Chirurgeon / Alchemist question

[Cassandra Silvania]

Hey all. So I have a question.. well maybe a couple.

I have a friend who's playing Alchemist and wanted to use the Chirurgeon ability that lets you use Crafting checks instead of Medicine for untrained and trained uses.

Now with the way it reads, to me anyways, it doesn't seem like it would work for feats such as Battle Medicine (even though you get that for having trained Medicine anyways), or for getting Ward Medic (which requires an expert in Medicine).

So, if that is the case, we're trying to figure out what the purpose of Chirurgeon is and how they're used. It seems a bit conflicting and doesn't make the skill option look that appealing but maybe we're not seeing it.

Any help regarding this is appreciated. Thanks!

[Sigfried mcWild]

The main benefit of the chirugeon feature is that you get to use int instead of wis to heal.

You still need medicine as a prerequisite for the feats.

[graystone]

Sigfried mcWild wrote:

The main benefit of the chirugeon feature is that you get to use int instead of wis to heal.

You still need medicine as a prerequisite for the feats.

And for the Treat Wounds DC cutoffs. And you don't get tool bonuses since you have to use healers tools and those provide no bonuses to craft checks.

In the end, your better off just focusing on medicine if you want to heal. An alchemist doesn't need the Craft skill unless you plan to spend cash in downtime to make consumables.

[shroudb]

RAW it doesn't do much.
You still have to raise medicine (often before crafting to qualify for skill feats) so it's only really useful for levels 1-2. Level 3+ your medicine is higher proficiency (if you want to focus on your healing) and you also get item bonuses, so it's a wash either way (12wis will have the same modifier as 18int).

I personally houserule it to use Crafting for all purposes of medicine,
like rank, skill feat prerequisite, and etc.

You can ask your GM since it's not unreasonable and seems to be within the "spirit" of the ability.