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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenobi65" data-source="post: 1844661" data-attributes="member: 1515">Well, maybe, but here's why.  I was (perhaps incorrectly) interpreting the initial question as the cleric trying to tell, at a glance, if the down character was stable (with the implied follow-up: "If he's not stable, I cast a cure spell on him / treat him with the Heal skill.  If he is stable, I do something else.")  Keep in mind that using the Heal skill is usually at least a standard action.  If the cleric was willing to spend a standard action to use Heal to assess whether the other character was stable, I probably wouldn't even make him make a roll.  BUT.  If the cleric did that, and the down character *wasn't* stable, then the cleric has blown his opportunity to actually stabilize the down character that round, because all he has left is a move action!In short -- assessing, with a moment's glance, if an injured character is dying or not, *should* take some skill / effort, IMO.  I don't want to penalize someone who's trying to help a downed party member...but, in this case, it sounds to me like the cleric's player is trying to have his cake and eat it too, at least a little bit.If the cleric's sole motiviation in the round is to heal his comrade, I wouldn't make him make a roll.  (And, honestly, if that's the cleric's sole motivation, why is he even bothering trying to assess if the other character is stable?  Just cast a Cure spell on him -- stable or not, he's *still* at -8!)  If the cleric's trying to prioritize between two injured party members, I probably woudn't make him make a roll, either.  But, if the cleric's trying to assess whether he helps a comrade who is clearly critically hurt, and may or may not be about to die, or go attack the bad guy, I *am* going to make him make a roll.  That one's probably not going to be a freebie. Chuckle.  Honestly, depending on the situation, I might do the same.  I view my job as the DM to be to make the players *think* I'm about to kill their PCs, without really killing anyone. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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