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Heal (Wis)

Use this skill so keep a badly wounded friend from dying, to help others recover faster from wounds, so keep your friend from succumbing to a wyvern's poison sting, or to treat disease.

Check: The DC and effect depend on the task you attempt.

TaskHeal DC
First aid15
Long-term care15
Treat wound from caltrop, spike growth, or spike stones15
Treat poisonPoison's save DC
Treat diseaseDisease's save DC

First Aid: You usually use first aid to save a dying character. If a character has negative his points and is losing hit points (at the rate of 1 per round, 1 per hour, or 1 per day), you can make him or her stable. A stable character regains no hit points but stops losing them. (See Dying, page 145, Player's Handbook.)

Long-Term Care: Providing long-term care means treating a wounded person for a day or more, if your Heal check is successful, the patient recovers hit points or ability score points (lost to ability damage) at twice the normal rate: 2 hit points per level for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 4 hit points per level for each full day of complete rest; 2 ability score points for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 4 ability score points for each full day of complete rest, You can tend as many as six patients at a time. You need a few items and supplies (bandages, salves, and so on) that are easy to come by in settled lands.

Giving long-term care counts as light activity for the healer. You cannot give long-term care to yourself.

Treat Wounds from Caltrop, Spike Growth, or Spike Stones: A creature wounded by stepping on a caltrop moves at one-half normal speed. A successful Heal check removes this movement penalty.

A creature wounded by a spike growth or spike stones spell must succeed on a Reflex save or take injuries that reduce his speed by one-third. Another character can remove this penalty by taking 10 minutes to dress the victim's injuries and succeeding on a Heal check against the spell's save DC.

Treat Poison: To treat poison means to rend a single character who has been poisoned and who is going to take more damage from the poison (or suffer some other effect). Every time the poisoned character makes a saving throw against the poison, you make a Heal check. The poisoned character uses your check result or his or her saving throw, whichever is higher.

Treat Disease: To treat a disease means to tend a single diseased character. Every time he or she makes a saving throw against disease effects, you make a Heal check. The diseased character uses your check result or his or her saving throw, whichever is higher.

Action: Providing first aid, treating a wound, or treating poison is a standard action. Treating a disease or tending a creature wounded by a spike growth or spike stones spell takes 10 minutes of work. Providing long-term care requires 8 hours of light activity

Try Again: Varies. Generally speaking, you can't try a Heal check again without proof of the original check's failure. For instance, until a poisoned character makes a saving throw against the poisoned wound you've treated, you can't know whether your Heal check was successful or nor, so you can't retry the check. You can always retry a check so provide first aid, assuming the target of the previous attempt is still alive.

Special: A character with the Self-Sufficient feat gets a +2 bonus on Heal checks.

A healer's kit gives you a +2 circumstance bonus on Heal checks.

As Heal involves familiarity with anatomy and physiology, this Skill may, at the DM's discretion, be applied to forensic matters, such as general cause of death or how long a body has been dead.

Expanded Description - Complete Adventurer

You can use the Heal skill to determine what killed a dead creature. The difficulty of this task depends on the nature of the death itself, as shown on the table below.

Cause of DeathDC
Physical wounds0
Environmental (fire, suffocation, etc.)5
Spell with visible effects10
Poison15
Spell with no visible effects20

Each day that passes between the time of the creature's death and the time the examination is made increases the DC of the Heal check to determine the cause of death by 5.

Action: Making a Heal check to determine the cause of a creature's death takes 10 minutes.

Try Again: Yes, but it takes 10 more minutes for each check.


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