I’m getting back in the game and rubbing off some rust, so forgive me if I’ve overlooked the simple answer.

My players are passing out from strain with an unusual frequency, and they asked if there’s an equivalent of a stimpack for strain. My general thought was no, because strain can easily be decreased with advantage, at the end of an encounter, completely wiped with a good night sleep, etc. And medical checks can heal strain for advantage. However, the team Doctor has several ranks of Surgeon to increase her wounds healed, but not strain.

My biggest concern is when a PC is out cold from strain and can’t get stimmed up, so they’re stuck for the rest of the encounter at least.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Help me FFG forums, you’re my only hope!

There is a talent, Inspiring Rhetoric, that allows the character to heal allies' strain, so you should be careful about house rules.

That said, in a situation where nobody is going that route, allowing a custom skill or alternative use of Medicine might be suitable. I don't know what your party is up to, but I've never had a problem with voluntary strain exceeding threshold. Something to consider is changing how you play. If you use stun setting a lot, you might want to reconsider how often you use it, rather than adjusting the rules for healing. If you inflict a lot of strain on them with Threat, you might want to reconsider that. If they take a lot of strain damage from brawling etc. that is strain that they deserve, and you probably shouldn't allow them to remove it more easily.

Not burning through it like candy with extra maneuvers and such is always a good idea. This is probably your group's culprit right here.

Advantage on checks can heal Strain too. Also are they recovering Strain via a Resilience or Cool check after scenes?

I don't think there would be anything inherently game-breaking with allowing stimpacks to heal either wounds or strain so long as the limits of stimpacks are still adhered to (for example, a character's first stim of the day can heal 5 wounds, or it could heal 5 strain, or 3 wounds and 2 strain, etc) but I wouldn't recommend meddling too much with the mechanics of it.

In this instance if you are already using the correct ways of recovering strain (spending advantages, rolling at the end of the encounter, etc) then it sounds like your players need to get a little more experience in the action economy of the game and on average not "spend" more than they "buy back". I admit I am terrible for remembering to enforce the "roll at the end of encounter to recover strain" rule in my game but my players have not really run into a repeated issue of straining themselves into oblivion.

3 hours ago, Kualan said:

I don't think there would be anything inherently game-breaking with allowing stimpacks to heal either wounds or strain so long as the limits of stimpacks are still adhered to (for example, a character's first stim of the day can heal 5 wounds, or it could heal 5 strain, or 3 wounds and 2 strain, etc) but I wouldn't recommend meddling too much with the mechanics of it.

In this instance if you are already using the correct ways of recovering strain (spending advantages, rolling at the end of the encounter, etc) then it sounds like your players need to get a little more experience in the action economy of the game and on average not "spend" more than they "buy back". I admit I am terrible for remembering to enforce the "roll at the end of encounter to recover strain" rule in my game but my players have not really run into a repeated issue of straining themselves into oblivion.

I use a variant of this rule. I allow the Stim to heal Wounds OR Strain, so it is a serious tradeoff to make the decision.

It makes Stimpacks better, but the decreasing efficiency really starts to hurt them throughout the day, particularly in an action packed day, like a battle in the Clone Wars facing Assaj Ventress.

I suggest that the Doctor invest in the Healer specialization (it's a Consular tree from Force and Destiny). When Medicine is used to heal Wounds, the target also recovers 1 extra Strain per rank of Physician. It's not a Force talent, so anyone can use it. There are 3 ranks of Physician available on the Healer tree at cheap locations, plus 2 ranks of Surgeon. One more Physician rank can be found on the Protector tree (a Guardian specialization in FaD).

Learning the ancient Jedi healing arts might be a route to one (or more) of the following universal trees: Force Sensitive Emergent (AoR), Force Sensitive Exile (EotE), or Padawan Survivor (Dawn of Rebellion).

If the Doctor does decide to become a Force-user, then the Heal/Harm power tree really starts to do amazing things when you get deeper into it, particularly if the character already has high Intellect and many ranks in Medicine. Unlike using Medicine, there is no difficulty to check, and no increased difficulty if targeting oneself. It all depends on getting at least one usable result on the Force power check.

One thing to remember is that using the Heal power on someone is the game equivalent of using a stimpack (max. 5/day). On the other hand, one can get a greater result from the Heal power than from a stimpack (unless someone has a lot of ranks in the Stimpack Specialization talent), and the Heal power result doesn't reduce over the course of a day (unlike using multiple stimpacks). Also, while stimpacks can run out, the Force does not.

Any Force-user can get the Ebb/Flow power (Disciples of Harmony, the Consular sourcebook). The Flow version of the basic power (plus the connected Strength upgrade) allows a user to recover Strain while making a skill check.

There are other Force talents which allow Strain recovery, like Balance.

For example, my Jedi Healer character (Intellect 4, Medicine 4, heavily invested in the Heal tree) can - with a successful Heal power check on a target - heal 8 Wounds and recover 8 Strain with just one LS pip result (more if there are more LS pips), and do that at a distance even (if there are enough LS pips). If she uses the Medicine skill for first aid/Wound recovery during or after a combat, then she can help the target recover up to 3 extra Strain beyond the amount that any advantages give while letting herself recover some Strain with a successful Flow power check.