Heal Skill Buff? (3.5)

[Sypher667]

So, I was looking at the rules for the "Treat Injury" skill in D20 Modern, and it actually lets you restore hit points with a successful check;

DC 15, restore 1d4 hit points as a full round action, can only be used 1/patient/day

I would like to add this clause into the current Heal skill in D&D 3.5. Im aware it wouldn't be very useful at higher levels, but at lower levels would make some difference, even more so in low magic campaigns.

Whats the Playground think?

[Just to Browse]

That's not enough of a buff to warrant any number of skill points in Heal. You're healing 2.5 HP on average per person, and a level 1 barbarian will have 14-16 HP. It hardly helps much at all.

HP equal to your ranks in heal as a standard action would be nice, with no skill check required.

[Silva Stormrage]

That's not enough of a buff to warrant any number of skill points in Heal. You're healing 2.5 HP on average per person, and a level 1 barbarian will have 14-16 HP. It hardly helps much at all.

HP equal to your ranks in heal as a standard action would be nice, with no skill check required.

I think it should be double your ranks in heal that takes at least one minute to use. I don't see someone being able to actually heal a knife wound as a standard action non magically.

[Dragon Star]

I think it should be double your ranks in heal that takes at least one minute to use. I don't see someone being able to actually heal a knife wound as a standard action non magically.

That true, but still unrealistic. Even if someone patches you up after a battle, you arent really healed. I would say that it's temporary hot points, lasting one day per healees con mod.

[Silva Stormrage]

That true, but still unrealistic. Even if someone patches you up after a battle, you arent really healed. I would say that it's temporary hot points, lasting one day per healees con mod.

How bout it heals the lethal damage but it doesn't heal nonlethal damage?

[Ashtagon]

How bout it heals the lethal damage but it doesn't heal nonlethal damage?

It would make more sense for first aid to treat the non-lethal damage.

[absolmorph]

That true, but still unrealistic. Even if someone patches you up after a battle, you arent really healed. I would say that it's temporary hot points, lasting one day per healees con mod.

Or roll xd4, getting higher with a higher heal check, healing the full result, but the target takes nonlethal damage equal to half the amount healed. Creatures immune to nonlethal damage only get healed for half the result.

[Mulletmanalive]

I use the following, which is basically the same line of thought [there's actually more to this, as in my games, it gets harder to heal as you get more damaged, but this is the gist]:

Heal:
DC 15 heals 1d4+Wis damage. This takes a Standard action and may be done once per encounter per character [basically, you can only patch someone up after they've been injured]. Doing so provokes an AoO. You MAY take 20 on this, despite having a 1/encounter limit.

Increasing the DC by +5 heals +1d4 damage.

There's a skill trick type thing that increases the healing dice by one size, which costs 2 skill points and may be taken once per 5 levels you possess [there's also the option of speeding this up and getting them for free with a prestige class].

Finally, there's also a feat which adds +1 dice and your Heal ranks to the amount healed and removes the Attack of Opportunity that you would otherwise suffer

This was used to make magical healing into a luxury rather than an essential in my low magic games. Any good to you?

[Sypher667]

This was used to make magical healing into a luxury rather than an essential in my low magic games. Any good to you?

I like it. Thats a lot better than my simple change. Thanks.

[Pechvarry]

I see quite a bit of discussion about how realistic it is to mundanely "heal HP". But that really doesn't make sense because you're technically not treating the wound: you're treating the HP.

When HP itself is such a nebulous approximation of character health, the reality of what splints and bandages can do really has no place in the conversation.

[Rocketmoose]

I see quite a bit of discussion about how realistic it is to mundanely "heal HP". But that really doesn't make sense because you're technically not treating the wound: you're treating the HP.

When HP itself is such a nebulous approximation of character health, the reality of what splints and bandages can do really has no place in the conversation.

Truth here. At least in my campaigns characters aren't actually taking serious physical damage until they're at about 1/4 health. Until then they're becoming tired, with hp as a gauge of their endurance. For example, when a fighter "takes" 15 points of damage from 40, he's really just blocked a strong hit with his shield and might figure that this guy could outmatch him. When he gets to 10, that's when the real stabs through the gut and cuts to the hamstring occur.

'til then, I think having a heal check like the ones suggested above is no problem, at least not for how myself and my friends explain damage. Bandaging a cut to the arm, applying salve to a burn, wrapping a sprained ankle, all that counts as "hp" when you treat damage that way.

[Dsurion]

I like the additional feature Conan d20 uses for Heal:

Short-term Care: Providing short-term care means spending 10 minutes cleaning and sewing up wounds, applying herbal poultices and so on. After each combat in which a creature is wounded, up to one character may give him
short-term care. If the Heal check is successful, the patient regains (one per character level) + Con modifier in hit points (minimum one).

Still nothing great, but not entirely useless.

[Prime32]

My solution: Base magical healing on Heal.