Sawbones

Trauma surgeon.

The Sawbones is not a healer. Healers pray. The Sawbones cuts. When a crewman's guts are on the deck and the nearest corp hospital is three systems away, the Sawbones is the difference between a closed-casket funeral and a crewman who walks off the ship at the next port. The Sawbones's tools are a field kit, a steady hand, and the diagnostic instinct that reads a wound and knows what to do before the patient finishes screaming.

Asset Realisation books the Sawbones as "medical capital -- portable." The corp values the body as repairable equipment. A worker whose limbs function is a worker who generates revenue. A worker who bleeds out on the deck is a write-off -- recruitment cost, training cost, replacement logistics. The Sawbones exists to prevent write-offs. This is not compassion. This is the balance sheet.

The Sawbones practices trauma medicine: stabilise, repair, return to function. No prayer, no laying on of hands, no Fold-touched healing that might invite Perils. The Sawbones's healing comes from skill and pharmaceuticals -- med-kit charges, surgical tools, the pharmacological knowledge to keep a patient alive through procedures that would kill them in a cleaner theatre. The Sawbones also installs cybernetics: augmetic limbs, neural interfaces, organ replacements. In a setting where augmentations are the primary path to power for non-psions, the Sawbones is the gatekeeper.

Operating on the Creed chassis (d8 HD, 3/4 BAB, Fort/Will good, Ref poor, 4 SP). Light armour only -- surgery requires manual dexterity. Pistol, knife, surgical tools -- the Sawbones fights with the same hands that operate. Prime requisites: WIS (diagnostic instinct) and CHA (the voice that keeps a patient calm while the Sawbones cuts into them).

Rules Reference

Field	Value
Armor Allowance	Light
Bab Tier	three-quarters
Base Skill Points	4
Hd	d8
Hd Sides	8
Max Level	20
Multiclass Notes	Sawbones can multiclass with Chaplain and Academic archetypes. Non-human sawbones use simultaneous multiclassing rules.
Primary Abilities	WIS, CHA
Prime Requisites	WIS, CHA
Save Tiers / Fortitude	good
Save Tiers / Reflex	poor
Save Tiers / Will	good
Weapon Allowance	Pistol, Knife, Surgical tools (function as light melee weapons, 1d4 damage)

Notes

Archetype Niche: The Sawbones is the party's lifeline. Trauma Medicine provides reliable, scaling in-combat healing without tech -- it is a skill-based, resource-managed system (medical kit charges) that rewards investment in the Medicine skill and WIS. Field Surgery adds out-of-combat recovery and condition removal, making the Sawbones essential for long expeditions far from port. Install Cybernetic is the Sawbones's unique crafting ability: the only class that can install augmentations, making them indispensable in a setting where cybernetic enhancement is the primary path to power for non-psions. The Sawbones's niche is keeping the party alive and augmented.

Level Table

Orderly

Field	Value
bab	0
fortitude	2
level	1
reflex	0
skillPoints	16
title	Orderly
will	2
xp	0

Medic

Field	Value
bab	1
fortitude	3
level	2
reflex	0
skillPoints	4
title	Medic
will	3
xp	2000

Field Surgeon

Field	Value
bab	2
fortitude	3
level	3
reflex	1
skillPoints	4
title	Field Surgeon
will	3
xp	4000

Trauma Specialist

Field	Value
bab	3
fortitude	4
level	4
reflex	1
skillPoints	4
title	Trauma Specialist
will	4
xp	7500

Sawbones

Field	Value
bab	3
fortitude	4
level	5
reflex	1
skillPoints	4
title	Sawbones
will	4
xp	15000

Chief Sawbones

Field	Value
bab	4
fortitude	5
level	6
reflex	2
skillPoints	4
title	Chief Sawbones
will	5
xp	30000

Surgeon-Major

Field	Value
bab	5
fortitude	5
level	7
reflex	2
skillPoints	4
title	Surgeon-Major
will	5
xp	60000

Doctor

Field	Value
bab	6
fortitude	6
level	8
reflex	2
skillPoints	4
title	Doctor
will	6
xp	120000

Chief Surgeon

Field	Value
bab	6
fortitude	6
level	9
reflex	3
skillPoints	4
title	Chief Surgeon
will	6
xp	240000

Master Sawbones

Field	Value
bab	7
fortitude	7
level	10
reflex	3
skillPoints	4
title	Master Sawbones
will	7
xp	480000

Chief of Medicine

Field	Value
bab	8
fortitude	7
level	11
reflex	3
skillPoints	4
title	Chief of Medicine
will	7
xp	720000

Grand Doctor

Field	Value
bab	9
fortitude	8
level	12
reflex	4
skillPoints	4
title	Grand Doctor
will	8
xp	960000

Grand Surgeon

Field	Value
bab	9
fortitude	8
level	13
reflex	4
skillPoints	4
title	Grand Surgeon
will	8
xp	1200000

Medical Director

Field	Value
bab	10
fortitude	9
level	14
reflex	4
skillPoints	4
title	Medical Director
will	9
xp	1440000

Arch-Surgeon

Field	Value
bab	11
fortitude	9
level	15
reflex	5
skillPoints	4
title	Arch-Surgeon
will	9
xp	1680000

Surgeon Chief

Field	Value
bab	12
fortitude	10
level	16
reflex	5
skillPoints	4
title	Surgeon Chief
will	10
xp	1920000

Master of Flesh

Field	Value
bab	12
fortitude	10
level	17
reflex	5
skillPoints	4
title	Master of Flesh
will	10
xp	2160000

Surgical Authority

Field	Value
bab	13
fortitude	11
level	18
reflex	6
skillPoints	4
title	Surgical Authority
will	11
xp	2400000

Life-Master

Field	Value
bab	14
fortitude	11
level	19
reflex	6
skillPoints	4
title	Life-Master
will	11
xp	2640000

Supreme Sawbones

Field	Value
bab	15
fortitude	12
level	20
reflex	6
skillPoints	4
title	Supreme Sawbones
will	12
xp	2880000

Special Abilities

Trauma Medicine

Field	Value
level	1
name	Trauma Medicine

description: The Sawbones stabilises with a pressure bandage, a coagulant injection, or a dislocated joint forced back into socket while the patient bites down on a strap. Medicine becomes a class skill with +3 competence bonus. As a standard action, Medicine check (DC 15) to heal an adjacent ally for 1d8 + WIS modifier HP. Each use consumes one charge from a medical kit (standard kit: 10 charges, 50 rek). At level 5: 2d8 + WIS. Level 10: 3d8 + WIS. Level 15: 4d8 + WIS. Level 20: 5d8 + WIS. Usable 1 + half Sawbones level times per encounter (minimum 1). Each target can benefit only once per encounter -- the Sawbones can patch a wound but cannot rebuild a body mid-fight.

Field Surgery

Field	Value
level	3
name	Field Surgery

description: During a short rest (1 hour), the Sawbones performs proper field surgery on one ally. The target recovers additional HP equal to the Sawbones's Medicine check result -- no kit charge consumed; this is time, skill, and sutures. Additionally, the Sawbones can attempt to remove one condition (bleeding, poisoned, diseased, or a single ability score drain/damage effect) with a separate Medicine check (DC = 10 + the condition's severity). At level 8, the Sawbones can perform field surgery during combat as a full-round action (2 kit charges) -- the body does not care that bullets are flying. At level 13, the Sawbones treats 2 allies during a single short rest -- triage efficiency, learned the hard way.

Install Cybernetic

Field	Value
level	5
name	Install Cybernetic

description: The Sawbones installs augmetics -- the chrome that separates a baseline human from a combat-effective operator. Medicine check by implant complexity: basic DC 15, advanced DC 20, military-grade DC 25, experimental DC 30. The Sawbones gains +2 to this check. Success: the implant functions normally -- the patient wakes up stronger, faster, or simply still alive. Failure by 5 or less: the implant functions but the target suffers 1 point of permanent CON damage (restorable only by replacing the implant) -- the body rejects, partially. Failure by more than 5: the implant is destroyed and the target suffers 2d6 damage -- the Sawbones miscalculated. At level 10, installation time is halved. At level 15, the Sawbones can install experimental implants at no increased DC -- the Sawbones has seen enough bodies to know what works.