Physican

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Overview & Creation

Physician

Beaten and bloodied, a warrior staggers before a hobgoblin chieftain, ready for the final swing of the axe. Before the blow can fall, a bespectacled dwarf darts in, hoists his beleaguered ally, and pulls him to safety at the last moment.  Death in his eyes, a raging barbarian shifts the weight of his axe to one hand, pulling a small tablet from his pouch in the other. He swallows it, and within moments his bulging muscles ripple and strain against the skin. As he takes the axe up in a combat stance and releases an inhuman scream, his eyes now shot through with blood, an elven woman nods approvingly and makes notes on a bit of vellum. A pack of gnolls attending their flind doesn't notice as a halfling with a syringe approaches quietly, managing to deliver its payload directly into the flind's hide. The gnolls take no especial notice as the flind begins to gibber and foam, as flinds do, but they do notice when the flind lashes out at its own pack, its fangs and flail biting deep into those it was meant to lead.  Through whatever field of research they pursue, a physician is a cut above a simple healer or medic. They are at the cutting edge of medicine in their world, using advanced and experimental techniques to keep their friends alive and the evils of the world at bay.    

Prepared for Anything

A physician's stock in trade is their medkit, a collection of herbs, chemicals, powders, and other components with which they prepare their medicine. Many of these components are commonly found in the world, but it is only the physician, through their painstaking research, who knows precisely which components and in what amounts can produce the desired effect. On the other hand, a physician does not neglect their martial training, since their calling puts them on the front lines of many a battlefield. They know they must be ready to defend themselves for the work to continue.  

Insatiable Curiosity

Many physicians begin as common village doctors or medics serving in a militia, but find themselves restless when they absorb all there is to know of their trade. An ordinary doctor, upon losing a patient to an unknown illness or a wound that cuts too deep, might reflect upon the lesson that one cannot save every patient. But a physician is plagued by these gaps in medical practice through which some patients fall, and is driven by a need to close them. Depending on their research path, a physician might find themselves testing the latest revision of a new tincture on friend as well as foe. They have few qualms about experimenting on live subjects, for how else is the art meant to advance? A proper physician is already prepared with techniques to mitigate any adverse reactions their unstable brews might cause. These minor setbacks are a small price to pay for new techniques and drugs that could save thousands.  Other physicians, in coming to understand how certain compounds interact with the body, realize the potential to use that knowledge against their enemies. These physicians tend to be less trusted by the common village medic, as their art is seen as a perversion of medical science, but they are no less capable of heroism as they use these techniques to destroy terrible threats.  

Creating a Physician

Consider, when creating a physician, both how they came to the practice of medicine and what caused them to break away from it. Were they the only doctor in a small community? One of several in a capital city? If they served in an army, did they volunteer their medical services, or were they conscripted by the king? Did they begin military service already knowing the basics of medicine, or were they forced to learn on the job? What was the incitement that caused their dissatisfaction with their old practice? Was it a single incident, or a building up of frustration over time? How did their community view them both prior to and following their taking up a life of field research and adventure? Due to the ethically shaky ground their research paths can lead them down, physicians tend to be neutral or chaotic.   

Quick Build

You can make a physician quickly by following these suggestions. First, make Intelligence your highest ability score, followed by Constitution. Second, choose the Sage background with the Researcher specialty. 
 

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Class Features

Medkit

A physician's bread and butter is using the limited supplies in their medkit to treat their allies. You have a number of medkit points shown in your class feature table. When a class feature calls for a saving throw, the DC is 8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus. You regain all medkit points at the end of a long rest in which you have access to the natural world.  

Treatment

As an action, you can spend 1 medkit point to dress the wounds of a creature you can touch. The creature regains hit points equal to half your Physician level rounded up + your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1).  

Stabilization

As an action, you can attend to a living creature you can touch with 0 hit points to stabilize them with no check required.   

Field Medic

At 2nd level, you gain proficiency in both the Medicine and Survival skills. If you already have proficiency with one or both of these skills, your proficiency bonus in that skill is  doubled.   

Research Path

At 3rd level, your field research has begun to bear fruit in one of three fields you can commit to: Curative Methods, Performance Enhancements, or Toxicology, all detailed at the end of the class description. The path you choose grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.   

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.   

Diagnosis

Upon reaching 5th level, on thorough inspection during a long or short rest, you can determine the cause of and cure for an ally’s condition. The DM will provide the details.  

Hobbling Strike

By 5th level, you know the precise location of the muscles to disable in order to hinder a foe's movement. When you hit with a melee attack using your scalpel, you can use your bonus action to force the target to make a Constitution saving throw. On the first failed save, the target’s walking speed is halved for 1 minute. On the second failed save, the target’s speed is reduced to 0 for 1 minute.  Creatures with non-humanoid limbs are immune to this feature.  

Extra Attack

Beginning at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.  

Antidote

When you reach 7th level, you can use an action to spend 2 medkit points to attend to a living creature you can touch in order to remove one disease or one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned. Starting at level 14, you may alternately spend 4 medkit points to remove a reduction to one of the creature’s ability scores, or an effect reducing the creature’s hit point maximum.  

Combat Medic

At 9th level, your skill in scurrying across an active battlefield allows you to impose disadvantage on all opportunity attacks. If either carrying or dragging a creature of size Small or larger with 0 hit points, neither you nor the unconscious creature provoke any opportunity attacks.   

Detoxification

When you reach 10th level, given sufficient time of at least 10 minutes, you may render any amount of nonmagical food and drink free of poison and disease.  

Quick Fix

At 11th level, you are practiced enough with your medical techniques that you can spend 1 medkit point on top of its normal cost to use Treatment as a bonus action.  

Recovery Ward

On 13th level, you may choose to forego spending hit dice during a long or short rest in favor of spending 1 medkit point to attend to the rest of the party’s wounds. When you do this, each hit die an ally spends restores the maximum amount. Starting at 18th level, you may use this feature during the same rest in which you spend hit dice, as well as enjoy its benefits when you do so.  

Inoculation

Your comprehensive knowledge of pathogens at 15th level makes you capable of providing regular inoculations against illness. Select one party member to be immune to disease. You may change which party member receives this benefit after any long rest.  

Bottomless Medkit

At 20th level, when you roll initiative and have no medkit points remaining, regain 8 medkit points.   

Research Paths

Every physician must commit to one particular avenue of study to push the field of medicine forward. They devote their lives to devising, testing, and revising methods and substances far beyond what the common medic is capable of.  

Curative Methods

Physicians who pursue the research of curative methods focus on keeping their allies alive on the battlefield. So long as all of their allies are still standing at the end of the day, they consider it to be a good day's work.  

Preventative Medicine

When you take up curative methods as a field of study at 3rd level, you gain the ability to prepare a patient for the next blow they sustain. As a bonus action, you may spend 1 medkit point to grant 2d8 temporary hit points to a creature you're treating. This amount increases to 3d8 at 6th level, 4d8 at 11th level, and 5d8 at 17th level. You must finish a short or long rest to use this feature again.  

Oversight

At 6th level, you are sufficiently able to dictate your techniques to a layman that they can perform them on their own. As an action, you may direct an ally within 60 feet who can hear you to use their reaction to perform Treatment on a creature they can touch. Treatment performed in this manner is still determined by the physician's level and Intelligence modifier, still requires 1 medkit point, and cannot be enhanced by spending more.  

Heightened Treatment

Starting at 11th level, when you use Treatment, you may spend multiple medkit points per action, up to a maximum of 3. Each medkit point spent restores hit points equal to a standard use of Treatment. Uses of Treatment delivered through Quick Fix or Oversight cannot be heightened.   

Bedside Manner

At 17th level, under your care, all allies recover all hit dice after a long rest.  

Performance Enhancements

The study of performance-enhancing drugs can yield great benefits for a physician's allies. These physicians focus less on keeping every ally conscious than ensuring that each ally is able to make the most of their time on this earth.   

Vitalizing Serum

When you take up performance enhancements as a field of study at 3rd level, you learn to use common herbs and unguents to push a patient beyond their limits. You may spend 2 medkit points as an action to enhance one ability of a creature you can touch:   Endurance Serum: The patient has advantage on Constitution checks and gains 2d6 temporary hit points for 1 hour. Power Serum: The patient has advantage on Strength checks and doubled carrying capacity for 1 hour.  Alacrity Serum: The patient has advantage on Dexterity checks and 5 extra feet of movement speed for 1 hour. Radiance Serum: The patient has advantage on Charisma checks and saving throws vs. being charmed for 1 hour. Synaptic Serum: The patient has advantage on Intelligence checks and rudimentary understanding of all languages for 1 hour. Lucidity Serum: The patient has advantage on Wisdom checks and +1 to all skills for 1 hour.  

Force Tincture

At 6th level, you may spend 3 medkit points to inject a creature you can touch with a stimulant of your own design as a bonus action. The recipient of this stimulant adds your Intelligence modifier to their damage rolls for physical attacks for 1 minute.  

Protective Essence

At 11th level, you may use a bonus action and 4 medkit points to inject a creature you can touch with a powerful protective antidote. A creature under the effects of this enhancement gains advantage on all saving throws for 1 minute.   

Frenzy Injection

At 17th level, you discover the secret to a costly, but very potent, agitant. After using an action and 8 medkit points to inject a creature you can touch, the next attack the target makes during the next minute becomes an automatic critical hit.  

Toxicology

Those who pursue research into toxicology eventually devise several debilitating compounds to reduce the effectiveness of their foes. Though their abandonment of traditional medicine makes them suspect within the medical community, their ability to neutralize the most fearsome foes is appreciated by any ally.  

Contaminants

When you take up the path of toxicology research at 3rd level, you learn which substances cause adverse reactions in which species of living creatures. As an action, you can spend 1 medkit point to inject a creature you can touch with a contaminant. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target gains your choice of the poisoned, blinded, fear, or charm conditions for 1 minute. The target may repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.  

Degeneratives

At 6th level, you learn to prepare substances that weaken living beings' defenses to the natural world. As an action, you can spend 2 medkit points to inject a creature you can touch with a degenerative. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target makes all saving throws at disadvantage for 1 minute.  

Hallucinogens

At 11th level, you master the ability to affect living beings' perception of their surroundings. As an action, you can spend 3 medkit points to inject a creature you can touch with a hallucinogen. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target must use its action each turn for 1 minute to lash out blindly and make a melee attack at a random target within 5 feet. The target may repeat the save at the end of each of its turns.  

Nerve Agents

After reaching 17th level, your advanced knowledge of the adverse effects of chemicals on living creatures makes you dangerous indeed. As an action, you may spend 5 medkit points to inject a creature you can touch with a powerful nerve agent. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 8d8 poison damage and is incapacitated until the start of your next turn. On a success, the creature takes half damage and is not incapacitated.

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Starting Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: a stainless steel scalpel (stats as dagger, cannot be thrown) an herbalism kit a chain shirt (a) a shortsword or (b) a scimitar (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) a shield

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