Take the Stim Application Action; make an Average Medicine check. If successful, 1 engaged ally increases 1 characteristic by 1 for the remainder of the encounter and suffers 4 strain.

Does this require the +2 difficulty like a standard medcheck if used on yourself? Or is that stipulation only for healing wounds & crits?

If done in combat I'd say the average difficulty still holds even if on yourself.

I didn't read it as being possible to do on yourself.

Also...is this Talent supposed to be species-neutral, i.e. is there a way to use it on a droid or is that more properly a Mechanic thing?

I didn't read it as being possible to do on yourself.

Also...is this Talent supposed to be species-neutral, i.e. is there a way to use it on a droid or is that more properly a Mechanic thing?

I also didn't think it was designed to be used on yourself. If I did allow it I would for sure use the +2 difficulty like other Self medicine checks.

You can not use it on a droid because its a stim pack and droids dontbhave the necessary physiology for it to work.

Well, there certainly should be a parallel for use on droids, probably using repair patches. I might just allow a Doctor to do this with a repair patch instead of a stimpack.

Well, there certainly should be a parallel for use on droids, probably using repair patches. I might just allow a Doctor to do this with a repair patch instead of a stimpack.

I don't think there should be a parallel for droids. Certain races have advantages and disadvantages. For example, there is no parallel to surgeon talent for droids. Droids don't need stimpack they can have 6 points of cybernetics regardless of Brawn.

I think it's an issue that Solid Repairs and Fine Tuning apply only to vehicles/ships, and not also to droids. It's the same narrative principle of being better at fixing things.

I also don't think a permanent cybernetics cap is a good parallel to getting a temporary characteristic boost.

I think it's an issue that Solid Repairs and Fine Tuning apply only to vehicles/ships, and not also to droids. It's the same narrative principle of being better at fixing things.

I also don't think a permanent cybernetics cap is a good parallel to getting a temporary characteristic boost.

Personally, I would take permanent boost over temporary boost every time.

Also, I'm not the type of person that thinks everything has to be perfectly balanced and equal. I think that mindset is better for mmo video games than pen and paper games.

I only have the shorthand version of the text on me and not the complete talent description given in the book, so it's possible I am completely wrong in what I am about to say.

This came up in another thread, but "Stim Application" does not specifically have you use a stimpack, and I don't think it should for a few reasons.

I think FFG should have picked a better name for this talent since it's obviously giving players the wrong idea. It might appear trivial to many people, but I think the fact that the talent's name is "Stim Application" and not "Stimpack application" is very important. If they used any other word besides "Stim" in the talent's name, I doubt many players would think you need to use a stimpack to activate this talent.

I also think it's kind of silly for a talent to be designed that requires you to use a consumable item. I wouldn't like to have to spend 25 credits every time I want to use a talent I purchased with my XP. I know 25 credits isn't a whole lot but it's still unnerving.

I pointed this out in a previous thread, but I see stimpacks (again, a poorly named item in this game) as the Medpacs from the KotOR series, and this "Stim Application" talent as the stims from the same game, a crazy cocktail mix of opiates to give you a boost.

Now as for the original question. I agree with what others are saying, it's not meant to be used on yourself. I always read "ally" as "my ally". Games that count yourself as your ally gives me an uncomfortable itch on the back of my neck. Note that this talent may call for a medicine check, but it's not the same as taking the heal action as outlined in the core rules.

And for the interest of using this talent on droids. I can't think of any other instance of droids being able to benefit from a medicine check, and for this reason, as a GM I would have to agree with what others are saying, as far as I can tell, droids cannot benefit from this.

However I can see a GM running it otherwise, and allow droids to benefit for this talent or allow the doc to use the talent on his or her self.

tl;dr: This talent doesn't use stimpacks to activate. This talent isn't intended to be used on yourself. This talent cannot be used on droids. As in all things. GM's discretion.

The rulebook states you must have access to a medpac, a stimpack or any kind of drug to enable Stim Application.

It also specifically states that it can be used on any ally he's engaged with, including himself. It never says the difficulty is any higher when used on himself, so my inclination would be to run with it as Average, no matter whom it's used on.

The rulebook states you must have access to a medpac, a stimpack or any kind of drug to enable Stim Application.

It also specifically states that it can be used on any ally he's engaged with, including himself. It never says the difficulty is any higher when used on himself, so my inclination would be to run with it as Average, no matter whom it's used on.

Thanks for the clarification!

I'll just have to ignore the itch on the back of my neck.

Thanks, Krieger22! I always forget the expanded entries on talents. The summaries on the actual trees tend to leave out a lot of pertinent info due to lack of space.

I’d say it would be usable on a droid. There is nothing in the book which says that talent specifically doesn’t work. It’s all in how you flavor it.

Flavor it as, the stim-pac fluids haywire the electronics and cause them to work in ways not originally intended. For example, with a better intelligence you could say: Data jumps from circuit to circuit in random intervals. Through the “magic” of clarity through chaos, this give the droid improved intelligence but does threaten burning out the electronics. (Which is why the strain is suffered.)

IMHO there is no reason to limit a droid when you don’t have to. Don’t make them a second class citizen who can only use part of the game.

I’d say it would be usable on a droid. There is nothing in the book which says that talent specifically doesn’t work. It’s all in how you flavor it.

I suppose it's up to interpretation, but it's a Medicine check, and personally I would say that anything calling for a Medicine check is incompatible with droids. Granted, there could be a Mechanics equivalent, but that probably shouldn't be a Doctor talent.

Doctor squirts a slimy liquid inside of the droids chassis....electrical sparks start flying and smoke billows from his inards

"What have you done?! You just short cir....Zzztt"

Doctor squirts a slimy liquid inside of the droids chassis....electrical sparks start flying and smoke billows from his inards

"What have you done?! You just short cir....Zzztt"

This is why you make sure your sex droids are fully sealed.

I’d say it would be usable on a droid. There is nothing in the book which says that talent specifically doesn’t work. It’s all in how you flavor it.

I suppose it's up to interpretation, but it's a Medicine check, and personally I would say that anything calling for a Medicine check is incompatible with droids. Granted, there could be a Mechanics equivalent, but that probably shouldn't be a Doctor talent.

I agree, just disappointed that this wasn't included in, say, Mechanics (though they were already doing a lot there). I'm not entirely sure why the "repair more ship wounds/strain" isn't applicable to droids. It's the same principle, just on a different scale.

I have a sneaking suspicion that when we get around to the Technician career book there'll be some kind of droid specialist in there.

Personally, I'd keep this game simple and let droids be affected by everything unless the rules say otherwise. There is already so much of the game droids don't get to use or are second class citizens. They aren't affected by the Force and have special healing rules. Don't even get me started on Oil Baths not being useful for repairing a crit on a droid.

Sure, (without fluffing it up) it doesn't make sense for a droid to be affected by Stimpack Application. But to that extent, I could also argue that a Droid shouldn't be affected by Scathing Tirade or Inspiring Rhetoric or several other talents either. Why should a robot get warm fuzzies and fight better (healing strain and adding blue die) just because a Politico said something nice?

Well in Star Wars a droid is more of an "artificial person" than a "robot". Advanced droids (i.e. the kind that are likely to be PCs) have a full range of thoughts, emotions, opinions, and even neuroses.

As such, a (advanced) droid is as susceptible to the effects of morale as an organic creature. If a human can gain benefits merely by hearing a stirring speech, then so can a droid.