D&D Medicine

[LoneWolf23]

Has anyone here done some work on how to handle medicine in fantasy settings, beyond use of the Heal skill and Cure spells?

For exemple, would it be possible to use Heal to deal with other debilitating ailments, such as a Ghoul or Rast's Paralyzing touch, or a Delver's Corrosive Slime? If it's possible to Heal a caltrop wound to restore mobility, perhaps some medicines can treat those other ailments.

For that matter, how are Healers handled in your campaign? Adepts, Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Rangers all have the Heal skill, but they're not all the same. Druids and Rangers most likely concentrate on the "Herbalism" approach to Healing, treating medicines as cures from nature (or the Goddess, for pagans) to deal with ailments, while Clerics and Paladins consider their healing skills gift from the heavens to cure the worshippers. Adepts most likely take a middle path between the two extremes.

And what of Cure Spells? Are they simply "miracle cures", or do the casters use material components for those spells? Perhaps you use Masters of the Wild's rules for Infusions (using treated herbs to store a divine spell like a scroll), with healers storing Cure spells for future use inside herb pouches.

Well, those are my thoughts. What are yours?

 

[Drayan]

While not medicine, it's a method of treatment used in medicine. I've always wondered what the the voltage was on a shocking hands spell. Ever since I started playing, I've always thought it'd be interesting to see some one using a shocking hands spell as a defibrillator.

 

[StalkingBlue]

We use core rules - ie heal skill for first aid and for long-term care for wounds, ability damage and disease only.

PCs don't have to carry specific material components (though a dressing from a healer's kit will give the default +2 bonus on the heal check).

Both in the game I run and in the one I play in, it's up to the individual player to decide into how much detail they want to go when describing their use of the heal skill.
It can be a routine thing "I clean and dress his wound" (it being understood that the arrow is removed first), or the character may wander off in search of a special herb/leech/frog/stone to help treating the problem - or whatever. It's more a question of "Do I want to roleplay this to develop my character?" and "Do we have anything more interesting/urgent to do right now?" than anything else.

Like pretty much everything else in our games, it can take from no time at all to minutes and minutes of game time, possibly employing all of the party - depending on many things.

Rules-wise, we keep things simple, though.

 

[StalkingBlue]

While not medicine, it's a method of treatment used in medicine. I've always wondered what the the voltage was on a shocking hands spell. Ever since I started playing, I've always thought it'd be interesting to see some one using a shocking hands spell as a defibrillator.

Cool idea. However, in a workd with medieval science and medicine standards, it should take a sky-high heal check to even realise that electric shock may affect the heart.

That said, I like to reward creativity when I GM. I'd probably go quite a way to allow this if my players came up with it. (More so if the person in question was a PC - sigh. I'm too soft, I know I am.)