Medicine
The Big 3: Continual Recovery, Risky Surgery, Ward Medic
https://rpgbot.net/p2/characters/skills/medicine/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/10l43s1/resourceless_healing_per_10_minutes/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P-jXDvoEAraMuy3QIMuFhrTNvq_Vh27UbPwFw5stZrI/edit#heading=h.39d5ifcgk47j
Classes
What classes should focus on Medicine?
If your class invests in Wisdom for any reason, you should probably think about how you can be an Expert in Medicine and pick up the Continual Recovery Skill Feat. Not all of the classes are listed and some classes that are listed might be build-dependent.
- Cleric (5/5)- Clerics are some of the best healers in the game so it might be counter intuitive to invest in Medicine but spell slots are limited and you can provide substantial healing through Treat Wounds instead.
- Druid (5/5)- See Cleric.
- Rogue (4/5) - Medicine is Skill Feat intensive and you get Skill Feats every level.
- Investigator (4/5) - Same reason as rogues, you have a surplus of Skill Feats and Medicine is Skill Feat intensive.
- Bard (1/5) - Typically the Face and taxed worse than other Charisma classes because they need to invest in Performance.
- Champion (1/5) - One of those most MAD classes in the game and you have Lay on Hands.
Skill Feats
- (1) Battle Medicine (3/5): This lets you use Treat Wounds in combat, so it's one free "pick me up" for a downed ally (but that ally can only receive this benefit once per day). It's a 1 action Stabilize with a small heal.
- (2) Continual Recovery (5/5): Incredibly good, you can now use Treat Wounds on the same character six times per our. It has a paradox with Assurance where Assurance makes Continual Recovery better but Continual Recovery makes Assurance worse.
- (2) Godless Healing (4/5): If you have Battle Medicine, there's little reason to skip this; if someone else in your party has Battle Medicine, this is arguably better than Continual Recovery. The healing bonus is great, the reduced downtime on Battle Medicine is nice. But it's a questionable choice for Clerics and Champions.
- (2) Mortal Healing (1/5): Costs are too high here, this is the 3rd feat in the chain and the Laws or Mortality are strict (but no real consequences). This feat would be vastly different if the benefit applies when Treat Wounds was used on you; it does not apply to Battle Medicine.
- (2) Ward Medic (2/5): Only really useful if you're the only Medicine healer in the group or if your GM is really stingy on recovery windows. It makes Continual Recovery better but isn't good enough on it's own.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/cqukeb/treating_wounds_successfully_for_an_hour/ https://paizo.com/threads/rzs436qd?Treat-Wounds-and-Game-Balance
Assurance
The Assurance Paradox: Assurance makes every Medicine Skill Feat better but Continual Recovery makes Assurance worse since it practically removes the lockout time for Treat Wounds.
- (1) Assurance (4/5): Medicine has some of the best Skill Feats in the game and Treat Wounds has fixed DCs; it doesn't work until level 3 but you don't need to advance Medicine past Trained and characters with low Wisdom can still Treat Wounds. With the lockout period for Treat Wounds and Battle Medicine, you never want to fail a DC. There is a sweet spot where Assurance is best and you can look to train out of it at higher levels. The biggest problem with Assurance is when to take it.
When should you take Assurance?
There is no general rule as it depends on your Wisdom Modifier and how much you plan on investing in Medicine. The higher your Wisdom Modifier, the less important Assurance is. If you plan on progressing past Trained, you're better off getting Continual Recovery first.
If you plan on dumping Wisdom but still want to effectively Treat Wounds, level 2 is probably the most reasonable time.
There's an edge case where rushing Godless Healing at level 2 is possibly better since it makes Treat Wounds (and Battle Medicine) better on you and you can use Battle Medicine as a backup for Treat Wounds.
When should you retrain Assurance?
When you have a +14 bonus to Medicine (this will normally happen around level 10).
The +14 bonus completely removes the chance to critically fail basic Treat Wounds checks and you'd only fail on a natural 1 (all other rolls are at least a success).
Dedications
Medic Dedication
The Continual Recovery Rush
If you have access to Free Archetype and you want to invest in effectively healing your party with Treat Wounds, you should probably take the Medic Dedication at level 2, and Continual Recovery with your level 2 Skill Feat; then at level 4, spend your Free Archetype feat on Doctor's Visitation and your level 4 or level 6 Skill Feat on Treat Condition. Rushing these feats allows you to take a new Dedication at 6.
- Level 2 (Free Archetype): Medic Dedication
- Level 2 (Skill Feat): Continual Recovery
- Level 4 (Free Archetype): Doctor's Visitation
- Level 4 (Skill Feat): Ward Medic/Risky Surgery/Assurance/Treat Condition
- Level 6 (Skill Feat): Treat Condition (if you don't take it at level 4)
If you're building a higher level character, you don't need to rush the Medic Dedication to get Continual Recovery at level 2. You can still pick up the Medic Dedication to save your Skill Increases for something else and use a later Free Archetype Feat to get Expert Medicine.
Tips and Tricks
- Don't forget Expanded Healer's Tools. It's a +1 item bonus for 50gp.
FAQ
How Useful is Assurance (Medicine) with Treat Wounds?
Increasing the DC check will net more hit points than fishing for critical successes.
Assurance guarantees successes at the following levels:
- Trained (DC 15): 3
- Expert (DC 20): 8 (+10)
- Master (DC 30): 14 (+30)
- Legendary (DC 40): Never (+50)
| Character Level | Assurance (T) | Assurance (E) | Assurance (M) | Assurance (L) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 3 | 8 | 14 | - |
Note: Critical Successes have a lower expected value than the bonus for increasing the DC.
How does Treat Wounds compare with Lay on Hands?
Lay on Hands is guaranteed healing that scales with the character level. The formula for it's healing value is: (Level / 2, rounded up) x 6.
Treat Wounds doesn't scale (outside of increasing the DC for a flat bonus to healing) and has an expected value of 9 (Range: 2-16).
Comparing the Assurance table with the Lay on Hands formula, Treat Wounds will roughly match Lay on Hands healing when you're at the levels where the step increase (then Lay on Hands will slowly pull away until the next proficiency step). This only takes into account single target healing, so Skill Feats like Ward Medic makes Treat Wounds better.
Can someone who's immune to Treat Wounds receive healing from Battle Medicine?
Yes, Battle Medicine is a separate Treat Wounds.
Does Continual Recovery allow you to use Treat Wounds on the same character 6 times per hour? or is it 3 times per hour?
It's probably six times per hour, not three times per hour -- but it probably doesn't make a difference. The wording on Continual Recovery prevents multiple people from using Treat Wounds on the same character at the same time.
If your GM says it's 3 times per hour, the easiest way to explain the ambiguity in the wording is to think about what happens if Continual Recovery removed the immunity instead of reducing it to 10 minutes. Since removing the immunity altogether would be a cleaner way to explain it, you need to think of a reason why it wasn't worded that way.
It's completely reasonable that one person bandaging an arm is as effective (if not more effective) than having multiple people trying to bandage the same arm.