History Main / CombatMedic

** [[ThatOneBoss *twitch*]].

* Meet [[MassEffect Mordin Solus]]. Doctor, scientist, field medic, safe sex advocate, former black ops, [[DeadlyDoctor sharp shooter]], can [[KillItWithFire light you on fire]] with his [[strike:mind]] omni-tool, [[NoodleIncident once killed a man with farm equipment]].

** And in ''Bad Company 2'', the medic was again separated from the assault class and armed with a '''light machine gun'''. Sounds silly and unbalanced at first, but then again it makes perfect sense for a support-oriented class to carry a fire support weapon. Especially since lMGs in that game lack the mobility and raw strenght of assault rifles, but make up for it with great range and volume of fire.
*** Mostly true until you get the M60, at which point you do more damage then any assault rifle in the game and once you get the accuracy upgrade and the scope you can literally kill snipers across the map and mow down waves of people up close. Really go on a Bad Company 2 server and you'll easily see more medics with M60s then the rest of the available guns combined, it's widely considered to be utterly broken and easily make the medic the best anti-infantry class in the game.

* [=PJ's=] (Pararescue, also "Pedros", [=US=] Air Force Special Forces that specialize in search in rescue and medevac) [[http://www.michaelyon-online.com/pedros.htm serving in Afghanistan]] are known to willingly forgo Geneva Convention protections because painting a large Red Cross on your unarmed helicopter just draws fire from enemies who know said 'copter is unarmed. Their alternate solution? [[GatlingGood They like to ride in helicopters armed with dual miniguns]].

* [[TheMedic Ratchet]] in ''TransformersAnimated'' is the only person on Optimus Prime's team who'd actually gone through the Great War, and most of his weapons (EMP generator, [[BarrierWarrior forcefield manipulators]], etc.) are actually medical tools. [[ShellShockedVeteran But that doesn't mean he enjoyed it...]]

* Lifeline of GIJoe cartoon is a medic and makes it a rule to not carry any firearms.

** In the first game, the 'first aid' and 'medicine' skills were on you or your party members, who all actively fight. The medicine skill in particular you a Neural Shock to deal with organic enemies. It went even farther by allowing an Engineer class Shepard to get the Medic Specialization. This was dropped for the sequel, however.

* Despite the fact that his outfit and hair color are reminiscent of another [[{{TheRedMage}}character archetype from another series]], Angelo from ''DragonQuestVIII'' fits, and in his case, it is more justified than the typical cleric character in that he is a [[{{ChurchMilitant}} Templar]] (No, not [[{{KnightTemplar}} that kind]]). Having him specialize in staffs or bows will cause him to lean more toward the "healer" side of things (focusing on spells or MP regeneration), but giving him a sword will produce a MagicKnight/CombatMedic type character, since he can use the powerful Falcon Sword.

* Despite the fact that his outfit and hair color are reminiscent of another [[{{TheRedMage}}character archetype from another series]], Angelo from ''DragonQuestVIII'' fits, and in his case, it is more justified than the typical cleric character in that he is a [[{{ChurchMilitant}} Templar]]. No, not [[{{KnightTemplar}} that kind]].

** And then the sweet, cute, adorable, Caro La Rushe. She's might be one of the sweetest character in the series, but really, being in Riot Force means [[BewareTheNiceOnes it's bad idea to piss her off]]. When sufficiently provoked, whatever she summoms has a good chance obliterarting ''whole town in a go''.

* The Priest class in {{Wizardry}} are also strong, especially since their "preferred races" are also pretty good. They can carry staffs that deal mighty damage and even tank with their good health.
* The entire Cleric CLASS is dedicated to this in the Champions games. Instead of squishies, Clerics are the second best tanks in the game (losing to the Beserkers and tying with the Barbarians) as well as gaining a healing spell very early on and having decent mana. Their drawbacks are that they can't use bladed weapons. (This is actually a fair mechanic, considering about 75% of the weapons in the game are bladed. This includes all ranged weapons.)
* Star Wars: Galaxies has a class tree literally named ''Combat Medic'', the full mastery of which allowed the use long range poisons to cripple enemies as well as perform his healing duties.
* The Paladin from ''[[{{Diablo}} Diablo 2]]'' serves as the closest thing to a 'support class' in the game, with his auras capable of providing powerful buffs to himself and his allies.

* The '''Tales Of''' series has a number of interesting takes on this concept:
** Estelle in ''TalesOfVesperia'' is a healer who sports the highest defense scores in the game and a fast track to the protective skills. You could viably play her as the party tank and leave spot heals to your less proficient members.
** Tear in ''TalesOfTheAbyss'' was clearly intended to be a healer, but was given some useful melee skills and powerful offensive spells as well. If you put Natalia on healing duty, Tear can be used for offense just fine.
*** And the reverse is also true. Natalia lacks offensive spells, but is one hell of an [[TheArcher archer]].
** Regal in ''TalesOfSymphonia'' fits the monk sub-type of this trope, but inverts the general concept by being a primarily melee-based character with just one tech tree of single-target healing spells.
*** Regal is something of an {{Expy}} of ''TalesOfEternia'''s Farah, a hand-to-hand combatant who learns a couple of basic curing and healing spells before Keele/Meredy get Undine and take over on the backlines.
** [[FragileSpeedster Rutee]] in ''TalesOfDestiny'' can slash enemies with her sword repeatedly in the air, perform damaging attacks that produce money from nowhere, and heal, cure status ailments, and raise the dead. ''The'' CombatMedic to which all other Tales {{Combat Medic}}s aspire.
** Ange of ''TalesOfInnocence'' may look and act like your typical StaffChick, but note that she [[KnifeNut prefers knives]]. And she is not shy about performing some awesome melee combos with them, either. Iria also gets several healing artes, but is perfectly fine [[GunsAkimbo duking it out with her pistols]].
* [[EarthboundZero Ninten]], [[{{Earthbound}} Ness]], and [[{{Mother3}} Lucas]], all of whom are also TheHero. For bonus points, not only are they the best healers, they also have the highest HP counts and boast the strongest physical attacks on their teams
* MakaiKingdom has a "Medic" class with the same healing and buff abilities as the Cleric class of the same game, but with better defense and the ability to use guns at the expense of a lower INT growth.

* In ''CityOfVillains'', Masterminds who choose the "Mercenaries" powerset eventually receive a Medic as a henchman. The Medic can only use his healing power once every couple of minutes... the rest of the time, he's blasting away with his assault rifle.
** Additionally, the major healing skills in both [=CoX=] games belong to the 'Buff' category, which is usually coupled with the 'Ranged Damage' category. (Except Controllers.)
* All of the healer classes in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' can be {{Combat Medic}}s given the right talent allocation. Of particular note, Priests specializing in the Shadow talent tree are capable of dealing out ridiculous amounts of damage, a fraction of which heals the rest of the party (though this tactic prevents the priest from casting normal healing spells). In some dungeons, with a good enough Shadow Priest who kicks a whole lotta ass, you don't need a traditional healer.
** However, more challenging content needs regular healers in addition the shadow priests minor healing and mana restoration. And every one of the offensive builds sacrifices a lot of healing ability, up to the feral druid who can't cast spells at all in their preferred form and due to preferring physical stats he does a poor job at casting in his normal shape, as well. Shadow Priests on the other hand still make pretty decent healers when they aren't in their offensive shadow form, but they lack utility spells granted to priests in the other two specialisations.
** This troper mains a Shadow Priest, and at the higher levels shadow priest is purely secondary heals and mainly DPS. We just don't have the capacity to keep a party alive. Couple this with how everybody expects a Priest to be healer...well lets say I've had my share of griefing aimed at me. Oh well, their loss, not mine ''Casts shield combo'd to Dispersion and run like hell''.
** Some fights require each member of the party to kill some literal [[EnemyWithin inner demon]] that only they can see. Since healers back in the day had virtually no damage capabilities, the stats for + heal and + spelldamage eventually got merged into a single + spellpower.
*** Feral Druids can dish out damage with the best of them, and then cast a few heals. Before the expansion, a feral druid in healing gear could have more mana than they would need and could endlessly spam lower ranked heals.
*** It is possible to play a Priest, Paladin, Druid, or Shaman from 1-80 entirely with their healing spec. It'll take you longer to kill things, but you'll almost never die.
* In {{Warcraft}} 3, the Priest unit not only heals but can also cast Inner Fire, a buff that increases damage and armor for a duration.
** For that matter, the Night Elf Druid of the Claw. The primary source of healing with their Restoration spell, they can also Roar to boost the damage of allies or turn into a bear to serve as heavy infantry.
*** And, as one of the strongest melee units in the game (in bear form) who also happen to be able to heal themselves to full health with 12 seconds out of combat, are subject to a lot of [[CompetitiveBalance balance]] complaints.
* ''WarhammerOnline: Age of Reckoning'' has three healer classes per faction. All of them have at least some damage or debuff potential, but the Sigmarite Warrior Priest and the Disciple of Khaine actually need to melee to get the most out of their healing power. Due to this hybrid nature, they're likely among the best classes for both solo PvE gameplay and 1on1 duels with other players. As with Shadow Priests, they tend to get a lot of flak should they dare to prefer hitting over healing...

* In ''EtrianOdyssey'', the old-school-esque dungeon crawler for the DS, the Medic class isn't any good for physical attacks...''at first'', but later they can deal some of the best damage in the game. (Caduceus!!!)
* Jessica from ''[[{{Lunar}} Lunar: The Silver Star]]'' is the party's [[TheMedic designated healer]], being a cleric-in-training and all, but can deal pretty decent melee damage, unlike Nash and Mia (who are both [[SquishyWizard pure magic users]]).
* Clerics from ''{{Disgaea}}'' appear to be straight-up Medics if you just level them the standard way. However, using the same apprentice system you use the MagikarpPower Flonne into the resident DiscOneNuke, you can easily teach them some offensive spells to take advantage of their INT stat.
** Alternatively, teaching some heals to Laharl ([[TooAwesomeToUse who needs items?]])
*** Or ''anyone'' with a cleric as an apprentice. The other elemental spells may be useless if you have no staff and/or poor INT because they'll have short range and do less damage than regular attacks, but [[HealThyself self-healing]] is always useful.
*** And we haven't even touched on what you can do with Reincarnation and Transmigration...
* ''Age of Conan'''s healing classes (Tempest of Set, Bear Shaman, and Priest of Mitra) are all designed to heal by using offensive spells. (Offensive spells, or attacks, let them charge up and improve healing spells.) This actually ended up to the point that they out-damaged the traditional damage archetype (the Demonologist), though they still could not compare to the Herald of Xotli.
* ''Guild Wars''' attributes and dual-class system allows for healers to take on offensive roles, or offensive classes to take on healing. Monks (standard healers) can become damage classes through Smiting Prayers; Necromancers and Elementalists (non-healers) can become healers by exploiting balance issues, and the Ritualist class is designed to both heal and deal damage (though due to poor balance on the developers' part, it does neither of these well).
* Medics in ''WorldInConflict'' are part of the all-purpose Infantry Squad
* Shamans and Oracles in ''AtlanticaOnline'' both have an offensive ability that makes up to two enemies take damage over time and more damage in general. The Monk on the other hand has purely supportive abilities, but all three have a decent attack that can hit flying enemies. Attacking is much needed, too, as a lot of experience comes from killing blows.
* One of the pre-built classes usually included in ''TheElderScrolls'' games is that of Healer but the class is titular at best; in ''Daggerfall'', a Healer was one of the least encountered stock enemies in dungeons.
* An honorable mention is the Super Stimpak healing item of the ''{{Fallout}}'' series. It restores about 75 damage but the user incurs 9 points of damage shortly thereafter. A popular assassination technique is to apply a large number of Super Stimpaks to a benign target and then wait for the cumulative damage to kill them.
** Another honorable mention in the ''{{Fallout}}'' series goes to the "Living Anatomy" Perk. Awarded when you have a high amount of "Doctor" skill, this perk gives you both a boost to said skill and a boost to ''damage caused to living creatures'', since as someone intimately familiar with anatomy, you know where to aim to hit the vital points.
* Many of the ''FinalFantasy'' games either give you the option of mixing and matching classes to create these, or give healers bows or other weapons they can use from the safety of the back row so they can contribute ''some'' damage when not healing. And then, later in the game, there's the [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]] spell...
** In both FinalFantasyIX and FinalFantasyX the medic is also the [[SummonMagic summoner]].

* The Cleric and other races' equivalents thereof in ''Age of Wonders'' is a capable combat unit in addition to their healing abilities, to the point that it's debatable whether they're medics who can fight, or mystical warriors with healing on the side. While their actual attack and defense values are usually low, they have a useful magical ranged attack, and infuse their melee strikes with magical (or elemental, depending on the race) energy to strike hard. They're especially useful against pesky units with high defense or are flat-out resistant or immune to physical damage.
* In ''FireEmblem'', you can promote clerics/priests into bishops. In FE 8 aka ''Sacred Stones'', the Bishops' special skill is the Slayer ability, which deals ''three times the normal damage'' to monsters. You can promote them into valkyries or sages, too, but bishops are often much-needed as monsters become the primary enemies.
** Mist of Fire Emblem Path Of Radiance stands out as unlike most other Bishops in the recent games she uses Swords as her secondary weapon.
*** Interestingly, she is one of the only characters who is both able to wield a sword and has a top-notch Magic stat. So once you give her the Wind Edge (a sword that deals damage based on Magic instead of the normal Strength stat) and promote her to a horse-riding Valkyrie, [[GameBreaker she becomes quite a force to be reckoned with.]] [[GoodBadBug Unfortunately, this was changed in the sequel, Radiant Dawn.]]
* The Priestess in ''[[ShiningSoul Shining Soul 2]]'' really is this trope. She is advertised in the manual as being someone who can't really take a few hits and this would make one think that playing the game with her is actually rather hard since you were probably the only person who'd own the game. Instead, she's actually more of a combat medic in that she handles decently with flails and can actually kill people who get too close to her if you ever found someone else to play multiplayer with you.
* Rika from ''[[PhantasyStar Phantasy Star IV]]''. Though most of her spells are curative (and she may serve as the main healer depending on your party setup), she does a surprising amount of damage with her claws, and tends to [[FragileSpeedster move quickly]] as well.
** Rika's actually a little closer to TheMario in that respect; her healing abilities are second only to [[StaffChick Raja]] and her damage output is roughly even with [[TheHero Chaz]] up until he gets the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Elsydeon]], her agility and dexterity are top notch, and because she equips heavy-type armor, her defense stays competitive for the entire game. Unlike many RPG healers, she mostly fills that role in combat simply because no one else can, and not because she's no good for anything else.
* ''ShiningForce III'' had priests that could become hilariously overpower due to the fact that they got 10exp every time they healed a character. Give that character a staff with a powerful in-built spell and watch as you wipe out the whole enemy with a Cleric. Also more offensive orientated characters learnt heal spells or got special equipment to allow healing.

* Ryu in ''[[BreathOfFire Breath of Fire III]]'' is the game's primary healer. He is also the main character, and can double as a tank (although Garr and Momo are better used for this purpose.)
* TheHero of ''DragonQuestIV'' acts like this early on, though they eventually grow into more of a LightningBruiser who happens to have healing magic.
** Cristo/Kiryl might fit the bill as well.
** And in an older ''DragonQuest'' game, there is the [[HelloInsertNameHere Princess of Moonbrook]] in ''Dragon Quest/Warrior II''. She starts with a good healing spell, and does little melee damage, but soon learns a good attack spell.
* The Medics of ''[[{{Starcraft}} Starcraft: Brood War]]'', while technically incapable of doing any real damage, do come equipped with power armor and are capable of wielding (blinding) grenade launchers.
* Marle, from ''ChronoTrigger'', has the most and strongest healing spells in the group, but also learns a decent set of ice-based spells and techs. (Also inverted, nearly all the other characters learn a healing or status-affect spell).
** Frog is probably a better example, since he has both effective healing techs and a sword that can do an appreciable amount of damage (especially when you get the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Masamune]]). Robo can also make a decent healer though he otherwise functions as a MightyGlacier character - with enough Magic Tabs, his Heal Beam can restore the entire party to full HP (or at least pretty close).
* In StarOcean2, Opera focuses on fighting with guns, but her Healing Star killer move actually becomes powerful enough to allow you to remove Rena from your team. However, this means you will have to use items to revive fallen party members and cure status effects.
** Rena herself is far from helpless in melee combat.
* Sonic Unleashed has a annoying wizard-type Dark Gaia monster which can heal other monsters while smacking you around.
* Despite the fact that his outfit and hair color are reminiscent of another [[{{TheRedMage}}character archetype from another series]], Angelo from DragonQuestVIII fits, and in his case, it is more justified than the typical cleric character in that he is a [[{{ChurchMilitant}} Templar]]. No, not [[{{KnightTemplar}} that kind]].
* The Monks and their upgraded forms in Raganarok Online. They start as a standard Acolyte, same as Priests but lack many of the heals and buffs of the Priest to allow them to dish out some nice melee damage.

* A surprisingly large portion of the party in ''{{Persona3}}'' possesses at least a portion of the Dia (Heal) Spell family, though Yukari and Ken have a stronger focus on healing than the others. ''{{Persona4}}'' has clearer "role" divisions between party members, so most players bring either Yukiko or Teddie as their designated healer. None of these characters are slouches in combat either.

* "Combat Medic" is a Federation and [[MirrorUniverse Terran Empire]] NPC/enemy in StarTrekOnline. Players may also spec their characters or Bridge officers into filling this role if they wish.
* Miltank in Pokemon is fast, bulky, and learns loads of healing moves. However, it can also hit reasonably hard, especially after a few buffs (Curse), and has 2 good abilities to boot.
* Korean MMORPG PristonTale contains the "Priestess" class, who is the game's primary healer, but in earlier versions, was considered the most powerful offensive class in the game due to their AOE elemental magic.
* In the expansion pack for {{Act of War}}, the first tier of [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenaries]] for hire included a small group of medics equipped with heavy sidearms.
* In Supreme Commander Forged Alliance the UEF get a T2 Field Engineer, the Sparky. It has light armament to defend itself and has more HP and a higher movement speed than other engineers. Being an engineer, it can repair units.
* The Scientist class in Transformers: War for Cybertron act like this, having powerful weapons as well as the ability to heal allies with the energon repair ray and energon grenade.
* The Medic class acts like this in ''AlienSwarm''. They can use almost any weapon other classes can (assuming they are not class exclusive weapons), whether it be a flamethrower or a shotgun.
* In the MMORPG Wizard 101 this applies to the healers of the game- life wizards. They have more healing spells than attack spells, but their attack spells aren't bad, especially when buffed, and they have the second highest amount of life points.

* In a rare non-strategy/RPG variation, Rebecca Chambers from Resident Evil is the STARS team medic, but the prequel Zero shows her to be at the very least, a decent shot.

While a Combat Medic still serves as the primary healer and buffer, he has the ability and incentive to leap into the trenches and kick some ass, too. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including 'protective auras' that buff nearby allies while the medic fights, or attacks that simultaneously heal the medic's allies. Enemies that try to ShootTheMedicFirst will find that he won't go down as easy as they expected when they can [[BarrierWarrior create impenetrable]] [[SomeKindOfForceField force fields.]] Last but not least, [[SuperEffective certain tactics]] can give make their [[LethalHarmlessPowers harmless powers lethal]], like casting zombie on enemies when ReviveKillsZombie.

-->-- '''Space Marine Apothecary''', ''{{Warhammer 40000}}''

While a Combat Medic still serves as the primary healer and buffer, he has the ability and incentive to leap into the trenches and kick some ass, too. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including 'protective auras' that buff nearby allies while the medic fights, or attacks that simultaneously heal the medic's allies. Enemies that try to ShootTheMedicFirst will find that he won't go down as easy as they expected.

[[caption-width-right:350:The doctor is in now.]]