Healing is the in-depth knowledge of medical procedures, based on cultural practices. In a Primitive or Barbarian culture, for instance, healing will be based on the knowledge of herbs and natural cures. In a Civilized culture, drugs and more advanced treatments will be more common. In all cultures Healing includes the ability to set bones, suture wounds, and so forth. Obviously applying Healing requires appropriate resources, and most practicing healers will have such things at hand (needles, gut or thread for sutures, herbs for poultices, and so forth). There are three main areas of Healing:
A successful Healing roll restores 1d3 Hit Points to a Seriously Injured location. On a critical success this is raised to 1d3+1. If fumbled, damage is increased by 1 Hit Point.
If Healing is performed prior to the onset time, it counteracts the disease or toxin entirely, providing it overcomes the Potency of the malady in an opposed roll. If performed on a character who has already succumbed to the disease or toxin, a successful Healing roll permits the victim a new chance to resist, making it one grade easier. A critical success increases it by two grades. A fumble however, makes the resistance roll one grade harder.
Surgery is the only way, other than magical healing, that a character can recover from a Major Wound. A successful First Aid roll is needed to stabilize a Major Wound (see the First Aid skill, and then a Healing roll can be made to set a shattered bone, stitch together the flesh of a stump or excise foreign objects lodged in tissue, so that the location can begin the road to recovery.
As long as the Healing roll is a success, the injured location begins to heal as normal for a location suffering a Major Wound (see Game Systems ➞ Healing from Injury). On a critical success the location regains 1 Hit Point immediately; whereas on a fumbled Healing roll the patient must succeed in a Endurance roll or die from the procedure. Surgery cannot re-attach a severed limb.