I gotta toss in my support for First Aid first. The way I've latched onto the healing powers on DH is as a form of accelerated healing. The psychic power rapidly accelerates the bodies own natural healing process sealing wounds in seconds and knitting bones back together in no time. This being he case, not only, as mentioned above, would using psychic powers prevent first aid from being applied as the body would suddenly be on week 3 of it's healing process by the time the medicae got there a second latter, but, in my game, it could have desasterous effects if, say, a bone wasn't set before the psychic power was used. Such would be like the poor bastard had let the broken limb heal naturally with no splint healing back twisted and mangled or, if he's lucky, not at all. In other words, in my game, first aid would be needed to prepare the body for healing while psychic powers accelerates it's healing. Psychically healing someone who's gotten riddled with bullets but hadn't had said bullets removed before the healing might be far worse for it further down the line if any bacteria gets trapped in with the bullet which the characters body stands a good chance of healing around. If the body wasn't properly prepared before the psychic healing is applied, there could be nasty medical complications down the line if I'm feeling a bit vicious.

MILLANDSON said:

This does not make sense to me, how?

Well, if I have an accident and break my arm. One doctor supports it and plasters it. What should the next doctor do? Should he rip the plaster apart and do it all again? I would only allow 1 attempt to the wounded. Of course certain modifiers might add to this, he might get a +10 on a roll if a colleague with first-aid assists in the healing process but I would not allow two different attempts.

When it comes to the Psyker's, Healer or Seal Wounds which are quite powerful abilities, one with the threshold of 7 and the other with 10. If the players in the group are all right with this healing... Something is wrong. No one likes when Psykers use their powers, even sanctionised ones. This due to the Psycic Phenomena and the Perils of the Warp. Even if one die is rolled, there is a chance that this might occur and Acolytes are terribly aware of those dangers.

What it comes down to is what you allow your Acolytes to get away with. I as a story teller, try to keep things "realistic" by modifying difficulties and situations. Some rather follow the Core Rulebook blindly and if nothing is written in the book they do not know how to handle the situation. If my Acolytes would not be scared of warp healing, I would place the fear of the God-Emperor in them, "Sure as sure"

Allrab

I already run that first aid only works if A) nothing else has successfully healed them yet or B) they are still so horrifically wounded after other healing has been applied, that first aid still has something to do (i.e. still in critical).  In the second case, the healing from whatever power was used is subtracted from the First Aid check, though I am kind enough to allow a minimum of 1 wound healed,

Conversely, I also allow psyker healing and the like to work better if done along with or just after a good first aid check.  Basically the psyker healing gains a small bonus (depending on what's going on) to the total amount healed, as everything is already set/sutured/held in the right place.

Players are often cautious even if they treat their characters like shit: If they're fully kitted out and healed up then they'llbe ready to take on anything they are reasonably sure will not kill them in a single attack. However, if they are at low strength they'll go to great lengths to avoid any risk. If there appears to be no time limit then they'll retreat and recuperate as if the game wolrd was a video game that only responds to their actions.

So, if you want the players to keep game moving forward then allowing their PCs to quickly heal up is a good thing.

-K

I'm dragging up an old discussion, buuuuut…

I tried adding some 'Only War' Rules into my game yesterday, and they went down swimmingly, including… Medicae.

Difference was, I had the Only War Beta Update.

FIRST AID IS NOW AMAZING. -10 for heavily wounded, or -10 for each critical wound, with other modifiers for location and equipment, but a success removes wounds equal to the medic's intelligence bonus PLUS one for every degree of success.

The tending medic rolled really, really well while using a supplied medi-bay and a first-aid kit, and a character on 0 wounds got 9 wounds back. W.T.H.

Jeans_Stealer said:

I personally like the new Medicae rules. Yes, in the right circumstances, it can make for some crazy successes but then again, who wants to spend weeks lying around waiting to get better to go back out into the fray? And how often, in the field, will such crazy successes be possible?

Healing is always a very tricky thing to manage in RPGs: the realist in me wants the gritty, crippling, slow, torturous healing. The action-loving part of me likes the idea of playing 'broken but unbowed,' banged up but still in the action.

What I particularly like here is that it makes the Medic a very interesting choice.

I am glad to know that Medicae rules work better

Macharias the Mendicant said:

I'm with you Macharias on this: The gritty healing indeed suits the grimy universe, but, sometimes you just want the players to recover so they can fight on! The players really liked this ruling, i was pretty flabbergasted, but hell yeah! Roll well on first aid, and medics are amazing! Extended care didn't change though, which struck me as odd, but did reduce to 24 hour slots instead of weeks.

Only War + Beta Update = intriegued GM and happy players. (also helps now that I'm using the Primitive (X) rules.)

Maybe have the character heal wounds gradually after being patched up instead of instantly. After being worked on by a medic, they recover 1 Wound per  (half-)hour or something, up to the maximum that they'd been healed of. Psychic powers would still heal instantly, but they're unnatural recovery as it is so it's somewhat justified, and it should leave the patient suitably creeped out if they're not used to it.