Quote:
Originally Posted by Shostak
It certainly seems believable for someone who knows how to sew up gashes and pack a person’s puncture wounds to also be able to do so on a horse, dog, cat, or other mundane critter. Disease, poisonings—and the closely related pharmacology—though, are best left to the specialists.
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Well...If a character has Vet Talent at a cost of 2 IQ points, they can get Physicker with 1 IQ point and vice versa.
Looking at the present day analogies presented, here in the Midwest, it's widely known that it can be harder to get into Vet school than it is med school. Veterinarians do need to know about a wider variety animals with respect to how to patch them up and operate on them but their liability is much less than a MD.
In the semi-Medieval world of Cidri, I would equate Physickers to a blend of medic to nurse. Master Physicker would be a doctor/pharmacist--especially if they are also Alchemists and/or Chemists.
The way that these talents are written in ITL, one could house rule that Physickers and Vets can cross over to animals/humans in some limited healing capacity via an IQ roll provided that they have their kits. Adding a medic talent for lesser healing as proposed also seems like a viable option although, I would probably make it an IQ 9 talent. That would make it more accessible to starting characters and promotes the concept of having at least one healer in the group. I can't stress the value of that any more than that.
Also, one must not forget that Expert Horsemanship also effectively gives the Vet Talent for riding animals up to 3 hexes in size. This one would be harder to intermingle with the Physicker talents but already has duel benefit with respect to actually riding animals in combat as well as keeping them healthy.
So, Physicker talents do add to the survival probability of any adventuring group--especially if you have GMs that are stingy with the availability of healing potions. Vet and/or Expert Horsemanship allows for the same for any animals that accompany the group--getting home as quickly as possible with all of your loot is important. GM house rules that allow for some intermingling of these talents won't hurt either.