Why are medicine/heal skills always so awful in RPGs, /tg/? They are never worth investing in. They can only heal a tiny amount of HP, they're slower and less reliable than spells/items, and there's usually not very good rules for disease, or Poison for them to exploit(especially since spells do that better anyway).
It's especially weird, as someone who wants to take healing/medicine has to invest skill points into it, whereas any caster with access to healing spells can grab them all but for free.
(Obviously this is especially true in DnD, but there's a lot of non-DnD systems that do it, or similar things.)
>they're slower and less reliable than spells/items
This just comes as part of game balance.
If a skill, which is freely repeatable once purchased, is better than spells or items which are a burned resource, then there is no reason to ever acquire those spells or items. However, if the spells and items are better, there is still a reason to have the skill, such as having your items stolen, or any plethora of reasons to be reluctant to use finite resources at the current moment.
>>44584714
Excellent answer, anon. /thread
>>44584714
Except that items are often required for medicine checks anyway, and even for downtime healing, medicine/heal is worse than one of the clerics infinite healing spells.
>>44584672
>They can only heal a tiny amount of HP, they're slower and less reliable than spells/items
>someone who wants to take healing/medicine has to invest skill points into it, whereas any caster with access to healing spells can grab them all but for free
Sounds realistic
>>44584672
>They can only heal a tiny amount of HP
As they should. See >>44584714
>they're slower and less reliable than spells/items, and there's usually not very good rules for disease, or Poison for them to exploit(especially since spells do that better anyway)
Only in shit systems.
Try playing WHFRPG.
>>44584714
>spells or items which are a burned resource
You still need items for medicine skill checks. In many systems spellcasters can recover their resources much easier than mundane doctor who need to buy supplies or even send expeditions for rare drugs and materials.
>>44584672
>>44584714
I have an alternative answer, for those interested:
What if Medicine/Healing skills also synergized with healing items and powers?
I've never liked the idea that magical healers can just throw some mana on a broken bone and poof it's fixed. Being the son of a nurse and knowing what kind of shit goes on with the body, it really feels like knowing how, where, and when to apply the mana/healing item should really count for something.
>>44584672
Sometimes I healing as weaving positive energy in a patient. Some things are easier to heal like a cut since that's just repairing connections between tissue. Other stuff is harder, like curing ebola since that is attacking the body on a microscopic level and isnt actually part of the body itself. It's even harder if the disease is from a different place than where you are from or experienced with since you have to alter your spell to suit the need. This way battlewounds are easy to heal, but diseases and poisons have more weight.
For instance in my campaign the party are adventurers on a new continent serving a colonial kingdom. If they get attacked by goblins it isnt too hard to heal up. But the diseases on the continent are very different than what they are used to, so adventuring during the rainy season is a risk. Also gives the party healer some fun stuff to do, and has made some fun interactions with local tribes.
One adventure was escorting the cleric around to different villages and convincing the with doctors/ shamans/ medicine men to share some of their knowledge on herbal remedies and such.
>>44585575
I think a part of this is the idea that the source of the problem may be gone, but the body is still weak.
How would we make a rule where the more damage you take, the more you need to rest after an adventure. Offset by constitution and traditional medicine care for example.
As an example in Deeds of Paksenarrion, the MC needs a lot of healing over the chourse of the book. But often after she gets magical healing she needs traditional medicine care to help her as she gains strength in her limbs and replaces blood lost.
I think pairing this with my idea here >>44585920 would be fun. Especially in my setting the rainy season usually prevents most adventuring and construction, making it a good down time.
>>44586043
>How would we make a rule where the more damage you take
Recovering from wounds and diseases lowers your Endurance/Stamina gradually, then it slowly returns to normal.
>>44586137
Maybe you get a endurance/stamina score that matches your Constitution score or modifier (probably score). You lose one point of E/S for each 1/4 or 1/5 of your HP that you lose. Each point takes 1 week to get back. Traditional medicine and good food can shorten this amount of time. At certain levels you start receiving negatives to STR, DEX, and CON checks, carrying capacity, and finally to INT, CHA, and WIS.
>>44584672
Because it's redundant, in D&D of course.
Mos parties will have access to a healer or healing spells.
That being said, in my 5e game I ran a wizard healer who only used medicine skills, the setting was ultra grimdark, like bloodbourne, so I fit right in. The party did not trust my liberal use of leeches at first, but came to rely on my subpar heals as time went on.
>>44586593
