D&D 5E (2024) Improving Medicine - one of the least loved skills.

[TaranTheWanderer]

I’d get rid of healing kits auto stabilization.

Make it a medicine check instead.
Healers kit gives you advantage.

I like your social role suggestion.

For short rests, I liked the suggestion where a successful role give you advantage on your Hit Die roll.

In combat, use an action to make a medicine check and the patient can spend a HD to heal. Although that steps on the toes of the healer feat

 

[Distracted DM]

I’d get rid of healing kits auto stabilization.

Make it a medicine check instead.
Healers kit gives you advantage.

I like your social role suggestion.

For short rests, I liked the suggestion where a successful role give you advantage on your Hit Die roll.

In combat, use an action to make a medicine check and the patient can spend a HD to heal. Although that steps on the toes of the healer feat

I'd agree, but unfortunately IMO the best ways to improve medicine would be to nerf a lot of the bounce-back/natural healing/resilience of 5e characters.. and then medicine could fill to restore some of it.
It was pointed out to me that they get all their hit dice back now from a LR in 2024, so that's out the window

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I'd agree, but unfortunately IMO the best ways to improve medicine would be to nerf a lot of the bounce-back/natural healing/resilience of 5e characters.. and then medicine could fill to restore some of it.
It was pointed out to me that they get all their hit dice back now from a LR in 2024, so that's out the window

which is why giving more opportunities to spend HD outside short rests works well.

 

[Horwath]

1. Medicine stabilization as DC10. Action.
Need proficiency or made with disadvantage.
Healers kit gives advantage
If you have expertise you can do it as a Bonus action.
when you stabilize someone with Medicine and you are proficiency you can heal them for prof bonus HP. Double that if you have expertise.
Target can be healed this way once per Long rest.


2. Using HD
During short rest you can make DC10 Medicine check if proficient.
Success maximizes healing for 1 HD.
for every +5 roll on the check one additional die is maximized.
If you have expertise add one extra HD to be maximized extra.


3. Augmented healing.
If you have proficiency in Medicine, Cure wounds and Healing word heal +1 HP per die rolled.
If you have Expertise in Medicine, Cure wounds and Healing word heal +2 HP per die rolled.


4. Add more diseases that can be battled with Medicine.

5. Optional: merge Medicine into Nature skill.

 

[Retros_x]

Interestingly enough medicine is far from the least useful skills at my table. I think it is too common in my games to investigate someone wounded or sick. But almost even more I use it for examing corpses. What killed that NPC is such a common open question in my game, I let my players basically roll medicine for every corpse they examine. Not just in crime and mystery adventures, but also in dungeon crawling. It could lead to hints of what monsters delve in the dungeon or what kind of traps await, if for example a medicine check reveals that an NPC died by poisonous darts.

 

[TheSword]

Interestingly enough medicine is far from the least useful skills at my table. I think it is too common in my games to investigate someone wounded or sick. But almost even more I use it for examing corpses. What killed that NPC is such a common open question in my game, I let my players basically roll medicine for every corpse they examine.

CSI Waterdeep!

 

[Horwath]

CSI Waterdeep!

news: 18 bodies dropped in Evermoors.
Are the Zhentharim behind it?

 

[Bae'zel]

As an aside, I find it fascinating that the usual debate about whether HP represents actual injury vs. abstract "luck / endurance" hasn't come up in this thread.

 

[FrogReaver]

If anything medicine should have been a tool proficiency, maybe a Physicains Kit. The tools of physicians are stiches, surgical tools, antibiotics, ointments, other medicines and knowing when and how to use them safely. That at least covers diagnosing and treating.

Then to make it really useful, those proficient with a Physicains Kit can sometimes bring back to life recently dead individuals <1 minute. Make a check if greater than DC then the character regains 1 hp and stabilizes as if he had been stabilized from dying, remaining unconscious for the normal time.

This leaves healers kits as essentially first aid kits that anyone can use, which is basically what they currently are in the game and places physicans as those that can really intervene and save lives.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

For games where failed death saves accumulate, even after a person is revived with healing, A successful medicine check can remove one failed death save