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"You blew a gasket again?! Optimus, you needed that!"

"Primum nil nocere." note 
— Often wrongly attributed to the Hippocratic Oath but nonetheless a medical maxim in its own right

Funny thing about adventure; people tend to get hurt, especially the heroes. Injuries are terribly inconvenient for questing, resulting in time lost recuperating (or making an out-of-the-way trip to the nearest Trauma Inn) at best, and a Total Party Kill at worst. So it's wonderfully convenient to have someone in the party who can make the hurting stop.

Enter the Medic. In modern or futuristic settings, the Medic is often a trained physician or EMT (emergency medical technician) and relies on whatever medical technology is available in that era and on-hand—anything from miraculous herbs, injections and bandages to Nanomachines. In fantasy settings, the Medic is often a cleric or Mysterious Waif of some kind, using the powers of a White Mage or White Magic to restore people with Healing Hands (or something similarly glowy). They may also wield the Healing Shiv. Even the Standard Scifi Fleet might have Medics, in the form of tenders or repair ships.

Often caring and concerned, Medics tend to be The Heart. Alternatively, they're less personable than rational, and they are thus a Smart Guy, even if The Team already has a Smart Guy. Regardless, team Medics will inevitably become the Team Mom — they simply leave the team if they can't. Regardless, everyone must obey the Doctor's Orders.

Medics are typically Squishy Wizards, possessing little in the way of raw strength or offensive combat ability. In most real-life cases, this is more specifically because they are forbidden to carry assault weapons or engage in combat, even though all soldiers get the same basic training, regardless of role. If guns are standard, they'll usually have the smallest and weakest possible. In fantasy settings, they don't usually wear any armor, and tend to use staves as often as hammers or maces. They don't always get the flashiest abilities and their skillset tends towards Boring, but Practical, although they will occasionally pick up a few offensive spells. Holy Hand Grenade is popular among the rare Medics who fight.

Expect the Medic to be an Actual Pacifist and hold to Thou Shalt Not Kill (except, possibly, Mercy Killing), although he may not stick to it when he is literally the only person who can attack—especially not if the villain is willing to attack him or worse, the wounded. In Real Life, this is required; medical personnel are non-combatants, and so are protected under The Laws and Customs of War, but forbidden to fight themselves lest they forfeit this protection.note 

If there's only one team member capable of healing, that person is automatically the Medic, even if they have other abilities, even if healing is their least proficient ability. If multiple teammates can heal, then the Medic is the one who is either the best at it or takes it most seriously. Even if the Medic should have awesome attack magic, or have the fortitude to handle melee combat, his role as healer, supporter, and protector is his top priority.

Be wary of pissing off the Medic on your side—you do not want to be in the situation where they decide that actually they don't feel like healing you right now because of something you said earlier. Hence the many variations on the phrase of "Never mess with the White Mage" in the communities of any multiplayer game, from tabletop RPGs to shooters, that have this class. If this does happen, it can cross into Laser-Guided Karma or even Death by Irony.

A subtrope of Support Party Member. See the The Squad and the Command Roster for Ensembles likely to have a team Medic. In particularly large or specialized teams, it is not uncommon for the Medic to do almost nothing except heal the Stone Wall—in which case they are that fighter's "backpack" (this is standard practice for groups in World of Warcraft). A backpack may also occur when one member has a specialized healing ability and another requires that specialized healing (typically robot/techie, The Undead/necromancer, or an inverted Revive Kills Zombie situation).

A Medic who specializes in healing and support magic (sometimes with a dash of attack magic) is known as a White Mage. White Magician Girl is a specific type of White Mage that occurs with faithful regularity in videogame RPGs.

Also in video games, when the enemy has one, Shoot the Medic First. The Combat Medic is a variant that can heal and support while beating down the enemies, and a medic who specializes in both healing and defense is often a Barrier Warrior. The Deadly Doctor has gone rogue and decided to use those same healing abilities to take people apart. Compare After-Action Patch-Up, After-Action Healing Drama.


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    Anime & Manga 
  • Kotoha and Rami of Arata: The Legend occasionally serve this role in Hinohara's group.
  • In Aruosumente, Moeran, one of the council members, turns out to have studied medicine at the Shengtalisi, the most prestigious university in his home country. His private rooms still look like those of a doctor, even though he's not actively practicing medicine openly.
  • Elf dust in Berserk can heal wounds. This is sometimes an unfortunate fact for Puck, the elf that travels with Guts — when he needs healing, Guts has no problem with grabbing Puck and shaking him over whatever wounds need to be healed.
  • Bleach:
    • Orihime Inoue may have the power to make people's heads explode, but it often fails for the simple fact that she doesn't want to make heads explode and her targets are too strong for halfhearted attacks. On the other hand, she also has the power to protect and heal; since she prefers very much to do that, her considerable powers operate at full strength in that department. She is also the strongest healer in the series, as her healing attacks don't actually heal wounds, they make it so they never happened in the first place.
    • The Fourth Court Guard squad, led by Captain Retsu Unohana and lieutenant Isane Kotetsu, is the healing squad. They tend to get picked on by other Court Guard squads because they heal instead of fighting. However, one menacing look from the otherwise polite and gentle Unohana is enough to stop them.
    • 7th Seat Hanataro Yamada healing specialization goes so far, that his Zanpakuto is actually a Healing Shiv. Unfortunately, he's also the Butt-Monkey, which means he frequently misplaces his sword, when it's actually pretty powerful (heal enough wounds with it, and it can return the damage healed in a massive attack).
  • A Certain Magical Index has the Heaven Canceler, who's almost always only referred to as the Frog Faced Doctor. He can heal any injury, even mortal ones. The only thing he can't do is cure brain damage and he's still better at that than normal brain surgeons. It does seem as though he needs proper medical equipment to work, however.
  • Princess Erika from Daimos was trained by the esteemed Dr. Wallan. She became a medic to atone for shooting Dr. Ryuzaki.
  • Daltanious: Sanae Shiratori's late parents were doctors, and she wants to follow in their footsteps. As she's the Team Mom to Kento and Danji, she frequently cleans up their wounds.
  • Falin from Delicious in Dungeon is this for Team Touden. After she's eaten in the first chapter, Marcille and later Laios, take over.
  • Dende and Mr. Popo in Dragon Ball Z.
    • Korin and even more Yajirobe.
    • Pretty much anyone holding some Senzu Beans usually becomes this. Krillin becomes this at the start of the Android Saga due to having a whole bag of them.
  • While most magi in the Nasuverse are trained in first aid, Irisviel von Einzbern in Fate/Zero is the designated Medic for Saber, her partner and her husband's Servant. Due to this she also suffers from a variation of The Worf Effect, where the first sign of trouble came when Saber took a hit and Irisviel couldn't heal it.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • Cute Bruiser May Chang counts as this as Alkahestry can be used for healing.
    • Winry is functionally a healer for Ed due to fixing his automail.
  • Fairy Tail has Wendy, the Sky Dragon Slayer. Lamia Scale also has a medic, Cheila, Sky God Slayer.
  • In Galaxy Angel, Vanilla H was the team healer and youngest member of the all-female fighter-pilot group, but she was one of the smarter members and an Emotionless Girl. She healed people and repaired fighter-craft with Nanomachines. Probably because everyone's older and she's so young, she's not a Team Mom.
    • Galaxy Angel II replaces her with Nano-Nano Pudding, also the youngest of her group (she's actually one, being an Artificial Human made of the aforementioned nanomachines). Unlike Vanilla's fragile ship, Harvester, Nano-Nano could actually fight decently in First Aider, although you'd still want to keep her in healing mode.
  • Haou Airen: Shui Long. He comes from a family of these.
  • Asia Argento of High School D×D. She has pretty much zero fighting skill, but her healing powers are extremely handy to the group.
  • Yuuno Scrya and Shamal of the Wolkenritter, from Lyrical Nanoha. Shamal is the better healer, but Yuuno is better at providing support and protection in combat... and he doesn't have a high-quality Device enhancing his magical abilities, either. Yuuno is never part of a team long enough to become a Team Mom. After her Heel–Face Turn, Shamal would become a literal medic, complete with her own office and doctor coat.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Diamond is Unbreakable: Josuke can easily do this with his Stand Crazy Diamond, which has to ability to restore anything that is broken. But he cannot do it to himself, and he can't revive the dead.
    • Golden Wind: Giorno's Gold Experience CAN heal him, but has to take something and turn that into new flesh for whatever he is trying to heal; such as using the bullets you were shot with to fix your organs. (This leads to an... odd moment later on in the story.)
    • Stone Ocean: As a sentient colony of plankton Foo Fighters can send some of its own body into the wounds of others, but this only accelerates the natural healing process.
  • All the medical ninja from Naruto, most notably Tsunade the Fifth Hokage, Kabuto Yakushi, and Sakura Haruno.
  • Fuu from Magic Knight Rayearth; one of her wind spells is a healing technique that she can apply to herself and her teammates.
  • Musuko ga Kawaikute Shikataganai Mazoku no Hahaoya: Merii's tentacles can be used to generate stem cells, which enable her to heal people from darn near anything. She healed Lorem multiple times over their childhood when Lorem's Power Incontinence caused her to hurt herself and saved Chiharu from a demon sickness that humans have otherwise never survived. She has managed to market this skill and make herself considerably wealthy.
  • Konoe Konoka in Negima! Magister Negi Magi increasingly fills this role as she becomes more experienced with healing magic. After a while, team members just don't bother restraining themselves during training, since all their injuries can be healed by her anyway. Unfortunately, this also makes her the team's biggest Achilles' Heel, as in a battle she is always targeted first. In one Mood Whiplash chapter, she manages to completely heal the protagonist after he took a stone spear to the chest, pulled it out to sucker-punch the villain who delivered it, collapsed, and bled on the floor for a minute, all until she got to him.
  • At first glance, it's easy to mistake Tony Tony Chopper of One Piece as the Team Pet. Regardless of this, he's also one of the One Piece world's most talented doctors. Among other feats, he successfully healed two crew members who had been frozen solid, despite having never seen such a thing and having no idea what to do at first. He also adapted his medical knowledge to combat, twice giving advice that was instrumental in defeating the giant Living Shadow-powered zombie Oars.
    • Trafalgar Law is an odd example in that he happens to be The Captain in addition to being The Medic. Of course, being a Deadly Doctor helps.
    • Marco of the Whitebeard Pirates was the crew's medic. Using his phoenix powers to heal. After the crew disbanded, he became the healer for the village Whitebeard grew up in. He also used his skills to help the Straw Hats during the battle on Onigashima.
  • In the Pokémon Adventures manga:
    • Yellow is blessed by the Viridian Forest, meaning that she has the magical power to instantly heal Pokémon with a single touch. While this (and her other Viridian blessed powers) makes up for her sub-par battling skills, overusing it will cause her mental strain, forcing her to fall asleep.
    • Moon from the Sun/Moon chapters too. She is a pharmacist and has workable first-aid and other general medical knowledge. Unlike Yellow who uses psychic power, Moon’s healing power is 100% science-based.
  • Nurse Joy from Pokémon: The Series. And Brock and his Chansey. Iris is showing signs of this too.
  • In The Prince of Tennis, Oishi, Ryuzaki-sensei and Inui are sometimes seen bandaging up their injured teammates.
  • Psyren:
    • Three characters have been shown to use healing, all ironically being male. Oboro Mochizuki is technically the team healer and contrasts with the normal personality associated with the job. He switches between being extremely childish and mature, and it has been hinted at him becoming somewhat sinister. In fact, he ended up using his healing abilities to convert a Tavoo into a tumorous state, saying that he was trying to see if he could fix it to save the numerous composite bodies it was made up of when he really only wanted to test his abilities. Also, his powers work best through hugging.
    • The other two are Van, who plays this role for the Elmore kids (and is probably the strongest of all the healers), and Ian, who is The Mentor to both Van and later Kabuto, who uses Ian's unique Sense ability.
  • In Record of Lodoss War, Etoh the cleric was the team healer.
  • Megumi Takani, Dr. Genzai (in the anime), and the Mutou siblings (both Shougo, who is a qualified medic trained in Occidental medicine, and his sister Sayo) in Rurouni Kenshin.
  • Shaman King has Faust VIII, who starts out with only really awesome but technically possible medical knowledge and a complete lack of squeamishness, but ends up being able to magically regrow limbs.
  • Asa Shigure, Kareha, and Nerine from SHUFFLE!!. In a twist, Asa rejects her "role" as healer due to her reluctance to use any kind of magic after all the crap her mom went through in the past, which becomes a plot point as the magic piles up in her body and gets her gravely sick...
  • Slayers: Guest-Star Party Member Sylphiel, a shrine maiden, acts as this as well as a defensive tactician for the four protagonists. The third season, Slayers TRY, has Filia fill this position. When neither of them is around, Amelia usually does most of the healing, being a specialist in White Magic.
  • The male doctor in Vandread, Duero Macfile. A Badass Bookworm in personality alone, but he was also an A-Class Citizen and a fully qualified mecha pilot assigned to an elite military vessel. He probably could make a fine showing in combat if he weren't more interested in his role as the ship's only medical doctor.
  • Princess Millerna Sarah Aston, the Rebellious Princess from The Vision of Escaflowne. Also kind of a subversion, being a traditional medic instead of a White Magician Girl. In a fantasy environment.
  • Yun/Yoon from Yona of the Dawn spends a lot of time patching up his travel companions and everyone else who gets involved with them.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters has Tea, who heals her friends with help from her Happy Lover monster.
  • In YuYu Hakusho, Botan, Genkai, and Yukina all have healing powers, but Yukina is the only one to use it more than once. However, the actual team medic is Kurama, the plant master.
  • Tio from Zatch Bell! primarily focuses on defending the offense-oriented characters, or, in a pinch, healing them with swords. This is often used in an RPG style in between battles to heal up for the next encounter.

    Comic Books 
  • Alpha Flight: Shaman is the team Medic, being both a medicine man and a top-notch surgeon (described as the 'best cutter in Canada'). He does, however, have plenty of combat ability.
  • Batman:
    • Bruce's butler Alfred Pennyworth is capable of providing first aid and has basic field medical skills from his military days.
    • Pre-Crisis, if Batman was seriously injured in the field Dr. Douglas Dundee would be called in to administer the necessary treatment. Dr. Dundee was a close friend and medical associate of Bruce's father, Dr. Thomas Wayne. He remained a family friend even after Thomas and his wife Martha were murdered by Joe Chill. Dr. Dundee was trusted with Bruce's secret identity as Batman and agreed to be his personal physician in both identities.
    • Post-Crisis, Leslie Thompkins was retconned into being a close friend and medical colleague of Thomas Wayne, who serves as a surrogate parent to his son Bruce after his parents are murdered, and later becomes a confidant in his crusade as Batman, and provides off-the-books medical treatment when required (which is often).
  • G.I. Joe: Lifeline from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Animated Show and comic books. Gets lots of attention because he will never intentionally hurt someone, but is a master of a martial art that will redirect energy. A charging enemy will find himself fifteen feet away, out of breath, wondering what the heck threw him. There was also, in the original comics and some alternate universes, Doc, who was noted for his calm under fire, described as coming to you in the middle of a firefight "like he was a making a house call".
  • Marvel Universe: Linda Carter aka Night Nurse, a fully trained nurse who specializes in healing superheroes.
  • Strontium Dog: The Gronk comes from an entire species who are skilled medics, and is constantly healing Johnny and Wulf after their latest scrap.
  • Teen Titans: Raven functions as this for the Teen Titans as healing is her primary power and she is a pacifist who hates violence. These aspects are downplayed (though still present) in the cartoon.
  • X-Men: Joshua "Josh" Foley, aka Elixir. Elixir is quite possibly the most powerful mutant because he can manipulate DNA in order as his power and accelerate cell division. It manifests early on as healing powers, but he can just as easily kill you as he can heal you.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Elle Brody has joined Monarch since the events of Godzilla (2014). She's not an active field operative but a prominent medic.
  • Call Me Kara -a Supergirl (2015)/The Flash (2014) crossover- really focuses on how important Caitlin's role as Team Flash's resident doctor is, especially in the earlier chapters when she saves Kara's life with extensive surgery after she's shot with Kryptonite bullets.
  • in Desperately Seeking Ranma, both Ranma and Kasumi show time and again that they are the best healers around. Regrowing organs, healing dozens of critical patients in a few minutes, removing parasites from the mind and fixing chemical imbalances, & being able to scan the body to identify damage and irregularities.
  • In Double Agent Vader, Kadee is the medic droid assigned to Darth Vader. She takes her responsibility to her patient seriously and holds a personal grudge against Palpatine for the times, before Anakin unfettered her, when Palpatine forced her to give Vader suboptimal care as part of his strategies to keep Vader in his place.
  • Pacific: World War II U.S. Navy Shipgirls has Shaw. Despite her use of mostly improvised methods, she still manages to take care of injured sailors and seabirds.
  • The Pony POV Series: Shining Armor's side story has Private Garnet, who's assigned to Shining's unit as the Sixth Ranger.
  • The Powers of Harmony has Piro and his predecessor Scorpio.
  • The Vow: In this Kung Fu Panda fanfiction; the Soothsayer, besides being as much of a Cool Old Lady as in canon, shows medical knowledge when instructing Lianne on how to treat Shen after the latter inhales gunpowder.
  • Hisana becomes this to the whole district of Inuzuri in Walk Two Lifetimes, to the point the local gangs and yakuza consider her hospital a Truce Zone.

    Film — Animation 
  • 5 from 9. He isn't so much a Squishy Wizard as simply a Non-Action Guy/Action Survivor, and his weapon for the few occasions he has to fight is a crossbow. It figures that he would be suited for the role, as he seems to embody the Scientist's caring, supporting side, and in the Russian version, in which the dolls aren't facets of the Scientist but people the Scientist knew, he actually was a professional medic.
  • Disney's Encanto has Julieta Madrigal, who was blessed with the gift of healing via food.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma (2007). He gets dragged along with the posse against his will, and his medical knowledge does come in useful a few times (despite the fact that he's actually a veterinarian) before he's killed off, because he's played by Alan Tudyk.
  • Monk, the SEAL Medic in The Abyss. Of all the SEALs that board Deep Core, he is the only one who seems inclined to deal with the rig crew as human beings. When faced with a medical situation he is not trained for (Jammer's coma) he does what little he can and apologises that he can't do more. Of course, since he has a religious name in a James Cameron film, his being a basically good guy was pretty much guaranteed from the get-go.
  • Blood of the Tribades: Darvulia and Erzsi are healers for the exiled female vampires, though everything from what can be seen is treated by giving them blood.
  • Free State of Jones: Newt serves as one while in the Confederate Army, but can't save his young nephew. This causes him to desert.
  • Doc Jay from Full Metal Jacket is a medic attached to the Lusthog squad who ends up biting it when a sniper mows him down as he attempts to aid his wounded teammate.
  • In The Horse Soldiers, Major Henry Kendall is a regimental surgeon assigned to accompany the raid on Newton Station along with his orderly Otis 'Hoppy' Hopkins.
  • The ship's doctor from The Hunt for Red October. He was naive (he didn't have the slightest idea that a hijacking was going on), but he was a good officer who kept order among the crew when the Red October was abandoned, he was caring about the sailors' welfare, and he could well qualify as a Worthy Opponent.
  • Wade from Saving Private Ryan is an Army medic and the second character in The Squad to die.
  • Thirteen Lives is a dramatisation of a real-world rescue operation, the 2018 rescue of a group of youths trapped in the Tham Luang cave, so naturally the professional teams involved have medical support.
    • When some of the Thai SEAL team remain with the boys while people determine how to bring them out, one of the group is a doctor who can monitor the kids' health.
    • Later, the British divers call in the Australian "Harry" Harris, a fellow cave diver but also a doctor — in this case, because their desperate rescue plan needs his specific skills as an anaesthetist.
  • Played with in When Trumpets Fade with Chamberlain, who seems very much the traditional WWII medic character, right up until the climax of the film, when he takes off his medic badges and assumes a combatant role to help destroy two German tanks. Of course, when he thinks Manning has been wounded, he reacts like a medic...
  • Reynolds in Zulu. Special mention goes to the fact that he managed to keep working while the attacking Zulu warriors were climbing in through the windows, and he was inspired by a real person.

    LARP 
  • In NERO Earth casters qualify as this. Earth Templars are Combat Medics although even Earth Scholars get combat-applicable spells like Pin and Web, they just don't do any physical damage.

    Literature 
  • Dalton in Along The Winding Road. Probably would have been a better idea for Charlotte to bring one along in the first place, but luckily she meets a guy who knows a guy. She may not have been able to sneak a doctor out of the village, anyway.
  • In Steve Parker's Warhammer 40,000 Astra Militarum novel Gunheads, Wulfe's Back Story includes an incident where a medic jumped to save him from a wound that would have killed him. A few days later, the medic was captured by orks and tortured to death. Wulfe thinks that he's still trying to avenge him.
  • Stephen Maturin in the Aubrey-Maturin series—he's the ship's surgeon and a Badass Bookworm to boot, being incredibly skilled with both swords AND guns. Captain Aubrey and the rest of the crew have undying faith in his prowess, and the crewmen brag to other sailors about how their ship has a real physician who even speaks Latin. It's well-founded, as he was able to perform a successful evacuation of a subdural hematoma (bleeding into one's brain) aboard the ship during a battle, and with 19th-century technology, too!
    • All the more notable since Maturin is a physician, not a surgeon. It was even more of an issue then as opposed to now since surgeons did not attend medical school and the overwhelming majority of physicians considered surgery a common craft beneath their professional station. For Maturin to know even the first thing about surgery, let alone undertake and succeed at half a dozen different procedures just in the first novel, is unusual in the extreme. It's even more unusual for there to be a physician in the position of a Navy surgeon at all, if one doesn't consider that Maturin mostly took the job because he was penniless at the time and Aubrey happened to befriend him. Physicians were usually drawn from the upper class and would consider a job at sea to be sacrilegious. At that time (c. 1800) there were only a dozen physicians compared to one thousand surgeons in the Royal Navy.
  • This describes Polgara's job in the Belgariad pretty well. She uses conventional medicine, knows almost every sickness in the whole world, and has a small box full of drugs always around. Her huge knowledge is comprehensible; after all, she is 3000 years old.
  • Baboons in Bravelands have Goodleaf baboons. Goodleaves are trained in medicine.
  • In Dan Abnett's Brothers of the Snake, Khiron. He also secretly ensures that Aekon is safe after a Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb stunt, and smooths things over between Priad and the squad after Priad is angered by their admitting to breaking rules.
  • In C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy Pevensie, youngest of the four siblings, is given a flask of a miraculous potion that heals all illnesses and injuries. But it was Susan, the second eldest and the Archer, who was the Team Mom.
  • Arriott in Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novel Death Or Glory fits the type very well, though he was actually a vet pressed into duty for humans by the circumstances.
  • Dorden and Curth in the Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novels. Dorden, being an Actual Pacifist fits the type even closer than Curth does; a delirious Soric thought it wrong for Dorden to take his gun because he was not violent, but Curth was able to persuade him to give it to her.
    • Also, Kolding in Blood Pact. Although he nearly revolts at having to treat a Blood Pact prisoner, Gaunt does get him to do it — and we learn that he was present, fifteen years earlier, when Blood Pact broke into his father's hospital to slaughter the doctors and wounded. Kolding was the Sole Survivor. In Salvation Reach, he has joined the Ghosts and fully wins a place by saving Cant's life when even Dorden didn't think it could be done.
  • The badgers of Cilgwyn in The Cold Moons have a badger known as "the Healer" who is well-versed in That Old-Time Prescription. The current Healer is an old female named Rhea. She uses herbal medicines that have been passed down for generations.
  • In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "A Witch Shall Be Born", Ivga both treats Valerius's wounds and calms him.
  • In John C. Wright's Count To A Trillion, Menelaus can argue with the Master of the World, but not the doctor.
  • The Discworld's Ankh-Morpork City Watch has The Igor as a medic, as do the Ins-And-Outs in Monstrous Regiment.
    • They are almost eerily good at this — in particular, they can re-attach lost limbs and perform transplants using only needle and thread, and also possess the ability to completely suppress the patient's immune system incompatibility with the donor organ through means unexplained. They also have the ability to bring back people who have actually died, if it's recent enough (and if they're allowed to — dwarves in particular will not allow Igors to bring them back. Igors are said to be "naturally disappointed" by this). As of Unseen Academicals, Lord Vetinari has been compelled to make a law about this, because murder trials have a tendency to go wrong when the (formerly) deceased walks through the door: "If it takes an Igor to bring you back, you were dead. Briefly dead, it's true, which is why the murderer will be briefly hanged."
  • In the Dreamblood Duology, Sharers are a special denomination among Hananja's priests who harvest the dreamichor from the dreams of her faithful and use it to heal those in need. It's even possible to regrow limbs and cure genetic diseases this way.
  • In James Swallow's Warhammer 40,000 novel Faith & Fire, the Hospitaller Verity. Watching the Gladiator Games/Human Sacrifice, she was overcome with horror and jumped out to help the injured. During the terrorist attack on it, she ministered to the wounded and administered last rites (losing count when she realized that the number would make her cry). And when she does shoot one terrorist, she is horrified.
  • An interesting take on the 'magical girl healer' idea is seen in the Vernor Vinge sci-fi novel A Fire Upon the Deep. Johanna, a 12-year-old girl from a spacefaring society, is stranded on the medieval world of the dog-like Tines. Each Tine is a pack of up to half a dozen members linked into a Hive Mind. Because two Tines cannot make bodily contact without being confused by the other's thoughts, Johanna's ability to physically nurse them gives her healing powers on a psychological level. (An assassination attempt on her fails because all the injured she had tended leapt to her defense.)
  • In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione takes on this role while she, Harry, and Ron are on the run, using her magical knowledge to heal the various injuries Harry and Ron acquire on their quest to destroy the horcruxes.
  • In the Heralds of Valdemar books, Healers (who may or may not have Healing Hands) take the Medic role, though they seldom go out with a party; they are more likely to set up shop in one location and serve a particular area. In Arrow's Flight, Talia and Rolan have to gallop for several hours to get a Healer to aid a plague-stricken village, which she handles like someone who has done this many times before.
  • In Ben Counter's Warhammer 40,000 Horus Heresy novel Galaxy In Flames, Vaddon selflessly tends the injured among the betrayed loyalist Space Marines up to the moment that Horus's forces are let in and kill him and the wounded.
  • In Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games and still more in Catching Fire, Katniss's mother and Prim. (Unavailable in the arena, alas.)
    • Although, Katniss herself could qualify, even though the process of healing someone tends to disgust her. Despite the fact that Katniss herself admits that she's much better at killing, she was able to keep Peeta alive in the arena (no small feat in itself) by cleaning his wounds and draining his pus.
  • Into The Broken Lands: Arianna is the best healer in Gateway, supplementing her knowledge of herbal medicine and surgery with limited Healing Hands. In the Flashback B-Plot, she joins Garrett's expedition into the Death World of the Broken Lands to help keep them alive.
  • In The Leonard Regime, Ben's training has given him the opportunity to play medic multiple times. Madison is also mentioned to be capable in this area.
  • A Mage's Power: It's Dragon's Lair policy for a White Mage to be part of every team. Nolien fulfills this role for Team Four because he has the skill for it. He's still developing a healer's sensitivity.
  • In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Monster Men, Sing treats the injured.
  • Magnus Bane from The Mortal Instruments is frequently called in to provide healing whenever somebody suffers an injury that the usual Shadowhunter healing Rune cannot fix.
  • In Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye, there is a caste of Moties that is dedicated to healing: the rust-fur Doctors. There is also a Warrior-Doctor hybrid for military healing.
  • Subverted in the Sven Hassel World War II novel OGPU Prison. A medical orderly robs the wounded, demands a huge bribe for getting Sven onto a hospital train, and brutally kicks a crawling amputee out of his path. On an earlier occasion, another orderly is shown abandoning a truckful of wounded and making off with a submachine gun and a Red Cross bandolier on each arm (knowing that at least some Russian soldiers won't shoot at him). Though Sven's friends wish the orderly a well-deserved death, one cynically comments: "That kind lives through any war."
  • In Jasper Fforde's One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing, the death of medical personnel is particularly noted in the massacre of the clown army.
  • Apollo being the god of healing, his demigod children serve this capacity in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and The Trials of Apollo, especially Will Solace. Apollo himself is far outclassed by Will, but his other son Asclepius became god of medicine in his own right when he was about Will's age, so he's used to it.
  • Belknap in Dan Abnett's second and third Ravenor novels. Treats the indigent illegally, after he was caught at fraud: trying to get medical help to the people who weren't supposed to get it. And when he thinks Ravenor and company are a gang, does his best to get Zael away from them. All this goodness in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, no less.
  • The Rifter: Non-Action Guy Saimura’s role in the Fai’daum guerillas. His magic is also useful in many other ways.
  • Kaita, her friend Evelinden (before she died), and the other Callisorian healers in the Shadowleague books.
  • Mercy's Daughters in Shadows of the Apt.
  • In The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, Demane says he's always had an inclination towards medicine. He acts as the band's medic, anyway, and has — thanks to his Semi-Divine heritage and superior sense of smellmodern levels of medical knowledge. Additionally, thanks to the aforementioned heritage, he is able to secrete a poison that in small amounts can act as an anaesthetic.
  • In William King's Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolf novel Wolfblade, though in a Wretched Hive far down in the levels, Ragnar and Haegr stumble on Brother Malburius, who treats Haegr's injuries.
  • In Robin McKinley's Sunshine, SOF has a medic who's on duty at 10:30 PM. He has combat patches.
  • Time Out of Time: Jessica takes on this role in "The Telling Stone". She has the power to heal wounds with a touch but has to expend some of her own energy to do so.
  • Tolkien's Legendarium:
    • In J. R. R. Tolkien's stories there are lots of characters with healing abilities (some conventionally mundane, some a bit magical) of various races, some having it as their 'main job' while others do it just as it comes up. Most well-known healer is probably Elrond.
    • In The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is a sword-and-archery ranger and warrior, but perhaps the only member of the Fellowship of the Ring with medical knowledge. Athelas is used only for exposure to the deadly "Black Breath" Nazgûl. Aragorn was raised in Rivendell by Elrond, the greatest healer in all Middle-Earth, and was second only to Elrond in medicine. Aragorn cures Frodo's and Sam's wounds in Moria; and After the Battle of the Pelennor, Aragorn tends to all the wounded and heals them, regardless of the severity of their wounds. Finally, Sam and Frodo are so bad-off at the end of the adventure, that they lay comatose for two weeks after Aragorn tends to them; but they are fully healed by Aragorn (in body, at least, while Frodo's cure can be found only in Valinor). Pippin is likewise fully healed, despite being crushed by a troll. (Aragorn's skills seem limited to physical ailments, however, as Éowyn suffers from a melancholy that he admits is beyond his skill, and which deeply troubled him even while facing unspeakable peril. That emotional damage is actually healed by Faramir, whom Éowyn befriends and later falls in love with). Unlike most healers in fantasy fiction, Aragorn completely lacks the typical characteristics of a White Mage, and is a full-on Combat Medic more known for the "combat" part than for the "medic".
  • In The Touch, Dr. Alan Bulmer.
  • Trapped on Draconica: Two, one for each side:
    • The heroes have Erowin: a sweet-tempered girl with healing hands.
    • The villains have Lucia: a somewhat cranky dwarf who carries poison for "medicinal" purposes. Though effective in curing even life-threatening wounds, this medicine is worse than the disease.
  • Treasure Island: Doctor Livesey spends significant time tending to injuries and diseases among the party, even treating the mutineers.
  • In Twig, Lillian functions as the onsite healer and first aid provider for the Lambs. For anything more extensive than field biotech, though, she's quick to send her patients back to the Academy. She is still a doctor-in-training, after all. Later on, Duncan's addition to the team provides the Lambs with another medic.
  • Villains by Necessity: Kaylana serves as this for the party, since her magic is primarily good for things such as healing, talking with animals, etc.
  • Medicine cats in the Warrior Cats series are the sole medic in their Clan, aside from their apprentices. They're also more spiritual than other cats, as they receive prophecies from StarClan. Medicine cats are exempt from the usual barriers given to warriors and are allowed to visit other Clans as needed. They're also celibate and out-of-bounds during battles, and killing one is a great enough sin to land the offender in the Clan equivalent of Hell, a filthy, fungus-ridden Dark World of perpetual night and solitude.
  • In 'Team Kimba', the group of the protagonists at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe, the Medic is mainly the role of Fey, who is a wizard with healing powers. She's also an empath. But she's not really a Squishy Wizard, since she is learning to wield a scimitar, and has hugely powerful offensive spells, even if she might want other members of the team to provide the muscle to give her enough time to perform her best spells. Another member of the team, Bladedancer, is the go-to girl for herbs and soothing balms.
    • The most dedicated medic among the students that we've seen so far, however, may just be the blind devisor Jericho, who isn't actually on the team (though friends with some of them after a few harrowing encounters) and has to do it all by inventing the tools he needs himself because he has no actual innate healing powers.
  • The Wheel of Time features many different cultures and their medical traditions, but the medics are almost always women who can channel. Nynaeve is the most prominent medic for the main characters.
  • In Nelson DeMille's novel Word of Honor, Lt. Tyson's medic in Vietnam, Steven Brandt, testifies against Tyson when he is court-martialled for the massacre of doctors, nurses and civilians in a Vietnamese hospital. Brandt is mentioned to be a good medic but is morally corrupt; he eats plastic explosive to make himself ill so he can get out of the field and tried to kill Tyson by injecting him with a lethal dose of morphine. Tyson and his RTO Kelly caught Brandt taking photos of naked women being tortured by South Vietnamese police officers, and later raping a 12 or 13-year-old girl. As revenge, Tyson makes him sit in a leech-infested dike.
  • The Star Wars Expanded Universe Xwing Series of novels had Ton Phanan, a rarity in commando squads: a fully-trained and licensed doctor and surgeon. He had none of the bedside manner, however, and was something of a Combat Medic/Deadly Doctor. He did adhere to the Squishy Wizard stereotype by getting himself injured in battle (and eventually getting killed), though this was somewhat counteracted by his having to get cybernetic implants for more extensive injuries as he was "allergic to bacta".

    Live-Action TV 
  • Clarke Griffin of The 100 has enough medical knowledge to treat whatever wounds and injuries befall the Delinquents after they get sent to Earth and are targeted by the Grounders. In season 2, she also kept Lincoln alive while he was going through detox from the drug that turned him into a Reaper. Returning him to a normal state was part of the reason she secured an alliance with the Grounders. She serves as a Combat Medic given the dangerous environments and conflicts they often find themselves in. She takes after her mother, who's also a doctor.
  • Jemma Simmons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. serves as this for the main cast. Simmons is a bit of a Downplayed example of this trope; she's trained in advanced first aid and can treat injuries like infected wounds and bullet injuries, but is first and foremost a scientist and bioengineer, she's unable to treat Skye's near-fatal injury on her own when the latter is shot by Ian Quinn, and is hapless to help Mike when his mechanical leg is torn off by HYDRA scientists.
  • Another Life (2019): Zayn, who serves as the ship's medic and has a hard time dealing with the new diseases they encounter.
  • Steven Franklin from Babylon 5 took Thou Shalt Not Kill to debatably unreasonable levels. In his younger years, he traveled the galaxy studying various alien biologies, being one of the few humans to meet and study a Minbari at the time. When the humans and the Minbari went to war, he destroyed his research rather than let the Earth military use it to develop more effective weapons against the Minbari, despite the fact that the Minbari were waging a war of extinction against the humans.
  • Eugene Roe and Ralph Spina from Band of Brothers are real-life examples of the trope. Both men cared very much for the men in their company. Gene was noted by Bill Guarnere as "the best medic we ever had. He was born to be a medic. He took care of us physically, mentally, every way. He was compassionate." Gene was even nominated for a Silver Star for bravery under fire (and received it after the war was over). Note that neither was the Team Mom though.
  • Doc Cottle from Battlestar Galactica. A chain-smoking Dr. Jerk, but he gets the job done. In a sea of Grey-and-Gray Morality, he was something of a fan favorite for his pragmatic perspective on his role: he's a doctor, he treats the sick and the injured, nothing else about his patients really matters.
  • Batwoman (2019): Mary patches up Kate in the pilot, and since Batwoman going into a hospital would raise suspicion, she uses her as her go-to doctor. In addition, she's got a free clinic to provide people with healthcare who can't afford it otherwise.
  • Not only Leo from Charmed is a whitelighter that could heal anyone but he was a World War II medic when he was alive.
  • Doc Robbins on CSI. He's primarily a coroner, but he's done his share of patch-ups on the main characters as well. Grissom got advice from him about his ear problem, and he treated Catherine right before her departure when she was Faking the Dead.
  • Hawkes from CSI: NY, who was an ER doc before he became a coroner and ultimately a CSI, works in a clinic on his days off and sometimes serves on the team of bicycle medics in Central Park as well. In one episode, Mac asks him to stay outside while he and the other officers chase a heavily armed gang into a building because he expects casualties needing immediate medical attention. Sheldon replies, "Then this is where I'll be." In another, he tends to Sid before the ambulance arrives when the M.E. is exposed to radiation.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Harry Sullivan, a commissioned Surgeon-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, is attached as medical officer to the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.
    • Martha Jones (though the Doctor, as a Sufficiently Advanced Omnidisciplinary Scientist, occasionally steps on her toes).
    • Rory Williams Pond, who is a nurse by profession, and pretty good at it too. The Eleventh Doctor is a lot better about not standing on Rory's toes than the Tenth was with Martha.
  • Simon Tam from Firefly is an accomplished trauma surgeon on the run, who parlays his medical knowledge into passage on the ship. Simon also fits the trope on being completely incompetent with guns, although he makes up for it with his proficiency with drugs and poisons, as Jayne found out when he tried to take over in "The Train Job" and later betrayed Simon and River in "War Stories". (In a later episode, Simon injects him with a paralytic.) He fits both the "personable" and the "rational" which makes him an ideal example of this trope. He's a pretty good tactician too, as was shown in "Ariel".
  • Game of Thrones: Talisa of Volantis accompanies Robb's army to tend to the wounded on both sides during the war.
  • Generation Kill has HM2 "Doc" Bryan, the squad's corpsman. Averts the Squishy Wizard part; Bryan doesn't look weaker in any way compared to the others, and he does not hesitate to call out Captain Swetje on his incompetence while others who share the opinion, despite having the opportunity to do it without reprimand, just shuffle their feet. He doesn't delay in engaging the enemy and even gains a kill count; though he's bothered by "feeling nothing" after shooting other human beings, he has no trouble functioning afterward.
  • Claire Bennett of Heroes has the unique ability to heal, not to mention the fact that her blood can also heal others, and even bring them back from the dead.
  • Mikey is this in the JAG episode "Each Of Us Angels". Of course that one is a medical drama and most of the characters are medical personnel. But the others are mostly nurses while "not Mikey" is a frontline Corpsman.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Bronwyn is the nearest thing the village of Tirharad has to a doctor in her capacity as the local “cunning woman” or healer. In her home, she has a large dresser covered with various herbal preparations, and when a mysterious illness begins to affect the village’s livestock, she’s approached for help by a local farmer.
  • Kingdom (2019): When her knowledge of the resurrection plant isn't in use, Seo-bi effectively fills this role for the heroes (and in one case, the villain). She also has a few badass moments, like covering herself with a flaming blanket to save a baby from zombies.
  • Dr. Melinda Warner from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is the medical examiner, which means she's usually performing autopsies, but she's proven herself very capable in more traditional medical roles. She also has the distinction of being the only M.E. in the franchise to become a regular.
  • Jack Shephard from Lost (along with the magical power of water) functioned as the survivors' Healer for quite some time, but the addition of Juliet has left him free to become his group's resident badass.
  • Nathan from The Magnificent Seven. Considering that he's extremely skilled at throwing knives, he also qualifies as a Combat Medic.
  • M*A*S*H is the Trope Codifier for television, focusing on an entire unit of Medics. Though they appear to be utterly unprofessional drunkards when they're off-duty, the doctors of the 4077th have no problem putting generals in their place when it comes to saving a wounded soldier's life.
  • Julián Martínez from The Ministry of Time. Prior to travelling through time, he was a nurse in modern-day Madrid.
  • Motherland: Fort Salem: Raelle is a healer, and her mom was an Army medic. They come from a line of healers, though Raelle isn't keen to become a medic as well, because her mom had died as one.
  • In the BBC's The Musketeers this role falls to Aramis. Given their line of work, he's also a Combat Medic.
  • Claire from Outlander is a World War II combat nurse and later, surgeon whose twentieth-century medical training makes her invaluable in 1740s Scotland, both at home and on the battlefield during the Jacobite Rising.
  • Sea Patrol Chris Swaine Blake is this as well as the main coxswaine. While he is happily married and more settled than most of his comrades, he's kind of hard to call a chick.
  • Sherlock: John was a doctor in the British Army when he was in Afghanistan. Given the fact he was a soldier, he's also a Combat Medic.
  • Smallville has Emil Hamilton, who Oliver brought onto the payroll when he realized that the team needed someone with medical training who could also cover them when they showed up at the local hospital with bullet wounds and other hard-to-explain injuries. He quickly graduated to also being a Gadgeteer Genius and one of the team's three Smart Guys alongside Chloe and Tess.
  • Stargate SG-1 Samantha Carter was often the team medic off-world if the plot called for it, despite being a physicist and not knowing very much about medicine.
  • Even in episodes of Stargate Atlantis where he had nothing else to do, there was a darn good chance you'd see Beckett at the end of any episode patching up the heroes. Bigger Team Mom than any of the other doctors on either show. Until he got offed as well.
  • Every Star Trek series has a chief medical officer, who fills this role:
    • Star Trek: Voyager:
      • The EMH, who is referred to as "The Doctor," is a Dr. Jerk.
      • Kes is trained by the EMH to work as a nurse, and she has Magical Girl abilities.
      • Tom Paris had a few stints as well; the EMH was limited to the sickbay and the holodecks until a bit into the third season, and Tom was the only one on the ship with formal medical training, even if it was limited to a single course.
    • Star Trek: Picard: Emil is the Emergency Medical Hologram on La Sirena, and he has been programmed to diagnose and treat a wide variety of injuries and ailments (including psychiatric ones).
  • Melissa McCall on Teen Wolf. She is a top-notch nurse and it is something of a running joke among fans that she seems to be the only full-time staff member at the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, as she often treats ailments that would normally require a doctor.
  • Charley Dixon of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, who gets pulled into the whole time-traveling killer machine mess. He eventually loses his wife to one of the Terminators.
  • How about Owen Harper from Torchwood? He's even quite fond of making it quite clear that he's DOCTOR Owen Harper in "Everything Changes".
  • Randy "Doc" Matsuda filled this role for Bravo Company in the first season of Tour of Duty, before becoming a victim of Anyone Can Die.
  • Yellowjackets: In terms of The Closest Thing We Got, this trope applies to two of the crash survivors on the 1996 timeline: Misty has taken the Babysitter's Red Cross training course (twice!). She ends up treating her fellow survivors' minor injuries and cauterizes an amputated leg. Akilah ends up stitching up a teammate's facial wounds. Later, they help another teammate when she gives birth.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Classical Mythology had a few characters noted for their skills in medicine:
    • There were seven main divinities of Medicine, four of them invoked in the Hippocratic Oath as witnesses:
      • Apollo is the god of healing in general. In an example of duality, he's also a bearer of plagues, if you are stupid enough to provoke him;
      • Asclepius was originally just Apollo's son. Then he became a medic so good he could revive the dead, and Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt (either because he accepted money for it or because Hades feared he'd revive all of them and empty the Underworld), and revived him as a god of healing because his feud with Apollo had already claimed the lives of the cyclops that had forged the thunderbolt.
      • Hygieia, daughter of Asclepius, is the goddess of hygiene and cleanliness;
      • Panacea, another daughter of Asclepius, is the goddess (and Trope Namer) of universal healing;
      • Iaso, another daughter of Asclepius, is the goddess of recuperation from illness. She's not invoked in the Oath;
      • Aceso, another daughter of Asclepius, is the goddess of the healing process. She's not invoked in the Oath;
      • Aglaea (not to be confused with one of the Three Graces), last daughter of Asclepius, is the goddess of good health. She too is not invoked in the Oath.
    • The immortal centaur Chiron, raised by Apollo (see a pattern?), was a skilled healer, and all the heroes he taught had at least some skill (especially Asclepius). He could not heal himself when wounded by a stray shot from Herakles' poisoned arrows, thus he gave up his immortality;
    • When admitted into Olympus as a god, Herakles' portfolio included health. He was one of Chiron's students, and the one who helped him lose his immortality;
    • Aside from being their leader, Jason's role among the Argonauts was this. He too was taught by Chiron;
    • Medea too was a healer (with most of her magic being somehow connected to this), and one completely unconnected to Apollo, for a change. Some of her feats are: preventing Jason from being roasted by giant fire-breathing bulls made of bronze with a fireproof unguent; healing Atalanta when she was wounded by the Colchians; seeing that her father-in-law Aeson was too old and weak to take part in the celebrations for the Argonauts' triumphal return, she withdrew the blood from his veins, mixed it with a magical herb and put it back, restoring his vigor; when the Corinthians were starving from a famine, she saved them through her magic; and proved to be able to raise the dead by boiling the pieces of their bodies with some magical herbs (she only demonstrated this with a chicken, though). She also proves why pissing off a medic is a bad idea: when Jason's uncle Pelias refused to yield the throne of Iolcus as promised, she demonstrated the ability to raise the dead to convince Pelias' daughters to cut him to pieces (she could have easily killed him with a number of other means, but was feeling sadistic); when Jason abandoned her for the daughter of the king of Corinth, she gave the daughter a dress and a golden coronet covered in a poison that set her on fire, a fire that also killed the king and burned down the royal palace when he tried to save her.

    Podcasts 
  • Dice Funk: In addition to healing magic, Anne is proficient in medicine and tries to help the injured quarry workers in The Church with her training.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Among the services Act Yasukawa provided for Oedo tai when she was recovering from injury and when she retired from wrestling to serve as their manager in World Wonder Ring STARDOM, quick to provide pain relief or whatever other assistance she could after tough matches.

    Roleplay 
  • Dino Attack RPG has over a dozen medical characters, each with their own unique personalities and skills.
    • Dr. Alan Pierce: The head of the medical department, and with good reason. He's a brilliant, well-organized surgeon and all-around Nice Guy who does whatever is possible to help a patient in need.
    • Dr. Gates Crusher: Also an Omni Disciplinary Scientist who helped synthesize antidotes to a toxic gase and later the Maelstrom.
    • Dr. Giovanni Wade: Former army medic who works in the field, though true to this trope he never picked up a gun.
    • Dr. Marco Martinet: A somewhat stubborn but dedicated surgeon who also works on the field but refrains from being involved directly in combat.
    • Dr. Richard Copper: An elderly physician who provided assistance at Outpost 4 and later during the final battle.
    • Dr. Noomi Shaw: A shy, insecure, mentally unstable, and semi-religious young doctor. Still a nice girl who genuinely cares for her patients and more than capable of performing surgery even if she has to say the occasional prayer.
    • Dr. J.D.: Another Omnidisciplinary Scientist who developed a cure to the Maelstrom and got killed for it.
    • Enter and Return: Twin paramedics with... controversial yet surprisingly effective methods (the use of sharks, trees, umbrellas, envelopes, and other strange things is considered standard procedure). Unfortunately, the bizarre nature of their operations generally results in most of the other doctors trying to have as little to do with them as possible.
    • Dr. Clickitt: A doctor and surgeon who usually oversees Enter and Return's operations (being literally one of two doctors on the planet that actually approves of their methods).
    • Dietrich "Medic" Luzwheit subverts certain elements of the character, being a talented but also morally questionable surgeon and Combat Medic (not surprising, given his inspiration) known for getting a bit too much pleasure out of his work and being more concerned about his business than about actually saving lives.
      • There was also a minor doctor in the LEGO Island arc named Burns who subverted this archetype, spending most of his screen time being a complete Jerkass and nearly got Pierce arrested simply for choosing to help an agent over a member of Alpha Team.
    • Atton Rand has admitted to having a talent for writing these kinds of characters, having written six out of the fifteen major doctors in the RPG (Zenna, Pierce, Wade, Crusher, Copper, and Shaw).
  • Fire Emblem on Forums: Any character with Healing Staff proficiencies by default, but special emphasis is placed on the Priest, Troubadour, and Butler/Maid class lines, as these lines have class skills (Self-Healing for the Priest granting them a Healing Factor if they have a Healing Staff, Healing Flow for Troubadours granting healing over time and Live To Serve for Butler/Maid characters that heal them for the same amount as the healed target) that place special emphasis on healing.

    Sports 
  • A game actually called "Medic", "Dr. Dodgeball", or some variation thereof. It's sort of a cross between dodgeball and reverse freeze tag — two teams throw balls at each other, and players who get hit have to stop playing and sit or lie down on the ground. Each team has one medic roaming the field, healing eliminated players by touching them — but he can't heal himself, so the game ends when the medic falls.note  The best place to be is among the phalanx surrounding the medic, as you get instant heals.

    Tabletop Games 
  • d20 Modern has the Wise Hero, which could serve as a healer considering that the Heal skill is based on Wisdom. However, the modern setting offers virtually no ability to quickly heal. The Surgery feat lets a character heal a significant amount of damage, but requires several hours to do so.
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Divine casters (Clerics and Druids) traditionally fill this role. Clerics are sometimes seen as mobile healing delivery units, though this can vary based on the edition and version:
    • In third edition, clerics are not only the best healers, but they can be argued to be the most powerful all-around class in the game. However, they only access that power if they use their spells and actions for things other than healing, like buffing the party or summoning minions. This is because in third edition, healing spells are awkward to use (due to range limitations, and other factors) and only heal a mediocre amount of hp; generally speaking, a cleric using healing magic in battle is helping less than a fighter trying to kill the enemies, and has exposed themself to extra risk of attacks and spent a spell slot for the privilege. Healing out of combat can be done for a trivial gold cost using wands of Cure Light Wounds *, which are slow but can give an effectively limitless amount of healing once the group gets a decent amount of money. Thus the medic role is essentially unneeded in third edition unless the GM takes major steps to restrict access to magic items (which leads to its own balance issues). Many groups are OK with this since the medic role also tends to be rather dull and hence unpopular in third edition - it's sometimes derogatorily referred to as a "healbot".
    • One sourcebook does offer a base class called a Healer. It's essentially the cleric, minus all the powerful buff spells that made it one of the most powerful classes in the game, without any offensive spells, without any armor proficiencies (in fact, explicitly unable to wear armor), and with a few more spells per day and some spell-like abilities.
    • Fourth edition seems to remove the cleric as a necessary component to any adventuring party by making it easy for any player character to recover by just taking a five-minute break after combat and spending enough "healing surges." Even after running out of those, a good night's rest will restore a character to full hit points (and reset the healing surge count to maximum as well). Actual healing powers still come into play during combat encounters, though, and Leader classes are the best source.
    • In all versions, clerics avert the "squishy" part of the trope. Up until 3.5, they're able to wear heavy armor like fighters, while in 4th and 5th editions they can still wear up to medium armor (and about half of 5th Edition cleric specializations gain heavy armor proficiency at first level).
    • 5th Edition offers some interesting variations that allow Sorcerers and Warlocks to serve as The Medic via the Divine Soul Sorcerer and Celestial Warlock. While the Divine Soul just gets the ability to learn and cast healing spells, Celestial Warlocks get their own innate healing ability that works unlike any other healing power in the game, as well as the ability to grant a decent number of temporary hitpoints to their allies every time they finish a long or short rest. Neither is precisely as good at healing as a dedicated Cleric, but they do add some significant versatility.
  • Edge of the Empire, the first of the three new Star Wars tabletop games from Fantasy Flight Games includes Doctors as one of the three Careers of the Colonist Archetype. As the name implies their skill trees focus a great deal on healing but can also buff party members through the usage of Stims and even their knowledge of anatomy can come in useful when knowing where to hit an opponent. Comparable Careers exist in the other two game lines. Age of Rebellion features an actual Career named Medic and the hilarious talent It's Not That Bad, letting them prevent a critical wound on an ally via a successful Medicine check. Force and Destiny contains the Healer Career, which uses the Force-based Healing Trance to automatically heal damage at the end of encounters alongside traditional medical knowledge.
  • Exalted generally averts this - while the eponymous Exalted have various methods of speeding up others' recovery, it is still a matter of hours or days rather than weeks or months. About the only way to provide mid-combat healing for others is the Wood Dragon Celestial martial art.
    • Until the 2.5 Errata, which boosted the Solar healing charm Wound-Mending Care Technique; combined with Instant Treatment Methodology and Solar dice pools, it's a very effective - if expensive - "quick fix".
  • Pathfinder has the traditional divine casters from Dungeons & Dragons and adds the oracle to the mix. Roughly, the oracle is to the cleric what the sorcerer is to the wizard: a spontaneous caster using the same spell list and with different class features. The mystery of life makes the oracle a great team medic, vastly improving healing spells and giving new healing powers.
    • Bastion archons aren't active fighters — barring a balor's appearance, they never move from their spots — but have numerous options for bolstering and healing their allies and companions. On top of passively healing any good-aligned creatures within sixty feet of their location — including themselves — they can cast most of the classic cleric healing spells, both on an individual basis and on multiple people at once, and can regenerate others' lost limbs.
    • The popular third-party Psionics system includes the Vitalist, a squishy class which is designed around healing very efficiently. Unlike classes like the Cleric (see above) it doesn't have any other abilities to speak of, but also unlike the cleric its healing is very much worth using during battle. It's one of the few ways to actually play an effective healer (the other two well-known ones being to play an oracle of life, or to use the life sphere from Spheres of Power.
    • Starfinder allows any class to be trained in Medicine. However, the three classes best suited to acting as a medic are a Mystic with the Healing Connection, an Envoy that chooses Expertise Talents and Improvisations based on the Medicine skill, and the Biohacker.
  • Valence 592's BioDocs avert this trope by behaving more like real-life medics: they can only stabilize the wounded, not bring them back up to fighting strength. They also have a rule that prevents Shoot the Medic First: all characters will think twice about attacking a BioDoc or someone they're tending to, as it is the universal way of saying "Go ahead, shoot mine too."
    • Duelists, on the other hand, can choose to heal other party members very quickly, including lost limbs if they are highly skilled. They also have the nasty habits of regenerating their worst wound every 10 seconds and pulling swords out of thin air.
  • Shadowrun. So your team's Medic got shot first, followed soon after by you? Sucks to be you. Hope you have an account with Medics-for-Hire, such as DocWagon. Conversely, you managed to drop their Medic. Nice work. Hear that siren in the distance? He had a DocWagon High Threat Response contract. They like to fly in with assault helicopters and extract their clients under cover from heavy weapons fire... better finish what you're doing, right quick.
  • The Cleric from GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy is a fantasy-style healer that also requires actual medical knowledge in order to function properly.
  • Princess: The Hopeful: The Menders are those Princesses whose Calling is to tend to the wounded, whether physically, mentally, socially, or all of the above. They have a particular affinity for Charms that heal wounds, repair broken objects, and strengthen or protect others.
  • In Rocket Age, ET99 is a medical roboman wandering around the Downey Creek region of Mars, treating and rescuing animals and people, after having lost its original owner and memories.
  • RuneQuest: Healing is accomplished by the Harmony rune, though similar effects can also come from the Life and Earth runes. Chalana Arroy is the local Healer God, venerated in most human pantheons, and doesn't take sides in battle, instead healing anyone and everyone. Her initiates follow her example, shunning violence in all its forms and aiding allies with strong healing magic.
  • In the backstory of Warhammer: the only thing priests of Shallya (Goddess of Healing, Compassion, and Birth) are good for in combat situations (well, except if servants of Nurgle, God of Pestilence, are involved). But oh boy they are good at it! In the game itself however, most models are removed after a single wound so you don't get the chance to heal - but certain magic lores (the Lore of Life for normal people and the Lore of the Vampires for the undead) can restore lost wounds to bigger/more important models and/or add models back to the unit, simulating the casualties being either brought back to fighting fitness or literally reanimated from the ground.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • Some units have the option of taking a medic, which grants the entire unit Feel No Pain (50/50 chance (roll 4 or higher on d6) of ignoring any unsaved wound). This generally makes the unit absurdly tough.
    • Kill Team: Several factions can bring along a medic of some description. They're most common in forces tied to the Imperial Guard.
    • Space Marine Apothecaries are medical professionals with possibly centuries of experience, although since most of that is on genetically enhanced Super Soldiers it's probably best to have your civilians treated by someone who's a bit more used to people with only one heart.
    • Medically trained Sisters Hospitaller are a common sight in the retinues of the Inquisition.
    • Orks have access to Doks, who are medics in the same way that Mekboyz are engineers: it's not an inaccurate description, but it implies a degree of sanity, reason and caution that is totally foreign to the Orkish mind, and doubly so for the ones with Science-Related Memetic Disorder and a slightly terrifying degree of curiosity regarding the exact side effects of the chemical compound that he brewed up before the battle from Mork knows what. One of the few things in the galaxy that the average Ork genuinely fears is what a Dok might do to him when he goes under the knife.

    Video Games 
  • In Conqueror's Blade, Longsword heroes can heal themselves and allies with the Mercy of Heaven skill. Healing units (Alchemists and Schutzdieners) are also available.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • AFK: Serena, who is a healer, and thus a valuable resource for everyone else.
  • ''Anime Healers vs. MMO Healers showcases the differences between a healer who doesn't feel they're pulling their weight and a healer who is understandably cranky at having to babysit a team of idiots who don't understand basic concepts like "let the tank draw the aggro" or "get out of the damaging zone".
  • Daisy Brown has taken care of Alan for most of his life; based on what Lithop says upon meeting her in the basement, she was meant to be this to the other monsters as well.
  • Deviant: While no Deviants possess the ability to heal wounds, Remedy tends to medic duty for unregistered Deviants and vigilantes — whoever pays, essentially. She possesses no powers, either, making this all the more impressive.
  • Dreamscape: Megalania runs a hospital with creepy-looking robots as the doctors. It's all legit, though.
  • Iridescence from Dusk's Dawn specializes in medical work, as evidenced by working in a hospital and her Cutie Mark.
  • Mortasheen has several monsters that fit the archetype, such as Ticklestitch, a creepy but ultimately benevolent surgeon creature, and Necroak, a frog creature that heals by feeding other creatures one of its many redundant organs.
  • Red vs. Blue: "Doc" is the medic assigned to both the Blue and Red teams (there were apparently budget shortages). He's about as competent at healing as the Reds and Blues are at being soldiers and comments that the job of a medic is more to make people comfortable while they die. He does manage to deliver Tucker's alien baby, and later on in the series, he gets better at the 'fixing people' part of his job.
  • Resident Evil Abridged: Rebecca is the youngest member of S.T.A.R.S. and their only field medic, so she's an invaluable asset to them. Which is also the reason she initially declines Chris' offer to protect her, since having a medic at all times in a Survival Horror game would be an unfair advantage.

    Western Animation 
  • Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Her powerful waterbending ability makes her both a functional healer and a strong fighter - indeed, she was a fighter before she knew she could heal. She was always the Team Mom, but she's also The Lancer.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Ma-Ti is one of the only members of the team to show any experience with taking care of the sick and injured (Gi also demonstrates these capabilities sometimes). It helps that his grandfather taught him enough about plants that he can put together medicines and poultices when necessary.
  • Although not his primary role, Tunnel Rat of G.I. Joe: Renegades patches up his fellow soldiers when injured.
  • Coorah from Kulipari: An Army of Frogs spends most of the early episodes hoping characters will hurt themselves so she can get a chance to practice medicine. Fortunately for her, a war soon breaks out, giving her ample opportunity to show her talent, showing ability that even impresses Kulipari Combat Medic Ponto.
  • Mixels has the aptly named Medix tribe, an entire tribe consisting of doctors, dentists, and surgeons of various types.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • We don't see her doing much healing as the character isn't in a series where there's a lot of fighting and injuries that need urgent fixing on the spot, but Fluttershy qualifies as she's sometimes shown doing some healing, albeit on animals.
    • One of the Pillars of Equestria, Mage Meadowbrook, was an Earth pony alchemist famed for her medicinal work and for treating rare diseases and plagues.
  • Peso Penguin in The Octonauts. He is not fond of scary situations, but if someone is hurt or in trouble he can be the bravest Octonaut of all.
  • Donatello has played this role to a limited extent in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012). It falls to him to synthesize antidotes and diagnose symptoms from poisons and injuries.
  • Pumyra from ThunderCats was the medic of the group when she appeared along with Lynx-O and Ben-Gali. Her talents came in handy in a few episodes, but she suffered Chickification and ended up being underdeveloped, appearing in the fewest episodes of the series.
  • Transformers:
    • Any incarnation of Ratchet. The Transformers: Generation 1 character was originally intended as female by Budiansky, but Hasbro didn't want any unsellable girl figures in their new line, so the idea was nixed. Ratchet's been the premiere medic and nursemaid for the Autobot cause for so long, he's one grumpy old 'bot. In the original series, he had an Odd Friendship with Wheeljack, fellow Smart Guy and Techno Wizard. They'd often collaborate on some project or another, but Wheeljack was so often blowing himself up with his personal experiments that Ratchet probably wanted to kill him as much as heal him.
    • While Ratchet was the medic, he wasn't the only one. Pretty early in the series, he forms a friendship with the human Sparkplug, who even got a little staircase to help repair damaged Autobots. Season two of the G1 cartoon also had Hoist, though unlike Ratchet and most Autobot medics, he transforms into a tow truck instead of an ambulance.note  His bio seems to indicate that his job is more within preventative care rather than repairs, though the cartoon still shows him doing repairs.
    • In the third season of G1, Ratchet was supplanted by First Aid, who was a strict pacifist but by no means a weak character. He was Defensor's arm, after all.
    • In Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Cybertron, this role goes to Red Alert.
    • Minerva fills this role in Transformers: Super-God Masterforce.
    • Pipo gets this role in Transformers Victory; his name is even Japanese for nee-naw. His identical counterpart in the American media, Fixit, takes this role late in the original comic and even has the unenviable task of physically separating Ratchet from Megatron after they were TeleFragged together.
    • The version for Transformers: Animated Ratchet keeps up the tradition.
    • Transformers: Prime also has a grumpy old version of Ratchet. The Decepticons got their own medic in the form of Knock Out.
    • The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye has the role of the Lost Light's medic rotate from Ratchet (who retires from the role to find the exiled Drift) to First Aid (who gets called back to Cybertron to help sell the new Defensor toy and doesn't get back until Getaway takes over the ship) to Velocity (an entirely new character invented for IDW 2005), then, when Velocity is thrown out with the rest of Team Rodimus by Getaway's mutiny, Getaway gives the job to Hoist aboard the ship and Ratchet rejoins the team to give them two medics. The Decepticon Justice Division eventually picks up Nickel, who is at best A Lighter Shade of Black than the five Torture Technicians she looks after. Meanwhile, this is in theory Spinister's area of expertise among the Scavengers, but while he gets to use his skills on, say, the Roboids in "Some of my Best Friends are Autobots" / "Animals", he's mostly prevented from doing much for his teammates because he's completely insane and Crankcase would rather run around with a chunk of his brain poking out of his head than trust Spinister to fix it.
  • The Venture Brothers: While he'd rather be an adventurer or a super-scientist, Billy Quizboy's true calling is medicine. He's a particularly talented surgeon and his skills have been sought after by heroes and villains alike.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: Ellie is the EMT of the Treeborhood. We don't see her do it much, but she seems to be especially good with children.

    Real Life 
  • Dominique-Jean Larrey, the Crowning Medic of Awesome. He revolutionized medicine in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars, invented the field ambulance (thus, by modern reckoning, beginning the entire field of Emergency Medicine), and greatly increased sanitation and medevac in the French Medical Corps.
  • Florence Nightingale, nicknamed "The Lady with the Lamp," ran hospitals during the The Crimean War.
    • Similarly, Scottish-Jamaican Mary Seacole also nursed soldiers during the Crimean War - right on the battlefield. She also paid her own way to the Crimea.
  • Dasha Sevastopolskaya note , Florence Nightingale's Russian counterpart during The Crimean War.
  • Clara Barton during The American Civil War (for the North, at least)
  • Pretty much any Army combat medic or Navy hospital corpsman (note that the Marines don't field their own medics, they borrow HMs from the Navy). The Navy Hospital Corps is particularly notable for being the most decorated corps in the Navy, having earned 22 Medals of Honor, 174 Navy Crosses, and thousands of lesser awards, all despite being non-combatant.
  • Fact: The US Army Medical Command is the branch of the Army with the highest amount of Medal of Honor recipients.
    • America has a lot to be proud of its medics. From World War II on, it has had very brave and efficient Medevac procedure, to the point where it was even specifically noted by the Japanese.
      • US Army field medicine is so good in present day that a wounded soldier who manages to be stabilized in the field and arrive at a hospital has a 96% survival rate. Pretty much, if a wounded soldier CAN be saved, he WILL be saved.
      • Not that that stopped the Japanese from shooting at medics.
      • Which is why in WW2, PTO medics dyed their bandages green and tried to make their red cross badges less conspicuous and in the ETO, medics did the opposite as the Europeans generally honored the cross.
    • Similarly, the United States Air Force has awarded the Air Force Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor in the Air Force) to twenty-two enlisted Airmen. Half of them were Pararescuemen, personnel who are trained to jump out of airplanes and rescue personnel behind enemy lines.
    • Likewise only three people have ever been awarded a Bar (a second award) to the Victoria Cross. Two of them were RAMC surgeons.
  • Nikolai Pirogov.
  • Professor Sid Watkins OBE, the fastest medic in the world.
  • Elsie Inglis and her friends were British women who volunteered for medical duty in WWI. A Russian observer said: "No wonder England is a great country if all the women are like that!"
  • Bandsmen were often detailed for medevac duty in eighteenth-century warfare. If there was no one assigned to this to many soldiers would weaken the line escorting comrades to the rear, and using bandsmen kept them from losing the firepower of musketeers leaving the line.
  • Dr. Đặng Thùy Trâm, dubbed "the Vietnamese Anne Frank" after her war diaries were published. The chief physician at a field hospital in Central Vietnam during the Vietnam War, fresh out of medical school, she was shot and killed note  shortly after her hospital was attacked. She was trying to defend her wounded patients, those who were unable to flee immediately after the first attack and had been waiting for her colleagues to return with aid and supplies.


 
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Meet the Medic

Dr. Ludwig, better known as "the Medic", is a Teutonic man of medicine from Stuttgart, Germany. While he may have a tenuous adherence to medical ethics, he is nonetheless the primary healing class of the team. Although the Medic's Syringe Gun and Bonesaw aren't the most excellent weapons for direct combat, he can typically still be found near the front lines, healing or providing UberCharge to teammates with his Medi Gun while trying to stay out of enemy fire.

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