D&D 5E (2014) Medicine skill; adding some new uses so it isn't waste of a skill training

[Horwath]

As we all know medicine has very few uses. So lets add a few.

Short rest healing, while you perform short rest you can make medicine check for up to 6 people. Depending on the roll you get maximum amount of HP from spent hit dices for that short rest.
roll 15 for 1 die max, 20 for 2 dices, 25 for 3, etc...
you can spend a charge from healers kit to gain advantage on this role. Roll for each person separately.

During long rest you can spend 2hrs of long rest on tending up to 6 people. Roll medicine, for roll of 15 they regain 75% of HD(round up), for roll of 20 they regain 100%. Again you can spend a healers kit for advantage on roll.

You can spend a charge from healers kit as a meterial component while casting any healing spell. Spell heals extra HP equal to your prof bonus + spell level.

 

[iserith]

There are a few skills-related threads going on right now and I think I see some patterns, so I'm curious: Do your players ask to make skill checks when you play?

 

[Noctem]

It's an interesting way to make medicine checks more relevant during the day to day of adventuring

 

[Jester David]

Don't forget the four other uses in the Monster Manual.

One of the tenants of 5e is rulings not rules. The game is about uses in play at the table as directed by the DM and less about hard coded rules in the book.
Adding new options to a skill because it doesn't have enough bulletpoints is very much rules.

Medicine will come up as much as the DM wants and vary depending on games. Investigative or disease heavy campaigns might require much more medicine rolling. Such as determining how a creature died, and how long ago.

That said, a rule allowing a successful medicine check during a short rest to allow an unconscious creature to spend a Hit Dice might be nice.

 

[KahlessNestor]

And don't forget, Medicine is the actual torture skill, not Intimidate!

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Medicine is a "knowledge skill", much like History, Arcana or Nature. It has an use as long as your DM puts challenges in the game that are related to that knowledge. Make that change and you're suddenly moving it to the field of mandatory skills (like perception, for example). The game would benefit from not having mandatory skills, in my opinion.

 

[Blue]

I was toying with longer-term injuries on failed death saves to match a style of a particular campaign, and medicine would help overcome those.

But in a land of magical healing, it seems like the practical application of medicine are overshadowed by magic and the real use fo the skill are it's theoretical/knowledge uses. What are some of those?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Ezequielramone]

As a DM I ask medicine checks for:
Knowing how long a person has been dead
How someone died (analysing the body). People always want to check bodies.
House rule: I use the injuries system, and when it says that "magical healing removes the injury" I ask for a medicine check. E.g. your leg's bones are broken, magical healing will fix this (recover HP) but in the wrong position. So you will have to broke the bones (if already healed, like real doctors do) so it could heal in the right position.
Since it is also a knowledge skill, players can ask questions they believe are related to it, so this part is up to them.
Also, you can play with the short rest and needing a medicine check and/or the use of one healers kit use to recover HDs.

 

[Syntallah]

In my Game, I have added the following:

- First Aid (1 action): Medicine check DC 10 auto stabilizes a victim, Medicine check DC 20 victim regains consciousness with 1hp
- Triage (2 minutes): Medicine check DC 15 allows the individual to spend any available healing dice [this requires a use from a Healer's Kit*]


*a healer's kit in my Game just grants a static +10 to a medicine check