7.16 Medicine (Int)

The Medicine skill represents your practical understanding of how to tend to the wounds of living creatures. In order to use this skill to aid a creature, you must be able to see and touch it, and the creature must be alive.

Many Medicine checks require the use of a medical kit, which contains items like bandages and salves. If you do not have a proper kit, you may be able to improvise from your surroundings. Generally, this imposes a penalty of at least -5 to the Medicine check.

7.16.1 Common Medicine Tasks

Accelerate Recovery: You can make a difficulty value 15 Medicine check using a medical kit to accelerate the recovery of up to four creatures from among yourself and your allies during a long rest. Success means that each creature removes an additional vital wound (see Removing Vital Wounds). For every 10 points by which you succeed, each creature removes an additional vital wound.

First Aid: As a standard action, you can make a Medicine check using a medical kit to prevent a creature from dying from a vital wound with a negative vital roll. The difficulty value is equal to 10 for a vital roll of 0. The DV increases by 5 for each point by which the vital roll is below 0. Success means that the target treats the vital roll as a 1 instead of its original value. This changes the effect of the vital wound, generally preventing the target from dying. For details, see Vital Wounds.

Identify Affliction: You can make a Medicine check to identify a poison, disease, or similar affliction currently affecting a creature. The difficulty value is equal to 5 + twice the rank of the poison or disease.

Treat Disease: With five minutes of work, you can make a Medicine check to treat a creature that is currently diseased. The next time it is attacked by its current disease, it can use your Medicine check or its Fortitude defense, whichever is higher.

Treat Poison: As a standard action, you can make a Medicine check to treat a creature that is currently poisoned. The next time it is attacked by its current poison, it can use your Medicine check or its Fortitude defense, whichever is higher.