As a disclaimer, I'm not certain if this is a rules question or not, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask here -

Now, I've only played through one campaign completely, although there have been a few minor sessions here and there that I've participated in and I've noticed one thing in particular that is troublesome: staying alive.

The only major campaign I was a part of I was a Biomancer and thus was able to stitch wounds quite handily, but without that ability all we had was our Tech-Priest who kept failing his 1 Wound repairs with Medicae (and thus actually hurting people). Is this really the only choice for a party? Get a Biomancer or die?

Other than having extremely frequent hospital visits, I don't see how this game functions without a Psyker healing the party.

Don't get shot in the first place?

What Millandson said. Dark Heresy is one of those highly lethal systems with minimal to no instant healing available, so prevention is the way to go. Check for ambushes, keep alert, use terrain to your advantage, and if nothing else, make use of every last bit of cover you can find . If your group plays intelligently, you should be able to get through most situations without getting too seriously injured if my own experience means anything. As a last resort, you can spend a fate point to instantly recover 1d5 wounds, so keep that in mind.

What they said. The best way not to die is to not be killed in the first place... plus:

On healing, I believe the Tech-Priest was not really going full tilt medicae if he was failing all his medicae rolls. The first thing, after getting medicae, any self respecting medic is gonna want to do is get a Medicae Kit for a +20 to all medicae tests. Next, once he hits rank 3, he should have really gone after the medicae Mechadindrite for another +10 to medicae tests for a total of +30. Stack that on top of an Int of 35-40 and he'll have a 65-70 default, though he shouldn't stop there either. He should also be teaching one of the other cell members medicae as well so that fella could by it as an elite advance and assist him for another +10 (now 75-80 base) not to mention it's handy to have another medic about for those times when the medic needs a medic. While not a guaranteed thing, but if at all possible, being a tech priest, he should have also tried to find a way to get a medicae skull for yet another +10 (85-90 base) all the while boosting that good ol' cheep Int score as high as it would go.

I guess also, if he was trying to patch folks back together in septic ditches instead of taking them somewhere more sanitary and easer for him to work, that might have been another area he was not quite living up to all that he could be.

Don't get into fights unless absolutely necessary. And when you do, go about them in a smart way that involves cooperation and strategy on your group's part rather han trying to act like a bunch of proud glory hogs that "want to get stuck in as fast as possible and make the first kill".

Remember, you are humans in the 41st millenium, not space marines. Your lives are expected to be very short and brutal from the get go, so if you want to stay alive, then be smart and don't go thinking that you're space marines as soon as bullets starts to fill the air...

Thanks for the responses, I liked all of them.

I was honestly expecting something like, "If you're staying alive in Dark Heresy you're doing it wrong", but your answers were very helpful. So thanks.

Another suggestion or two:

Fight dirty, real dirty. If you know where the baddies are, set up an ambush with some nice explosive booby traps to soften them up while you pick off the survivors from heavy cover. Got a scum who's savvy with the local gangers? Get him to work with the gangers and convince/pay them to bust in and fight your fight for you, or at least distract and soften up your opponents so you can get the quick kill in on them. Maye you have a cleric whose great at rabble-rousing. Nothing quite takes out monsters on hills like angry mobs roused to rage by a fire-eyed preacher... or again, they can offer up a great distraction and soften up the target considerably. Got a real hard-case that you have to take down? Hire some mercs, or get your arbiter buddy to call in some favors and organize a Kill-Team to back you up or, again, soften the target.

No one said you had to purge these heretical evils your self. You're just supposed to make sure they get purged... if that. hell, you might just be there to gather intell so the strike teams know who to hit and where.

Remember, you're Agents of the Throne. It's your job to seek out and eliminate heresy by any means you can, not go out and quickly die in a blaze of stupid yet manly glory (that's the Imperial Guards job).

Graver said:

A Good-Quality Cortex Implant is another advantageous option for medics - the Unnatural Intelligence (x2) it grants doubles the amount of healing you grant to the lightly injured (to the point where a lightly-injured ally usually ceases being injured regardless of how few wounds were left - Int 50 isn't too hard to achieve for a Tech-Priest or Adept, so an Int Bonus of 10, which in turn means you heal 10 wounds a time on lightly wounded patients), and makes all Intelligence-based skill tests, like Medicae, one-step easier (essentially an extra +10 there and then).

Adepts in the Chirurgeon rank make very good healers, having access to Medicae, Medicae +10, Talented (Medicae) and the Master Chirurgeon talent for 100xp each, and potential access to Unnatural Intelligence as an advance at rank 8. The Tech-Priest can just about edge ahead by merit of tools (Medicae Mechadendrite is something that no-one else can get), and because easy access to Tech-Use grants a +10 bonus to Medicae Tests when you're trying to fit bionics to replace those carelessly lost limbs, as per the Inquisitor's Handbook.

The Adepta Sororitas, when going down the Sister Hospitaller path comes in a close third, with healing-based Acts of Faith that significantly speed up the healing process, the ability to completely remove Fatigue from several allies at once, and the ability to Burn a Fate Point to bring a recently-dead character back to life (subject to there being enough character to heal in the first place). Their higher-cost Intelligence advances, and the slightly higher cost of Talented (Medicae) and Master Chirurgeon, not to mention spreading the Medicae advances over three ranks (while the Adept has them mostly in one place) pushes them down a little, but they're still exceptional healers.

[disclaimer: this entire post is written without any roleplaying considerations. It is all about the strategy game]

One major effect on survivability in combat is fatepoints. Not only is each FP a potentional 1d5 wounds, but it can also be a reroll on that failed dodge. The homeworlds and backgrounds that gives you lots of fatepoints are so much better for survival than a few extra points of toughness or a handful of wounds. Voidborn and Mara landing massacre (guardsmen only) are two such favourites.

When I started GMing a pretty combat heavy campaign I thought a lot about how FPs work, and I made several changes. First,I did away with the huge randomness of how many fatepoints each character start with, because they make so much difference in survivability. I started with separating FPs into permanent and temporary.

The permanent FPs are given in equal measure to all characters (usually two or three) at creation and they are mostly useable as extra lives (or to be burned by Pure Faith abilities). In short they do all the things that burning a FP usually does, and they do not come back easily.

The temporary fatepoints are used for all the normal rerolls (this has turned out to mostly be dodges) and regaining wounds etc. These reset at the start of each session, just as PS normally do. You calculate your amoung of FPs by starting with the maximum possible number of your origin (feral worlder: 2, mind cleansed 4, most everyone else 3), with bonus from backgrounds, divinations etc added just as normal. This is then decreased by your number of permanent FPs, down to a minimum of one.

The twist is that as your character burns a permanent FP, it will be converted to a temporary at the end of that session. Thus veterans of a few hard won battles are closer to final death (less permanent FPs), but have learned/earned more tricks to stay alive (more temp FPs). When a character is awarded a FP from finishing a campaign or similar, the player will get to choose if they want to convert a temporary to a permanent, or if they want to gain a temporary.

This has somewhat evened out the mortality rates among our acolytes. It also makes their named enemies more dangerous each time they are beaten. All in all I think it works good.

In addition, nothing is wrong about asking for a Medi Servo Skull. Really, if your playergroup sees a need for "a certain skill" (like medic or anyhting else), talk about it with your GM and ask what might be needed to get one. Bought, stolen, requested from the =I=, whatever suits your groups & GM´s style of game.

My actual group got one... but it´s a pretty shame since they all turn to the psyker for "stitchin up". Pretty **** shame.

Personally turning to the psyker is all well and good until the warp eats him or something horrible happens to the group as a whole. The key is to use the minor healing power with invocation. It's very nice if your GM lets you manifest without roll a psi roll.

And just to repeat, because it can't be said often enough: Cover. A limb behind two feet of plasticrete is a limb much less likely to get blown off.