2/12/00

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Jim's DragonQuest Campaign:
Healers

• Diagnosis
• Estimating Time of Death
• First Aid
• Reviving Unconscious Characters
• Treating Grievous Injuries
• Treating Magical Backfire Results

Diagnosis

A healer can determine what's afflicting a living character, or how a dead character died. If the affliction or cause of death is obvious, success is automatic, and the healer needs only enough time to spot the obvious. If it isn't obvious, or if the healer wants to look beyond the obvious, the healer spends [11 - Rank] minutes examining the character. The success chance is [(2 x PC) + (5 x Rank)]%. If the character is dead, apply a modifier of -1% for each day the character has been dead. This costs the healer 1 FT.

Success means the healer can identify the following:

• Wounds: The healer can identify the general weapon type (Class A, B, or C, and whether the weapon was a wielded weapon or an animal's natural weapon).
• Infection: The healer can detect the presence of infection.
• Disease: The healer can identify the general type of disease.
• Poison: The healer can tell the victim was poisoned, and distinguish whether the poison was a nerve agent or a blood agent. If an alchemist made the poison, the GM applies a secret modifier of [-5 x alchemist Rank]% to the success chance.
• Other: If an affliction or cause of death other than the above is present (death from magical damage, death from fright, etc.), the healer can state that there's some other cause, but without knowing what that cause is.

If the success roll is in the double effects range, the the GM provides additional details.

If the attempt at diagnosis fails, but not by more than [healer's PC], the healer is uncertain. If the attempt fails by more than [healer's PC], the healer's assessment is incorrect, either missing an effect that's present, or spotting an effect that isn't present.

Estimating Time of Death

The healer doesn't get an exact figure, just the units that best represent the time since death. Whatever the units reported, the healer knows the character has been dead for at least one unit of time, but less than one of the next higher unit. For example, if the healer detects that a person has been dead for hours, the healer knows it's at least one hour, but less than one day. If the answer is years, the character has been dead for at least one year, but less than a decade. The largest quantity of time determined would be "decades or centuries or longer."

If the attempt fails by no more than [healer's PC], the healer isn't sure. If the attempt fails by more than that, the healer gets a wrong answer; roll 2D10: 2-5 = two units too low, 6-10 = one unit too low, 11 = the right answer after all, 12-16 = one unit too high, 17-20 = two units too high. For instance, if the real answer is days, but after an erroneous result the 2D10 roll is 13, the healer concludes the person has been dead for weeks (one unit higher than days).

First Aid

Reviving Unconscious Characters

This ability is available starting at Rank 0. It costs 1 FT.

To bring a character back to full consciousness still requires getting the character's EN score back to 4 or higher. Given that recovering 1 EN without magical assistance can take 2-4 days (see Recovering Endurance Points in the house rules), a character with 1-3 EN points remaining might take anywhere from 2 to 12 days to regain full consciousness.

Treating Grievous Injuries

This table summarizes healer ranks required to treat grievous injuries (section 18.3, plus some additional house rules and interpretations to fill in gaps). The indicated rank is also the number FT points expended in the effort. In all cases, the Heal Wounds ability (acquired at Rank 3) is required to restore lost EN points.

Treating Magical Backfire Results

This table summarizes healer ranks required to treat the results of some magical backfires (section 30.1, plus some additional house rules and interpretations to fill in gaps). The indicated rank is also the number FT points expended in the effort (except for transferring FT points, which costs [3 + (# of points restored)] as described in the rules). Any backfire result of 61-100 can be cured with a Remove Curse ritual.