The entry for Emergency Med Packs and normal Med Pack simply state they allow someone to perform a Medicine check without penalty, and refers to the healing rules on the appropriate

page. (p219)

Am I right in thinking that this simply removes all difficulty dice? As this is the only penalty I can see.

The wording suggests it removes ALL, rather than reducing.

Cheers

RD

The penalty that is removed is the increased difficulty for not having the proper tools, if I recall correctly.

Can you (or someone) point me to that in the book? I simply cant find it

I'm away from book, but I believe the penalty is described in the medicine/ heal skill.

That just talks about the various levels of difficulty of checks...

Its the wording on the Gear entry about Medpacks (page 117) states a Medpack lets a allows characters to attempt to heal others using Medicine checks without penalty (see page 219)

Pg 219: Attempting to heal someone without the proper equipment increases the difficulty by 1. So a medpack allows you to heal someone without the penalty of an increased difficulty.

Page 219: "In addition, attempting a Medicine check without the proper equipment (see page 176) i ncreases the difficulty of the check by one ." Table 3-2 on page 113 shows the difficulty of the medical check based on the current wounds in comparison to the wound threshold. If you have a Medpac, you use that difficulty, in addition to getting a boost die. If you don't have a Medpac, then the difficulty is increased by one (and no boost of course). That is, wounds less than or equal to half your wound threshold will become an Average difficulty without the Medpac, instead of Easy; more than half will become Hard, instead of Average; and exceeding wound threshold will become Daunting, instead of Hard.

Ahh I am blind, thankyou

Healing and Wounds are one of the areas or aspects of the game that could stand to use some expansion and refinement. Criticals aren't as much of a speed bump as they should be imo. Bacta Specialist is a fairly weak Talent. It would be nice to see it fleshed out a bit more than it is.

Criticals aren't as much of a speed bump as they should be imo.

IME, they're more of a rumble strip than a speed bump. They get you to pay attention for a moment, but they barely slow you down unless you get one of the highest results on the chart. If you have a Doctor - or anyone with a really good Medicine pool - then they are quickly washed away after the encounter.

I've tried to think up some ways to increase the significance of critical injuries, as well as, raise the attractiveness of actually having a good Doctor in the group. Not just someone with a high Intellect or Medicine skill, but a Doctor. Bacta Specialist is a good segue for that I think. The book contradicts itself on healing Criticals per week as I recall, but I like only one check a week.

Some of the ideas I had, some of which are harsher than others I realize, but again, it's about both encouraging the inclusion of a Doctor and rewarding xp expenditure on the Skills and Talents.

-Only easy Difficulty Criticals can have an attempt made to heal them in the field. All others require appropriate facilities for treatment, med bay, hospital, etc.

-Each Critical injury upgrades the Difficulty of all Medicine checks.

-Critical injuries must be healed in a descending order of severity, so if you have a Hard Critical injury and an Easy, you can't even try to heal the Easy in the field since you can't treat the Hard.

-Bacta Specialist - For every rank of Bacta Specialist one additional Critical Heal check can made per week, as well as, each rank Downgrades the Difficulty of Heal checks.

Just ideas I have been thinking about.

Any single Crit isn't a huge deal, but once you start taking your 3rd or 4th crit in a row that is when they start to become serious.

And my character went 2 gaming sessions and 6 medical checks before we successfully got rid of my Bowled Over crit. The doctors on Ryloth suck!

Just a question (I'm away from the book)- how long does a med check (or repair check on a droid) take? Can someone 'heal' wounds in a round?

There is no time frame put on it. Use common sense would be my advice. You are allowed a Med check at the conclusion of an encounter.

During a structured encounter, a Medicine check is an action , just like any other skill check (it'd likely be first aid, or something else that would take less than a minute to do). It can be performed once per character per encounter. Page 219: "Each character may only receive one Medicine check each encounter, as there is only so much good first aid can do to help a character."

Outside combat, Medicine checks can still be performed. If it's during a social encounter, you get one Medicine check. During an exploration encounter, you get one Medicine check. "Once per scene" would be another way of interpreting the "once per encounter" rule. So if you're describing yourself as providing long-term care for your patient, make one Medicine check to represent your overnight care to supplement his natural healing. As 2P51 says, use common sense.

Same goes for Mechanics checks. IIRC, there's a line somewhere in the CRB that essentially says to use the healing rules, substituting Mechanics as the skill to heal droid PCs and using a tool kit instead of a medpac.

-Only easy Difficulty Criticals can have an attempt made to heal them in the field. All others require appropriate facilities for treatment, med bay, hospital, etc.

I'm not sure about your other suggestions, but I like this one, as it fits narratively (more difficult injuries take more time to fix).

However, there are some crits that need to be taken care of immediately. My group's heavy-hitter got "The End Is Nigh" crit one time, and the whole rest of the group went to work, distracting baddies so the Doctor could rush in safely and save her. Thing is, that's a Daunting crit, yet if it's not taken care of right now, it means death at the end of the next round.

So perhaps instead of they can't be healed at all, perhaps they take X rounds to fix, where X=difficulty. So the above could still happen, but the rest of the group has to protect the Doc and her patient for a few rounds while she's performing live-saving field-trauma-surgery.

I'm ok with dead myself although sounds like a good reason for a GM to require a group concerned with that possibility to buy a Cerebral Stabilizer from Dangerous Covenants.

The Cerebral Stabilizer is awesome. I just wish there was a way to remove the effects of a crit while not healing the crit. Such as bleeding out. There should be a way to stop the bleading but still have the crit remaining on the character, for if they get hit by another crit. Maybe have each heal check reduce the difficulty to remove heal the crit by one and you have to work the crits down to easy to get rid of them. For example, you heal a daunting crit. Reduce the crit to hard and remove any ill effects from the crit. A week later the medic can try again, and on success the hard will become an average. Would increase the importance of Bacta to remove crits.

...as well as, raise the attractiveness of actually having a good Doctor in the group. Not just someone with a high Intellect or Medicine skill, but a Doctor.

There is nothing unattractive about a good Doctor. My group has never once touched a bacta tank or anything heavier than a stimpack since their medic is so good at his job. I've been looking at ways to nerf it, in fact, since it seems like nothing that happens in an encounter really stays with them all the way to the next combat.

...as well as, raise the attractiveness of actually having a good Doctor in the group. Not just someone with a high Intellect or Medicine skill, but a Doctor.

There is nothing unattractive about a good Doctor. My group has never once touched a bacta tank or anything heavier than a stimpack since their medic is so good at his job. I've been looking at ways to nerf it, in fact, since it seems like nothing that happens in an encounter really stays with them all the way to the next combat.

I think Doctor is one of those things where, because of stimpacks, it's easy to get by without a Doctor. People probably think the 15 wounds you can get a day from stimpacks in a day is enough. It's like playing D&D 4e without a healer. Everyone can get some healing (healing surges and potions) and it's not terrible, especially if the GM tailors the adventures towards a party without a healer. Not to mention that a lot of people play this game with only limited combats. Why do you need a healer when you just run away from any fight anyway? Don't need a healer after social encounters. Things like that. Which is why a Doctor doesn't seem too attractive at first glance.

That being said, I completly agree that a Doctor is super awesome good and almost too good. A couple ranks in Surgeon are amazing. Couple that with a high intelligence and a few ranks in Medicine and you're unstopable. Our party almost never uses any stimpacks beyond the free one in the medkit. Our Medic's few ranks in Surgeon and Stimpack Specialization is enough to keep us fighting.

...as well as, raise the attractiveness of actually having a good Doctor in the group. Not just someone with a high Intellect or Medicine skill, but a Doctor.

There is nothing unattractive about a good Doctor. My group has never once touched a bacta tank or anything heavier than a stimpack since their medic is so good at his job. I've been looking at ways to nerf it, in fact, since it seems like nothing that happens in an encounter really stays with them all the way to the next combat.

Did I say unattractive? I think I said "raise the attractiveness".

The Doctor does seem less attractive to me compared to Medic.

My opinion is that the Doctor is more for the game that has a central base of operations (like a city or ship) so that the players can go hide out or recover or just spend all their money in some casino or brothel. However, with AoR the Medic is expected to make due with what supplies they can get from the Alliance and in the field. However, they are also expected to get soldiers up and back in the fight as fast as possible and not to concerned with long term care. However, a blend of the two and comparison also makes the Doctor seem on the weak side but I am betting if they introduce a Force Healer or Buffer (such as a Battlemaster) they will make bot those two seem weak. Also it is about the structure of the game and working with the players and the gm to determine whether a Medic or a Doctor is best for your group.

Doctors can always pull double duty with their high intellect. Be the face of the group if they don't have someone else to do that.

The Doctor does seem less attractive to me compared to Medic.

I looked closely at both Medic and Doctor tonight. I actually prefer the Doctor specialization, myself. IMO, the Medic loses too many of the things that I think make the Doctor great.