Medicine

The healers of Kiga, once epitomized by Lady Kiga herself, have dedicated themselves to understanding the mystical underpinnings of wellness and disease, and to rebalance the body’s natural ability to heal itself using a combination of pressure points, correspondences, and herbal remedies. The Medicine skill encompasses all of these elements.
Prospective healers must first understand the systems of the body, and then gain the practical knowledge of how to apply their knowledge to properly diagnose and treat their patients. Of course, some dishonourable characters use their medicinal knowledge to cause harm instead of to heal, meddling with doses to create deleterious or even deadly side effects, or selecting toxic herbs with which to poison a rival.
More practical in its application than some other Scholar skills, Medicine covers knowledge of the human body and its functions. However, Medicine is also a practiced art, so it often behaves like an Artisan skill when used to heal injuries or create medicines.
While any skill can operate with another skill group’s approaches, it is fairly common for the Medicine skill to do so. Thus, several examples of when it uses Artisan skill approaches are noted in the following text.

Medicine Approaches

The Medicine skill can be used as follows with the appropriate ring:

• Recall Approach (Earth Ring): Studying and recalling existing remedies, creating bandages and medical supplies (Restore), stanching blood loss (Restore), mending other minor harm (Restore).
• Survey Approach (Water Ring): Identifying helpful and harmful herbs, gathering ingredients, finding hazards and contaminants in an environment, brewing remedies (Adapt), relieving exhaustion and pain (Adapt), speeding patients’ recovery from long-term illness and injury (Adapt).
• Theorize Approach (Fire Ring): Studying new medicines and treatments, treating unknown ailments, experimenting with unknown ingredients (Invent), brewing poisons (Invent), instilling patients with energy (Invent).
• Analyze Approach (Air Ring): Recognizing symptoms, diagnosing diseases and ailments in patients, performing surgery in the field or a place of healing (Refine), administering medicines and poisons in the proper dosage for the desired effect (Refine).
• Sense Approach (Void Ring): Detecting spiritual ailments, working entirely without ingredients, realigning the energy in others (Attune), treating spiritual ailments (Attune).

POSSIBLE MEDICINE SUBSKILLS

Anatomy, Chemistry, Poisons

Special Uses of Medicine

The following uses of the Medicine skill are available to all characters.

First Aid (Action)

Helping with swift recovery in the field is a key use of Medicine. As a Support action, a character may make a DC 13 Medicine (Water) check targeting a character within 5ft. If the healer succeeds, the target gains HP equal to 1 plus the healer’s ring die and cannot benefit from the First Aid action again until they have been treated more thoroughly, such as with the Treatment downtime activity.
The healer may spend a charge from their Water ring to affect one additional target per charge spent this way.

Treatment (Downtime)

While quick action in the field can get a character back on their feet, long-term care is also important. As a downtime activity, a character may make a DC 13 Medicine (Water) check targeting a convalescing character in the scene. If the healer succeeds, the target removes one wounded effect. If the target has developed a Scar such as a missing limb or damaged organ, this effect is not fully healed and rather treated as would make sense in the real world, essentially stopping any bleeding or infections. Additionally, many conditions can be removed by uses of the Medicine skill with various rings to reflect anything from minor mending to field surgery. These can be found in the individual entries for these conditions (coming soon).

HEALERS OF KIGA,

While most villagers rely on self-taught healers to treat simple injuries and everyday ailments, highly-educated members of the samurai class treat the nobility. Honzōsha are general practitioners who blend knowledge with a deep respect for the body’s natural energies, while the more pragmatic chiryōsha specialize in saving wounded warriors on the battlefield. However, all strata of society respect the knowledge and experience of trained midwives, whose wisdom allows them to transcend their normally low station.