Medicine Skill Leveling

Leveling Medicine in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord can feel like a grind. Unlike combat skills where you just need to hit things, Medicine requires your own men to suffer. To reach the god-tier perks like Minister of Health (Level 275), you need a strategy to generate casualties without destroying your army.

Reaching Level 275 takes time, but specific farming methods can cut the grind in half.

How Medicine XP Works

You gain Medicine XP from three sources:

1. Healing Wounded Troops: When a wounded soldier in your party recovers health in a settlement or on the march.

2. Healing Yourself: Recovering your own HP.

3. Battle Triage: When a soldier takes fatal damage in battle but is "saved" (wounded instead of killed) due to your Medicine skill.

Crucial Note: You must be the assigned Surgeon of your party to gain the XP. If a companion is the surgeon, they get the XP.

XP is generated by "saving" lives and healing wounds. The more wounded you have, the faster you level.

Method 1: The Auto-Resolve "Meat Grinder"

This is the most reliable method for mid-game leveling.

1. Recruit Low-Tier Troops: Fill your party with Tier 1-2 recruits.

2. Find Looters/Bandits: Engage small to medium groups.

3. Choose "Send Troops": Auto-resolving battles tends to generate far more wounded troops than fighting manually (which often results in clean kills or no friendly casualties).

4. Heal & Repeat: Rest in a town to heal them up quickly, gaining massive XP ticks, then repeat.

This method trades gold (recruitment costs) and influence for Medicine XP.

Method 2: The Starvation Strat (High Risk)

This method is controversial but effective for rapid XP bursts.

1. Buy All Food: Ensure you have a large party.

2. Dump Food: Discard or sell all food so your party has 0 food.

3. Wait: Your morale will drop, and troops will start becoming wounded from starvation daily.

4. Buy Food Back: Once a significant portion of your army is wounded (but before they die/desert), buy food.

5. Heal: You will gain a massive chunk of XP as hundreds of men heal simultaneously.

Warning: This tanks your morale and can cause desertion. Use with caution, ideally inside a settlement where you can immediately buy food.

Method 3: Siege Defense

Defending a castle is a Medicine goldmine.

• Siege Engines: Manning a ballista or catapult allows you to inflict massive casualties, but for Medicine, you want your troops to get hit.

• Attrition: Long sieges result in constant casualties.

• Ambush: Use the "Ambush" mechanic to destroy siege engines, often taking light casualties that need healing.

Controlled combat scenarios where your troops take non-lethal damage are ideal for farming.

Best Companions for Leveling

If you aren't leveling Medicine yourself, you need a specialized companion. Look for wanderers with these suffixes:

• The Surgeon

• The Scholar

• Willowbark

Equip them with high-intelligence gear if possible, though gear impacts stats less than raw focus points. Ensure they have 5 Focus Points in Medicine and high Intelligence to hit the skill cap.

For more on managing your clan's skills, check out Party Roles and Skill Leveling Overview.