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<blockquote data-quote="Menexenus" data-source="post: 2892638" data-attributes="member: 8951">I have a player in my group who likes to use the Heal skill to try to figure out how a corpse died.&nbsp; The cheesiness of how much information he can sometimes get from this tactic has made it an inside joke among our gaming group.&nbsp; Whenever he tries it, we always start humming the theme song to the old TV-series &quot;Quincy&quot; (with Jack Klugman).&nbsp; [Daaa Dadada Da DAAA...]&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :-)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />Now, this use of the Heal skill is not listed under the entry for &quot;Heal&quot; in the PH.&nbsp; However, I have seen this use of Heal referred to in several modules.&nbsp; That is, I've seen situations in modules where a DC for a Heal check is listed as a way for PCs to find out how a corpse died.&nbsp; (One module that I recently read that does this is the &quot;Whispering Cairn,&quot; the first module of the Age of Worms adventure path in Dungeon magazine - a magazine that advertises that it contains official D&amp;D content.&nbsp; It gives a Heal DC for players to discover that the skeleton of a long-dead adventurer died from falling damage.)The problem with this use of the Heal skill is that is that there is usually no reason not to Take 20 on it.&nbsp; In essence, this turns anyone with a beefed up Heal check into a CSI detective.&nbsp; That doesn't seem right.&nbsp; But if you don't let your players use Heal in this way at all, then how will they even know to consider using a Heal check on dead bodies in modules like the &quot;Whispering Cairn&quot; (where a DC for doing this very thing is listed)?What do the rest of you think about allowing PCs to use the Heal skill to try to determine how someone died?&nbsp; (I'm trying to decide whether to allow it in my game, and if so, how to adjudicate it.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Menexenus, post: 2892638, member: 8951"] I have a player in my group who likes to use the Heal skill to try to figure out how a corpse died. The cheesiness of how much information he can sometimes get from this tactic has made it an inside joke among our gaming group. Whenever he tries it, we always start humming the theme song to the old TV-series "Quincy" (with Jack Klugman). [Daaa Dadada Da DAAA...] :-) Now, this use of the Heal skill is not listed under the entry for "Heal" in the PH. However, I have seen this use of Heal referred to in several modules. That is, I've seen situations in modules where a DC for a Heal check is listed as a way for PCs to find out how a corpse died. (One module that I recently read that does this is the "Whispering Cairn," the first module of the Age of Worms adventure path in Dungeon magazine - a magazine that advertises that it contains official D&D content. It gives a Heal DC for players to discover that the skeleton of a long-dead adventurer died from falling damage.) The problem with this use of the Heal skill is that is that there is usually no reason not to Take 20 on it. In essence, this turns anyone with a beefed up Heal check into a CSI detective. That doesn't seem right. But if you don't let your players use Heal in this way at all, then how will they even know to consider using a Heal check on dead bodies in modules like the "Whispering Cairn" (where a DC for doing this very thing is listed)? What do the rest of you think about allowing PCs to use the Heal skill to try to determine how someone died? (I'm trying to decide whether to allow it in my game, and if so, how to adjudicate it.) [/QUOTE]

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