Combat Medic

The doctor is in.

"Death or healing, I care not which you seek."

—Space Marine Apothecary, Warhammer 40,000

Being the designated healer is a necessary job, but it isn't a glamorous one. While everyone else is having all the fun mixing it up with the bad guys, the medic is stuck in the back watching life bars go up and down, and throwing out the occasional Status Buff. They don't want to be up front, because they're squishy as hell and everyone's gunning for them. This is usually not a problem when one player's controlling an entire party, but this starts to break down in cases where one guy's playing the support. While some are perfectly fine with this (being the medic means you'll get invited to just about any party), for others the support classes just aren't that exciting.

Recently, game designers have begun to see this. Their solution? Give The Medic some teeth, and you've got yourself a Combat Medic. A subtrope of Support Party Member.

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 Shoot the Medic First will find that he won't go down as easy as they expected when they can create impenetrable force fields. Last but not least, certain tactics can make their harmless powers lethal, like casting revive on enemies when Revive Kills Zombie.

The militant medic isn't unique to video games, either; healers often find it necessary to pick up some combat ability and kick a few asses every now and then if they don't want to be stuck in the background. After all, in an action series the Hippocratic Oath is a rather overrated thing, and the Geneva Convention is simply quaint and obsolete.

The Combat Medic may also overlap with a Bare-Fisted Monk, or a monk wielding a Power Fist. Some games do in fact give the monk limited healing capabilities, or a few self-heals. This is linked to Shaolin Monks knowing Martial arts and the term "monk" often being synonymous with a religious figure. And since religious figures almost always are Healers, this explains why it is often used.

Compare the Magic Knight, though defense-oriented Magic Knights tend to be focused on fighting first and healing second. Contrast The Red Mage, a mage who knows healing and attack magic. The laws of balance must also state that a pure healer would have to outclass them in healing and that a Combat Medic Paladin or a monk that can heal has to sacrifice some common healing traits to be able to take a few hits. But this only really applies when you have a group-oriented game, especially an MMORPG because why would you roll a squishy-healer when you can roll a Combat Medic that can take a few hits and heal just as good either way? In a solo game, it's not uncommon for a Game Breaker to be just like that.

This trope is generally not encouraged in Real Life; if a medic in an actual military force takes up a weapon during battle, they can lose their "non-combatant" protections under the Geneva Convention, and become a valid target. (Like most people, however, medics are still entitled to a right of self-defense, if the enemy actually tries to Shoot the Medic First.)

May overlap Deadly Doctor, who inflicts harm with their medical expertise.

Examples of Combat Medic include:

Anime and Manga

  • Tsunade from Naruto fits to a T, as a character adept at both healing and kicking ass(Theoretically).
    • Not only her, but any named characer who is a medic-nin: Tsunade's apprentices Sakura (who along with Tsunade has Super Strength thanks to her medical training) and Shizune, Yashamaru, Chiyo, Kabuto, Ino...
  • Yaone from Saiyuki.
  • Shamal of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's (and later of StrikerS) is a straight medic, but she joins in the battle when needed. Such as the time when she she shoved her arm through Nanoha to save the Wolkenritter. And the Pensieve Flashback of the Ancient Belkan era in the second Sound Stage of A's which showed her killing a knight who was calling reinforcements. And the time when she captured Otto, the Numbers Cyborg in charge of field operations.
    • Before Shamal, there is Yuuno. In addition to his healing ability, he has Stone Wall defensive ability makes him apparently impossible to hurt. He's also good with binding spells, and magical chains that can cut things apart when pulled hard enough. Finally, he has a "forced teleportation" spell which lets him relocate enemies to more convenient locations—such as, in space, directly in front a battleship's charging main cannon. When the series' writers actually let Yuuno participate in a battle, he's always a major player.
  • Captain Unohana Retsu from Bleach is head of the 4th squad, which is entirely medics. She also kicks enough ass to scare anyone (aside from their captain) from the 11th squad, which is entirely physical combat specialists. At least that's what everyone says.
    • Orihime Inoue starts as The Medic with some Barrier Warrior abilities, but by the X-Cution arc she has fully evolved into this.
  • Josuke Higashikata, from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4. His Stand, Crazy Diamond, is almost on par with Jotaro's Star Platinum when it comes to melee combat. He's also one of the rare instances where the healing power itself doubles as an offensive measure. For example: By restoring a missile fired against him and turning it on the enemy.
    • Early in the manga, his mother has unwittingly consumed Silver Chain, an intrusive liquid Stand that can control people's bodies. How does he deal with it? He punches through her back, pushes Silver Chain out through the hole in her gut, and smashes a bottle in front of her, then restores the bottle around Silver Chain and restores his mother's body and clothes as he pulls out his arm. The whole thing is over before she knows anything happened, and she doesn't even feel pain - at most, she has a vague suspicion that something happened.
  • One Piece
    • At first glance, it's easy to mistake Tony Tony Chopper for the Team Pet (even in-universe). However, he's a highly proficient doctor who can be quite the Badass Adorable when pushed. In the fight with the zombie Oars Chopper consistently used his medical knowledge to tip the fight in the Straw Hats' favor.
    • Also Trafalgar Law, whose Devil Fruit ,appropiately named Ope Ope no Mi (from "operation"), allows him to cut people up and reassemble them in any way he likes. He's the doctor and captain of the Heart Pirates and his epithet is "The Surgeon of Death".
  • Monster's Dr. Tenma is usually a nice guy. But don't fuck with him, or he'll stab you in the carotid artery.
  • Yu Yu Hakusho's Kurama is a lethal fighter with a genius-level intellect - and a knowledge of both the killing and healing abilities of plant life.
  • Soul Eater
    • Kim Diehl is both a tanuki witch with healing abilities and very handy with her flamethrower/lantern Weapon, Jackie (in fact, she was introduced as a meister before the reveal she was a witch). Though we've seen slightly more of the latter talent, healing herself from a nasty stab wound is an indication of how good a Medic she is.
    • Stein satisfies his endless curiosity by being a doctor (of a kind) and a crazy awesome meister who has a thing for bladed weapons. Apparently this is because both occupations give him the opportunity to cut things up.
  • Faust VIII from Shaman King.

Comic Books

  • Mender from Elf Quest has Healing Hands but is also prone to battle-fury, such that he might tear into a group of enemies only to heal them once the battle is over. He actually gets a kick out of his contradicting natures.
  • Dr Charles McNider, aka Dr Mid-Nite, in DC Comics, and his sucessors Dr Beth Chapel, aka Dr Midnight, and Dr Pieter Cross, aka Dr Mid-Nite II.
  • Soranik Natu of the Green Lantern Corps. Her ring came to her in the middle of a difficult operation, and she only accepted so she could use it to save her patient (she comes from the same planet as Sinestro, so Lanterns don't exactly have a great reputation there).
  • Bill Mauldin's classic WWII comic Up Front depicted medics at the front alongside the dog soldiers. In one panel a disheveled medic is told — by a rear-echelon clerk — he didn't earn combat pay because he wasn't "in combat."

Fan Works

  • In the TMNT Fanfic The Long Walk, after her Heel Face Turn it turns out the OC Breech Loader turns out to be something of a medic, knowing all about healing injuries sustained in street battles, and also has a wide knowledge of dealing with drug-related problems. It also turns out that she has absolutely no qualms about hurting people, and can even defeat Raphael in one-on-one combat.

LARPs

  • Earth Templars in the NERO LARP qualify as this.

Literature

  • The X Wing Series has Ton Phanan. He was a licensed doctor before being badly hurt and getting cybernetics. After that he left his profession and became a pilot. In Wraith Squadron because of his medical training he became the squadron's medic. Even outside of the cockpit he wasn't too squishy, being a little of a Dr. Jerk and a Deadly Doctor who was able to cut an attacker's throat with a laser scalpel, as he explains in the page quote.

Sarkin: Why did you give [medicine] up?
Phanan: Because I didn't care for patching up people I don't care about and do enjoy killing people I hate.

  • In The Black Magician series of novels, Healing magic can be used to stop a man's heart. All members of the Magician's Guild have at least some training in Healing magic and know how to block this, but when you are fighting magicians from an enemy nation which never had a Healing tradition...
  • Rebecca Chambers from Resident Evil is portrayed in the novels as not only the STARS team medic, but a scientist as well. She's accurately shown to be weak in combat, but that doesn't stop her from saving the world through smarts and cunning or everybody loving her.
  • John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes series, as well as fulfilling his namesake trope, can be seen as a combat medic. While Watson is a doctor and sometimes patches Holmes up after injuries on a case, he more often acts as physical backup for Holmes in dangerous situations. He is a competent fighter and owns a gun (Holmes does not).
    • Watson survived service with the British Army in Afghanistan. 'Nuff said.
  • Clarissa MacDougall of the Lensmen universe starts as a nurse in the Galactic Patrol. By the third book of the Kim Kinnison story arc she's promoted into the ranks of the Lensmen themselves, justified in-universe because she's the co-penultimate of the Arisian breeding program and more than half-Lensman to start with and also the only one qualified to work with the Matriarchs of Lyrane II. She more than justifies her promotion when she uncovers the return of the Overlords.
    • In the grand finale, she goes back to Lyrane and turns things up several notches. And then several more. By the time it's all over, there's a trail of wreckage and enemy corpses behind her; and it's quite clear that while the other Second-Stage Lensmen all have specialist skills she lacks, she has by far the greatest reserves of sheer mental force. To top it all off, she's one of the tactical controllers at the Battles of Arisia and Ploor, alongside the Galactic Coordinator and the Patrol's two senior Admirals (among others).
  • In addition to designated squad medics assigned to the Vorkosigan Saga's Dendarii Free Mercenaries, Elli Quinn has sufficient medical training to do a field prep for cryo-freeze of battlefield casualties. (Probably part of her overall bodyguard training.)
  • Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia.
  • Dr. Maturin in the Aubrey-Maturin series, in addition to being a learned physician, is also an expert swordsman and marksman.
  • Medicine cats in Warrior Cats are not usually trained for fights. But few, who completed the warriors training before becoming medics, are always willing and more than capable to join battles.
  • Butters from The Dresden Files is turning into one.
  • Croaker from The Black Company. He's also the titular mercenary company's historian and eventually its commander.
  • Since all unicorns in The Firebringer Trilogy are trained as warriors, healers like Teki also turn out this way.
  • In Corner of a Round Planet (the sequel to Pocket in the Sea,) Dog Company's medic, Lillenthal, is definitely this though he does focus on his job as the medic first and foremost.

Live-Action TV

  • Star Trek doctors have generally been fast with the Instant Sedation in a pinch, but Dr. Beverly Crusher takes it far past that. She has several times proved herself competent with a phaser - or her fists - and even once commanded the ship in combat. Where she blew up a Borg ship by triggering a solar flare. Also she is the only doctor seen so far who truly enjoys command, and she regularly commands the night shift "just to keep in practice."
    • Dr. Julian Bashir of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is this at times. He once killed a Jem'Hadar by stabbing him in the neck, not to mention the fact that he'll defend himself with a phaser when necessary. He's also genetically augmented with superhuman reflexes and genius intellect which he normally has to hide but gets to put to use working for Starfleet Black Ops.
    • The Doctor from Voyager is upgraded in the later seasons to also be an emergency command hologram and proves to be very dangerous when turned against the crew. He's also effectively immortal.
  • Firefly's Simon Tam isn't much of a frontline fighter, but his exceptional medical skills allow him to disable opponents using nonlethal attacks, and in one case prevented an unruly Jayne from taking over the ship.
  • Like the character in the source material, Dr. John Watson of Sherlock is a former military doctor, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He comes across as the kind, patient, and caring opposite of Sherlock Holmes, and then, at the end of the first episode, he shoots a guy through the heart to save Sherlock. From the next building.

John: *while holding Sherlock in a headlock* I was a solider! I killed people!
Sherlock: You were a doctor!
John: I had bad days!

  • Doctor Who's Rory Williams is a nurse by profession. He's also, when he opens that little door in his mind, the Last Roman Centurion, and has 2,000 years of memories and skills to draw on. Cybermen are scared of him. With reason.
    • The same episode as Rory-v-Cybermen gives us Strax, a Sontaran who had this role forced on him as "penance" for something his "clone-batch" did. He had to leave the army and care for the sick and weak of other species, which is considered a Fate Worse Than Death for a Sontaran. He makes the best of it, but his bedside manner is, well...

Boy: Will I be OK?
Strax: [cheerfully] Of course you will my boy, you'll be up and around in no time. And perhaps one day, you and I shall meet on the field of battle, and I will destroy you for the glory of the Sontaran Empire!
Boy: Thank you, nurse.

  • Owen Harper from Torchwood was not averse to wielding a gun, and then there was that time he kicked the ass of Death.
  • In Kamen Rider OOO, Akira Date/Kamen Rider Birth was part of a group of traveling doctors before he became a Rider. He gets to use his medical skills in episode 24, and one of his dreams is to set up a medical school.

New Media

  • Celes from Descendant of a Demon Lord is the leader of a warband. She is also a combat medic. As of this writing, she is probably both the best fighter and the best healer in her warband. In fact, most of the time she spends with the rank-and-file is either fighting by their side or treating their injuries. Otherwise she is doing other stuff like forging alliances or conducting experiments.

Tabletop Games

  • The prototypes for the combat medic come in the form of the Paladin and Cleric classes from Dungeons & Dragons which combined the hats of healing and combat to a degree. Paladins were more focused on combat as a whole; their healing served as more of a secondary bonus. Clerics, on the other hand, could swing weapons just fine and could theoretically buff themselves into powerhouses, but were in practice forced to spend most of their spell slots and actions casting Cure spells. When the multiclassing rules were added, the fighter/cleric combination became a popular "just right" take on this trope.
    • 3rd Edition attempted to make the Cleric a more attractive class to play by beefing up his magical ability (from maximum 7th-level spells to maximum 9th-level) and making it able to actually prepare its awesome combat buffs by giving it the ability to turn any spell into a healing spell on the fly—though with certain rules like Divine Metamagic, the newfound freedom to cast spells that didn't start with "Cure" could get elevated to Game Breaker status.
    • 4th Edition completed the transition of the Cleric from "heal-bot" to "Combat Medic" by keying most of his buffs and healing skills to either to attacks or by making them minor actions which you can use 1 per turn in addition to attacking, so they could blast enemies and assist allies at the same time.
  • Warhammer 40,000
    • Space Marines has the Apothecaries, who act as any other Space Marine except with the ability to keep other Space Marines in the fight. Unless the Space Marine is mortally wounded. Then they just kill them by ripping out the organ that contains the Chapter's genetic material.
    • All other Imperial forces (as well as civilians) have medical support from the Sororitas of Orders Hospitaller. While they are not given heavy weapons and Powered Armor like in the Orders Militant, they have their own armor, Hospitaller Carapace - as good as the Imperial armor for SWAT and boarders and specifically made to resist infection and poison gases, with built-in rebreather.
    • Of course, the Hospitaller sisters aren't numerous enough to rely on them for first aid, and while they may work well in the trenches, don't necessarily make good riders or infiltrators, thus depending on the unit and situation are often limited to the support areas. Imperial Guard has its own medics for the first response purpose, and a regiment may have a whole Medical company responsible for field treatment and evacuation (to the better supplied hospitals where the Hospitallers work).
    • Only War has those too - the Guardsman Specialities include Medic and Advanced Specialities include Field Chirurgeon. As Guardsmen, they share the common Regimental Kit - armor, weapons and all - and most of the training.
    • Necron Tomb Spyders allow downed Necrons to perform their "We'll Be Back!" rolls even if they're out of range of a member of a similar unit. They are also devastating in close combat and have the ability to be equipped with a nasty ranged weapon.
  • 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 Berserkers 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.)
  • Shadowrun's DocWagon High Threat Response Teams are Combat Medics For Hire.

Video Games

First-Person Shooter

  • Being a Combat Medic is common in PlanetSide. Almost all players are certified in the basic medical equipment so they can heal themselves and their teammates in combat. Further certifications allow them to revive their downed teammates.
  • The Medic class from Team Fortress 2 unfortunately averts this trope. Against good players, even the best Combat Medic will be killed in short order. While the Medic has average health (and even slow health regeneration) and is the second fastest class in the game, the Medic is the weakest in terms of combat ability. The projectiles from all your ranged weapons have travel time and drop significantly, making hitting a moving target outside of point-blank range very difficult. Shoot the Medic First is in full effect, meaning that you won't last long in a fight and need to rely on your team to survive. But perhaps most damning of all: the Medic's healing function is very important and desired—fighting at any time other than self defense (or finishing off an enemy) is an extremely inefficient use of the class and WILL frustrate your team.
    • The above applies to the conventional TF2 game modes. When the Medic finds his way into a mod like Zombie Fortress, many of the detriments that limited this class can become quite helpful if used properly. Overheal stays much longer on Survivors than it did in normal modes, and the speed of the Medic can help him stay ahead of two of the three zombies classes. Throw in the melee restriction that all zombies have, and a Medic can become a lethal adversary who seems impossible to chase down and kill.
    • Far more extreme in Team Fortress Classic, where the Medic essentially obsoleted the Scout as a speed class and therefore was pretty much a front-line class, with healing and infection abilities for variety when you were tired of capping and kicking ass.
    • Chain Übers,[1] however, play this trope straight. If you can't split the two invulnerable medics or run away from them - expect a lot of trouble.
  • Medics in HalfLife 2 are just regular troops that happen to hand out medkits. They aren't any squishier than their compatriots, and are just as capable of fighting.
    • Justified by the fact that the Combine will gladly gun them down, since they're alien occupiers and there are no Geneva Conventions left to follow.
  • The Medic NPC from HalfLife: Opposing Force has a Desert Eagle and will often engage alien and Black Ops units. In a modification where some maps have a heavy use of the Medic (Sven Co-Op), they'll often open fire first.
  • In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the medic class is one of the best fighting classes due to their higher starting health, auto-regen, ability to heal themselves, and adrenalin needles (at higher levels). A medic that just fights and never heals other players is often called a "rambo medic." Experienced players are fond of playing rambo medics because they require aiming skill. Oh, and they can also revive players to full health if they run out of hitpoints but aren't damaged enough to completely die, meaning that if 2-3 of these rambo medics decide to work together, you better have a panzerfaust ready or get out of their way.
  • In Battlefield 2, one of the unlockable weapons for the medic is the G36E, an assault rifle so accurate and well-rounded that some will argue it borders on Game Breaker status.
    • Hell, the entire series has this. Medics that are as well-equipped as the Assault class, plus the Medikit. In 1942, the SMG in the right hands can be dangerous entirely obsoletes Assault as a front-line class.
    • And in 2142, they simply dispensed with a separate medic class and rolled it into the assault class.
    • And in Bad Company 2 & Play4Free, 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 LM Gs in that game lack the mobility and raw strength of assault rifles, but make up for it with great range and volume of fire.
      • In gameplay terms, the light machine gun and medical capabilities make the medic the most team-oriented player. Conversely... a group of four medics is commonly used to troll people with a nigh invincible cluster of machine guns that simply revive each other in turn.
      • Except that in real life a soldier carrying a medic's stretcher, a fire support weapon, all the chain-linked large calibre ammo for the weapon and the medical satchel would pretty much be a sort of stationary outpost instead of a mobile unit.
    • Battlefield 3 returns to the 2142 style assault/medic class. Assault players can choose between an weapon slung under their rifle (either a single-shot grenade launcher or a pump-action shotgun) or a med kit, meaning that they can choose between being an all-out attacker with enormous firepower or a healer who's more than capable of shooting back—and thanks to the Defibrillator, as either one he'll still be able to revive downed teammates to full Health.
  • The Medic class in Resistance 2's Co-op multiplayer mode comes equipped with a gun called the Phoenix. While not as powerful as standard (or Chimeran) ordnance, it allows the user to drain an enemy's life force and convert it to cartridges that can heal your fellow team members. The medic is the only class that can survive on its own while still fighting indefinitely because his gun does not use ammo, and when it damages enemies, it heals him in the process. (The spec-ops can give himself ammo, but can't heal himself if hurt, and the soldier is utterly screwed if he runs out of ammo or can't get healed.)
  • In Return to Castle Wolfenstein, medics can only be armed with the standard submachine gun. However, combine this with the fact that medics can easily keep themselves healed,a medic can become a literal One-Man Army as long as he has a steady supply of ammo. Enemy Territory takes this even further by giving high level medics the ability to inject themselves with a stimulant that temporarily, but vastly, increases their speed and reduces the damage they take. They also have the ability to passively regenerate their own health and have the highest base health out of all of the classes. There is a reason why these medics are called Rambo Medics.
  • Almost universal in MAG, since all it takes to be a medic is the Medi-Kit item and three points in the Medic skill tree (one point in the Resuscitation skill branch), all of which are available at level 3. While the Medi-Kit takes up almost a third of a loadout (10 points out of up to 34 in a loadout), that's still enough for most class configurations to fit their essential parts (primary weapon, role-specific gear and armor).
  • Combat Medics are new enemies introduced in the General Knoxx DLC for Borderlands. They can attack the players with an assault rifle and heal other enemies with a healing turret. Naturally, these guys are your first targets.
  • In the Syndicate reboot one of the co-op Breaches is the ability to heal allies.
  • Due to the emphasis on customisation in Brink, there's nothing stopping a medic from being a Mighty Glacier who wades into combat with a minigun and grenade launcher.

Hack and Slash

  • The Paladin from 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.
  • Bloodline Champions has a Healer archetype whose bloodlines are all far from helpless, as well as other bloodlines within other archetypes that are capable of healing their allies to a lesser degree.

MMORPGs

  • 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.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Jedi Sage, Sith Sorcerer, Scoundrel, Operative, Mercenary, and Commando advanced classes can function as healing classes. Consulars and Inquisitors are the only classes to have double-bladed lightsabers though that path requires them to neglect their healing abilities.
    • Each class has a companion character that fits this role as well.
  • In City of Villains, 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 World of Warcraft can be Combat Medics given the right talent allocation. Of particular note, Priests specializing in the Shadow talent tree are capable of dealing out copious amounts of damage, a fraction of which heals the rest of the party (though this tactic prevents the priest from casting normal healing spells).
    • Priests have a spell called 'Holy Nova' which simultaneously heals allies and damages all enemies within its radius, as well as 'Penance' that can either heal one ally or damage one enemy. Holy Paladins' Holy Shock spell can also either heal an ally or damage an enemy.
    • However, more challenging content needs regular healers in addition to the shadow priests minor healing and mana restoration. And every one of the offensive builds sacrifices a lot of healing ability. Feral Druids cannot cast spells at all in their preferred form and their spells are weak in caster form. Retribution Paladins and Enhancement Shamans will quickly run out of mana if they attempt to cast healing spells. Elemental Shamans, Shadow Priests and Balance Druids have somewhat weaker heals than dedicated healers but have the mana to last a while. "Smite Priests" are the most true Combat Medic, simultaneously having the ability to hurt enemies with very close to the same power as true attackers as well as heal at very near true healer levels.
    • Some fights require each member of the party to kill some literal inner demon that only they can see. Since healers back in the day had virtually no damage capabilities, the stats for + heal and + spell damage eventually got merged into a single + spell power.
      • Since healers' attacking abilities are either Holy or Nature spells, the Inner Demons in that fight were made particularly vulnerable to Holy and Nature spell damage.
      • 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.
    • Blizzard seems to be emphasizing this trope with the new Cataclysm talents:
      • Discipline priests can now heal nearby allies (or themselves for halved effect) using Smite and Holy Fire. Doing this grants them a stackable buff that can be consumed to both regain mana and temporarily increase their healing power. Holy priests, oddly, seem to have no talents that makes damage dealing abilities more beneficial to their healing(though they do have a couple that help them deal damage on their own).
      • Shamans can boost their next healing spell by hitting enemies with elemental Shocks, and restore their mana by shooting enemies with lightning bolts.
      • Paladin healers can also increase their spell casting speed and mana regeneration, as well as heal themselves by striking an enemy with their Judgment spell. In addition, since Holy Shock can be used for both healing or damage dealing, some Paladins will use it against opponents just to continue building Holy Power(which can be used for a couple different healing spells in a Limit Break fashion) during periods when there's no one to heal.
      • Druid healers can talent their Wrath spell to cost no mana, and have a chance to make the next Starfire cast instantly. This is helpful because offensive Druid spells can cause the next spell with a cast time they use to have no mana cost. Only one healing spell can do this, it needs a specific talent to do it, and the chance of it doing so are fairly low.
    • Hunters act akin to this with regards to their pets—not only was Mend Pet made more powerful (percentage-based healing instead of a set amount and slightly faster heals), but it does not cost Focus (its pre-Patch 4.0.1 version required Mana), so a Hunter player can cast it whenever it wouldn't interfere with his or her shot timing and worry less about keeping the pet alive.
    • Monks will probably be the main example of this come Mists of Pandaria. Apparently, their healing abilities are all based on how much damage is done to the enemy. The more they hit, the more they heal.
  • Warhammer Online: 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 Player Versus Environment 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...
  • 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 since unlike monks their primary attribute does not effect their healing significantly, combined with AI issues that make otherwise stronger builds less viable when used by a hero, most ritualist healers are necromancer/ritualist).
  • Shamans and Oracles in Atlantica Online 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.
  • The healer class of Air Rivals also functions as a Stone Wall, so it's not uncommon to see some of them striking into enemy lines like everyone else. Furthermore, it is widely considered to be the best overall fighter in one-on-one dueling, due to a combination of self-healing, self-buffing, and an exclusive reverse-flying ability that grants unparalleled maneuverability in close quarters.
  • 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.
    • Priests themselves can be pretty easily built, given the proper resources and gear, to be very capable melee fighters- and also not necessarily at the cost of losing all of their supporting ability, due to RO's allowing you to stat your character pretty much however you want. Less SP isn't an issue either, since the strength they've invested in allows them to carry more items, and therefore more mana pots/equipment. A well built one can easily function as both a fighter/tanker and primary support for midtier parties, though, granted, in higher tier dungeons, even with Assumptio in play if you're a High Priest, their heal amounts probably won't cut it for being primary healer.
  • "Combat Medic" is a Federation and Terran Empire NPC/enemy in Star Trek Online. Players may also spec their characters or Bridge officers into filling this role if they wish.
  • Korean MMORPG Priston Tale 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 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. Some wizards will dual-build Life/Ice in order to become effective tanks.
  • Rift lets mages specialize in "chloromancy" alongside their other schools of magic. While they gain a couple direct heals, the vast majority of their healing comes from skills that allow them and their party to convert damage output into healing. Bards are similar, converting their combo points into healing, and all the cleric souls feature melee damage, offensive magic, and healing in various combinations.
    • In regards to the Cleric, it should probably be mentioned that their tanking soul (Justicar) features a nigh-mandatory talent that causes five of your allies to be healed for 25% of the damage your Justicar attacks deal (and 10% of the damage from non-Justicar attacks). Put on Mien of Honor (50% bonus to said healing), grab a staff, and start spamming your Justicar Ao E attack; you're LITERALLY healing your allies by BEATING PEOPLE WITH A STICK.
  • In Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine, you can chose both healing skills and combat skills in tandem, and it is recommended you do this or other more helpful skills, because the skill system means you can take any "class" you want as long as the character has enough skill memory to learn it. So you have a healer/bard combo to heal and buff, or you can have a healer/gunner. You could also have a healer/bard/gunner/swordsman/defensive/dark magic/craftsman, but don't expect them to be great at any one job.
    • You can also use items to heal allies during combat without taking skill in healing magic, making this another viable option for combat medic, but hope you have money to pay for the items.
  • In Dynasty Warriors Online, there are 3 skills, only 2 in the English version, that allow you to heal your party of allies, and the combat part is pretty much a given. One just heals party members, the other heals them as well as giving a buff, but weakens you in the process. The latter can have a stat build specifically for making full use of it to heal your party, making it one of the only times there is a specific "support roll" in the entire hack and slash game. The Japanese only skill will allow you to even distribute the effects of an item between your friends, so you can prepare to find healing items allowing you heal your party in the process.

Platformers

  • Sonic Unleashed has a annoying wizard-type Dark Gaia monster which can heal other monsters while smacking you around.
  • Yoko Belnades from Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow heals a tiny amount of HP with each physical attack she does.

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

  • All League of Legends support champions have some degree of offensive capability, but post his rework Taric is designed for this. His mana regenerates when he deals damage and the cooldown on his heal decreases when he strikes an opponent, so fighting improves his healing and sustainability. His heal spell also heals both its target and himself, allowing him to recover from damage without neglecting his support duties. His Shatter ability used to give bonus armor to himself and an aura that increased the armor of allies, temporarily losing the aura when he activated the spell to damage enemies and reduce their armor. Now he retains the aura and loses the personal armor bonus, letting him use it without weakening the rest of his team.
    • Kayle also qualifies, being able to unload damage onto a target while healing and hasting allies, and making them temporarily invulnerable.

Real-Time Strategy

  • In Warcraft 3, the Night Elf Druid of the Claw. They are the faction's primary source of healing with their Rejuvenation 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 balance complaints.
  • Averted in Company of Heroes. The medics will automatically run out there and bring back any survivors, all while being unarmed. In return, enemy soldiers will not open fire on any medic, unless the player explicitly tells them to do so.
  • Medics in World in Conflict are part of the all-purpose Infantry Squad
  • In the expansion pack for Act of War, the first tier of 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.
    • Cybran T1 tanks (the Mantis) have repair capabilities as well.
  • In Bungie's Myth series, the Journeymen units can heal your other units (with a heaping helping of Revive Kills Zombie) and have a shovel for self-defense. However, in Myth 2, once they have finally fully paid their penance, they take off the nine gold plates they wore (each weighing as much as a grown man) threw away their shovels, and started Dual-Wielding their katana-like swords again. And while they couldn't hold as many healing roots as they used to, they could still heal your other units.
  • Machines: Medic Commanders, Medic Commandants, Surgeon Warlords and Assassin Surgeon Warlords all have healing devices and plasma cannons.

Role-Playing Games

  • 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 Tales series has a number of interesting takes on this concept:
    • Estelle in Tales of Vesperia 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.
      • Similarly Karol is a Mighty Glacier and Stone Wall that heals as well as a White Mage.
      • From the same series, Raven is built for combat, having only a single move that heals for small amount. However, his sheer healing speed and efficiency compared to other characters with higher healing power, like Estelle, makes him the combat medic of choice for many players.
    • Tear in Tales of the Abyss 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 archer.
    • Regal in Tales of Symphonia 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.
      • In the sequal Marta does this even having a Mystic Arte that both whacks the enemies for heavy damage and heals everyone in the party!
      • Regal is something of an Expy of Tales of Eternia'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.
        • Kratos and Zelos can also learn three different healing spells regardles of their ability trees.
    • Rutee in Tales of Destiny 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 Combat Medic to which all other Tales Combat Medics aspire.
    • Ange of Tales of Innocence may look and act like your typical White Magician Girl, but note that she 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 duking it out with her pistols.
    • Tales of Graces follows the example from Tales of the Abyss in how it handles it's healers though both are more thorough in their spell selections. Sophie's healing spells focus on single targets for more power. Her Weapon of Choice? A pair of large gloves. Cheria's healing focuses on multiple targets for less power. Offensively she throws away the staff to focus entirely on throwing knives and uses powerful offensive magic including Indignation.
    • Tales of Xillia has three. Jude follows the same example as Farah and Regal while Leia and Elise once again follow the model used in Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Graces. Leia heals single targets for greater power and can raise the party's stats. Her traditional healer's staff is actually a quarterstaff which she uses to charge into the frontlines alongside Jude, Milla, and Alvin. Elise heals multiple targets for slightly less power and can cure Standard Status Effects. When she's not healing she serves as the party's primary dark-elemental nuker. Both can revive KO'd party members, and through the link-system can combine both their healing spells and offensive skills for far greater power than either is capable of alone.
  • Ninten, Ness, and Lucas, all of whom are also The Hero. 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
  • Princess Toadstool averts this up until you get the Frying Pan, where she starts doing as much damage as Mario with a Lazy Shell.
  • In Etrian Odyssey, 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: The Silver Star is the party's designated healer, being a cleric-in-training and all, but can deal pretty decent melee damage, unlike Nash and Mia (who are both pure magic users).
  • One of the pre-built classes usually included in The Elder Scrolls 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.
    • One more goes to Arcade Gannon of Fallout: New Vegas. Having him as a companion gives you the "Better Healing" perk, which increases the amount of health you gain from healing items. Combat-wise, he specializes in Energy weapons, one of the more powerful category of weapons in the series and if you complete his personal quest a certain way has his own suit of Enclave Tesla Armor.
  • Many of the Final Fantasy 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 Holy spell...
  • The Priestess in 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 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 move quickly as well.
    • Rika's actually a little closer to the Jack of All Stats in that respect; her healing abilities are second only to Raja and her damage output is roughly even with Chaz up until he gets the 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.
  • Ryu in 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.)
    • Breath of Fire II's Ryu was also one of that game's many healers—although roughly half the characters in that game could heal to some degree.
  • The Hero of Dragon Quest IV acts like this early on, though they eventually grow into more of a Lightning Bruiser who happens to have healing magic.
    • Cristo/Kiryl might fit the bill as well.
    • And in an older Dragon Quest game, there is the 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 vocation system in DQIX - where you are pretty much encouraged to change vocations for the permanent stat benefits - can allow for a limited variation of this. At the least, you'd get Priest or Sage (classes with best healing spells) that is less Squishy than normal.
  • Marle, from Chrono Trigger, 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 Masamune). Robo can also make a decent healer though he otherwise functions as a Mighty Glacier character - with enough Magic Tabs, his Heal Beam can restore the entire party to full HP (or at least pretty close).
  • In Star Ocean the Second Story, 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.
    • Like Rena, Noel also is skilled at melee and healing
    • Bowman Jeane is a certified pharmacist who kicks ass with bare fists. Oh, and he also has a self-healing killer move.
  • Despite the fact that his outfit and hair color are reminiscent of another archetype from another series, Angelo from Dragon Quest VIII fits, and in his case, it is more justified than the typical cleric character in that he is a Templar (No, not 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 Magic Knight / Combat Medic type character, since he can use the powerful Falcon Sword.
    • A better example is The Hero himself. He can learn Heal, Midheal, Fullheal, and is the only character in the game who can learn the most powerful healing spell, Omniheal, if you raise his Courage stat high enough. He also has access to plenty of status recovery spells as well, such as Squelch and Tingle.
  • A surprisingly large portion of the party in Persona 3 possesses at least a portion of the Dia (Heal) Spell family, though Yukari and Ken have a stronger focus on healing than the others. Persona 4 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.
  • For an old lady mage, Dragon Age's Wynne can be tough as hell. You can learn this first-hand if you bring her along for The Gauntlet. Additionally, if you choose the Spirit Healer specialization, a mage PC or Morrigan can also act the part.
  • Meet Mass Effect's Mordin Solus. Doctor, scientist, field medic, safe sex advocate, former black ops, sharp shooter, can light you on fire with his omni-tool, once killed a krogan with farming equipment. *inhale*. Don't provoke.
    • 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 a Sentinel class Shepard to get the Medic Specialization. This was dropped for the sequel, however.
      • And the only party member with the Medicine talent was resident White Mage Kaidan.
    • In the multiplayer portion of the third game, all players can heal their allies. However, the Infiltrator is considered the best, thanks to their Invisibility Cloak, allowing them to run up to injured allies without fear of being murdered by enemies.
  • Miltank in Pokémon 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.
  • Ulrika Mulberry from Mana-Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy.
  • Meru of Legend of Dragoon has a rather effective healing spell, above average melee ability later, high magic ability, is the fastest playable character, and has abysmal HP and defense against melee. Give her a good set of armor annd she will mess stuff up between heals.
  • Cyberdwarf in Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden is a skilled Wrestler in All of Us whose special skills consist entirely of healing magic.
  • Roland from Borderlands has a skill tree called Medic which includes an ability to restore health to allies when he makes a kill and best of all Cauterize, which allows him to heal teammates by shooting them.
  • Golden Sun's robust Class and Level System makes it possible to turn any player character into one of these, either by giving one of the Magic Knight characters healing abilities, or by giving the resident White Mage some combat capacity.
    • In their default classes, Squire-class Venus Adepts, Jenna, Piers, and more than half the playables in Dark Dawn have decent stats or weapon selections and healing powers (sorry, Rief, you're just kind of useless here...).
  • Marco in Radiant Historia. He is a short 17 year old boy who fights with swords and grappling hooks, uses White Magic and carries many pill bottles for healing allies.
  • Roll.exe's skill in Mega Man Battle Network series does damage to an enemy while healing the player character.

Survival Horror

  • Resident Evil's Rebecca Chambers is classed, among other things, as a medic, rear security and helicopter mechanic. While comparatively weak, she gets ample opportunity to demonstrate her medical and scientific knowledge. In her more combat orientated role in Resident Evil 5 she uses finesse as a Combat Pragmatist, as well as a machine gun and automatic shotgun.
  • George Hamilton of Resident Evil Outbreak is more offense-oriented than the game's other Medic, Cindy Lennox, who functions better as support. This is especially true in File #2 with the addition of his ampoule shooter.

Third-Person Shooter

  • 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 Alien Swarm. They can use almost any weapon other classes can (assuming they are not class exclusive weapons), whether it be a flamethrower or a shotgun.
  • Bloodline Champions' Healer Bloodlines generally have less one-on-one capability, but are by no means helpless.

Turn-Based Strategy

  • This emerges in Front Mission 4 and further developed in Front Mission 5. Certain Wanzer builds (i.e. Giza) are heavily armored and have high power output to mount repair backpacks, allowing them to repair damaged friendlies and stay alive long enough to return fire. Front Mission 5 further develops the system with Repair specialist pilots, who have skillsets that enhance the effectiveness of repairs - Hector Reynolds, the Colonel Badass in charge of Delta Force's expy, is a Combat Medic.
  • In Jagged Alliance, mercenaries with medical skills are quite commonplace. Their roles? Not constantly pumping hit points to other mercs, but treating their wounds and stopping them from bleeding to death. When the mercs are resting, they can use their doctoring skill to bolster the regeneration rate of those within the same sector. All of them have high wisdom stats which help them to learn new skills faster, and because of this eventually become ass kickers if they survive long enough in the battlefield. Most of them are expert melee combatants thanks to their familiarity with scalpels.
  • Makai Kingdom 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.
  • 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 Magikarp Power Flonne into the resident Disc One Nuke, you can easily teach them some offensive spells to take advantage of their INT stat.
    • Alternatively, teaching some heals to Laharl (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 self-healing is always useful.
      • And we haven't even touched on what you can do with Reincarnation and Transmigration...
  • Mages of Light in Battle for Wesnoth. They're strong in ranged casting, especially against magical creatures and the undead, and fairly decent in melee for a unit which mainly heals and (with its light aura) buffs its allies. A chaotic-alignment enemy that tries to attack the Mage will also have its damage reduced at night or evening by having to stand in that same aura.
  • 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 Fire Emblem, 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, she becomes quite a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, this was changed in the sequel, Radiant Dawn.
      • Before that, there were the Troubadors of the Jugdral games, likewise sword-wielders. Genealogy of the Holy War's Lachesis (at least pre-promotion; after promoting she's capable of doing just about everything) and her daughter Nanna are probably the straightest examples.
  • Shining Force 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.
  • To continue the Nippon Ichi trend, Phantom Brave clerics have access to powerful RES-based attacks if you take the time to level and fusion the right items.
  • Alouette of La Pucelle is one of your main healers throughout the game, but she is also capable of dealing out the pain with magic or whacking monsters with her Holy Book.
  • Priests in Age of Mythology DS. While primarily suited to healing, they are actually able to attack, and are reasonably powerful. They can also be upgraded to attack from range, making them akin to the Norse throwing axe men.
    • Also, of a more literal example, the above game has an Egyptian hero by the name of Nakht. As a priest, he is able to heal, but he can actually out fight several heavy infantry type units. Quite a feat for a light infantry priest.
  • Super Robot Wars Z's Gunleon. Heavy, well-armored mecha with a Boisterous Bruiser at the helm? Check. Giant wrenches to repair other units with? Check. Ability to resupply other units after awakening its true power? Icing on the cake.
  • Silent Storm has no limitations on the weapons the medic can use. From the simple pistols and revolvers, through the rifles, submachine guns and light machine guns to the anti-tank weaponry and eventually shoulder mounted energy cannons and Power Armor with rocket launchers and anti-tank rifles, there's no weapon the medic cannot use.
  • In Makai Kingdom, Healers and Medics can use the Syringe, which not only heals allies for free as its basic attack, but can also drain health from the target and transfer it to the Healer, among other things. Its effectiveness is based on RES, making RES-based classes like Healers and Medics very capable with it. Both classes can also equip more conventional weapons (such as rifles for the Medic) and the Medic is specifically a Field Medic, becoming available at the same time as the Infantry classes.

Web Comics

  • In The Order of the Stick while Durkon mostly acts as support, he also has a fondness for growing giant and smashing people with a huge hammer.
    • Numerous clerics fill this function. The Cleric of Loki fights alongside Belkar, staying in the back, but killing several opponents, and healing him.
  • Dr. Sun in Girl Genius declares his intention to deconstruct Baron Wulfenbach's giant medical mecha. Wulfenbach appears to take the threat seriously. Then he does it. It involved several explosions.
  • In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Dr. McNinja is a doctor and a ninja. Self-explanatory.
  • As the cleric for the evil adventurers in Darken, Mink isn't exactly a pacifist (she's a cleric of Hextor, after all). More to the point, she's a lightning breathing half-dragon with a massive hammer. She can definitely hold her own in combat. as long as she's not wielding a flail.
  • Last Res0rt's Scout Arael declares herself as one of those to avoid getting her ass completely kicked by the players. Despite being armed with what appears to be an electric scythe (which turns into a not-so-electric staff), she doesn't do too much healing in our first appearance of her, but definitely is the one scout who is acting only in self-defense. The "Combat" part of this makes total sense when she takes down a Zombie-fied Scout Kuvaela. Apparently, her oath doesn't apply to undead.
    • Qin Xu is an actual doctor, but doesn't have the same hesitation Arael does. 'Course, the Scouts are actively TRYING to kill him...
  • Hati of Cry Havoc doesn't particularly like the fighting part of being a combat medic, but is still put on the front lines with the rest of the mercenaries. While not as heavily armed or armored as her squad mates she can hold her own in a fire fight.
  • Thomil of Juathuur.
  • All four of The Dragon Doctors prove to be handy in a fight. Three of them are magical doctors; Sarin specializes in shapeshifting magic, Mori's got a powerful spell-gun, and Kili can call upon spirits to aid her. Goro the surgeon is a literal Combat Medic, formerly a Major in the Army and still a deadly shot with a thrown scalpel.
  • Ell from What's Shakin' is a holy mage that not only uses defensive magics like heals and shields, but can also whip out a wicked attack if necessary.
  • Schlock Mercenary used to have simple approach to field medicine - either it can be fixed using a kit before one bled to death, or it's "corpsman rolls the head into nanny-bag, doctor oversees regrowing the clone body later". Then things got complicated and eventually Tarpaulin was equipped as a "triage medic". Since at this point the "triage" is performed by equipping each body with a swarm of nanobots and a communication device, practically this means having the Arm Cannon adapted for saboted syringes, and that's about it. .

Web Original

  • Randus duThane, the Artificer played by Brian in the Critical Hit podcast. Some of his spells heal or protect the other players, others do damage, some do both!
  • Lifeline, one of the heroes in the Global Guardians PBEM Universe is super-strong and can weild "bio-energy powers'. He's handy in a fight, but he mostly uses his powers to help the wounded.
  • Kristy was one in the Epilogue of Game 12 for Comic Fury Werewolf. Espeh (sort-of) was one as well.

Western Animation

  • Ratchet is portrayed as this in most incarnations of the Transformers franchise. In Transformers Animated, he is the only person on Optimus Prime's team who'd actually gone through the Great War, and most of his weapons (EMP generator, forcefield manipulators, etc.) are actually medical tools. But that doesn't mean he enjoyed it...
    • This was actually a wonderful extension from the 1980's comic book series, where Ratchet was not only one of the few Autobots to defeat Megatron one on one, he did it twice!
    • On the Decepticon side of things, there's Knock Out, who's "better at breaking 'em than fixing 'em."
  • In Transformers Cybertron, there's Red Alert. Especially after his Mid-Season Upgrade.
  • Lifeline of G.I. Joe cartoon is a medic and makes it a rule to not carry any firearms. Doc is another example in the same series.
  • Raven from Teen Titans is shown to be able to heal in addition to her more combat friendly powers. She uses this power exactly twice onscreen.

Real Life

  • Truth in Television. In The Vietnam War, the preferred method of getting from Point A to wounded guy at Point B involved grenades. Lots of grenades.
    • Medics were given shotguns, sidearms, or even assault rifles for protection. Resulting situations were described as "preventative medicine".
  • Sergeant David Bleak, a combat medic who during the Korean war, took down several enemy soldiers with his bare hands in the midst of an enemy ambush.
    • To elaborate, he killed one by breaking his neck, killed another by crushing his windpipe, and then two others later by smashing both their heads together so hard that their skulls probably cracked.
  • Patrol medics of the United States Army and Navy (called corpsmen) are issued rifles. They are essentially riflemen who have passed a more advanced first aid course, serving as a soldier first and medical specialist second.
  • PJ's (Pararescue, also "Pedros", US Air Force Special Forces that specialize in search in rescue and medevac) 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? They like to ride in helicopters armed with dual miniguns. There are several other special forces groups that do the same thing as PJ's, and they are often in there respective country's air force. A couple examples are Israel's unit 669 and Brazil's Para-SAR.
  • The only branch of the United States military that does not train their own medics is the Marine Corps; instead, they are assigned Navy Hospital Corpsmen, who are referred to as "Doc" and given great respect. This is because, in addition to their Field Medical Training classes, they are required to pass all aspects of the Marine Physical Fitness test. In other words, they have to be able to run 3 miles in less than half an hour, perform at least 50 sit-ups in two minutes, know how to fire and service a rifle, all while learning how to save a Marine's life. Is it any wonder that the rating of Hospital Corpsman is the most decorated in the US Navy?
    • Marine training is even harder on the attached Corpsman than the rest of the Marine recruits. A Corpsman is required to carry a full pack like everybody else as well as their own medical supply kit which isn't exactly light. To make things harder, whenever recruits get a few minutes to rest on a particularly gruesome run or field exercise the Corpsman is expected to check on all of the recruits assigned to him for injuries (especially foot injuries).
  • Tends to happen in any situation where one or both sides do not respect the red cross symbol. Notable historical examples include the German and Russian armies in WW 2 towards each other, and US medics in the Pacific theater.
  • The Israeli Army takes this trope to its logical conclusion with an ambulance that is also a tank.
  • The Knights Hospitallers.
  • Most armies have a special forces medical division trained to rescue soldiers (in particular, shot-down pilots) behind enemy lines. Think medic plus commando.
    • Many Special forces medic can even perform a variety of minor surgeries in the field to save your life and treat a very broad range of injuries and ailments.
  • Combat Medic is now a specific Job Type in the U.S. Army.
    • Much like the Navy Corpsman, they are referred to as Doc and are often armed for self-defense. Like their naval cousins they have a large amount of respect, because they go out into the field with the infantry and are known to participate actively in fighting when needed.
  • The Laws and Customs of War dictate that in order to hold noncombatant status and be entitled to bear the Red Cross, hospital ships must be totally unarmed, even purely defensive systems like Phalanx CIWS being forbidden. This has presented something of a problem in modern times, as the Red Cross means nothing to a guided missile that misses its intended target and locks onto the first ship it sees. As a result, the Royal Navy has bit the bullet and fitted its "Primary Casualty Reception Ship" RFA Argus with a couple of point-defence guns.
  1. ↑ Two Medics using ubersaws to build up consecutive ubercharges
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