In my OW campaign something has come up, for which I would appreciate third party advice. I told the group that I would prefer if at least half of their characters, we play without comrades and with two characters per player, were Guardsman Specialities as it feels wierd with a squad consisting of only specialists and a sergeant to lead them.

And that is that my players have concluded that the Medic specialization is really bad, as in a wasted oppertunity to pick. The main criticism is that the Medic is a one-trick-ponny and has a trick that the tech-priest ponny can replicate with ease, while at the same time the tech-priest ponny can also do other tricks as well. So far they've managed fairly well with the tech-priest as the medic of the squad.

As as side note we would prefer to not make the Healing rules very complicated as we find that the grinds down the game. So that option has already been discussed´, I'm afraid.

What I've suggested as additions to the Medic to make that Speciality more attractive has been:

- Can heal the same attack the number of times that the Medic has Intelligence Bonus (instead of just one heal per damage suffered)

- Can automatically stop a blood loss with a Half Action

- +20 to all Logistics rolls for medical stuff (like medical gear, getting a party member on an express ticket to the surgeon, request a bionic replacement for a character and so on)

- The Medic gets a an extra Apitude to be chosen at character creation

The most vocal of them thinks its a good start but would like more before thinking that the Medic is an interesting choice.

So do you guys have some ideas for how to proceeed or if I must give up and let the players dismiss this Speciality?

Its not that the medic is bad, its that the techpriest is waaaay to good

On 2/16/2019 at 10:32 PM, Gurkhal said:

- Can heal the same attack the number of times that the Medic has Intelligence Bonus (instead of just one heal per damage suffered)

- Can automatically stop a blood loss with a Half Action

- +20 to all Logistics rolls for medical stuff (like medical gear, getting a party member on an express ticket to the surgeon, request a bionic replacement for a character and so on)

- The Medic gets a an extra Apitude to be chosen at character creation 

This would nullfi alot of talents that the medic can get. Yes it is harsh that you can only heal somone once per day but thats only war combat is harsh and youre players are gonna have to be smart to survive the figth in one piece (using cover and stuff like that)

I have tried many times to simplyfi the game by removing comrads and healing for the sake of time but in the end you will notice that alot of things will suffer becuse of it ( pro tip dont remove comrads that are very excential for the game)

Hope my 2cents helped

Medic can do other Int-based support. Yeah, not a tech-priest, but doesn't have their downsides either, and gets the specialist kit.

For specialization, doesn't Hammer of the Emperor have Field Chirurgeon?

On 2/21/2019 at 1:43 AM, amuller93 said:

Its not that the medic is bad, its that the techpriest is waaaay to good

This would nullfi alot of talents that the medic can get. Yes it is harsh that you can only heal somone once per day but thats only war combat is harsh and youre players are gonna have to be smart to survive the figth in one piece (using cover and stuff like that)

I have tried many times to simplyfi the game by removing comrads and healing for the sake of time but in the end you will notice that alot of things will suffer becuse of it ( pro tip dont remove comrads that are very excential for the game)

Hope my 2cents helped

Those cents helps.

The problem isn't that its harsh with not getting all wounds back, its that it would give the medic an edge over the tech-priest when it comes to healing.

In regards to comrades I can't claim that I feel that our game has suffered in any noteable way, but then again we've been playing other military RPGs this way before so we got some experience with this way of doing things.

23 hours ago, TBeholder said:

Medic can do other Int-based support. Yeah, not a tech-priest, but doesn't have their downsides either, and gets the specialist kit.

For specialization, doesn't Hammer of the Emperor have Field Chirurgeon?

While the specialist kit it nice, I'm not sure it can be attractive enough for players who are also tempted by the cybernetics that the tech-priest has.

Dont really have more to add just thought this would be funny

2 hours ago, Gurkhal said:

The problem isn't that its harsh with not getting all wounds back, its that it would give the medic an edge over the tech-priest when it comes to healing.

Hmm. Medic is better as a medic mostly due to medical comrades and having Fieldcraft aptitude (thus cheaper advances). What would help using the approach of OW/DH2 is more medical and synergetic advances (Talents and Orders) tagged with Perception and Fieldcraft aptitudes (and/or involving Perception based rolls). Unfortunately, they threw most skills into trash compressor rather than restructure, or there would be more possibilities for this.

2 hours ago, Gurkhal said:

While the specialist kit it nice, I'm not sure it can be attractive enough for players who are also tempted by the cybernetics that the tech-priest has.

A med-techpriest obviously is a valid build, but IMHO from common sense, this should be limited as to where they can serve. Bases, Mechanicus related units, operations that require attention of a Genetor. Speaking of whom, Genetor from Into the Storm could be converted into an Advanced Specialty, too. :)