Treat Disease (sage ability)

A physician with this skill is able to treat disease so as to subtract 1 point from the d8 used to determine the Nature of the disease. Similarly, the Degree of disease is also modified by 1 point in the patient's favor. If either nature or degree is reduced to zero, the disease will have cleared up on its own, within a week, without further ailment.

It is necessary that the physician possess a proper setting in which to encourage this health. A hospital must be fashioned so as to have a stone floor, a roof or covering sufficient enough to provide waterproof protection from the elements, a sufficient amount of warmth, walls that resist the presence of insects and a constant state of cleanliness. In a region which never grows colder than a warm climate, even a tent will serve as a hospital, so long as it is made of heavy canvas. In most other regions, a hospital will need to be made of wood or even more insulated materials.

Up to three patients may be cared for per hundred square feet of hospital. Due to the amount of cleaning and attendance needed, a physician acting alone will be able to treat only one patient per 8 points of possessed knowledge; however, a single nurse (any person with at least five points of knowledge in medicine) can half this number for up to eight patients. Thus, a physician with 64 medical knowledge and only one nurse would be able to treat up to 12 patients; with a second nurse, the physician would be able to effectively treat up to 16 patients. A third nurse would not add any benefit, except that each nurse would have to work less hours overall. It is presumed that both doctor and nurses are working 12 hours a day.

See Medicine

Necrotic Damage

Necrosis is a form of bodily injury that results in the total death of living tissue by enzyme digestion. Because the body is not merely injured or the flesh ruptured, but completely dead, necrosis cannot be counted as a 'poisoning' of the flesh, nor a 'disease' - therefore, necrosis cannot be saved against as a poison nor cured as a disease. Furthermore, as necrosis is not a wound, the flesh surrounding the damage cannot be bound together by spells such as cure light wounds, cure serious wounds or cure critical wounds. These spells will only serve to close the body over the necrosis, while leaving the dead tissue under the skin where it can continue to spread and kill the body.

However, an aid spell will restore lost hit points to necrosis (though one must be a believer in the cleric's religion) as will a heal spell. Both healing salves and boric serum will be effective against necrosis.

Rest of any kind will have no effect whatsoever on necrosis-damaged hit points, nor will binding wounds. In fact, necrosis will have the opposite effect as rest, causing the affected creature to lose 1 hit point per level per day as the necrosis spreads through the body. Any necrosis damaged tissue that is left will continue to destroy health flesh at the same rate. This will continue until all hit points lost to necrosis are restored or the character dies.

Violet fungi, green slime, yellow mold and numerous other creatures cause necrotic damage.

See Damage