D&D 5E And now for something completely useless...

[SilverBulletKY]

You have to be proficient with the healer's kit to use it.

EDIT: Nevermind this is wrong.

 

[Connorsrpg]

This is another problem I have with 'hps' as abstract again.

So, now that you ARE cut/bleeding/dying a simple kit or heal check can help, but neither can help with minor wounds (those along the way to 0 hps)? What?

In my game, I think I will use our 'Raise style system' (ie Savage Worlds). ie For every raise and success you heal 1 hp with a Medicine check. (Can only benefit from this within the 'golden hour' after receiving wounds.

That way I can limit the Fighter's 2nd Wind a little too.

 

[Supersonic159]

Well I guess the Medicine skill could have some usefulness in some RP situations, possibly if you have proficiency you could leverage doing some cool things with it?

 

[Andor]

Just to Highlight the utter uselessness of the Medicine skill there is a feat called healer as well.

The Healer feat does two things.
When you use a healing kit to stabilize someone they also get 1 hp.
You can take an action to spend a use of the kit to heal 1d6+4+lvl damage. This can't be done again until the creature completes a rest (short or long.)

So... yeah. Maybe allow a DC 15 Medicine check to use a Healer's kit without blowing a charge? I'll probably just dump the skill.

 

[Athinar]

The Possibility is to use the medicine skill DC to gain Advantage when healing with spell or kit or 1 point

so combine the Healer's Feat with a Medicine Check to give Advantage on the 1d6+4+lvl

Advantage on Healing spells DC 15

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Stabilise a creature:
Using medicine kit without proficiency in medicine skill
"I got this, I've got a first aid kit!"
This is a DC 10 wisdom check. Add 1 to the DC for negative HP rather than a plain 0, and another 2 for every failed death save so far. Max DC therefore of 15.
Reasoning: possibility of "all the gear, no idea".

Using medicine kit with proficiency in medicine skill
"Stand back, I'm a doctor".
No check required.
Reasoning: they know what they're doing and have the tools they need.

Using medicine skill with no kit available
If proficient: DC 10 wisdom check.
"Stand back, I'm a doctor. The patient needs an IV, stat...oh crap, we're in a dungeon. Here goes!"
Reasoning: they're skilled, but without any equipment, still have a chance of failure.

If not proficient: DC 15 wisdom check with +1 for neg, +2 per failed death save.
"I saw a guy do this one time!"
Reasoning: they're not skilled and have no equipment. It's tricky.

This should make the need for Medicine skill proficiency more appealing. Not to mention the other uses for the skill that others have mentioned, outside of combat stabilisation.

 

[Pauln6]

Being trained in medicine could also grant a bonus to hp recovered on a long rest from spending hit dice. Obviously this only works if you use the lower end rules for healing from long resting. I guess you could make a heal check and divide by 10 then multiply that by the number of hit dice spent on the long rest or maybe the character gains and extra number of hit dice to spend equivalent to the check (typically 0 - 3 extra hit dice).

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Skills don't need to have an immediate combat utility to be useful. I allow a medicine roll if a player wants to identify a disease or the reason why someone died, for example. You can also improve its usefulness by allowing a player to craft a healer's kit using the character's medicine skill. Overall, I don't think it's worse than History, for example. It really depends on what kind of knowledge you come to expect of player characters in order to succeed.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

I see that Athinar used a medicine kit on this thread.

 

[Hussar]

It would be reasonable IMO, to let medicine identify undead - Wis checks can do so, so, I'd think proficiency would matter here.

I could also see medicine be useful for identifying how something died - which can be useful.