Heal
Full rules text, use cases, and edge-case handling for this skill.
Description
Heal represents practical medical knowledge — binding wounds, treating disease and poison, stabilizing the dying, and providing long-term care. It does not grant magical healing; it covers the mundane but vital art of keeping people alive through sound practice.
Check
You can use Heal for several distinct tasks, each with its own DC and time requirement.
| Task | DC | Time |
|---|---|---|
| First aid (stabilize a dying creature) | 15 | Standard action |
| Treat wounds from caltrops, spike growth, or spike stones | 15 | 10 minutes |
| Treat poison (delay onset or reduce save penalty) | Poison's save DC | Standard action |
| Treat disease | Disease's DC | 10 minutes |
| Long-term care (restore extra hit points per day) | 15 | 8 hours |
| Provide long-term care (up to 6 patients) | 15 | 8 hours |
Long-Term Care Details
A successful long-term care check doubles a patient's natural healing rate for the day (2 hp/level instead of 1 hp/level for full rest; or 4 hp/level if the patient also rests all day). You can tend up to six patients at once; each patient requires 8 hours of your time. You cannot benefit from long-term care yourself.
Treat Poison
If you treat a poisoned creature before the onset time expires, the poisoned creature gains a +4 bonus on its next saving throw against the poison.
Treat Disease
The treated creature gains a +4 bonus on its next saving throw against the disease.
Action
Stabilizing a dying creature is a standard action. Other Heal tasks take 10 minutes or 8 hours as noted above.
Try Again
Stabilizing: Yes, each round until the creature either stabilizes or dies. Treat poison and disease: No — if you fail, the creature does not gain the bonus on that particular save (wait until the next stage to try again). Long-term care: You cannot retry during the same 8-hour period; start fresh the next day.
Special
- Healer's kit: A healer's kit grants +2 on Heal checks. Each kit has 10 uses. Without a kit, you suffer no penalty but cannot benefit from the tool bonus.
- Self-treatment: You can treat your own wounds, poison, and disease at no penalty. You cannot provide long-term care to yourself.
- Skill Focus (Heal): +3 bonus on all Heal checks (+6 with 10 or more ranks), valuable for healers relying on mundane medicine.
- Healer's Hands (feat, optional): Various third-party and variant rules expand Heal's scope (e.g. removing the bleed condition) — confirm with your GM.
- Oracle/Cleric: Heal is typically a class skill for divine casters, supporting hybrid magical + mundane healing strategies.
Note: Heal cannot restore hit points directly — it only improves the rate at which a patient recovers naturally. For immediate hit point restoration, spells (cure wounds, channel energy) are required.
Untrained
Yes. Any character may attempt Heal checks. First aid and long-term care are available untrained; however, treating poison and disease at the correct save DC often requires dedicated ranks to succeed reliably.