has never seen before may stump them, or require a Knowledge check first to see if they know anything about this kind of creature before analyzing their anatomy). Also, the higher the result, the more information the roller gets -- so rolling 25 on a DC 15 check of a human will show "he is one dagger stroke away from death" rather than a more vague "he looks very bad off."
In short, a few ranks would do most of the time, but if someone kept training it, they'd be rewarded with more specific answers.
Thx, I think I will use this in my game.
sure, I have a witch with a bunch of heal ranks. It's extremely important in her line of work because she works for a mercenary company.
Besides the expected healing of battle wounds, you have to keep an eye out for people getting sick, because disease can wipe out a fighting force quicker than anything. I only have a small number of cure disease spells per day, so a heal check is crucial in determining who is really in need of a 3rd level spell and who just needs a hot bowl of soup and a night in a warm bed.
PC v PC combat, lvl 16 characters. The Paladin doesn't want to deal with my illusion magic (I was an beguiler based gish), so she sets the ambush up for a null magic zone. I dealt bleed damage with a crit using the critical hit deck. She kills me, but cannot save herself because neither she or her bodyguard have ranks in Heal because of their reliance on magic.
Best end to a campaign ever.
I've never used this skill. I'm sure there has been a time or two where someone went to a plague ridden village as a first level character and used it, but I'm not sure I personally have ever seen anyone use this skill.
I can't remember offhand seeing anyone who has put a single point in it since 3.x came out.
Maybe they did, and it never came up, or I just don't remember seeing anyone use it.
What's your experience?
Use it all the time. Not every party has a heal-bot, and even when they do, sometimes the heal skill still comes in handy. Plus the other uses others have cited.
Torture is one use of the Heal skill, I'd say. I would hope it's not something that often comes up in a campaign, but still...
I use intimidate for that. Torture is something that's effectiveness is mostly do to psychological effects, not physical pain.
I have a mid-level cleric in my games that uses it all the time but then I throw in a fair amount of poisons, diseases and Bleed effects. Also she uses it for long term healing.
We've houseruled a couple things with it too:
1) the "CSI" stuff like how the villain died, how old is the corpse...
2) Diagnostics to determine poison type, how near death someone is etc
3) Removing some conditions: this came up situationaly when a character was Sickened and removed from combat. The Cleric asked if, since it was due to a gas-based spell effect she could end the condition immediately. I set a high DC (15 + spell level + Caster's main stat bonus) and she pulled it off, so I said ok and on his initiative the guy got right back in.
We've also had the thought of using it in place of Survival for exhaustion or resisting long term weather effects, or perhaps in an Aid Another type effect. I do that a lot in my games; have different party members chain different but possibly helpful skills together to overcome obstacles. Its sort of like an on-the-spot skill challenge.