Feats needed for Heal-bot/buffer Cleric

[MesiDoomstalker]

I need some suggestions for feats for heal-botting. I don't want to hear that heal-botting is a bad idea or Clerics can do better. I don't care. I want to be a heal-bot/buffer. (This is because the entire party are very self-centered in their play styles and the other cleric almost refuses to use spells on allies, including cure spells) Now for the details and limitations:


We are restricted to the Complete series, and both Player Handbooks.
We are level 3 right now.
My current feats are Augment Healing (Human), Healing Devotion (1st), and Touch of Healing (3rd).
I will be dipping one level in Bard (for whip proficiency, I'll be honest but don't tell me this is a bad idea, I'm already doing it) so I'll be one level behind.


I'm mostly looking for metamagic feats, maybe the sudden metamagic lines but right now, I don't have the spell levels to use most metamagics, only having access to 2nd level spells.

Also, I've never played a Cleric, so what buff spells are the best to use, both on myself and on my allies?

[Pigkappa]

I'm sure someone won't agree, but consider taking Scribe Scroll.

There are quite a lot of Cleric spells that you can't prepare each day, but will eventually be necessary. I'm thinking of Remove Fear, Remove Paralysis, Remove Blindness, Remove Curse, Delay Poison, Epurate Invisibility, Comprehend Languanges, Lesser Restoration, and many more.

You can also scribe a few Cure Light Wound (or Lesser Vigor) scrolls, just to be sure you can still heal your party when something is wrong and all of your spell have been used. A Cure Light Wound scroll which heals 1d8+1 damage would just cost you 12.5gp and 1 XP.

[HalfDragonCube]

How about being an Archivist? It handles healing well, you get some knowledge skill stuff on the side and if you look hard enough you can get loads of different spells. There's also the previously-mentioned Scribe Scroll feat.

Alternatively, why not just buy a healing belt and be done with it? Anyone can use it, and it's quite good.

[MesiDoomstalker]

At this level, (6th technically) that would be a good idea. Then I can focus my spell selection a bit more (I'm keeping it really diverse in anticipattion for anything)

[Keld Denar]

Divine Ward is useful, especially if you expand it to allow things like Remove Paralysis or other status removal spells. Its in PHBII. You get one ward for free, and every ward after the first costs you 1 TU attempt per 24 hours. Then, at a later point, you can burn another TU attempt to cast a cure spell on a warded friend at a range of up to 30'. Thats very useful for keeping the heck back out of AoO range when you are fighting big bad nasty things.

I like adding a little bit of counterspell to my healing clerics. After all, the spell that doesn't happen is pretty much preemptive healing and/or status removal. Divine Defiance from FCII is the lynchpin, but having things like the Inquisition domain help (when using Dispel Magic as a counterspell). For even more fun, since you have the Bard dip, you have an arcane CL, which means you can take Arcane Mastery. This lets you take 10 on any caster level checks. Dispel checks are special caster level checks, but caster level checks none the less. That, combined with the Inquisition domain, will allow you to automatically dispel any spell from a caster up to 3 levels higher than you, and Divine Defiance will allow you to do that as an immediate action. Thats all kinds of useful!

[Pigkappa]

As a buff, consider casting Shield Other if you have a good Constitution modifier. If your primary role is buffer/healer, you won't be frontline too often, and since you are a cleric you are likely to have good AC, so you can afford a little more damage to help a teammate.

[noparlpf]

If you worship a sun deity, consider going into Radiant Servant of Pelor at some point. Or, if you don't need the Turn Undead feature, consider being a Healer instead...oh wait, you already started the game. But yeah. Healers get those 1/day status-healing abilities, so you don't have to prepare some of those spells, and the spell list already limits you to heal-botting.

By the way, Augment Healing doesn't specify a species or creature type. It's just for any Conjuration (Healing) spell you cast on anybody or anything.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Divine Ward is useful, especially if you expand it to allow things like Remove Paralysis or other status removal spells. Its in PHBII. You get one ward for free, and every ward after the first costs you 1 TU attempt per 24 hours. Then, at a later point, you can burn another TU attempt to cast a cure spell on a warded friend at a range of up to 30'. Thats very useful for keeping the heck back out of AoO range when you are fighting big bad nasty things.

I like adding a little bit of counterspell to my healing clerics. After all, the spell that doesn't happen is pretty much preemptive healing and/or status removal. Divine Defiance from FCII is the lynchpin, but having things like the Inquisition domain help (when using Dispel Magic as a counterspell). For even more fun, since you have the Bard dip, you have an arcane CL, which means you can take Arcane Mastery. This lets you take 10 on any caster level checks. Dispel checks are special caster level checks, but caster level checks none the less. That, combined with the Inquisition domain, will allow you to automatically dispel any spell from a caster up to 3 levels higher than you, and Divine Defiance will allow you to do that as an immediate action. Thats all kinds of useful!

I thought about Divine Ward, but our group is huge (8 people, with another cleric which I've already stated doesn't do much healing) and even if I only did this to the 2 main tanks, it would be stretching my Turn attempts pretty thin. I am planning on extensivly using Dispel Magic when I get that far (6th level) but I'm not sure about taking Arcane Mastery until 9th at the earliest. It won't help my group avoid death until when the enemies start having things that need to be Dispelled, which I don't see happening at 6th much.

Also, what is FCII? I also already have a Diety (Pelor) and Domains selected (Healing and Strength). So that domain is out of the question.

[Keld Denar]

Healer is BAD! LOL! If you know what you are doing, Turn Undead is actually a REALLY useful feature for healing, either through the use of Divine Ward, Divine Metamagic (Reach Spell), Divine Spell Power (higher CL = moar healing), etc. Its just way too useful.


By the way, Augment Healing doesn't specify a species or creature type. It's just for any Conjuration (Healing) spell you cast on anybody or anything.
I think this was refering to the fact that that was his human bonus feat...


Also, what is FCII? I also already have a Diety (Pelor) and Domains selected (Healing and Strength). So that domain is out of the question.

FCII is Fiendish Codex II, probably a book you don't have but home of the AMAZING Divine Defiance feat which lets you counterspell as an immediate action at the cost of 1 TU attempt. Frees up your actions to cast useful spells rather than readying an action to counterspell. That, combined with Arcane Mastery would allow you to burn a TU attempt and a Dispel Magic spell to counterspell a foe up to 3 levels higher than you as an immediate action (assuming you also had the Inqusition domain, which you can aquire with a 1 level dip in Church Inqusitor from Complete Divine).

Also, you can dip into Contemplative at ECL11, pick up the Sun domain, and then hop into Radiant Servant from there. The best abilities are in the first 5 levels, so you aren't missing much. Just a work around, if your DM doesn't allow the PHBII retraining rules. Lots of options available to you.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Since many healing spells are Range: Touch, you can get Reach Spell to extend them to Close range (25ft+5ft for every 2 levels) for a +2 adjustment, meaning you can stay in the back and heal during combat. Of course, that means Cure Light Wounds (1d8+5) is taking up a third-level spell slot, which is pretty horrible, but Divine Metamagic (Reach Spell) mitigates that.

For buffing, Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell) with the appropriate feat is your best bet. It's feat-intensive, though (since you need Persistent, Extend, and DMM Persistent).

[MesiDoomstalker]

If you worship a sun deity, consider going into Radiant Servant of Pelor at some point. Or, if you don't need the Turn Undead feature, consider being a Healer instead...oh wait, you already started the game. But yeah. Healers get those 1/day status-healing abilities, so you don't have to prepare some of those spells, and the spell list already limits you to heal-botting.

By the way, Augment Healing doesn't specify a species or creature type. It's just for any Conjuration (Healing) spell you cast on anybody or anything.

That was indicating where the feat came from. In this case, the bonus Human feat at first level. I'm CG so RSoP is out, because you have to be NG. I should say this is a fairly high RP campaign so some of my choices weren't planned out for the long term, such as my alignment even though I knew of RSoP.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Healer is BAD! LOL! If you know what you are doing, Turn Undead is actually a REALLY useful feature for healing, either through the use of Divine Ward, Divine Metamagic (Reach Spell), Divine Spell Power (higher CL = moar healing), etc. Its just way too useful.


I think this was refering to the fact that that was his human bonus feat...



FCII is Fiendish Codex II, probably a book you don't have but home of the AMAZING Divine Defiance feat which lets you counterspell as an immediate action at the cost of 1 TU attempt. Frees up your actions to cast useful spells rather than readying an action to counterspell. That, combined with Arcane Mastery would allow you to burn a TU attempt and a Dispel Magic spell to counterspell a foe up to 3 levels higher than you as an immediate action (assuming you also had the Inqusition domain, which you can aquire with a 1 level dip in Church Inqusitor from Complete Divine).

Also, you can dip into Contemplative at ECL11, pick up the Sun domain, and then hop into Radiant Servant from there. The best abilities are in the first 5 levels, so you aren't missing much. Just a work around, if your DM doesn't allow the PHBII retraining rules. Lots of options available to you.

I'll hit this all in one swoop. I have FCII but can't use it (see OP), we use a homerule that you can only have one PrC, and I have to ask about the retraining rules, but since it in an aprroved book, I'm going to say yes.

[Keld Denar]

Be less chaotic? In time, your alignment should shift, right?

Especially if you actually qualify for Contemplative, which has an RP requirement of meeting your god, his avatar, or one of his upper level servants. Methinks having a 1on1 chat with the P-Man will put you more or less back on the NG path.

Just because its a "RP centric" campaign doesn't mean your character can't grow. If that growth allows you to be more Pelorish (and by proxy, more Radiant), then its a good think, right?

[Grendus]

Reach Spell and DMM: Reach Spell would be a good mix. Lets you cast touch spells (like your heal spells) as 30 foot rays instead of touch. It would take three turn attempts for each though, so some metamagic reduction would be in order too (if you're dragonblooded, such as a Silverbrow Human, you could take Practical Metamagic to reduce it to +1 for spontaneously cast spells, like yuor converted heal spells), and maybe a nightstick or two.

[BillyBobJoe]

You might want to pick up Sacred Boost from Complete Divine at some point. You can spend a turn undead attempt as a standard action to place a positive energy effect on every ally within 60', and any cure spell cast on them before the end of your next turn is automatically maximized. It is a great feat for out of combat healing.

[tyckspoon]

I thought about Divine Ward, but our group is huge (8 people, with another cleric which I've already stated doesn't do much healing)

Sacred Healing (C. Divine edition) is non-terrible, especially with this big a group- Turn Undead use to give them all Fast Healing 3 for basically Cha mod rounds. Makes for a good after-fight touchup, especially if you don't want to spend thirty minutes going around them all with the ol' curestick. Sacred Healing (PHBII edition) is also alright- Turn Undead, grants your next healing spell +2 HP restored per die- but it really needs to either be combined with Empower Spell or you need to find a healing spell that rolls a lot of dice instead of the (small number)d8 + CL that the usual Cure X Wounds do. Something like Darts of Life in Complete Champion, when/if you make it to that level.

[Keld Denar]

Another good healing spell for groups, especially larger groups, is Insignia of Healing from Cityscape. You give all of your allies a little focus pin that they wear, and when you cast the spell, everyone wearing one gets a boost. Its a 3rd level spell, but is basically a Reach + Chain Cure Light Wounds spell, which is normally 6th.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Ok thanks guys for all the suggestions! Now, of the ones presented thus far, which should I take at 6th? Keep in mind, my current Turn attempts is 6/day barring siginficant increase in Cha (since we can't use DMG, I can't just buy a blank of Cha +x, I can only recieve it as loot)

Edit: Where is Reach metagmagic? I'm thinking it might be one of the most prudent since I'll now get access to 3rd at 6th level.

[Lonely Tylenol]

EDIT: Since this needs mentioning first, Reach Spell is Complete Divine, and so is Divine Metamagic.

By the by: in regards to what buff spells are best to use, it really depends on what you want to do. If you're melee-intensive (not that you are), then Divine Power gives you BAB equal to your level (with extra iterative attacks, meaning at 11th level you get 3 attacks instead of 2), +6 STR (=+3 on attack and damage rolls), and bonus hit points equal to your caster level, as a fourth-level spell, and can be Persisted. Righteous Might is another good one, if you're using the original Player's Handbook (and not the SRD version, which halves all the benefits); the Player's Handbook one grants a +8 size bonus to Strength (=+4 on attack and damage rolls) and +4 to Constitution (=hit points equal to twice your level), +4 bonus to natural armor (= you probably don't even have natural armor unless you have racial bonuses, so this is huge) and DR5/evil (which scales up to DR10 at level 12 and DR15 at level 15), at fifth level. Persist these; they're Rounds/level buffs that can be made into 24-hour buffs.

Defensively, Protection from (predominant alignment of your enemies)/Magic Circle Against (predominant alignment of your enemies) are probably the way to go. Resist Energy is a good way to circumvent energy damage if your DM has a favorite element for his enemies. (Protection from Energy is a trap because of the fixed amount of damage it absorbs, unless your DM likes one-shotting your PCs with elemental attacks, which in a low-OP campaign is just homicidal.) Spell Resistance is... Well... Spell Resistance, and the attribute buffers (Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance, Fox's Cunning, Eagle's Splendor, Owl's Wisdom and Cat's Grace) are good as well, though I'd focus on the Mass versions that everyone can use (mainly this is Bear's Endurance, though Cat's Grace is workable for giving everyone +2 AC, untyped, as well as bonuses on ranged attack rolls, or Finesse weapons if these feature prominently in your campaign with the Weapon Finesse feat). I think the only high-level buffs worth mentioning are Holy Aura, Unholy Aura, Shield of Law and Cloak of Chaos (for you, this means Holy Aura and Cloak of Chaos, since you're CG), but honestly, you might want to keep those spells for contingencies against more dire threats, like death and dismemberment (Resurrection and Regeneration, respectively. Yay alliteration!).

[tyckspoon]

Righteous Might is another good one, if you're using the original Player's Handbook (and not the SRD version, which halves all the benefits);

PHB errata. The SRD version *is* the official version, now, unless your group is in the habit of playing entirely without errata. In which case there's a lot of crazy stuff you can get up to, as well as some other things that simply don't work due to missing lines.

[Lonely Tylenol]

PHB errata. The SRD version *is* the official version, now, unless your group is in the habit of playing entirely without errata. In which case there's a lot of crazy stuff you can get up to, as well as some other things that simply don't work due to missing lines.

I know the SRD is the errata, but often I have the books, but not the errata on hand, and being so grossly unfamiliar with divine casters (I've played several arcane, but never a divine), I wasn't actually aware there was a difference until . . . Saturday night, when DMing for a group who was helping me test an adventure, and having one of us stare at the original PHB version and the other at the SRD version on their phone at the same time. I let him keep the stronger version, because I had pre-generated the characters on the fly using the PHB and splats as reference and didn't have time to check it (designed five level 13 characters in two hours... Which isn't something I advise under normal circumstances, but it was originally for a convention and I was behind).

I don't advise a blanket hand-waving of all errata, but it can't hurt to talk with your DM about it; depending on his approach to the game, he might allow the pre-errata version, or he might not. (I tend to be more permissive, and as long as somebody doesn't get completely left out, I will allow relatively high-op tricks in my campaigns, and by this, I mean Leap Attacking Shock Trooper and Persisted Divine Power/Righteous Might, not chain-gating Solars or even the things that the errata are desperately needed for).

EDIT: I should probably note, here, that I DON'T advise taking advantage of DM ignorance or trying to sneak things past. Not everyone is acutely aware of every errata, or can recall it from memory, but that doesn't mean you should take advantage of this! Don't cast Righteous Might and let your DM think you're using the errata when you're using the original. Ask about it instead, and don't use the cheesier version unless it's allowed.

[MesiDoomstalker]

This game is all online, and most of us use SRD for it (at least for whats on there). I know the DM (and everyone else for that matter) personally and I know he has the errata and uses SRD when he doesn't have the books handy, which happens alot with this game.

[Lonely Tylenol]

This game is all online, and most of us use SRD for it (at least for whats on there). I know the DM (and everyone else for that matter) personally and I know he has the errata and uses SRD when he doesn't have the books handy, which happens alot with this game.

Then you're basically getting Enlarge Person on crack, and you can decide for yourself whether it's worth Persisting. Still a good, but not a spectacular buff (compared to Divine Power a level lower, errata'd version of Righteous Might gives you one more AC and a little DR, but one less damage and much less to-hit, with the same hit point gain). Incidentally, since one's a size bonus and the other enhancement (and the hit points aren't actually a bonus to CON), they do still stack, for a total of +10 STR, twice your level in hit points (minus one, for the Bard dip), full BAB progression, +1 AC (+2 natural, -1 size), and DR/evil.

[Leon]

I'm sure someone won't agree, but consider taking Scribe Scroll.

If you have a Spare feat its a good idea, if you don't but have a Wizard in the party work with him to create some emergency scrolls.


Not Feats but like feats - Meta Magic Rods are very useful for buffing (Extend Spell, Chain Spell etc)

[NecroRick]

Aid is another interesting tactic. It grants temporary hit points, which can be very good for keeping the arcane casters out of negatives. Anyone with less than ~16 hit points in a level 3 game is a good target for this. Anyone with a d4 or d6 for hit dice is potentially better off with it before the battle than with healing after the battle. The problem is it is 2nd level, and so is competing with/overshadowed by things like cure moderate wounds.

Try to reward the players who contribute more to the team than those who were selfish. If someone is not a team player they might only get 1 cure light wounds, whereas the team players get a cure light _and_ a cure moderate (if they need it). Think of your co-players as puppies that need training, and the cure spells are your Scooby-snacks. :D

If you were in Eberron you could grab:
Mastery of Day and Night
prerequisites: Maximise Spell, Knowledge (planes) 2, Spellcraft 6
benefit: grants free maximise for cure and inflict spells

In the PHB2 there is Ritual Blessing, not as good as what you've already picked - but if you're doing bulk healing in between encounters every +2 helps. Also of course you grabbed the free heals to half-full reserve feat (well done that man). This actually works well with other sources of bonus healing because each one extends your 'endurance'.

Another combo for healing without spell-casting:
Touch of Healing + Sacred Healing (the one in Complete Divine, not the one in the PHB2)

Get everyone up to halfway, then spend a turn/rebuke to give everyone 9-12 more (assuming Cha wasn't your dump stat).

Healing Devotion is 'better' at 5th level or higher, but Sacred Healing heals _everyone_ in the party. So if you get hit by an area spell that gets everyone, or if your DM likes to "spread the love around".