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- Chirurgery (Mental 1, Physical 1, Intelligence/Knowledge -2, Dexterity/Aim
-2) — A character with a Healing skill score of at least 50% can learn to use the Chirurgery skill.
- Some healers are also trained to act as chirurgeons (surgeons).
While a dungeon or battlefield is not an ideal operating theater,
this problem is counteracted to an extent by the greater inherent
survivability shown by characters. Nonetheless, the best that
can be expected is a sort of rough-and-ready, chop-and-sew procedure.
Table 5.6.00: Chirurgical Healing Rates
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- A chirurgeon with the proper tools can on a successful skill check
repair damage equal to a third of the damage sustained by a character
in a given melee. This healing is done at a rate according to
the chirurgeon’s skill level as detailed on Table 5.6.0 below.
All types of wounds can be healed with this skill including normal
wounds, burns and wounds caused by spells. In addition, the chirurgeon
can heal critical wounds and set broken bones if the damage suffered
by the victim is a third or less of his total hit points.
For example, a character has 30 hit points and suffers 16 hit
points of damage in a melee. A chirurgeon can restore up to 5
hit points given enough time and the proper tools.
If a patient has been reduced below half his normal hit points,
some form of anesthesia must be used in the chirurgery. If no
anesthesia is available, the treatment can continue, but two or
more people with a cumulative Strength/Muscle score of three times
that of the patient must hold him down. Treatment under this circumstance
is difficult and the chirurgeon suffers a -20% penalty to his
skill check. In addition, because of the noise caused by the patient,
the chance for encountering a wondering monster is doubled during
the treatment (when appropriate). If an encounter should occur,
the chirurgeon and those holding the patient suffer a -5 penalty
to their surprise checks.
A chirurgeon requires special tools to perform his trade. A basic
chirurgeon’s kit costs 75 gp and is relatively small, encumbering
a character slightly more than a dagger. It includes a scalpel,
needle and retractor/clamp.
An advanced kit is required to gain the full benefits of a skill
score of 70% or higher. The advanced kit fits in a container roughly
12" x 6" x 6" in size and includes the following items: scalpels,
needles, retractors, clamps, a bone saw, lancets, and probes.
An advanced kit cost 450 gp and weighs 5 lbs. The use of an advanced
kit has the additional benefit of giving a +3 bonus to the number
of hit points a chirurgeon can heal and is required for healing
critical wounds.
In addition to the chirurgery kit, a chirurgeon requires linen
bandages soaked in alcohol which are wrapped in dried animal bladders.
A supply of these bandages can be purchased for 5 gp and is sufficient
for approximately 10 chirurgery attempts.
Chirurgeons prefer to make their own chirurgical thread. Closely
wrapped linen thread that has been carefully coated with beeswax
can be used, but silk is a better material. Silk thread can be
obtained from the cocoon of a silk worm which provides approximately
2000' to 3000' of thread (enough for hundreds of chirurgery attempts)
or from certain rare spiders. Both are difficult to obtain in
the wild, but fortunately silk thread can be purchased in most
major cities at the cost of around 20 gp per 100' spool. The use
of silk thread in chirurgery adds one hit point to the damage
healed.
Enemy Reading (Mental 1, Physical 1, Observation -2) — Before a combatant makes
an attack, he often must position his feet, change the grip on
his weapon, bend his knees or make some other preparatory move.
In combat, this preparation is called “telegraphing” the move
to the enemy. While many people can see these moves, only highly
skilled fighters can “read” this telegraphing quickly enough to
react to it. A character with this skill who makes a successful
skill check at the beginning of the combat receives a +1 bonus
to his Armor Class when fighting an armed opponent.
A character cannot learn this skill at first level.
Feign/Detect Sleep (Mental 1 or Physical 1, Observation) — People who pretend to
be sleeping seldom do it right. However, most people don’t know
how to tell the fakers from those really asleep. Characters with
this skill are trained to feign sleep accurately and to determine
when others are feigning sleep.
This skill is of special use to a character on guard duty or infiltrating
a secure site. A character can use this skill when listening to
seemingly sleeping guards and guests. If he detects one who is
breathing wrong, he can take steps to capture or silence the faker.
Likewise, this skill can be used to convince an intruder that
the character is truly asleep, so that he can creep up on the
intruder from behind.
The Acting skill can convey the ability to feign sleep, but the Acting skill
check is made at a -20% penalty.
Racial modifiers: Kobolds, by nature, have a talent for this skill and have refined
it to a fine art. They receive a +15% bonus when using this skill.
Foraging (Mental 1 or Physical 1, Observation -2) — By using this skill,
a character can search a wilderness area to locate a small amount
of a desired material, such as a branch suitable for carving into
a bow, enough kindling to start a fire or a component required
for a spell. The character must spend 2d4 hours searching and
the material must theoretically be available in the area being
searched (for instance an icicle isn’t available in the desert,
nor dry kindling on the ocean floor).
The DM doesn’t confirm if the material sought is actually available
until after the character has searched for the designated period.
If the DM decides the material isn’t in the area, no skill check
is necessary; he merely reveals that the search was in vain.
If the DM decides the material is indeed available, a successful
skill check means the character has found what he was looking
for. As a rule of thumb, the character locates no more than a
handful of the desired material, though the DM may make exceptions
(if searching for a few leaves of a particular plant used as a
spell component, the character may instead find an entire field).
If the check fails, the material isn’t found. The character may
search a different area, requiring another 2d4 hours and a new
skill check.
This skill also helps a character to survive in wilderness environments.
When paired with the Survival skill the character can locate an abundance of edible or potable
substances. While every character with Survival has an equal chance
of locating food in the wilderness, the character who also has
Foraging can locate enough food and water to sustain two people
on a successful Foraging skill check in the terrain he is knowledgeable
about.
A character who makes a successful Foraging skill check while
using his Herbalism skill to locate a particular herb receives a +10% bonus to his
Herbalism search modifier.
 
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