In my main game, I run a character who is a skilled field medic, so of course he is filling out the Soldier/Medic talent tree. Our group's tradition (which I originated) is to maintain a very Star Wars-flavored, Original Trilogy-feeling atmosphere at all times. For example, in our opinion it doesn't fit with the flavor of Star Wars to have characters injecting themselves with stimpacks constantly, so we portray the stimpack maneuver as a "recovery" or "second wind" maneuver in which a character rallies after being hit.

Now, some of the most powerful talents in the Medic tree are the Stim Application talents. These also don't feel very Star Wars in my opinion. It just doesn't fit with the Star Wars atmosphere we try to cultivate to have characters taking drugs to enhance their abilities--again, in my opinion. (If you disagree, that's fine, but it isn't really the topic of this thread.) Unfortunately I'm having a hard time coming up with an alternative way to imagine what these talents are supposed to represent that does fit with the atmosphere of the movies. Any good ideas out there?

A few inspirational and/or instructional words, with or without snark and sarcasm? A slap on the back, and the other guy focuses his grit and will and gets more agile/brawny/intellectual/etc?

If it were a.Force talent, I'd say view it as a primitive, herbal potion-based (Medics get Forager) version of Imbue. Unfortunately, the way it's written, it is a shot of booster juice.

Perhaps a shot of short lived nanobots? Does the medic have any bio-mechanical background?

26 minutes ago, coyote6 said:

A few inspirational and/or instructional words, with or without snark and sarcasm? A slap on the back, and the other guy focuses his grit and will and gets more agile/brawny/intellectual/etc?

Yeah, I've thought of this as one possibility. It doesn't really explain why a Medicine check should be required, but it might be the best option nonetheless.

2 minutes ago, SithArissa said:

Perhaps a shot of short lived nanobots? Does the medic have any bio-mechanical background?

I'm afraid nanobots also don't feel very Original Trilogy Star Wars to me...

16 minutes ago, DaverWattra said:

Yeah, I've thought of this as one possibility. It doesn't really explain why a Medicine check should be required, but it might be the best option nonetheless.

Hmm. Acupuncture/pressure doesn't seem very Star Wars to me, but it is sort of Star Wars adjacent. You're using your knowledge of the flow of some sort of universal life energy to influence and enhance their physical or mental abilities. So you poke them in the pressure points (with a needle or maybe just a stiff finger jab), and their muscles are more effective, the blood flow to their brain is improved, and they are temporarily better.

That basically makes it a (pseudo) Force talent using Medicine that doesn't require a Force rating.

Hmm, maybe expanding on what @coyote6 said your medic could use a psychology medical check to boost morale or even enrage/calm the target?

2 hours ago, DaverWattra said:

In my main game, I run a character who is a skilled field medic, so of course he is filling out the Soldier/Medic talent tree.

I also don't like the stimpack thing, it starts to feel like I'm playing a video game. I like the "second wind" idea, I think I'll adopt it

As for those Talents, if you have OggDude's character generator (strongly recommended), you can create custom spec trees. You could just replace those Talents with others from other Soldier specs...it is a Soldier career, after all, but you wouldn't know it from the Talents, they are almost all medic-related. Even a medic can get more out of a gun than the average person. If you have the Forged in Battle sourcebook, that gives you even more options. You could replace Stimpack Spec with Physical Training (5xp), Brace (10xp), and Durable (20xp). You could replace Stim Application with Side Step (15xp), BodyGuard (20xp), and Heroic Fortitude (25xp). Other options are Lethal Blows and other combat related Talents.

Or, you don't even have to stick with Soldier, depending on his character concept maybe he's more cerebral (whether he's fixing bodies or battle droids, it's all the same to him, so throw in a couple of Gearhead talents), or maybe he's more a leader type (so grab something from a Commander or Diplomat).

I think the stim system could be easily replaced by a second wind type system without any impact to the RP setting. Just do away with the stimpacks entirely and just have 5 machanical second winds, until a character has been able to rest properly for at least one comfortable nights sleep. Still use things like stim application; but rephrase it to use other bits of RP media. "You slap a bacta patch on it and shout it's just a scratch" e.c.t.

There is the belt patch that specialises in drawing encumberance zero items as incidental that players would no longer benefit from, but you could use that for other items that are encumberance zero so it frees up some options while restricting the action ecomany somewhat.

I don't see how stimpaks are out of place, honestly. We already have bacta, the miracle cure-all ("You're soaking in it!"), so a jab of something similar but less potent (possibly containing a bit of bacta) is entirely plausible.

1 hour ago, Garran said:

I don't see how stimpaks are out of place, honestly.

Point me to any movie or TV episode that uses one. There is the occasional injury-stabilization by clones, but the receiver is usually still effectively incapacitated.

I dunno about stimpacks but they have needles....

I don't like the perma heal aspect of stimpacks and wish it was more of a short term thing, enough to get through a fight, but it wears off post fight. Medical supplies could be expanded to add to total Wounds and Strain healed with a Medicine check. I don't have an issue with autoinjector carried items though, pretty low tech really.

It is effectively a short term thing, as it doesn't fix actual injuries (ie Critical Wounds).

My biggest issue, as to be fair, being up on your feet pretty fast fit a lot of cinema, is that it's so good in comparison with healing, at least with starter characters.

I thought we were talking about Stimpacks?

12 hours ago, whafrog said:

As for those Talents, if you have OggDude's character generator (strongly recommended), you can create custom spec trees. You could just replace those Talents with others from other Soldier specs

Yeah, I hate to alter a tree, but this is probably the best option. I just can't think of a convincing way to "fluff out" these talents that fits with my picture of Star Wars.

The other thing I could do, which might be the minimum change, would be to just link Master Doctor with the 20-point rank of Stimpack Specialization and have that character not take the Stim Application talents. (I don't have a problem with Stimpack Specialization, since I just consider it to be "improved second wind"). EDIT: Oops, you'd also have to connect Bacta Specialist to Master Doctor.

3 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

I thought we were talking about Stimpacks?

Well, the thread was originally about the Stim Application talents

We aren't talking about critical injuries though are we?

I think the idea of Darzil's post is that "wound points" should be understood as temporary minor wear-and-tear, whereas real injuries are symbolized by critical injuries, so having stimpacks heal wounds doesn't mean that stimpacks provide "permanent healing."

Exactly that

On 7/10/2017 at 10:39 AM, DaverWattra said:

I think the idea of Darzil's post is that "wound points" should be understood as temporary minor wear-and-tear, whereas real injuries are symbolized by critical injuries, so having stimpacks heal wounds doesn't mean that stimpacks provide "permanent healing."

This is also explicitly how the books describe 'wounds.' Actual injuries are crits; wounds are the kinds of 'injuries' you get in sports that don't require medical treatment - ice at most. A shot that keeps your legs from shaking or extends how long you can go before hitting a wall makes perfect sense to me without seeming like a video game. Basically a stim pack does the stuff that Gatorade pretends it does in their commercials. Think of it this way: Crits are actual injuries, wounds are physical stress, strain is mental stress.

Anyways, back to the point: The stim application stuff I usually imagine as a tweak on the stim-chemicals to do more - someone added some amphetamines to your Gatorade. In my mind, the stim application talent is basically the ability to deliver a situational dose that provides temporary boosts without the painful come-down or addiction related to spice. [edit: spelling]