I saw Battlefield Surgeon, but this does not seem to be enough. Anything that would make Treat Deadly Wounds or Long Term Care better, more effective, or faster?
Sadly, in my experience the only thing that makes the heal skill valuable is non-magic settings. If the PC's have access to spells like cure, remove disease, neutralize poison and so on the heal skill is worth a few ranks for roleplaying, but it becomes something for NPCs who lack access to magic.
At one point, back in 3.5, I experimented with a system where skills could be used in synergy with certain spells to give little bonuses to them. For example, a cleric with a certain amount of heal spell might get a bonus to his healing spells. Have them saved somewhere still if I could find them.
Doesn't make the skill better, but one house rule I use (that I stole from a thread on house rules on this board) that makes it more useful is that you can cast any Cure spell as a full-round action and then make a DC 15 Heal check. If successful, you add 1 HP per die rolled to the amount healed. Every 5 points you beat the DC by adds an additional HP per die. (So a 25 on the check heals an additional 3 HP per die) In addition, characters can take 10 on the check outside of combat.
It lets characters with a better understanding of treating wounds to do more with their magic than those without.
Thinking about it, I should use a similar rule for Remove Disease and Neutralize Poison checks (though make the base DC the DC of the affliction, and making the DC adds a +1 to the caster check, with additional bonuses for each 5 over.)
Kalshane wrote: Doesn't make the skill better, but one house rule I use (that I stole from a thread on house rules on this board) that makes it more useful is that you can cast any Cure spell as a full-round action and then make a DC 15 Heal check. If successful, you add 1 HP per die rolled to the amount healed. Every 5 points you beat the DC by adds an additional HP per die. (So a 25 on the check heals an additional 3 HP per die) In addition, characters can take 10 on the check outside of combat.
It lets characters with a better understanding of treating wounds to do more with their magic than those without.
Thinking about it, I should use a similar rule for Remove Disease and Neutralize Poison checks (though make the base DC the DC of the affliction, and making the DC adds a +1 to the caster check, with additional bonuses for each 5 over.)
Something vaguely similar to that, yeah.
A Vest of Surgery maybe?
I wish there was a way to speed up the time on Treat Deadly Wounds, maybe by accepting a higher DC. Otherwise, a Ring of Sustenance can give you the spare time while camping to use it, but it's still a pain.
Having a familiar also helps since they can make their own set of checks, and the skill says nothing about how many people can treat a patient at once.
What's additionally frustrating about how easily magic replaces the Heal skill is that it's a Wis-based skill, and most characters with a decent Wis are going to be divine casters.
Another thing you can do is go to the old d20srd and look at Epic skill usages. Sadly, the Epic heal entry specifically doesn't offer a lot of good ideas, but it's a start.
@Kalshane: looks like a neat idea, thanks for sharing that one!
Broken limbs, cure spells can heal damage, but won't get your bones back in the right position. Getting healed to full hitpoints won't get you an arm back.
Also - your GM is being easy on you if anything that saves up healing magic for when it's needed FAST is subpar. Then again..my group tends to go with 3 players, 5 tops if we're lucky. We tend to blast out of heals fast.
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Gregory Connolly wrote: Sadly, in my experience the only thing that makes the heal skill valuable is non-magic settings. If the PC's have access to spells like cure, remove disease, neutralize poison and so on the heal skill is worth a few ranks for roleplaying, but it becomes something for NPCs who lack access to magic. The Heal skill can be valuable in identifying conditions. Which can be rather important in a scenario where clues play a role.
In PFS there is a vanity which makes it possible to use the heal skill in a day job role.
Chris P. Bacon wrote:
I wish there was a way to speed up the time on Treat Deadly Wounds, maybe by accepting a higher DC. Otherwise, a Ring of Sustenance can give you the spare time while camping to use it, but it's still a pain.
Yeah, it'd be nice if there was a "meatball surgery" option at a higher DC that would knock the time down to 10 minutes or less.
Antariuk wrote: @Kalshane: looks like a neat idea, thanks for sharing that one! Happy to help. My players have been enjoying having the option.
StDrake wrote: Broken limbs, cure spells can heal damage, but won't get your bones back in the right position. Getting healed to full hitpoints won't get you an arm back. Which makes sense, except the core rules don't really support broken/missing limbs outside of a few random effects and the Regenerate spell. That said, if you use rules that add those effects, then yes, the Heal skill could have more use.
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