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<blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 6351699" data-attributes="member: 23484">I've been thinking about this too. As [MENTION=60886]bganon[/MENTION] notes, there's a conceptual difference between being proficient with the Healer's Kit (~EMT) and in Medicine (~physician). That's the way it was in the last play test, but not apparently in the Basic rules, where the healer's kit is no longer a tool -- i.e. it no longer requires proficiency to use a healer's kit.The effect of the healer's kit now is a simple non-magical way of replicating the effect of the Spare the Dying cantrip. That's fine, but it means it's effectively trivial. It also means that proficiencies in the final play test are not a valid source for comparisonAs the OP notes, the herbalism kit is the hinge now. And, given that this will all be moot in a few days, here is my proposed solution/houserule.The skill Medicine additionally grants proficiency with the herbalism kit. There's still reason to take the tool proficiency (since tools are &quot;easier&quot; to acquire, can be bought with money and time, and are not fixed in number as are apparently skills), and medicine adds to that, with modest but real benefits in terms of identifying illness, performing epidemiology on a village, and curing disease.Now the argument against this is if any class or background has proficiency in medicine and in the herbalism kit. If not, then applying the above requires no further changes. If there are, then the &quot;tool&quot; proficiency opens up if medicine is chosen as a skill.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kobold Stew, post: 6351699, member: 23484"] I've been thinking about this too. As [MENTION=60886]bganon[/MENTION] notes, there's a conceptual difference between being proficient with the Healer's Kit (~EMT) and in Medicine (~physician). That's the way it was in the last play test, but not apparently in the Basic rules, where the healer's kit is no longer a tool -- i.e. it no longer requires proficiency to use a healer's kit. The effect of the healer's kit now is a simple non-magical way of replicating the effect of the [I]Spare the Dying[/I] cantrip. That's fine, but it means it's effectively trivial. It also means that proficiencies in the final play test are not a valid source for comparison As the OP notes, the herbalism kit is the hinge now. And, given that this will all be moot in a few days, here is my proposed solution/houserule. [B]The skill Medicine additionally grants proficiency with the herbalism kit[/B]. There's still reason to take the tool proficiency (since tools are "easier" to acquire, can be bought with money and time, and are not fixed in number as are apparently skills), and medicine adds to that, with modest but real benefits in terms of identifying illness, performing epidemiology on a village, and curing disease. Now the argument against this is if any class or background has proficiency in medicine and in the herbalism kit. If not, then applying the above requires no further changes. If there are, then the "tool" proficiency opens up if medicine is chosen as a skill. [/QUOTE]

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