[bmoham]

I have a couple of questions about medkits and recovery.
First, do they give a bonus to Medicine rolls (for recovery) or just First Aid?

Item description (on page 450 of my book) says it's rating applies to  First Aid test. It says nothing about Medicine. 
But in the section on Medicine (p208) there is a chart that says wireless medkit add "+ rating", and in the example ("Wombat is injured yet again..." seems to be adding the med kit rating to the doctor's Logic+Medicine for the recovery check.

Tangentially, can a Medicine roll help with the "natural" healing necessary to heal drain? It says "no magical healing and no medkits". I assume it means no first aid or stim patches. I can't imagine why it would mean no use of Medicine or why it would matter if the medical care included a medkit (assuming, medkits even apply to Medicine rolls - per my first question).

Thanks

[Spooky]

First, yes.

Second, on page 207, it says that natural healing can be augmented by medkits and autodoc drones, as long as they are attached and operating.

Clear as mud?

[Rooks]

The general consensus is to heal from drain especially stun damage the only thing you can do is rest.

[Mirikon]

The only thing you can do to heal from Stun drain is rest, though a Stim patch would suppress it temporarily. If the drain is physical, then you can use first aid or magic to heal it.

[Sphinx]

The only thing you can do to heal from Stun drain is rest, though a Stim patch would suppress it temporarily. If the drain is physical, then you can use first aid or magic to heal it.

Not exactly. SR5 p.278: "Drain damage, regardless of whether it is Stun or Physical damage, cannot be healed by any means other than the natural properties of the body -- that means no magical healing and no medikits."

[EDIT] Regarding the OP, a Medicine + Logic [Mental] Test adds bonus dice to a character's own natural recovery dice pools, so yes, I think Medicine could help recovery from Drain. No bonus from a medkit, though, as that's specifically disallowed.

[Mirikon]

Hmm. That's a change from 4e, then. Interesting.

[Reaver]

The only thing you can do to heal from Stun drain is rest, though a Stim patch would suppress it temporarily. If the drain is physical, then you can use first aid or magic to heal it.

Not exactly. SR5 p.278: "Drain damage, regardless of whether it is Stun or Physical damage, cannot be healed by any means other than the natural properties of the body -- that means no magical healing and no medikits."

[EDIT] Regarding the OP, a Medicine + Logic [Mental] Test adds bonus dice to a character's own natural recovery dice pools, so yes, I think Medicine could help recovery from Drain. No bonus from a medkit, though, as that's specifically disallowed.

Just keep in mind that the Medicine test adds to the healing test, after the allotted time is up for the healing test. So while Medicine can greatly speed up the amount of time needed overall, it can not remove damage boxes (in this case drain, either physical or stun) "right away"...

So, after an hour of rest, a mage could attempt a Body + Willpower + (Medicine hits) extended healing test to remove stun damage from drain.
After a day of rest a mage could attempt a Body x 2 +(Medicine Hits) extended healing test to remove physical damage drain.



Drain sucks. Avoid it, manage your spell casting!

[Mirikon]

Drain sucks. Avoid it, manage your spell casting!

This. This is the point I raise any time someone says that mages are uber powerful. Sure, they've got tricks, but your sammy doesn't get worse at shooting because he walked into a room with bad mojo, and shooting someone doesn't make him cough up blood unless he's doing something REALLY wrong.

[Michael Chandra]

I literally ran into the situation in Dragon Song... 2? 3? that a mage summoned a Force 6, ate 8 Drain after Edge and had to stay at a safe distance. Drain can be real dangerous because there's no easy recovery. The Streetsam taking a bullet can easily recover inbetween fights.

[Mirikon]

I literally ran into the situation in Dragon Song... 2? 3? that a mage summoned a Force 6, ate 8 Drain after Edge and had to stay at a safe distance. Drain can be real dangerous because there's no easy recovery. The Streetsam taking a bullet can easily recover inbetween fights.

Which is why I laugh at people who cry about the 'Spirit Army of DOOOOOOOM'.

[Reaver]

I literally ran into the situation in Dragon Song... 2? 3? that a mage summoned a Force 6, ate 8 Drain after Edge and had to stay at a safe distance. Drain can be real dangerous because there's no easy recovery. The Streetsam taking a bullet can easily recover inbetween fights.

Which is why I laugh at people who cry about the 'Spirit Army of DOOOOOOOM'.

SHHHH!!!!!!


Thou. Shalt. Not. Speak. Of. Spirit. Army. Of. Dooom!!!









(Because it's trademarked. failure to honor the trademark leads to long, drawn out forum threads filled with hate and whine about said Spirit Army of Doooom! <TM> , and usually leads to someone getting a forehead brand in the shape of Fastjack's BanHammer... )

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

The only thing you can do to heal from Stun drain is rest, though a Stim patch would suppress it temporarily. If the drain is physical, then you can use first aid or magic to heal it.

Not exactly. SR5 p.278: "Drain damage, regardless of whether it is Stun or Physical damage, cannot be healed by any means other than the natural properties of the body -- that means no magical healing and no medikits."

[EDIT] Regarding the OP, a Medicine + Logic [Mental] Test adds bonus dice to a character's own natural recovery dice pools, so yes, I think Medicine could help recovery from Drain. No bonus from a medkit, though, as that's specifically disallowed.

You can still play Kick the Can with (Stun) Drain by applying Stim Patches.

[Reaver]

The only thing you can do to heal from Stun drain is rest, though a Stim patch would suppress it temporarily. If the drain is physical, then you can use first aid or magic to heal it.

Not exactly. SR5 p.278: "Drain damage, regardless of whether it is Stun or Physical damage, cannot be healed by any means other than the natural properties of the body -- that means no magical healing and no medikits."

[EDIT] Regarding the OP, a Medicine + Logic [Mental] Test adds bonus dice to a character's own natural recovery dice pools, so yes, I think Medicine could help recovery from Drain. No bonus from a medkit, though, as that's specifically disallowed.

You can still play Kick the Can with (Stun) Drain by applying Stim Patches.

CRB 451

Stim patch: This patch removes a number of boxes
of Stun damage equal to its Rating. This effect lasts for
(Rating x 10) minutes—after that period of time, the patient
takes (Rating + 1) unresisted Stun damage (which
may be well become physical overflow by that point).
While a stimulant patch is in effect, the character is
unable to rest. Frequent use of stimulant patches may
require Addiction Tests. Treat it as Addiction Rating 2,
Addiction Threshold 1.

Only for so long.

You can delay the stun damage - IF you GM doesn't rule Drain can't be covered by Patches due to the "Drain damage, regardless
of whether it is Stun or Physical damage, cannot be healed by any means other than the natural properties of the body—that means no magical healing and no
medkits." line under Drain in the CRB.

- But only for so long, and then it comes right back, with a +1 chaser. Some people have argued you can continue to apply Patches.... but a some point, you do just pass out. (Full stun track).... And have to deal with healing the drain, and all the extra damage then. At best you get what? 4 patches before you're out? So 4 extra hours. 

[Beta]

This is suddenly feeling very relevent, as I'm about to start playing a Mage with magic 2.   (Casting and summoning is very much a sideline for the character, but you know how temptation is ....)  I admit I had not thought about  medikits/autodocs not helping on healing up physical damage from drain, and it had been so long since I've dealt with physical damage that had to heal over time I'd forgotten that it was bodyx2 and not body+will.  This could hurt!

[Mirikon]

This is suddenly feeling very relevent, as I'm about to start playing a Mage with magic 2.   (Casting and summoning is very much a sideline for the character, but you know how temptation is ....)  I admit I had not thought about  medikits/autodocs not helping on healing up physical damage from drain, and it had been so long since I've dealt with physical damage that had to heal over time I'd forgotten that it was bodyx2 and not body+will.  This could hurt!

You... may want to consider changing things up a bit. Especially since a Mage starts with Magic 3 on Priority C, the lowest one you can be a Mage on. An aspected mage could have a Magic of 2 at priority D, however. If you were going to do something like that, I'd actually suggest aspected Alchemist. The advantage of being able to sleep off your drain with alchemists really helps at lower magic ratings. Also, reagents to increase limits while keeping Force the same is going to be your friend for when you need something more potent.