Surgery Skill
Defaults: First Aid-12, Physician-5, Physiology-8, or Veterinary-5.
Prerequisites: First Aid or Physician.
This is skill at using invasive medical techniques to treat sickness or injury. Roll once per operation. On a success, the operation proceeded without complications. On a failure, the patient took damage – 2d for a simple amputation, 3d for other procedures. Surgery rolls can also facilitate recovery from wounds; see Surgery.
This skill represents general surgical expertise, which is relatively rare in real life. Most surgeons have an optional specialty in a certain part of the body (brain, heart, etc.) or a specific type of surgery (cosmetic surgery, microsurgery, transplant surgery, etc.).
Modifiers: Equipment modifiers; physiology modifiers; -3 if the area or equipment cannot be properly cleaned and sterilized; -3 for head or chest surgery; -5 for undiagnosed problems. If you lack Physician skill, you are at -5 to do anything but "field-expedient" surgery (e.g., stitch wounds or extract arrowheads, bullets, and shrapnel).