PDA

View Full Version : Healing reserve feat?



Scarlet-Devil
2011-01-30, 02:25 PM
Now, I could have sworn that there was a reserve feat in Complete Mage that let you heal up to half-max HP, but looking through my PDF version, I ain't seeing it.

What is the feat I'm thinking of, and where?

Alleine
2011-01-30, 02:26 PM
Touch of Healing from Complete Champion.

HunterOfJello
2011-01-30, 02:35 PM
Touch of Healing lets you heal a creature up to 1/2 it's maximum hit points. The feat can be useful in a campaign where you won't have access to Wands of Leser Vigor or Cure Light Wounds, but otherwise isn't very good.


A Healing Belt from the MiC is more effective for the rare times you'll need in-combat healing and a few Wands of Lesser Vigor are better at healing someone up to maximum hp out of combat.

gbprime
2011-01-30, 02:47 PM
No, but the feat is worth it's weight in gold under some circumstances. Say the healer in question is assigned to an army HQ and might have to heal 100 people during the course of a battle. Priceless.

But since it cannot heal up past half HP, it's merely "useful" for a party of PC's and not life-saving.

dsmiles
2011-01-30, 02:50 PM
But since it cannot heal up past half HP, it's merely "useful" for a party of PC's and not life-saving.I'm pretty sure all the characters that have bled out in 3.5 would beg to differ. :smalltongue:

Kaww
2011-01-30, 02:57 PM
I'm pretty sure all the characters that have bled out in 3.5 would beg to differ. :smalltongue:

It's a lifesaver...

gbprime
2011-01-30, 03:08 PM
I'm pretty sure all the characters that have bled out in 3.5 would beg to differ. :smalltongue:

Not really. I do not constest that it is useful, but if you don't augment it with other sources of healing, you're going to be running off to the next encounter with half hitpoints on everyone. As previously posted, you can save the feat and start stocking up on Healing Belts and lesser vigor wands, accomplishing the same thing for a few thousand gold instead of a feat.

So yes, it's a useful feat, no doubt. But indispensible? No.

Warlawk
2011-01-30, 03:17 PM
Not really. I do not constest that it is useful, but if you don't augment it with other sources of healing, you're going to be running off to the next encounter with half hitpoints on everyone. As previously posted, you can save the feat and start stocking up on Healing Belts and lesser vigor wands, accomplishing the same thing for a few thousand gold instead of a feat.

So yes, it's a useful feat, no doubt. But indispensible? No.

Except this opinion is based on metagame considerations. Not everyone has access to exactly the magic items they want any time they might have the gold to buy them. Many DMs have a different take on things and don't just let you wander down to the local Ye Olde Wal*Marte and clean out the magitech isle.

A few thousand gold? Our 7th level group *might* be able to scrape that up between all of them if they pooled everything, but I doubt it. Massive piles of cash don't make much sense in most situations despite what books might say, and we rarely find them. Not every game lets you play e-bay for just the right combo of magic items.

Coidzor
2011-01-30, 03:19 PM
^: Well yes, you can find specific cases where the nature of the game has been changed to limit your abilities and change the value of things up. Then again... with such DMs you have to figure out how many of 'em would also allow Touch of Healing and not ban it as OP considering how tightly they control the party's resources.
I'm pretty sure all the characters that have bled out in 3.5 would beg to differ. :smalltongue:

I... highly doubt that. I'd say that most of them bleed out because the healer(s) can't get to them, not because the cleric was out of spells and dumped Heal and no one else had it or any healing items.

Jack_Simth
2011-01-30, 03:32 PM
I'm pretty sure all the characters that have bled out in 3.5 would beg to differ. :smalltongue:
Still costs the user an action, though. Much better for that purpose is the Draconic Aura feat (Dragon Magic) for Draconic Vigor to get all allies within a small range fast healing up to 1/2. That lets you stabilize everyone, without actually consuming your action.

Now, for actual healing between battles, you'll want a Vampiric weapon (magic Item Compendium) and the Summon Elemental Reserve Feat (Complete mage). Elementals are living targets, you see, and the Vampiric weapon actually heals the user slightly when the weapon strikes a living creature.

Last Laugh
2011-01-30, 03:43 PM
I prefer Draconic Aura Vigor for up to half healing. 30 ft radius, and passive ability. It gives an teeny tiny bonus in every fight. (Dragon magic?)

dsmiles
2011-01-30, 03:43 PM
^: Well yes, you can find specific cases where the nature of the game has been changed to limit your abilities and change the value of things up. Then again... with such DMs you have to figure out how many of 'em would also allow Touch of Healing and not ban it as OP considering how tightly they control the party's resources.Or you play in a campaign setting where making magic items is inherently dangerous, such as the Iron Kingdoms setting.

gbprime
2011-01-30, 03:51 PM
Even then, you're talking 750gp for a Belt of Healing. If this is beyond the player's financial reach or is too hazardous to make, then you're in a campaign where Potions are similarly unavailable.

T.G. Oskar
2011-01-30, 04:06 PM
Except this opinion is based on metagame considerations. Not everyone has access to exactly the magic items they want any time they might have the gold to buy them. Many DMs have a different take on things and don't just let you wander down to the local Ye Olde Wal*Marte and clean out the magitech isle.

A few thousand gold? Our 7th level group *might* be able to scrape that up between all of them if they pooled everything, but I doubt it. Massive piles of cash don't make much sense in most situations despite what books might say, and we rarely find them. Not every game lets you play e-bay for just the right combo of magic items.

While I won't debate that Touch of Healing isn't useful (it is, actually, to get a beaten team to half-utility), compare the "metagame" concept of money vs. feat slots.

Money is a "renewable" resource, as in it's as renewable as going on an adventure. It's as renewable as XP, where each time you adventure, you gain more XP. A low gold setting is doable, but harsh on most people. Certainly, what you say is true: not all DMs will grant their players free access to all magic items, and it could be the case of 2nd Ed. where even pointless magic items were treasured because they were magic items.

Feat slots, on the other hand, are "indispensable" resources. You can get a few CP by doing menial work; you only get 7 feat slots (8 if you're human, more if you're a Fighter or Wizard or a class that grants free bonus feats), and they are permanent once taken (unless you allow retraining rules from PHB II). To earn its worth, a feat must be as equally indispensable as the feat slot it consumes, or else the feat is pointless.

So where does Touch of Healing count on that? Well, it's on the "useful" side of indispensability, but when you compare that to Animal Devotion (fly for free 1/day for 1 minute), Knowledge Devotion (extra attack based on your Knowledge skill check result), Travel Devotion (free movement as swift action 1/day for 1 minute) or Trickery Devotion (improving simulacrum 1/day for 1 minute), it's not THAT useful; that's using feats from the same class. Others involve...say, Summon Elemental (another reserve feat, but it allows you to summon elementals pretty much at will), Power Attack (it's one of the most efficient damage-per-attack bonus boosters there are, better with 2-hander or so on), or even Sacred Healing (the Complete Divine version which grants fast healing, not the "errata'ed" version of Player's Handbook II which isn't so hot). It's useful, however, to reduce the costs of healing when used in conjunction with other healing abilities.

To compare: while Touch of Healing heals for 3 hp/spell level (maximum 27)/use for unlimited uses but has the caveat of up to half hit points, Healing Belt heals for an average of 9 hp three times per day, with a maximum of 16 points (but allows healing beyond the half Hit Point range, up to full if necessary). Both use the same actions, in any case. Draconic Aura (vigor) does the same healing but in an area, and can be reliably increased (just be a dragontouched). A Wand of Lesser Vigor heals 11 hp over 1 minute and 1 round, so it's roughly 550 hp for 750 gp (less if you actually make the wand), and it allows healing over the threshold of HP.

Separately, most of the other options are more cost-effective than Touch of Healing because the benefit of the feat depends on the total hit point amount of each character, whereas with most of the others you simply point and heal. What it does, and this is something that's invaluable, is that it saves on the uses of other abilities when used in tandem: basically, you can use Touch of Healing to recover up to half your hit points, and then use the other abilities to recover to 75% or full HP. However, you're relying on having a spell slot of the highest level always reserved for the feat to have its maximum utility, whereas the other options don't require the need to keep spell slots at all; on the other hand, the feat slot could be used for, say, Magic of the Land (Races of the Wild) which adds healing as a rider effect for buffing spells (2 hp per spell level alongside the spell's effect, with some restrictions), and the cost is just as much as Touch of Healing (one feat slot, probably slightly more because of the requirements but you can waive a few of them under the premise of needed skills).

On the "metagame", you want feat slots to be covered with as many useful feats as possible, so while Touch of Healing can be a useful feat to take, it's not as important to a Cleric such as, say, Divine Metamagic and Persistent Spell (to go for the really broken stuff) or perhaps just Divine Might and Divine Shield (to get more bang out of their Turn Undead abilities) or heck, just Extend Spell (because longer lasting buffs correlates to better survivability). However, it's definitely not a bad feat to take because it's free healing, period (as free as a feat slot costs, anyways).

Warlawk
2011-01-30, 05:16 PM
Lots of stuff

I wasn't saying the feat was great, or even that I would recommend anyone take it. All I was saying is that telling people the feat is patently bad because it can be replaced with magic items is not an answer that will work for everyone due to DM concerns.

Personally, I don't think it's worth the feat in most games, but that is really not at all the point I was making.

Jack_Simth
2011-01-30, 05:17 PM
Oh yes, almost forgot:

There's a way to get the Touch of Healing reserve feat to give you more than 1/2 hp. You just need to take off that +Con item after you're at 50% HP, then put it back on afterwards (and if you have a -Con item that can be put on and taken off at will, even better). This works due to the way bonus HP from Constitution work in D&D: They're *not* lost first.

MeeposFire
2011-01-30, 05:23 PM
I prefer Draconic Aura Vigor for up to half healing. 30 ft radius, and passive ability. It gives an teeny tiny bonus in every fight. (Dragon magic?)

Do note that while it is commonly allowed to take that aura it is not actually a RAW choice and so is a consideration when giving it out as advice without that disclaimer.

The feat says you can choose any aura in the book. Vigor is not one of those choices unfortunately. Still I allow it in my campaigns.

Good free healing can be found from the binder which has at least two ways of unlimited healing. Neither are good in combat bot booth save you resources afterwords.

Warlawk
2011-01-30, 05:27 PM
Oh yes, almost forgot:

There's a way to get the Touch of Healing reserve feat to give you more than 1/2 hp. You just need to take off that +Con item after you're at 50% HP, then put it back on afterwards (and if you have a -Con item that can be put on and taken off at will, even better). This works due to the way bonus HP from Constitution work in D&D: They're *not* lost first.

Be prepared to be smacked on the nose with a not so rolled up hardback rulebook and told NO by your dm though. Technically it works by RAW... but really, come on.

Jack_Simth
2011-01-30, 05:31 PM
Be prepared to be smacked on the nose with a not so rolled up hardback rulebook and told NO by your dm though. Technically it works by RAW... but really, come on.

Counterargument: So if I cast Bear's Endurance on someone, and they get injured, 2*HD HP of the injury goes away when the Bear's Endurance wears off? Ditto for a Barbarian's Con boost during Rage?

I can work with either ruling, really, but I do like consistency.

randomhero00
2011-01-30, 05:37 PM
There's also that dragonshaman aura that heals to half hps.

MeeposFire
2011-01-30, 05:39 PM
There's also that dragonshaman aura that heals to half hps.

That is that dragon aura mentioned above and using actual dragon shaman does remove any rules problems though I find dragon shaman very lackluster overall.

Warlawk
2011-01-30, 07:51 PM
Counterargument: So if I cast Bear's Endurance on someone, and they get injured, 2*HD HP of the injury goes away when the Bear's Endurance wears off? Ditto for a Barbarian's Con boost during Rage?

I can work with either ruling, really, but I do like consistency.

And I do like very limited amounts of cheese in our sessions.

I already said it works RAW. That doesn't make it any less lame or abusive of said rules.

Fortunately, no one in our group feels the need to try those kind of things to squeeze out such a tiny little advantage. You play how you want, we'll play how we enjoy it and whoever may read the thread is now aware that while it is technically legal there's a solid chance their DM will will react in certain ways to it.

Just remember, if you abuse RAW for every little advantage you're just begging the DM to return the favor and behave in the same way, and he has a lot more resources to abuse.