Can an ally help end persistent damage on another character or creature?
My elf monk took an acid arrow to the face in a game a little while ago, was knocked out, and was dealing with the dying condition, recovery checks, AND the persistent damage. So naturally, the question came up. One of my fellow players quoted rules saying that an aid or assist action could be used. We were on Roll20, so I'm not sure what source she was quoting from. However, I have not been able to find any such rule for general persistent damage, only BLEED persistent damage.
Can someone help me find the general rule for an ally ending persistent damage on another character or creature (regardless of type of damage), if indeed one exists at all? I suspect the helpful player may have been reading altered/expanded rules text from a 3rd-party source or something. I even checked errata, thinking that maybe the rule I found had been expanded, but that didn't appear to be the case.
You can take steps to help yourself recover from persistent damage, or an ally can help you, allowing you to attempt an additional flat check before the end of your turn. This is usually an activity requiring 2 actions, and it must be something that would reasonably improve your chances (as determined by the GM). For example, you might try to smother a flame, wash off acid, or use Medicine to Administer First Aid to stanch bleeding. This allows you to attempt an extra flat check immediately.
The GM decides how your help works, using the following examples as guidelines.
- Reduce the DC of the flat check to 10 for a particularly appropriate type of help, such as dousing you in water to put out flames.
- Automatically end the condition due to the type of help, such as healing that restores you to your maximum HP to end persistent bleed damage, or submerging yourself in a lake to end persistent fire damage.
- Alter the number of actions required to help you if the means the helper uses are especially efficient or remarkably inefficient.
Persistent damage runs its course and automatically ends after a certain amount of time as fire burns out, blood clots, and the like. The GM determines when this occurs, but it usually takes 1 minute.
Page 621, sideline box in CRB.
Thanks! I wonder why I had such difficulty finding it. I could have sworn I started by looking up Persistent Damage, and even saw a sidebar, but the wording seems different now.
Were the rules repeated elsewhere with slightly different (more limited) wording, or am I just losing my mind?