Source Player Core pg. 202
The firefight is over. Your crewmate slumps against the bulkhead, armor scored by laser fire, blood seeping through emergency patches. They're conscious, but they won't stay that way for long without treatment. You pull out your medkit—half-empty but functional—and get to work.
This is Treat Wounds in Starfall Galaxy.
It's removing damaged armor plates to access the injury beneath. It's cleaning wounds with antiseptic that stings but prevents infection. It's applying regenerative foam that knits tissue together, layer by layer. It's monitoring vitals while the nanites work, ready to adjust if complications arise. Ten minutes of careful, practiced work that might save their life—or at least keep them functional until you reach proper medical facilities.
Treat Wounds is the primary out-of-combat healing activity in Pathfinder 2e, allowing trained medical practitioners to restore Hit Points through sustained care. This 10-minute focused treatment activity represents the practical medicine that keeps adventuring parties functional between magical healing and rest.
In Starfall Galaxy, where magic is rare, unpredictable, or simply unavailable, Treat Wounds is often the only reliable healing available to crews operating far from Commission medical facilities. This activity isn't miraculous—it's the methodical work of cleaning wounds, applying medical supplies, and giving the body time to recover under professional care.
Medic performing extended wound treatment in Starfall Galaxy ship medical bay
Who Performs Treat Wounds in Starfall?
Wound treatment is a universal skill among spacefaring crews and frontier communities:
Ship Medics: Primary healthcare providers on vessels too small or isolated for full medical suites
Combat Medics: Military specialists trained to stabilize and treat wounded soldiers
Guild Medtechs: Certified practitioners who maintain professional standards and equipment
Frontier Healers: Self-taught or apprentice-trained practitioners serving remote settlements
Expedition Doctors: Scientists and explorers who provide medical support to research teams
Street Clinics: Underground practitioners treating patients who can't afford guild rates
Treat Wounds Trained
Requirements You’re wearing or holding a medkit.
You spend 10 minutes treating one injured living creature (targeting yourself, if you so choose). The target is then temporarily immune to Treat Wounds actions for 1 hour, but this interval overlaps with the time you spent treating (so a patient can be treated once per hour, not once per 70 minutes).
The Medicine check DC is usually 15, though the GM might adjust it based on the circumstances, such as treating a patient outside in a storm or treating magically cursed wounds. If you're an expert in Medicine, you can instead attempt a DC 20 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 10; if you're a master of Medicine, you can instead attempt a DC 30 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 30; and if you're legendary, you can instead attempt a DC 40 check to increase the Hit Points regained by 50. The damage dealt on a critical failure remains the same.
If you succeed at your check, you can continue treating the target to grant additional healing. If you treat it for a total of 1 hour, double the Hit Points it regains from Treat Wounds.
Critical Success The target regains 4d8 Hit Points and loses the wounded condition.
Success The target regains 2d8 Hit Points, and loses the wounded condition.
Critical Failure The target takes 1d8 damage.
Non-Combat Applications and Narrative Uses
Treat Wounds creates natural downtime moments:
Recovery Scenes:
Post-combat medical triage establishes party status and resource depletion
Extended treatment (1-hour option) forces parties to remain stationary, creating vulnerability
Injuries that resist treatment hint at curses, diseases, or Rift-taint
Character Development:
Medics and patients bond during treatment sessions
Cultural attitudes toward medicine emerge (stoic silence vs. constant complaints)
Scars and old injuries tell stories of past adventures
Resource Management:
Medical supplies deplete—do you treat minor wounds now or save supplies for emergencies?
Continual Recovery allows rapid healing but exhausts the medic (10 minutes per patient adds up)
Ward Medic efficiency matters when treating large groups
Social Dynamics:
Who gets treated first reveals party priorities and relationships
Accepting treatment from untrusted NPCs creates tension
Refusing treatment (pride, stubbornness, cultural beliefs) has consequences
Societal Impact in Starfall Galaxy
Medical Inequality: Access to skilled medical care determines survival rates across the galaxy. Commission Core worlds offer certified medtechs with advanced equipment. Frontier settlements rely on whoever learned basic medicine from necessity. This disparity shapes migration patterns, social status, and political tensions.
Guild Certification: The Chronologists' Guild and related medical organizations certify practitioners and regulate medical technology. Guild-certified medics command higher wages and better opportunities. Unlicensed practitioners face legal consequences—but often serve communities abandoned by official systems.
Self-Reliance Culture: In isolated environments—space stations, frontier colonies, long-haul ships—medical self-sufficiency is survival. Crew members routinely learn basic medicine. Captains who can't treat wounds lose crew respect and recruitment advantage.
Medical Debt: Treatment costs vary wildly. Guild facilities charge fees tied to proficiency level (legendary healing costs more). Street clinics work on barter, favors, or delayed payment. Corporate medical plans offer coverage in exchange for employment contracts that border on indentured servitude.
Healing Technology Evolution: Advances in regenerative medicine, nanite therapy, and temporal healing continually push boundaries. Each breakthrough shifts the balance between magical and mundane healing. Some religious factions oppose "unnatural" technologies; others embrace them as divine gifts.
Adventure Hooks
The Marathon Medic: After a catastrophic station battle, hundreds of wounded need treatment. The party's medic must organize triage, train volunteers, and manage limited supplies while preventing panic. Complications include sabotaged equipment, quarantine breaches, and rival factions competing for medical resources. Can they save enough lives to avoid the station's collapse—while someone actively works against them?
The Incompetent Healer: An NPC "doctor" treats the party's wounds—but their Medicine check critically fails, dealing damage instead of healing. Investigation reveals they're using counterfeit guild credentials and expired medical supplies. Do the PCs expose them (ruining their livelihood and leaving a community without any medical care), report them to authorities (who may not care), or blackmail them into improvement?
The Cursed Wound: One PC's injury refuses to heal—Treat Wounds provides temporary relief but the damage returns after the immunity period. The wound is cursed, Rift-tainted, or carries a slow-acting poison. Standard medicine won't work. PCs must find a specialist (chronologist healer, curse-breaker, xenobiologist) while managing the wounded character's declining condition.
The Medical Salvage: A derelict ship contains a legendary-quality medical suite—enough to revolutionize healing on the PCs' home station. But the ship is in contested space, claimed by multiple factions. Salvaging the equipment requires technical skill, legal maneuvering, or outright theft. And when the equipment is installed, why do patients report strange side effects?
The Immunity Crisis: An NPC was treated by an inferior medic (1-hour Treat Wounds immunity). Now they're critically wounded and the party's expert medic (with Continual Recovery) can't help them until the immunity expires. The party must defend their position for 50 minutes while enemies close in, or find alternative healing methods (magic, rare items, risky procedures).
The Weight of Ten Minutes
Treat Wounds represents the unglamorous reality of survival: methodical care, practiced hands, and medical supplies carefully rationed across uncertain futures. It's not heroic—it's necessary.
Ten minutes of focused treatment can restore function, remove the wounded condition, and buy time for natural recovery. An hour of sustained care doubles that healing, making the difference between barely functional and combat-ready. A medic with Continual Recovery and Ward Medic can maintain an entire crew through serialized healing sessions that blend efficiency with exhaustion.
Whether you're a guild-certified medtech with cutting-edge temporal stabilizers, a ship medic improvising with half-empty supplies, or a frontier healer who learned by keeping people alive through sheer determination, you understand the fundamental truth:
In a galaxy that wants you dead, ten minutes of skilled care is the difference between survival and another body in the void.
The wound may scar. The pain may linger. But you live to fight another day.
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