So under First Aid it says that the guy with medicae can attempt this max once per wound, does that mean we have to keep tally of how many different wounds we got and how much they each hit us for since I assume a first aid cant heal for more damage than the wound dealt ?

Crate said:

Essentially, yes. The use of wound in that context is awkward and sometimes confusing - injury would have been a more appropriate term. Essentially, any distinct attack that causes damage can be treated with a single use of First Aid, and can't be healed for more wounds than the injury caused in the first place (the cut on your cheek from shrapnel won't close up because the medic patched up your lasgun burn).

It's easier in general (but slightly less beneficial to the players), and faster to resolve, if you're finding all that extra book-keeping frustrating, to limit First Aid to once per character instead. It also benefits Medics with high Intelligence bonuses (certain Medicae characters can pick up Unnatural Intelligence), and Sisters Hospitaller (who get to add their WP bonus to healing granted) more, because less of their ability is wasted (a Medicae with an Intelligence Bonus of 6 wastes points of healing on any injury of 5 or less wounds when healing a lightly-injured character)

I'm not near my books atm so I can't double check and may be mis-remembering, but wasn't First Aid also restricted to treating injuries on a character from a single damage type only once (possibly in the IH)? So a character that has taken an Impact hit and an Energy hit could be treated twice whereas if it were two Impact hits they could only be treated once.

It is limited to one first aid attempt per injury, limited further by the amount of damage actually inflicted by the injury. So say an acolyte has taken 2 bullets earlier on and is now getting medical attention. He has a Toughness bonus of 4, the first bullet did 3 damage after soak and the second bullet did 4 damage for a total of 7 damage. Since for this character 8 or less wounds is "lightly wounded" the medic gets to apply their Intelligence bonus towards each injury if successful in treating his teammate. For the sake of argument we will say the medic has an Int of 36 and succedes on both rolls, one for each injury treated (this gets important if time is critical). The first bullet wound (3 damage) is completely healed and the second bullet wound (4 damage) is largely healed (3 damage restored, leaving 1 remaining).

Now let us assume the same acolyte has been sliced up pretty badly by some Eldar pirates. He still has a TB of 4, but this time he is suffering from 4 different "horrible sharp pointy thing" injuries (3, 5, 2 & 4) for a total of 14 wounds! The same medic steps up once again, but this time our patient is "heavily wounded" (in his case, more than 8). The heroic medic is skilled, but he lacks the Master Chuirgeon talent so this time he is only going to be restoring one point of damage per successful treatment. He succedes in 3 of his 4 Medicae skill tests and restores 3 wounds to his sliced up friend. This still leaves 11 wounds remaining after medical treatment so our now bandage-swathed Throne agent should really consider taking it easy for a little while.

Against medical advice our brave but stupid acolyte went and got in a gunfight not two hours after the frustrated medic bandaged him up from his "Highlander adventure" and has a nasty splinter rifle wound (8 damage!) to show for it. This has unfortunately put Sergeant Banzai into critical damage. Since our frustrated medic is not a "Master Chuirgeon" this latest injury is beyond his current skill. He can clean the wound and generally make his friend comfortable (more like less uncomfortable), but he will not be doing any actual healing.

Today's lesson: It is easier to treat scrapes and bruises than to replace missing body parts.

Khouri said:

Having checked the books, the expanded First Aid skill in the IH (p. 233) limits First Aid to one treatment per combat encounter or once per damage class if using the optional rules described in the expanded skill list.

LOL

Why not just get a psyker with Bio Healing spec?

Kas said:

Because psykers are dangerous mutant freaks who should be burned?

from france

psyker can have their use. lucius t has a point here even if i do not have the same point of view. just think of it like this. what do you prefer using "fisrt aid" or using a psyker who can go wrong? in the first case there is one dath in the second if rolls on the peril of the warp goes wrong you can have hell on earth. i prefere the first case. still psyker have their use.

Kas said:

Psychic Phenomenon and Perils of the Warp can be nasty and cause more harm than good. I ought to know . . . my group has gotten a blood shower more times than we care to remember (at least this happened out in the middle of nowhere. Imagine the panic that would ensue should this have happened inside Hive Sibellus). Then there was that one time where we got a Cataclysmic Blast . . . the character the psyker was healing got knocked out and was put into criticals (again), and party members nearby got zapped but good, too. At least it took out one of the golephs we were fighting, though as it was near death, that might not be saying much.

As always with psychic powers, use at own risk.

-Kirov

Really what you want is 1st aid and the psyker. Even a psyker with the minor healing power can mean the difference between life and death. Plus the minor healing power can be done with a single psi die.

Dalnor Surloc said:

I concur. Having both a "mundane" and a psychic healing option available for the party is a good force multiplier. If the injury is something relatively minor or non-critical, use mundane healing first. Life threatening injuries or first aid in the middle of a "situation", go straight for psychic means. In the middle of a fire fight subtlety and finesse are no longer relevant.

Depending on particular PCs' attitudes towards psykers, witchery, and the divinity of the human form in general, psychic 'remedies' may or may not be an option to certain PCs.