Skills; Heroic or Surgical?

General
#1

So I’m creating a character (a Priest of Ambition, if that’s relevant) and I’m looking at skills I could use on the battlefield. I want to be able to help downed players, so I’m specifically looking at the Stay With Me heroic skill and the Chirurgeon surgical skill.

What benefit/drawback is there to choosing either one?

From what I understand, Stay With Me requires more to XP to purchase initially (as you need the Hero skill first) and it can only be used as many times a day as I have Hero Points.

On the other hand, Chirurgeon also allows me to revive downed players, but costs less XP to get initially and, as far as I can see, doesn’t cost anything and can’t be exhausted.

Is that correct, or am I missing something? Why take Stay With Me if it has the same effect as Chirurgeon but costs more and goes less far?

#2

Chirurgeon takes 60 seconds of uninterrupted roleplay to restore another player to one hp from dying (Thier death count pauses the moment you begin the roleplay)

Stay with me take 5 seconds ergo the higher cost

2 Likes
#3

Stay with me is a Hero call, it uses Hero points. So if you have various skills using Hero points, you can use them on other things.

Additionally, as a hero call, Stay with Me is loud and emotional roleplaying, whereas Chirugeon tends to be quieter.

The critical thing, of course, is that Stay With Me takes 5 seconds, Chirugeon takes 30…

So they get used in different circumstances, by characters with different skills.

My current healer character has Chirugeon for patching people together in the aftermath of a skirmish, or the quiet moments of a battle. But he has Mana and Heal for getting people back to a fighting level and on their feet (using Swift Heal) in 3 seconds, while the battle rages around them… or completely fixed (all hits) if I have the time… (and when a character runs out of hero points or mana, as you said, chirugeon is a solid back-up…)

So to answer your question… style, speed, and flexibility :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#4

Now if we’re talking utility it depends entirely on your outcome. The hero skill is the gateway to all kinds of fun stuff

  • cleave, stikedown and impale to drop a foe in a hurry
    -stay with me and keep it together to help out your friend’s in a pinch
  • unstoppable (my favourite) your get out of death free card and personal healing on the go.

Chirurgeon however is the first step towards physic which is just great for the healing game.

It really boils down to which direction you want to take your character in.

2 Likes
#5

Well blow me down it’s gone down to 30 seconds. That’s so much more efficient.

1 Like
#6

You can also get potions to take with you into battle that restore hero points, some artisan items also give you a spare I think, and if you’re willing to set it up and acquire the necessary item you can spend time in a religious aura (Which you can do if you take consecrate as your priest) and recover your hero points that day.

https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Philtres_of_War

https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Dragonbone_Symbol

1 Like
#7

Spending time in a consecrated area while a priest plays a particular magical musical instrument also lets you get Hero Points back.

And Skop’s Mead is pretty boss :slight_smile:

Oh on a tangent if you’re playing a priest and want a method of healing people, get yourself a Sungold Basin which lets you use the Dedication skill and a dose of Liao to heal someone up to 1 hit if they’re dying. It’s very handy and only takes 10 seconds :slight_smile: .

1 Like
#8

I talk about this extensively in Episode 3 of the IWC podcast.

#9

I play a character who has both. He is part of The Giants of Sarvos, a small mercenary group who you might call ‘special forces healers’ - we go on the front lines and we keep people alive, but we also accompanied the Empress into battle when we swore her to our banner.

  • Physick / Chirurgeon is my bread and butter. More often than not, you can find 30 seconds during a lull in combat to use a few herbs. True Vervain is the most common herb out there and I can get someone to full health in 30 seconds with it. Even the basic healing potion (Elixir Vitae) is only three points and that costs more than double the price of a dose of True Vervain just to make, let alone after an Apothecary’s profit margins.
  • Stay With Me is heroic inspiration. That’s me telling you that you will not die on me, damn it and getting you on your feet. That wound is bad, but you must not be dying because a Giant of Sarvos just descended from the heavens and bloody well told you so. Once you are back behind the shield wall, I will use my medical training to introduce you to a herbal remedy that will make you feel brand new.
  • Get It Together is not part of my repertoire, but I know others use it. It’s the ‘rub some dirt into it’ of healing and heals for three points. The reason I don’t use it is that I fight beside people who can use a swift-cast Heal spell, which is faster, and mana is more abundant than hero points.
1 Like
#10

Really good answers, thanks all!
P.s: do you see many priests on the battlefield? Are there any priest/combat archetypes? I read something about a bunch of roaming exorcists and the devout Highborn in me got turnt.

#11

Yes plenty of priests on the battlefield, Some are dedicated combat exorcists which a really useful for some battles depending on the opponent, many split their XP between battle time and Anvil time, so don’t use all the skills all the time.

Many of the Highborn sound like priests even when we don’t have the skills, and certainly will have an Opinion regardless.

The pre-battle sermon is now part of our nation’s muster before battle, which looks and sounds properly epic too.

2 Likes
#12

My first character was 50/50 Priest + Warrior skills, started off as an Exorcist with a great big sword and expanded from there. You can wear as much plate as you want, so going full Paladin is totally an option, it’s also a lot of fun :smiley: (Pro-tip, have some mates to charge after you and be there to pick you back up off the floor). Also Magister battle mages are totally a thing, pretty much any Highborn archetype has religion mixed in :slight_smile:.

#13

When I took to the battlefield (I had to stop due to health issues) I was part of the Urizen Exorcist Squad, we were a three person team. A Priest Sentinel, A Priest Battle-mage (with a staff of Imperial Mastery) and a priest Physick. With a bunch of equipment and enchantments we could hit mag 10 just the three of us, and this was back when the Liao was the little resin body… so when I say we took a hundred doses on to a battlefield and left with none you can imagine how heavy was that.

There are still priest focused battles and then a priest on the battlefield is a mission package to be delivered to the site of the problem.