"Medpacs allow charaters to use the Medicine skill to heal others without penalty, as described on page 232." - Age of Rebellion Core Book pg. 192
I looked at page 232 and the only penalty I could find was the one check per encounter. The only other one was on page 233 which was increasing the difficulty by two for medical checks on ones self.
What am I missing?
They may have accidentally omitted it from the description of the Medicine skill, but the intention is that, if you don't have any actual medical equipment, you should be adding, probably at minimum, 2 Setback dice to the check. Think about it: it doesn't matter how good of an EMT you are, if there's no trauma kit nearby and you have to make due with incidental items in your environment, the chances of you successfully stabilizing a victim is drastically reduced. Having the Medkit basically means you are equipped to handle medical situations that arise, and can do so without needing to worry that you'll need a syringe of adrenaline to jump-start someone's heart and not have it.
It's the last paragraph on page 219. Attempting a Medicine check without proper equipment increases the Difficulty by 1.
9 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:It's the last paragraph on page 219. Attempting a Medicine check without proper equipment increases the Difficulty by 1.
Or this 
. This works, too.
personally I like to upgrade the difficulty
Plus you may need Xenology too if you want to be a stickler. I need to get this guy's helmet off to help him... no don't he's an argon breather, you'll kill us and him if you take that off! lol
15 minutes ago, zsavk said:personally I like to upgrade the difficulty
Evil!!
I do like the case for introducing Setbacks in general, except that there are plenty of talents that remove setbacks, and I'm not sure those kinds of talents should make up for the lack of a medpac.
9 hours ago, awayputurwpn said:Evil!!
I do like the case for introducing Setbacks in general, except that there are plenty of talents that remove setbacks, and I'm not sure those kinds of talents should make up for the lack of a medpac.
I agree, although in this case it doesn't matter that much since there are no talents that remove setback from the Medicine skill. But increase in difficulty is objectively a harsher penalty than a couple of setback dice, and should be applied when using Medicine without a medpac.
4 hours ago, Krieger22 said:I agree, although in this case it doesn't matter that much since there are no talents that remove setback from the Medicine skill. But increase in difficulty is objectively a harsher penalty than a couple of setback dice, and should be applied when using Medicine without a medpac.
Never say never! They're still rolling out books with talents in 'em 
3 hours ago, awayputurwpn said:Never say never! They're still rolling out books with talents in 'em
Oh, absolutely. I can easily see such a talent making an appearance in the future, especially now that it looks like the door is open for multiple universal specs as well. But as of right now, there's nothing that removes setback from Medicine, and I believe there are some other skills as well that don't have an accompanying talent for removing setback dice. Perception comes to mind, as well as Computers.
Perception and Vigilance have Keen Eyed, which not only removes a Setback per rank, but also halves the time to search an area.
Seeing as those two skills are the bread and butter of my iconic character, I would be remiss if I didn't correct that minor error .
27 minutes ago, Krieger22 said:Oh, absolutely. I can easily see such a talent making an appearance in the future, especially now that it looks like the door is open for multiple universal specs as well. But as of right now, there's nothing that removes setback from Medicine, and I believe there are some other skills as well that don't have an accompanying talent for removing setback dice. Perception comes to mind, as well as Computers.
No talents. You can make a custom tool using Special Modifications tool rules that removes setbacks.
21 minutes ago, Darzil said:No talents. You can make a custom tool using Special Modifications tool rules that removes setbacks.
If I remember correctly, Disciples of Harmony adds an item that can be used to remove setbacks from Medicine checks as well. The Brace talent can also be used to remove setbacks from Medicine checks, so long as those setbacks come from "environmental effects."
1 minute ago, Kaigen said:If I remember correctly, Disciples of Harmony adds an item that can be used to remove setbacks from Medicine checks as well. The Brace talent can also be used to remove setbacks from Medicine checks, so long as those setbacks come from "environmental effects."
You'd be hard pressed to interpret the lack of proper medical equipment as "environmental effects"
There's also the Sense Danger talent, which is a Force talent that removes setbacks from any check once per session. But the Force is a whole other thing, and it's not specific to medicine checks anyway.
8 hours ago, awayputurwpn said:You'd be hard pressed to interpret the lack of proper medical equipment as "environmental effects"
"The storm winds have picked up your tools and scrambled them across the landscape! You'll have to do without them for the moment. Nature is cruel sometimes."
6 minutes ago, Stan Fresh said:"The storm winds have picked up your tools and scrambled them across the landscape! You'll have to do without them for the moment. Nature is cruel sometimes."
Lol. Well if that's the case, then Difficulty increase for you and Brace won't help
15 hours ago, awayputurwpn said:You'd be hard pressed to interpret the lack of proper medical equipment as "environmental effects"
True, but lack of proper medical equipment is not the only source of setbacks for Medicine checks.
As I rule of a thumb of lately I always add 2 setback dies if they don't have the proper tools. Whenever I remember Got a bit of whining last time when I applied this to a knowledge check but it seems fair to me that without some kind of datapad or access to Holo-net you can't know everything out of the box.
7 hours ago, Xelian said:As I rule of a thumb of lately I always add 2 setback dies if they don't have the proper tools. Whenever I remember
Knowledge skills are kinda meant to be “player knows” skills though...
Access to good sources of information gives a boost die (or two) to knowledge checks - this has been pretty clearly established by the various equipment items with that effect.