Medicine Skill Guide

In Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, battles are inevitable, and casualties are a certainty. The Medicine skill is arguably the most critical party skill in the game. It determines how fast your troops recover from wounds and, more importantly, whether they survive a lethal blow or die on the battlefield. A high Medicine skill turns a pyrrhic victory into a sustainable campaign.

The Medicine skill governs both the healing rate of your party and the survival chance of troops struck down in battle.

How Healing Works

Medicine affects two primary mechanics:

1. Healing Rate: Every day on the campaign map, your wounded troops (and character) recover a percentage of their health. A higher Medicine skill dramatically speeds this up. Being stationary in a settlement boosts this further.

2. Survival Chance: When a soldier takes fatal damage, the Medicine skill rolls to see if they are killed or merely wounded. High skill levels mean your elite Tier 6 cavalry are knocked unconscious rather than lost forever, saving you thousands of denars and in-game weeks of training time.

The Surgeon Role

To benefit from Medicine perks, you must assign a Surgeon in your clan's party role tab.

• Self-Assignment: If you plan to build an Intelligence-heavy character, being your own surgeon is powerful because you gain XP rapidly from every casualty.

• Companion: If you are a warrior build, hire a companion with the "Surgeon", "Scholar", or "Willowbark" suffix. Check our Companions & Family Building guide for recruitment tips.

• Family: Your children or spouse can also be trained as surgeons.

For a detailed look at how to assign roles, see Party Roles: Surgeon, Scout, Engineer, Quartermaster.

Choosing the right perks can double your healing rate or give your troops massive health pools.

Perk Guide & Analysis

The Medicine perk tree offers some of the strongest bonuses in the game. Here are the standouts:

• Preventive Medicine (Lvl 25): Increases hit points of you and your troops. Essential survival buff.

• Doctor's Oath (Lvl 75): Crucial Perk. It applies your medicine recovery chance to enemies as well. This sounds counter-intuitive, but it means you capture more prisoners instead of killing them. This is vital for Prisoner Management and generating influence.

• Cheat Death (Lvl 225): Allows you to avoid death from old age or battle once.

• Minister of Health (Lvl 275): The ultimate perk. It gives your troops extra HP based on your skill level. At skill 300, your archers can tank cavalry charges.

A high-level surgeon is the backbone of any long-term kingdom conquest.

Synergy with Other Systems

• Morale: While Medicine doesn't directly boost morale, keeping your troops alive prevents the morale shock of high casualties. See Food, Morale & Wages Management.

• Recruitment: High survival rates mean you spend less time recruiting rookies and more time fighting with veterans. Troop Recruitment & Development becomes much easier.

• Leveling: Medicine is notoriously slow to level in the mid-game. For tips on grinding it efficiently, check out our Medicine Skill Leveling guide.