Increasing healing amount (either hp or times/encounter) help!

[WarKitty]

So I'm playing a shaman in a group of 8 people. I'm the only leader in the group. Rather unsurprisingly, this means I'm frequently just not able to keep up with the amount of healing that the party needs. The biggest issue is the 2/encounter limit on my healing spirits ability...if there is any way around that it would be really helpful. If not, anything to maximize hp or provide more hit points in other ways (even temp hp) would be useful. We have a paladin for a little back-up healing but not a lot.

http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=26485 there's my sheet. Basic characteristics (race, stats, etc.) are locked in - only normal retraining rules allowed for respecing.

[DragonBaneDM]

You could try multiclassing Leader. I see Divine Secret Keeper on your list, and I think that's Invoker, right? Cleric would net you an extra Daily heal. It's not much, but good in a clutch!

[Ashdate]

Your group sounds a bit large, but some questions:

1) Are people using their second wind consistently every battle?
2) Are healing potions readily available?
3) Are some of the classes using abilities that let them spend a healing surge (i.e. Fighter's Daily 1, Comeback Strike)?

Most leaders are going to have issues keeping everyone up in that situation. If you answered "No" to any of those, I would suggest talking to your party and seeing if they can lighten the load on you by using any of the above methods.

If you answered "yes" to all of them, then it sounds like some people should look into multiclassing into leader classes (like DragonBane says).

[Doug Lampert]

Your group sounds a bit large, but some questions:
...
If you answered "yes" to all of them, then it sounds like some people should look into multiclassing into leader classes (like DragonBane says).

I'm running for seven with only one leader, and 4 multiclass leaders and 3 divine boons of Erathis and a fair number of potions and a the cleric healer has almost all her utility powers as healing powers and a couple of other items that let people spend a surge and a paladin with several extra self-heals. It works.

One real leader to 7+ characters means that healing is EVERYBODY'S job, the leader is simply the one who specializes in it.

[WarKitty]

Your group sounds a bit large, but some questions:

1) Are people using their second wind consistently every battle?

The ones at risk have been. There's a couple of characters that are the ones that consistently get hurt. We're also low on controllers, and the DM has been throwing complex battle-maps at us. The basic issue we've been having is that either (a) the defenders try to keep everyone safe and end up getting swarmed, or (b) our (mostly ranged) strikers end up getting stuck in solo melee with enemies that can kill them quickly.


2) Are healing potions readily available?
I can't recall ever seeing a potion for anything


3) Are some of the classes using abilities that let them spend a healing surge (i.e. Fighter's Daily 1, Comeback Strike)?
Not sure how many of those we have. I know the defenders have been using them.


Most leaders are going to have issues keeping everyone up in that situation. If you answered "No" to any of those, I would suggest talking to your party and seeing if they can lighten the load on you by using any of the above methods.

If you answered "yes" to all of them, then it sounds like some people should look into multiclassing into leader classes (like DragonBane says).

[Drglenn]

Two feats you might want to consider:
Vigorous Spirit (Primal Power): +Wis mod to the target of your healing spirit (i.e. the one that's spending a healing surge)
Master of Stories [Multiclass Bard] (Heroes of the Feywild): Prereqs: Cha 13 (so you can take it at level 4 if you raise Cha then), You get the Skald's aura power and you or an ally can get healing (HS+d6 at the moment) from it 1/encounter

Also yea, potions would be a good idea. If your DM doesn't want you to be able to buy potions, ask him/her if someone in the group with rituals (if there is one) can get the Brew Potion ritual at some point. They'll only be able to make cure light wounds potions (from Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, uses a healing surge (unless the drinker is blooded and has no healing surges in which case its free), heals 1d8+1 hp, level 1 potion, costs 20gp) but that's better than nothing.

[Mandrake]

Many different solutions to your problem, consider the following:

Player's Handbook, page 255. Potions of Healing. Get zounds. And Quick Draw! :)
Multiclassing into Leaders, for your allies.
You take feats that max healing (sorry, no time to discuss this, or check your sheet for that matter :)).
Player's Handbook 3 - Skill Utilities (around page 160 I think). Make your friends take those that grant them surge use or a saving throw, instead of their not-so-useful class utilities. The advantage is that they don't have to spend a feat for MC.

Hope this helps.

[Kurald Galain]

The ones at risk have been. There's a couple of characters that are the ones that consistently get hurt. We're also low on controllers, and the DM has been throwing complex battle-maps at us.
That should be part of the problem: second wind is almost always a waste of your action unless you're a warden or a dwarf (and if fighters are using Comeback Strike then they should drop that for a more effective daily instead). If a group is using second wind a lot then this generally indicates they need to work out better group tactics.

For example, focus fire. Also, it's not the defender's job to mark everything; the other characters can take a hit or two to keep the heat off the defender. If the ranged strikers get stuck in melee then they need to take better mobility powers. Also, everybody should carry a potion of healing as an emergency measure, especially to get the healer back up. Finally, if you're short on healing powers, try using them only on characters that are already down, as this is more efficient.

Oh yeah, consider investing in a Battle Standard of Healing. It's not expensive and very useful in a big group.

[Seerow]

Oh yeah, consider investing in a Battle Standard of Healing. It's not expensive and very useful in a big group.


And can be oh so very much fun with the rule that any healing on an unconscious character brings them up to 0 then adds 1. I was in a big group with one of those once, and had the same character drop about 10 times in the same battle, because we'd keep healing other people, he'd get up, then someone would drop him back down again before he got a turn to get to a better position. It was pretty hilarious, but keeping him down wound up wasting a lot of enemy actions and probably saved us in the end.

[WarKitty]

That should be part of the problem: second wind is almost always a waste of your action unless you're a warden or a dwarf (and if fighters are using Comeback Strike then they should drop that for a more effective daily instead). If a group is using second wind a lot then this generally indicates they need to work out better group tactics.

For example, focus fire. Also, it's not the defender's job to mark everything; the other characters can take a hit or two to keep the heat off the defender. If the ranged strikers get stuck in melee then they need to take better mobility powers. Also, everybody should carry a potion of healing as an emergency measure, especially to get the healer back up. Finally, if you're short on healing powers, try using them only on characters that are already down, as this is more efficient.

Oh yeah, consider investing in a Battle Standard of Healing. It's not expensive and very useful in a big group.

I think we're still learning tactics. We've had a LOT of limited mobility maps - actually all our battles for the last 2 sessions were on maps that limited our mobility in various ways. Our DM tends to favor throwing us into combat when coming directly out of a narrow space, which has resulted in the front-line defender getting hammered down to 1/3 health in the first turn. Have also been having issues with finding anywhere for the ranged characters to stand that doesn't put them in danger from multiple enemies.

Our group:
Paladin - our primary frontliner, very good at drawing fire but tends to get hurt a lot.

Fighter - Mainly an interrupt build, slowly learning tactics (works best with the rogue). Also tends to end up severely damaged.

Fighter - plays striker-y despite being a defender class. Not sure how he plays as he's only there half the time. Has ADD issues.

Rogue - does better, although we've had some trouble setting up flanks for her. Has occasional problems with being cornered. Has ADD issues

Ranger - does insane amounts of damage, but insanely squishy. Also a bit reckless, we've been having a lot of issues where he can either stay safe or get LoS. Has bad ADD issues.

Druid - having issues, much less optimized than the rest of the group. Just hasn't been contributing much.

Wizard - plays kind of striker-y, though focused on multi-target attacks. Uses teleport + shield to stay safe.

[Chambers]

If you can use Themes, then the Knight Hospitaler theme is good for a healer. The Shield of Devotion power they get is an immediate reaction that lets them regain a set number of HP. Useful for off-turn healing.

[Alex Star]

First off reading your Tactics post it appears thats a major problem.

I'm going to guess you have your defenders leading the group. Presumably either your Ranger or your Rogue has exceptional stealth skills.

This character should be scouting at least 10 squares ahead of the group. (my Assassin often scouts about 20)

This should easily limit the number of times that you are caught in a situations where you are stumbling out of a hallway.

Your Wizard deciding to be a minion hunter is kinda weak. You've taken a class designed to make the most powerful monsters in the game rework their tactics and reduced it to hunting 1 HP fodder.

[WarKitty]

First off reading your Tactics post it appears thats a major problem.

I'm going to guess you have your defenders leading the group. Presumably either your Ranger or your Rogue has exceptional stealth skills.

This character should be scouting at least 10 squares ahead of the group. (my Assassin often scouts about 20)

This should easily limit the number of times that you are caught in a situations where you are stumbling out of a hallway.p/

Your Wizard deciding to be a minion hunter is kinda weak. You've taken a class designed to make the most powerful monsters in the game rework their tactics and reduced it to hunting 1 HP fodder.

You do realize none of those were ambush situations? We weren't caught off guard, we just had only one way to go and it had watchful enemies at the end of a narrow hallway.

[Treblain]

Some thoughts:

There's a feat, I think it's Strengthening Spirit, that gives Wis mod temps to all allies adjacent to your spirit companion when you use Healing Spirit. It's an alternative to Vigorous Spirit that's great if you have a lot of allies and they're bunched up.

Take a paladin or cleric multiclass so you can use holy symbols. Some of them are have good healing powers or let you add their enhancement bonus to your heals.

Skald multiclass has been mentioned; it's a better source of healing from MC than most leader MCs.

Otherwise, there's not that much you can do on your own. Spirit of the Healing Flood is the right daily, anyway. It's hard to keep that large a group healed up with one leader, and you don't have that many options at low level. Don't worry about it too much.

[OpenPalm]

Talk to the Druid player and ask him to become a Sentinel. It's a subclass of druid which exchanges the Wild Shape abilities and encounter powers for healing, Combined Attack and an animal companion. This way the Druid can always contribute with healing and using his pet to soak up damage. This build is in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.