What modifiers for First Aid on yourself?

[Sir Tifyable]

Only came up recently because over the years most of our games have had magical healing, but at the moment we're playing an Uplift scenario.

What modifiers would you give for a character using skills - specifically First Aid - on himself?

I'd start with a Will roll to keep working despite the pain. Success: no modifier for pain. Failure: penalty of half the amount you missed it by (minimum -1). Critical failure: you can't continue until you can get some local anaesthetic into the area because it hurts too much. And roll again - if you critically fail again you faint from the pain. (High & Low Pain Thresholds affect that roll: HPT halves the penalty, min.0, LPT you use the failure amount unmodified.)

Then it's all about reach, depending on where on the body it is. Any wound on the right arm for a right-hander would need to be treated with the left hand for at least a -2. On your own back you'll be working blind, or through a mirror. The GM would have to decide things on a case-by-case basis. I'd use variable modifiers between 0 (front of thigh) and -4 (back or head).

That sound reasonable? Anyone have any better ideas?

[roguebfl]

You might want to read Healing Oneself - First Aid Penalty?

Originally Posted by Kromm

Heh, it appears that the box fell out of the layout seven years ago and nobody noticed. To paraphrase: Most medical skills cannot be used on onself, although the GM may allow plausible uses at a suitably large penalty; e.g., First Aid is at -1 per HP of injury.

[Sir Tifyable]

Thanks Roguebfl - I spent ages trying to find the right key words but my Search-fu failed me.

Think I'll go with a houserule though, but probably with more penalties than my first thought above. Since most people won't bother with first aid till they are pretty seriously hurt, the official (lost) rule will put them at ridiculous modifiers: -6 to -10 (or even worse!) for pain alone, then positional modifiers and possibly off-hand ones...

So, for pain, I'll use the amount the Will roll is failed by rather than halving it. HPT & LPT still modifies them as above. Positional modifiers will still go from 0 (the front of the thigh - can't have a better position than that) but -4 if left-handed treatment is necessary, and up to -8 for really bad positions (between the shoulder-blades).