Animal Physiology (sage study)
Animal physiology is a sage study in the field of Animal Life. Similar in some ways to Medicine, the study of physiology allows for the maintenance and restoration of health in animals (and to some degree in persons & humanoids). This includes treating illness and preventing the effects of poison and magical attacks. Physiology in terms of the game should be treated as more of an art than a science, since even by the middle of the 17th century, many veterinary practices continued to be traditional rather than the result of experimentation or examination.
Each physiologic practice included below is a useful procedure, developed chiefly by herders, husbandmen and cavalry soldiers, who did not have easy access to spells and magical cures, those things being reserved for the upper classes (who were not inclined to share). It must be noted that in while in the real world, bloodletting is a practice that offers little aid, in D&D this practice can easily be reimagined as something effective in the treatment of animals injured in peculiar ways. This is in no way less credible than the game's invention of magic.
In many ways, veterinary medicine is more helpful than what has been supposed here at the initiation of this entry.
Sage Abilities
The sage abilities below are those acquired by a character through the study, according to status.
Amateur Status
- Aid Rest: increases restored hit points normally gained through rest.
- Binding Wounds: improves skill at ending hit point damage caused by wounds.
- Diagnose & Treat Farmyard Disease: identifies a disease affecting a domestic animal's health; provides basic treatment.
- Horseshoeing: care of the equine's hoof, including trimming, balancing and the placement of shoes.
