Medic Guide

Key Stats

• Ability Scores: Treat Injury is keyed off of Wisdom, but you can swap that to Intelligence with a feat. Intelligence gives more skills which is always good. Dexterity helps you dodge fire. Constitution keeps you alive. If you're going the Nanite Control route, you'll need Intelligence. If you're going the Magic route, you'll need Wisdom. If you're going the Nanospell route, you'll need both Intelligence and Wisdom.
• Skills: Knowledge [Life Sciences] represents your actual medical knowledge, while Treat Injury represents your ability to put it into practice. In theory there's also Profession [Doctor] and the like. Endurance, Initiative, and Perception are always good.

Key Mechanics

Healing in this game is accomplished through the following methods:

• Natural Healing: A living creature that gets a full night's rest for its species regains hit points equal to its level. However, if it has any persistent conditions it gains no healing at all. A creature can only benefit from natural healing once per day-equivalent. Nanotech characters get a nice boost here since one of the 'core nanoaugmentations' doubles your recovery rate.
• First Aid: Simple enough - make a Treat Injury check as a standard action, expend a medpac, and heal the target 1 HP for every point you exceed the DC 15 by. Gets better with talents, you get advantage if you have a full medical kit, improvable with specialization features from the Medic advanced specialization...you get the idea. Its biggest drawback is that unless you have a specific feature from Medic, you can only use it on a given target once per day.
• Long-Term Care: Decidedly non-combat healing, but you can double the rate of natural healing if you tend to a creature for 8 hours. Can't use it on yourself though.
• Magic: Vital Transfer can heal hit points, but unless the caster spends a Hero Point they take damage equal to half the HP healed. Not really an efficient method of healing but it works in a pinch. Yeah, when mage techniques and talents come into play its a bit better since it becomes more efficient and you can use it at range, but you get the idea. The big thing it has going for it is you can use it multiple times per day.
• Nanotech: Kinda has a similar problem to Magic. Nanite Transfer doesn't deal damage to the user, but the healing takes place super slowly (2 HP/hour base), and the user moves a persistent step down on the condition track each time they use it since they're giving up their own nanites. Spending a hero point bypasses this, but now we're talking more hero point expenditure.
• Magic and Nanotech Together: Ah, PROJECT VULCAN. Sure, technically it was a failure. But hey, look at Accelerated Healing. Heals instantaneously and overcast adds more HP. Only downside is a bit of nonlethal to the caster and that pesky condition track movement.
• Second Wind: Second Wind is kind of the mechanic that keeps characters from dying at low levels until Medic comes online. When you're below 50% HP you can spend a swift action to heal HP equal to your CON score or 25% of your Max HP. Usable 1/day, feats give more, feats make it better, etc.

Backgrounds

In theory any work, but if you're looking for ones that specifically boost your key skills or stats...

• Animal Handler
• Artisan
• Calengil Shotgunner
• College Educated
• Criminal Past
• Help Desk
• Lore-Keeper
• Magical Family
• One of the Masses
• Out in the Wilds
• Religious Devotee
• Upper Class Upbringing

Themes

Themes that boost the medic role...

• Biohacker: The level 6 ability of Biohacker is literally +5 HP healed with Treat Injury. At level 12 you get a free Medical Secret from Medic. Both talent trees are relevant, it boosts Intelligence, and most of the feats are related.
• Combatant: For a more military slant, this does give free Treat Injury, Medical Team, and Skill Focus for Treat Injury.
• Cybernetic Seeker: Relevant bonuses, but really not the focus of the theme.
• Military: No relevant bonuses but very focused on the military angle. Subordinates and Competent Subordinates can work in your favor and give you a whole surgical department or medic team.
• Renaissance Sentient: Literally good for anything.
• Scholar: If you want to go the knowledge angle more.

Base Specializations

Honestly unless you're going the Magic, Nanotech, or Nanospell routes - either go Mundane and grab a second theme (Biohacker plus Combatant or Military works nice thematically for a combat medic) or grab whatever strikes your fancy.

• Magic - Theoretically any spec works here as long as you get Vital Transfer.
  • Special Mention - Of note is Spirit Binding [Life]'s Blood is Life ability. "Blood Is Life – Whenever you deal damage with your bite attack to a living target (other than yourself or another contractor of Life), you regain HP equal to half of the of damage dealt. If this would take you over your normal maximum HP, it instead is added to a separate pool of HP that you have. This separate HP pool does not count as being part of your hit points for the purposes of taking damage, but is used before your own hit points when dealing with the effects of the Vital Transfer spell. HP is lost from this pool at a rate of 10 HP per day, and your separate HP pool may not hold more HP than your normal maximum hit points."

Advanced Specializations

Medic is your bread and butter here. The only exceptions are if you're going the Magic route you will probably want to at least consider getting Mage (or an appropriate one for your type of magic).

Feats

• Analytical Diagnostics - This swaps Treat Injury to work off of INT. Congrats, you're now reasonably SAD since Wisdom is less important for you.
• Brilliant Defense - 1/Encounter add your INT mod to your Reflex defense as a reaction. Yes, this does work with Predictive Defense (see below).
• Cybernetic Surgery - Sometimes persistent conditions require cybernetics to fix.
• Experienced Medic - This lets you remove persistent conditions for multiple people at once.
• Extra Second Wind - Until you get to Medical Secrets in Medic, you take a pesky -5 penalty to using Treat Injury on yourself, and you also can't provide Long Term care to yourself. Having more Second Winds to use keeps you alive longer.
• Medical Expertise - More HP healed is more HP healed
• Medical Team - If you've got a source of customizable minions, this caps out at a higher bonus than Skill Focus *plus* adds extra HP healed.
  • For some quick math here - lets say you've got three human Followers from the follower-granting talents or the Military theme's Subordinates ability, plus a Protégé. Followers get their normal species bonus feat, so each follower and the Protégé grabs this feat. You're at +3 base from the feat, that goes up to +7 from your allies. Your allies all then aid another on you to heal someone, so now you're at a +15 bonus to your Treat Injury check (before you factor in any talents or feats that boost aid another) and you heal an additional 16 HP to the target regardless of the dice roll.
• Poise - If you're taking the Wisdom approach and can weasel your way into a combat school other than Self Defense, might as well get this and boost your Reflex Defense.
• Predictive Defense - You're smart enough to not get hit. Use Intelligence instead of Dexterity when determining your Reflex defense.
• Priestly Devotion - Not really 'on-theme' but it keys off of Wisdom and boosts skills for a Wisdom-based duration.
• Protégé - See above.
• Skill Focus - +5 to Treat Injury, good if you're not going the Medical Team route.
• Surgical Expertise - This makes removing persistent conditions quicker.
• The Pen Is Mightier - Look at some point you're going to have to persuade someone. Might as well do it in writing and add your Intelligence and Wisdom.

Universal Talents

• Healer - Battlefield Medic lets you take 10 to heal, Healing Knack adds more HP to healing, Improved Healing adds on a condition track movement effect (this stacks with Battlefield Remedy), and Medic lets you reroll Treat Injury checks. If you're going the Magic route, Improved Vital Transfer removes the damage to you when using that spell.
• Skill Challenge - If you want to be an amazing surgeon, this is a huge help since complex surgeries would be Skill Challenges.
• Superior Skills - Assured skill is not worth it, just carry a medkit. Beyond that, Exceptional Skill is great if you're not taking the take 10 approach. Reliable Boon and Skill Boon make hero point use for skills better.
• Veteran - Battlefield Remedy adds a condition track movement effect to Treat Injury (this stacks with Improved Healing). Tested In Battle helps YOU stay up on the condition track.
• For anyone wanting to take the Follower approach Loyal Protector, Reconnaissance Team, and Squad Leader all give followers and boost their effectiveness.

Other Talents

• Magic Talents
  • Healer talent tree (rename incoming) - Lay On Hands lets you replace Treat Injury with Magery, and the rest of the talents boost Vital Transfer.
  • Mage Scholar tree - more spells -> more Vital Transfers. Magic Thesis lets you boost Vital Transfer more.

Combat Techniques and Schools

• Stances and Techniques - Non-Combatant, Patch Up, Stabilize, and Stim Pack are all right up your alley
• Deft Touch - Really the only relevant combat school beyond Self Defense

Gear

• Breath Mask - Immunity to inhaled effects. Don't leave home without it.
• Medical Gear category - Basically everything in here is useful to you in some way, either directly to yourself or to hand out to people.
• Microlab - Look, sometimes you just need to figure out what that mystery fluid is. Don't taste it, use this.
• Equipment Mod - Ready Harness - Yes, you can tack this thing onto non-combat armor that has a similar effect. Add it to your tactical uniform and you're off to the races.
• Software - Cadeceus - It runs on your comm, just make sure you get it at a level that can handle everyone in the party.