I've noticed a lot of curiosities surrounding the Medicae skill, and perhaps some are not as unusual as it seems...

First off, it seems fairly scarce, as far as abilities go. Considering that Psykers can take 'Heal' at level one, and it's better at healing than all but the most talented Medicae (Though it risks Daemon-ism...), it seems odd that nobody can take Medicae until level 2, and then it's only one class not known for having high intelligence. On the other hand, at level 4 Adepts can suddenly take all 4 upgrades involving Medicae, going from nothing to a +30 with bonus healing in 400 Xp.

Meanwhile, a Medkit is the only 'Official' medical tool, and it gives a +20 to Medicae tests. Since it only effectively costs 30 thrones, there's absolutely no reason not to buy it. (Yes, officially it costs 150, but it comes with 6 free doses of Stimm which normally will cost you 120 Thrones.)

So, while most classes can hardly do a thing for Medicae, taking forever to get anywhere, other times you can get to a +50 bonus in the space of 30 thrones and 400 XP.

It just seems weirdly misbalanced. It's not *unbalanced*, just damned odd.

I think the idea was that, originally, a Psyker would not use their abilities all too often due to the risk of causing Warp Phenomena. Some characters - such as the Battle Sister I played for a bit - would also flat-out refuse to be healed by such unnatural means; this is 40k after all, and psykers are not your friendly D&D mage from next door, but instead barely tolerated witches feared and hated by the general populace.

The main reason, though, is probably that for the Psyker it is a class ability, whereas Medicae is a Skill that - with GM permission and Elite advances - can be learned by anyone. If you have access to the Inquisitor's Handbook, you could also play a Sister Hospitaller who should make for a fairly efficient healer that also has access to some other useful abilities.

On an unrelated note, what is 'Unnatural Intelligence' good for? (Or similar abilities like, say, Unnatural Perception or Unnatural Fellowship.)

On an unrelated note, what is 'Unnatural Intelligence' good for? (Or similar abilities like, say, Unnatural Perception or Unnatural Fellowship.)

Gives a +10 bonus to all Intelligence/Perception/Fellowship tests. Also useful for some enemies (Marabas in Ascension can summon a number of Daemons equal to his intelligence bonus, per encounter).

On an unrelated note, what is 'Unnatural Intelligence' good for? (Or similar abilities like, say, Unnatural Perception or Unnatural Fellowship.)

Gives a +10 bonus to all Intelligence/Perception/Fellowship tests. Also useful for some enemies (Marabas in Ascension can summon a number of Daemons equal to his intelligence bonus, per encounter).

Is that in the Errata or something? Because according to the book, an Unnatural characteristic doubles the bonus. (IE, your Strength Bonus becomes 8 instead of 4.) I also see a bit about opposes tests and how you double your degrees of success during those, but I don't see opposed Intelligence checks very often.

Sorry, you're right. Thought the comment about opposed tests applied to ALL tests. I misread. Though I suppose it might still come up in plenty of tests (at least for Perception and Fellowship), since half the fellowship skills are opposed tests (Scrutiny, Deceive, etc.)

I'm just thinking, Adepts can take Unnatural Intelligence... I just haven't the foggiest clue what it would be good for unless he tried to run a clinic. (Since you can only care for a number of patients equal to your Intelligence bonus, and then you start taking -10s to your Medicae tests.)

Other than circumstances where you're caring for an entire party of players plus half a dozen NPCs, though, I can't see this being relevant.

The Unnatural Characteristic bonus to tests is relatively weak.

The Inquisitor's Handbook adds the rule for lowering the difficulty non-opposed checks by 1 for every level of Unnatural Characteristics Multiplier. Basically works out as a +10 for each level you have of unnatural stats (possibly even marginally better, depending on how you read the rules for modifiers and difficulties, and how many bonuses you can get towards the skills).

On an unrelated note, what is 'Unnatural Intelligence' good for? (Or similar abilities like, say, Unnatural Perception or Unnatural Fellowship.)

Gives a +10 bonus to all Intelligence/Perception/Fellowship tests. Also useful for some enemies (Marabas in Ascension can summon a number of Daemons equal to his intelligence bonus, per encounter).

Is that in the Errata or something? Because according to the book, an Unnatural characteristic doubles the bonus. (IE, your Strength Bonus becomes 8 instead of 4.) I also see a bit about opposes tests and how you double your degrees of success during those, but I don't see opposed Intelligence checks very often.

I know that in Deathwatch, having an unnatural characteristic also grants +10 on unopposed tests and grants +1 degrees of success on opposed tets.

Is that not the same in Dark Heresy? If not, it may be something worth looking into since the actual Int bonus is only helpful in limited situations.

Edit: I just read Borithan's comment which is pretty close to this.