Fria Ligans forum

Under the healing scarab it reads, "A scarab restores 2 HPs. Three scarabs can get a broken PC back on her feet and five scarabs can heal a critical injury."

This confused me because my understanding is that if you're broken, you're on your feet once you regain one HP. If the healing scarab grants 2 HP, why does it mention that three scarabs can get a broken PC back on her feet?

I assume the five scarabs to heal a critical injury is just how many it takes to do so.

Can you use a healing scarab to regain HP if you aren't broken or is it considered first aid and once you're not broken, further first aid is ineffective? 

I would assume it works like this:

1. You can heal 2 HP per scarab by just applying the scarab to wounds - this healing rate applies if you're not broken.
2. If you're broken, it requires 3 scarabs to regain 1 HP, i.e. become "unbroken".
3. Critical injury as you said, it requires 5 of those to just do it - like 3 above to just make you "unbroken".

The problems are:

1) The scarab heals 2 HP but you need 3 to remove being broken? It takes 1 HP to remove the broken condition.

2) I have seen nothing that allows healing "unbroken" characters, so a scarab shouldn't give you 2 HP. First aid on characters who aren't broken is useless, RAW.  

Sorry for the unclarity here. Jegergryte's theory is correct. Healing scarabs can be used to heal unbroken characters, and then heal 2 HP per scarab. To get a broken character back on his feet, and thus restore 1 HP, requires three scarabs. And healing a critical injury requires five.

No need to apologize! I haven't read each and every word but I can tell it's an extremely well-written book. I'm very comfortable with tweaking things as needed and don't sour on a game that has an unclear thing or two. I just prefer to understand as much as possible, when possible, so as not to run things off the rails.   

I appreciate the answer and while I have you, is the healing scarab the only way to heal an unbroken character or can m-doses and the like do the same? My understanding is that a character cannot benefit from medical attention to regain HP unless broken or, as you've just clarified, when using a healing scarab. 

You are right, the healing scarabs are an exception.

Excellent! That makes them extremely awesome(r)!