Expanded Heal skill

[Maxus]

I want to get this out of my head before it permanently takes root, so here's some ideas for the Heal skill...

-An exploit* of Trained Healer that grants you reduced DCs on common heal checks, and lets you do more stuff with Heal, as well as granting instant respect and helpfulness to

-Use a healing kit to let someone continue to gain hit points while they're doing stuff.

-Provide a burst of healing.

-I like Bleach's idea of converting lethal damage to non-lethal, only I'd have it apply to both first aid checks and have a check that takes a few minutes, just to do a bigger chunk of it. (you know the scene: Someone takes a hit during a fight, they receive some attention post-battle, and they're a little sore but they're otherwise able to function).

-Username17's right, as he so often is. Heal should be used for preserving and reviving people.

-Maybe instant bandages could be bought/made. It depends on how advanced your DnD society is. I mean, they've invented matches.
(And I'm getting tired of everyone going on about how DnD society *has* to be so primitive there's no way they'd have this stuff. It amazes me how people will quite seriously incorporate world-bending magic into a society, but will choke on a slightly anachronistic development of society. Anyway.)

*Has anyone ever thought about how exploits have been ignored ever since Races of War said they could be used for Exotic Weapon Proficiencies and other things you could acquire in-game. I'm trying to think of some.

[Captain_Bleach]

I'd recommend at certain ranks, expand upon uses; make Heal able to remove ability drain, or takes a move action opposed to a full-round action for some uses. Have it so that diseases normally curable only by magic be able to be cured by someone with enough ranks. At 23 ranks in Heal, your very existence should be a scientific breakthrough in the medical community. Healer's Kits may be able to function like medpacs or healing potions.
Should there be a drawback due to it being non-magical, as one of my players may complain that "it takes the edge off of magic?" Well, in my opinion, magic in D&D is teh roxxorz already, so it could afford some competition.
These are just ideas and theories, of course.
With enough ranks, you may be able to heal the undead and creatures without discernible anatomies. Picture the mad scientist, sowing back up his corpses after a deadly battle.

[Maxus]

Yeah, I posted this, and then saw you'd put up that list of spell effects.

Maybe one of us should plea to the Fence Builder to consolidate these two...

[Crissa]

Combat ends, I use Heal on people based upon their negative damage, and poof, they're back to life.

Makes the -10 rule more likely... As you can take a ten and make it. Take a twenty and they've died before you finish. Any more damage and gosh you're gonna hafta be a good healer to do anything about it...

-Crissa

[ckafrica]

This is something I wrote up but never implemented for whatever it is worth (which could be nothing):

Resusitation: Keep track of damage past death and ongoing damage from grievous wounds past death. On a heal roll of dc [(10 + current neg. HP)-(HD+Con bonus of victim)], the character goes back to -1 but is still bleeding at the rate prior to his death. healing spells can assist providing +3/lvl bonus to the heal role.

[JonSetanta]

I vote for the Cap'n's converting lethal to nonlethal. That fits with preserving while making warriors combat-ready.
Even low level Experts and Rogues could function as field medics without using the supernatural. Hell, anyone could.

[Captain_Bleach]

1198107959[/unixtime]]I vote for the Cap'n's converting lethal to nonlethal. That fits with preserving while making warriors combat-ready.
Even low level Experts and Rogues could function as field medics without using the supernatural. Hell, anyone could.

I think that it could be interesting. I'm just biased, but anything that knocks down the monopoly Vancian magic has on character effectiveness is O.K. in my book.

[Maxus]

What sounds right for that?

Base the hit points on every couple of points your check exceeds a DC? For that, 10 sounds too low, and 15 a bit too high...Maybe 12.

[Prak]

well, as to the new capabilities based on ranks... why not write up all skills like scaling feats, in that what you can do with a skill scales to how many ranks you have?

so a person with 4 ranks in heal can patch you up and give you a lolly, then send you on your way to fght the big bad orcs, while someone with 18 ranks, or so, can haul your rotting corpse over to his table and return you to at least some semblance of life.

[JonSetanta]

Convert lethal to nonlethal amount: Heal check result + (2 x Heal ranks)

Dunno about checks or nothin', that's not my forte.

[Captain_Bleach]

I looked over War of the Lance again, and it turned out that the DC was much higher: DC 20 + damage dealt to Heal. Plus you can only Heal the worst wound of the bunch. So if you got 100 points of damage from a claw, you can't sow up the minor scrapes.