Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Healing

Healing
The healing skill is an active skill that allows you restore the health of yourself and your allies. With it, you can bind wounds, treat poison, accelerate natural healing, and determine what effects a patient is suffering under. Those skilled in healing can heal others an amount near instantly, find hidden health concerns, treat temporary and permanent physiological conditions, and even bring the recently dead back to life.

Key Attribute: Charisma

Special
The healing skill is intended to be used on creatures with a familiar anatomy. Some tasks, like binding wounds and treating poison, are fairly universal and can be applied to any living being, while others, like accelerate healing, require some special knowledge to use effectively on non-humanoid creatures. If it seems unlikely that a healer would know how to work on a particular target due to physiological differences, which generally means not a familiar type, they suffer a -5 penalty to their check.

Treat Wound
Most cases of bleeding out or caltrop damage can be remedied by pulling a bandage tight, and it doesn't require any specialized training to do so. You can reduce recurring hit point loss, like the 1 point/round suffered while at negative hit points or bleeding damage, or attempt to treat a debilitating injury, like those suffered from caltrops. This requires a DC 15 healing check and a standard action. This text generally supersedes spell text indicating other action and DC requirements. The success of your attempt as well as how much you reduce the bleeding of a patient is indicated in the check results below.

If the patient is only losing hit points because they are below 0, they stop dying and become stable. Any condition mitigated by this is not immediately removed, merely suppressed, and if the bandages are removed before the condition expires or recovers naturally, the bleeding and condition resume immediately. If the condition expires upon the application of healing, it is removed after 5 rounds of binding.

Base DC: 15

Check Result:
 * DC+5 and above: You stop all bleeding on the subject, and suppress any injury-based movement penalty until the duration expires, it heals, or the bindings are removed.
 * DC+0 to DC+4: You reduce bleeding by 1 point plus 1 for each 2 points by which your check exceeds 15. If the amount that you reduced bleeding by would heal an injury-based debilitating condition, that condition is also suppressed until the duration expires, it heals, or the bindings are removed.
 * DC-1 and below: You neither reduce bleeding nor mitigate any injury-based debilitating conditions this round. But at least you didn’t make things worse.

Care for Patients
Caring for the sick and injured requires a bit more knowledge than how to pull a bandage tight. You know the rudiments of healing, and can provide more care in excess of simple wound bindings. With a DC 15 healing check, you may care for up to six patients; you may care for an additional patient for every 2 points that you exceed the DC. If you do not meet the DC, you are able to care for one fewer patient for each point your roll missed the DC by. You may care for yourself in this way, though you count as two patients, but you may not be someone else’s patient while caring for others.

While under your care, patients recover hit points and ability damage twice as quickly as normal. With a full day of rest, for example, a character would recover four hit points per character level and four points of ability damage. Additionally, you can make a healing check for each patient actively suffering a disease under your care; they can use your check in place of their save if it is higher. Patients must remain under your care for at least 8 hours to gain these benefits. You may treat patients while travelling without penalty, though most forms of movement are active enough that you will only gain the healing benefit from the evening’s rest.

Base DC: 15, and as disease DC

Check Result:
 * DC+0 and above: You provide care to up to six patients, plus an additional patient for each 2 points by which you exceeded the DC. The benefits of your care are detailed in the ability text.
 * DC-1 and below: You fail to provide support for a number of patients equal to the amount you were short on your roll by divided by 2. You may select which patients fail to benefit from your care.

Mitigate Poison
Poison is a bad way to go, and a treatable one if you get there in time. You can help victims survive beyond the initial effects of a nasty poison. As a standard action, you can treat a poison victim, regardless of the method of poison delivery. The next time that the victim makes a save against the effects of the poison, you also make a healing check. They may use your healing check in place of their save if it is higher. You may mitigate your own poisoned wounds as well, allowing you both a healing check and a saving throw at the next check, but this requires a full round action.

Base DC: As poison DC

Check Result:
 * DC+0 and above: You successfully save the patient from further poison damage, even if they fail their saving throw.
 * DC-1 and below: The patient suffers or recovers from the poison based on their saving throw result.

Triage Assessment
It’s useful to know who you can save with your healing knowledge, and who you’d be wasting your time on. You know how to tell what conditions a helpless or willing target is suffering under. Studying a patient in this way requires a move action and a check against DC 15. Meeting that DC will let you know whether your target is below one-quarter of their maximum hit points. If they are dying, you also learn their exact negative hp amount. This check also reveals whether or not the target is actively suffering from any bleeding effects, diseases, or poisons, but not necessarily their quantity. Diseases and poisons in their incubation periods are not detected with this ability, however.

In addition to the above, for every 2 points you exceed the DC by, you can learn one of the following pieces of additional information:
 * the lowest unknown DC of a disease they are suffering from (in the event of a tie, determine randomly)
 * the effect of a failed save against a disease of known DC
 * the lowest unknown DC of a poison they are suffering from
 * the time remaining until next poison save
 * the effect of a failed save against a poison of known DC
 * the duration of a bleeding or injury based debility effect.

If you select a piece of information that does not apply to the patient, you may reselect the information gained without penalty. Gathering information in this way can allow a skilled practitioner to quickly learn the details of many, if not all, conditions that a patient is suffering from. Note that you do not gain additional information from this check on a retry unless you exceed the amount of your original check. When you do gain additional information, you only gain the difference between your initial check and your revised check.

Base DC: 15

Check Result:
 * DC+0 and above: You learn general information about the patient's status, as well as answers to 1 question from the list above per 2 points by which you exceeded the DC.
 * DC-1 and below: You fail gather any useful information about the condition of the patient.

Immediate Healing
You can work wonders with bandages, leaches, and almost no time, healing substantial wounds and helping people to continue fighting. Using this healing ability requires a standard action and a check against DC 15 + their level or your level (whichever is less). The amount that you heal is based on your check result, as indicated below. You may even heal damage that requires magical healing with in this fashion. If the damage simply requires magical healing, this ability meets that criteria. If you must succeed on a caster level check to heal the damage, you are considered to have a caster level equal to your ranks in Healing -3.

Each additional check on the same patient before they have taken a night's rest imposes a cumulative -5 penalty to your checks to heal them in this fashion. You’ve got talent, there is a limit to what you can accomplish with a patient without actual time and rest.

Base DC: 15 + your CR or your target’s CR, whichever is less

Check Result:
 * DC+0 and above: You heal your patient either one quarter of their maximum hit points or one quarter of your maximum hit points, whichever is less.
 * DC-1 to DC-5: You heal your patient either one eighth of their maximum hit points or one eighth of your maximum hit points, whichever is less.
 * DC-6 and below: You deal subdual damage equal to your level to your patient. You can only push a body so far.

Treat the Symptoms
Your knowledge of the body and its functions allows you to work around certain reactions and debilitating conditions. You can relieve the blinded, dazed, dazzled, deafened, exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, sickened, and stunned conditions from those you treat, though you can not treat permanent conditions with this ability. You can treat a number of patients within arms' reach as a standard action, or you may use a full-round action to treat a number of patients that you can reach with a single move action, but you may not treat more than 1 target per 2 ranks in healing in any round. You may treat yourself at the same time as you treat others, or you may treat only yourself as a move action.

When you treat sufferers, make a healing check against the effect’s save DC + the effect’s level (in the case of spells like Glitterdust or Stinking Cloud) or 10 + the effect initiator’s character level + the effect initiator’s Chr modifier (in the case of supernatural abilities without an effect level). If you succeed on the check, you suppress the condition in your patients as indicated in the check result table below. A successful check will suppress the condition even if they remain in the area and would normally still be subject to the ongoing effect. You only make one roll for the round, and compare that roll to the DCs for each effect to see which are suppressed or removed and which are not.

Base DC: Effect Save DC + Effect level, or 10 + Initiator’s Character Level + Cha mod Check Result:
 * DC+10 and above: Your patients are freed from the condition, and no longer suffer its effects. If they remain in an area that would normally cause the condition to return, they are immune to the condition from any source against which they have been treated. This probably annoys whoever placed the effect in the first place.
 * DC+5 to DC+9: You suppress the effect in your targets for three rounds, starting immediately after your action. During this time, they do not suffer from the suppressed conditions, even if they remain in the area of effect. Your stopgap treatments are not permanent, however, and quickly wear thin. At the end of that time, the effects return if their duration has not expired, though you may make a new check as above to suppress them again.
 * DC+0 to DC+4: You suppress the effect in your patients for one round, starting immediately after your action. Next round, the effects return if their duration has not expired and your patients are still within its area of effect, though you may make a new check as above to suppress them again.
 * DC-1 to DC-5: You fail to help your patients at all this round, but may try again next round if you wish.
 * DC-6 and below: Sometimes the treatment is worse than the illness. You become unable to affect this instance of the condition at all, and your patients suffer the condition as normal. Any further retries are futile, and you should really find something else to do with your actions next round.

Accelerated Care
A trained healer can cure more than simple injuries and diseases, they can speed recovery and heal more fantastic afflictions. Patients under your care, as defined in the Care for Patients ability, receive additional benefits. These patients heal twice the standard amount after a night of rest. Patients who take a full day of bed rest under your care heal four times the base amounts. In addition to the increased speed with which natural healing occurs, patients under your care also recover from ability drain as if it were ability damage. If a patient is suffering both, the ability drain is healed first. If any patient is suffering from a disease, you may make two healing checks when they make a save; the patient uses any successful rolls from among them and may recover from the disease immediately if two of these rolls are successful.

Patients may also recover from certain permanent conditions while under your care. Any condition that you could treat with the Treat the Symptoms ability can be recovered in this way, as can one negative level per day. You may only attempt to cure one of these per day, however, and the patient must have failed the save against the condition within a number of days equal to your ranks in healing. Attempting to cure one of these conditions requires you to sacrifice your two disease checks for the patient. If you elect to cure one of the conditions, you make a single healing check against the saving throw DC of the condition. If the condition did not allow a save, you make a check against a DC 10 + the effect initiator’s CR + the effect initiator’s Cha modifier. A successful check means they have recovered from the condition at the end of 8 hours under your care. A failed check simply means that patient does not recover this day, and you may try again after one day as long as the condition still qualifies. The patients are still entitled to any additional saving throws as normal.

Base DC: 15, or as disease or condition DC

Check Result:
 * DC+0 and above: You provide care to up to six patients, plus an additional patient for each 2 points by which you exceeded the DC. The benefits of your care are detailed in the ability text.
 * DC-1 and below: You fail to provide support for a number of patients equal to the amount you were short on your roll by. You may select which patients fail to benefit from your care.

Battlefield Surgery
Sometimes you can't wait to for a full night of rest to start the healing, like when you're about to go fight another spider and your friend can't lose much more Constitution. You know how to quickly reduce an ability penalty, though some types of wound are harder to fix than others. As a full-round action, you may attempt to repair ability damage or drain in an individual. This takes a bit of time, though, and a commitment from both you and the patient. You make a check as a standard action against a DC 23 to begin the healing. This is treated as a use of immediate healing, and you suffer a -5 penalty to your check for each previous immediate healing, or equivalent ability, attempted on the target since they were last fully rested. The results of your work appear in the check results below.

Base DC: 23

Check Result:
 * DC+10 and above: You recover 6 points of damage to one ability per round, may select a different ability each round, and may continue healing ability damage on the target for up to 5 minutes. You may also trade 3 points of ability damage to heal 1 point of ability drain. If they're not in fighting shape after that, you've probably been working on a corpse.
 * DC+5 to DC+9: You recover 3 points of damage to one ability per round, may select a different ability each round, and may continue healing ability damage on the target for up to 1 minute. You may also trade 3 points of ability damage to heal 1 point of ability drain. They should be back up to fight shortly.
 * DC+0 to DC+4: You recover 1 point of damage to one ability per round, may not select a different ability each round, and may continue healing ability damage on the target for up to 3 rounds. It's a small thing, but better than nothing.
 * DC-1 and below: You fail to heal any ability damage this round, but don't make things worse either. You may try again on subsequent rounds, but this failure still counts as an attempt.

Detailed Assessment
Triage assessments are useful things, but detailed analyses often give more information. After completing a Triage Assessment on a patient, you can spend a bit more time with them to learn things about their health they might not know themselves. This check requires 1 minute and a DC 20 heal check. On a success, you learn if there are any poisons or diseases in their incubation period and not actively affecting the patient. For every 2 points you exceed the check by, you also learn additional information as described under the Triage Assessment ability, but you may gain information for diseases and poisons in their incubation period as well. Note that you do not gain additional information from this check on a retry unless you exceed the amount of your original check. When you do gain additional information, you only gain the difference between your initial check and your revised check.

Once you know about these hidden problems, they are much easier to deal with. You may treat any incubating health concern with the relevant care abilities, and gain a +4 bonus to checks relating to removing the condition. If the patient would not normally gain a save against them within 24 hours, you may make a check to end or diminish them after 24 hours anyway.

Base DC: 20

Check Result:
 * DC+0 and above: You learn whether the patient is suffering any hidden or delayed effects, as described in the text, as well as answers to 1 question from the triage assessment list for every 2 points by which you exceeded the DC.
 * DC-1 and below: You fail gather any additionaly information about the condition of the patient.

Practiced Physician
You spend enough time putting arms back into sockets and setting limbs, and you get pretty good at it. The first use of immediate healing, or any ability that counts as a use of that ability, on a person after a full night's rest does not count against you for the purposes of determining your penalty for future uses of the ability or related ones.

Resuscitate
Patients whose hearts recently gave out are only mostly dead. You can drag the recently dead back to the land of the living, kicking and screaming if necessary. As a 1 round action, you can attempt to bring someone who recently died back to life. The DC for this check is 10 + their CR, and +1 for every round since they died. Each use of this ability counts as an attempt at immediate healing, and you suffer a -5 penalty for each previous immediate healing attempted on them since their last rest. The results of your check are indicated in the table below. As the person or creature hasn’t fully entered the afterlife yet, they have no idea who is attempting to bring them back and would be unable to resist even if they did.

Base DC: 12 + target’s CR, +1 for every round since they died

Check Result:
 * DC+10 and above: You bring the target back from the dead. Their current hit points are set to either one quarter of their maximum or one quarter of your maximum, whichever is less. This counts as an attempt at immediate healing. Seems they were only mostly dead.
 * DC+5 to DC+9: You bring the target back from the dead. Their current hit points are set to either one eighth of their maximum or one eighth of your maximum, whichever is less. This counts as an attempt at immediate healing.
 * DC+0 to DC+4: You bring the target back from the dead. Their current hit points are set to 0, and they should probably take it easy for a bit. This counts as an attempt at immediate healing.
 * DC-1 to DC-5: You fail to bring the dead back this round. You’re welcome to continue pounding on their chest and breathing into their mouth or whatever and try again next round.
 * DC-6 and below: You not only fail to bring the dead back this round, but you’ve made certain that you can’t bring them back in future rounds with this ability.