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Aah! Okay, yes. Great point.

Benjamin Huffman

Say I have a d8 hit die. When I level up I gain 5 + Con hit points. Every hit die I use through Doctor's Orders gives me back 8+Con+Int, I also get some temp hit points but we will ignore those for now. It is likely that the added Int bonus to the roll will be 4 or 5 since the Scholar is all about intelligence, meaning that one hit die expended through Doctor's Orders easily heals two levels or more of hit points unless you have a massive Con bonus. So for a few actions, certainly less than the hour a short rest can take, a Scholar could heal their entire party to full by using only using a maximum of half their hit die. It won't work as cleanly once you have less than your level one hit die amount, but if you have one hit point and spend half your hit die you can get within 5 of your total hit points easy. The fact that temporary hit points only last for ten minutes also means that the best use of the feature is to wait until you know a fight is about to happen or heal everyone up partially and wait until combat starts to heal. Because it expends a hit die and gives back probably 10+ hit points at low levels it's not something you want to use on small wounds. Both of these last points go against what first aid is supposed to be. Maybe the best way to make it work is for it to be a smaller heal, like just their Con + my Int, but it can still be used a lot, but not infinitely, without expending hit die. In addition having the temporary hit points last until you next take damage could work too.

If that's the case what is the point of Treating Physician? Not only is it less powerful, but because of Doctor's Orders the group will be taking less short rests. After every fight I just imagine the entire party healing to full and getting temporary hit points, no need take a short rest.

You are correct, nothing limits Doctor's Orders no on behalf of the Scholar. It remains limited in terms of how much an individual patient can benefit, however, in that it costs them hit dice. I feel like this itself is possibly enough of a limiting factor...but I don't know. Trying to replicate a lot of effects that are currently only handled via magic without magic is fairly tricky!

Benjamin Huffman

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see any limitation on the Scholar's Doctor's Orders feature. The old Doctor's Orders feature required a use of Critical Analysis, maybe that could be implemented again.