I think the main problem the slicer is going to run into is "defensive slicing." Once again, a significant portion of their talent tree is devoted to such a narrow aspect of a skill. But at least you can't defend your computer systems with a 25 credit common item!

Truth.... but I doubt I'll worry. I mostly picked up the Tree for Stealth In Class (pays for itself really) and a couple of "low hanging Talents" (Grit and Bypass Security so far).

I don't see my group as the "defensive" type... but if I ever have a dearth of EXP laying around, I'll no doubt fill out the tree (I like a few of the top tier abilities it has). I'm just doubt we'll be playing that long.

Another thing that bugs me with the Doctor is that all of the "natural" talents that reroll (Natural Charmer, Natural Negotiator, Natural Brawler, etc) allow for at least two skills - except the Doctor's. He gets only one rerolled skill - Medicine.

You could talk your ST in letting you get 2 rerolls maybe?

I spend more time making drugs than I do healing anyone, so naturally I'm going to be frustrated that my talents are revolved around healing rather than generic uses of medicine that can be used for making drugs.

Are you making these drugs out of combat? Or is this just the Stim App? If not... you might talk the ST into letting you make Stims and such, so you can at least be serving to cut costs. Might also talk the ST into allowing your Surgeon boost to apply to stabbing people with Stim Packs, at least then the Healing is kinda coming from you...

Are you making these drugs out of combat? Or is this just the Stim App? If not... you might talk the ST into letting you make Stims and such, so you can at least be serving to cut costs. Might also talk the ST into allowing your Surgeon boost to apply to stabbing people with Stim Packs, at least then the Healing is kinda coming from you...

There are talents to do that last part with stim packs in the Medic's tree, so I shouldn't get it for free. I just do it as a maneuver so everyone else can keep shooting.

And yeah, I am making them out of combat. I specialize in knockout drugs. Our scout slips spiked mickeys into our target's drinks when we need to extract someone from public places. I also make knockout darts and the equivalent to chloroform cloths for close range work. It seems like such an easy use of medicine that it's a real shame they decided to go with such a limited aspect of medicine in the talents.

Although there is an argument to be made that stim application is the drug creation... At this point after this conversation I'm much less dissatisfied with the talent tree. It's really only the cheap and abundant stim packs that bothers me at the moment.

I am tempted to try and design a new specialization though. Give it talents to create drugs, maybe something like "Bedside Manner" that would utilize the doctor's social skills to gain a blue die on charm checks, snake the scholar talent and change it to institutions of medicine, or perhaps something that would aid in dealing with criminal figures who would want a street doctor... could be interesting.

I am tempted to try and design a new specialization though. Give it talents to create drugs, maybe something like "Bedside Manner" that would utilize the doctor's social skills to gain a blue die on charm checks, snake the scholar talent and change it to institutions of medicine, or perhaps something that would aid in dealing with criminal figures who would want a street doctor... could be interesting.

I know when I'm done writing up Droid Wrangler, I'll be posting it for critique.

Kavadh, I'm glad you're able to find new perspective the Doctor tree and that you're group has learned to embrace Stim Application. Some final thoughts on the healing talents. I'm sure my group plays a lot differently than a lot of other groups out there. If a character doesn't take much more than 15 wounds in a day (maximum healing from stims) and has money to keep buying stims, then the Doctor tree doesn't do much for you. Healing better only goes so far when you aren't getting that hurt. It's like playing a pilot when you're only in your starship every once in a while. Your mileage depends on how much it comes up in your game. In my group, adding a Doctor was like going to easy mode. We never worried about stims and were always at full health, even while taking a lot of damage through many fights. That being said, I think that Medic is a better tree for healing because I'd rather have better stims than Bacta healing. Doctor is alright if you're willing to also dump XP into the Social skills and figure out something to do in combat. That being said, I think Politico was a good move since you guys suffer strain more than wounds.

Hey Kavadh, have you checked out Far Horizons? The new super talent might also be what you're looking for with heal checks. You can reduce the difficulty down to easy to career skill checks. There are upgrades to reduce it to simple and other nifty stuff. Might be worth looking at for solving your Medicine woes.

Hey Kavadh, have you checked out Far Horizons? The new super talent might also be what you're looking for with heal checks. You can reduce the difficulty down to easy to career skill checks. There are upgrades to reduce it to simple and other nifty stuff. Might be worth looking at for solving your Medicine woes.

No, my local gaming store doesn't have it yet.

But I'm more interested in the other talent I think. I don't heal enough to worry about it - the free stimpack from my medpack is usually enough to handle our healing needs. I am much more the face than the doctor. I use the socials far more often and to much greater effect, and there is far more roleplay in situations using Charm, Negotiate or Leadership than there is in healing medicine rolls.

That's what I'm frustrated with more than anything, stimpack accessibility obviating so much of the need for healing. But this thread has helped me immensely, in that it helped me pinpoint precisely what it was that I felt the Doctor tree was missing. So now I say - Hey! I don't work for FFG, but I am a game designer! I'll just make my own Street Chemist specialization! My GM is on board with my basic outline so far, although he changed the class skills I'd picked. I'd picked Knowledge (Underworld), Knowledge (Xenology), Medicine and Charm - He had me swap Charm for Negotiation.

Though I'll admit that one is tempting for those politico charm checks. :>

Kavadh, I'm unsure of the rules, can you take more than one of those super Talents? If so, take them both!

When I made my first EotE character I wasn't impressed with the Doctor spec. I thought it was a mish-mash of a diluted mess. The skills didn't synergize with any of the talents. The main skill which you get talents for (Medicine) uses Int while the rest of the skills use several different stats. This conversation has helped me better understand the Doctor spec as well. Sure, there are no talents to improve your social skills, but that's the secret objective of this spec. You can't look at it as a Doctor, just a Doctor, and nothing but a Doctor. I think a player has better success with the class if they look at it as a Face first and Doctor second. Take a 3 in Presence, Inteligence, and Cunning. (Perhaps a 4 in Int if your Species can allow it, since Medicine is the point for Doctor.) Then buy up the Social skills until you're a competent Face for the party. Charm, Deception, Leadership, Negotiation, and Streetwise. Perhaps even Cool. The true strength and versitility of this Spec is the skills, not the Talents. Spend the time and XP to get those skills up to 3 or 4. That's how this class was designed to be played. The only social skill you're missing out on is Coercion, which you can get if you dip into Politico. Same can be said about the Scholar and the new Colonist careers. If you want to be the Face for the party, play a Colonist and buy the skills. The talents can be secondary until you get your talents in line. This realization just hit me thanks to this conversation. Almost makes me want to play another Colonist.

Good luck on your Chemist spec! I hope it works out the way you'd like. I take it AoR Engineer: Scientest didn't quite fit your needs either. If I had to guess, Street Chemist sounds like someone who knows how to make/cut drugs and get them moved onto the street. I enjoy stories of a good guy chemist caught up in the underworld like Breaking Bad and Layer Cake. Were you thinking of sharing the spec on here? I suppose that's a topic for another thread now that we've diverted far away from simply discussing Heal Checks.

So now I say - Hey! I don't work for FFG, but I am a game designer! I'll just make my own Street Chemist specialization! My GM is on board with my basic outline so far, although he changed the class skills I'd picked. I'd picked Knowledge (Underworld), Knowledge (Xenology), Medicine and Charm - He had me swap Charm for Negotiation.