Lower-tier class that can heal/buff

[molten_dragon]

I'm playing in a campaign my wife is running. She's trying to keep the players from getting overpowered, since she's running a module and doesn't want to have to change a bunch of stuff. To that end, she's banned Tier 1 classes.

We're currently 5th level, and the party consists of:

LE Battle Sorcerer (me), planning to go gish with swiftblade and eventually Abjurant Champion.
LN Binder
CN Psion (kineticist)
N Bard

The only person in the party who can do any sort of healing is the bard, and he has pretty much said he hates healing people and doesn't intend to use healing spells.

That being the case, I'm seriously considering taking leadership at 6th level to get a cohort that can heal/buff the party and help keep us alive. I've discussed it with the DM, and she's tentatively okay with it, as long as the character isn't too powerful and doesn't outshine anyone else in the party.

Since Cleric is out of the question, I'm considering other options for what to take as a cohort. Favored Soul seems to be the easiest choice, but the DM is concerned about me having a T2 cohort. Is there anything that can heal/buff decently well but we wouldn't have to worry about overshadowing anyone? I looked at the Healer class from the Minis Handbook, and it seems like it could possibly work, except for the requirement to be good.

I'm hoping maybe there's something out there I haven't though of.

[Gnorman]

Healer is pretty much the definition of "won't overshadow anyone."

Make the healer chaotic good. Opposites attract.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Why so you need a NPC? You have a Bard. Maybe your Bard needs some help Optimizing their character.

Anyway, Bard is T3, Your party comp rules out Paladin and makes Healer is unlikely. Paladin of Tyranny and Slaughter both don't get cures on their lists. Anything else I could list would be a terribad healer that would only be useful for using wands and scrolls but the Bard and the Binder can already do that.

Oh ****, why'd this take me so long to think of ADEPT!

[2xMachina]

Yeah. Even a cleric heal-bot isn't very powerful. Stay away from self-buffs or summons, and you're golden.

Go with the Favoured Soul, then pick healing/party buff spells. Let the DM approve the spells. Generally, T1/2 is nothing without the few OP spells.

[Cespenar]

Tiers don't mean anything if you don't play them accordingly. Just pick a Cleric and build it in an underpowered way, make bad spell choices, bad feat choices, crappy stats, etc.

[drew2u]

I've created a homebrew "battlefield medic" class whose main purpose is support and healing. If you want to try that out (I haven't posted it on the forums but I can PM you), I can send it to you.

[BlueEyes]

Take Favored Soul and pick only healing/buffing spells. Or take Healer.

[Elfinor]

You can pick a healing psionic class: Psion (Egoist), Life Mantled Ardent, Life Mantled Wilder. Egoist in particular lends itself to Sangehirn (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625c) at Level 7. Sangehirn locks the cohort into 'heal mode' and is fairly durable, good for a cohort. Psionic classes have next to no buffing capabilities (non-personal ones, I mean) and lack the ability to cure disease/poison outright, but Empathic Transfer can transfer them to the cohort instead of a PC:smalltongue:

Oriental Adventures Shaman (updated in Dragon 318, but you're not missing out on much) has pretty much the healing capability of a core cleric and decent buffs from the Druid List. They suggest adding spells to the spell list in Spell Compendium, see if you can get the Vigor line approved for it. Because their spell list is effectively a Cleric/Druid hybrid, a lot of potential power hinges on added spells - there's probably a homebrew list floating around on the net somewhere.

Sprit ShamanCDiv=spontaneous Druid spell list, capable buffers and healers. And flexible, thanks to their weird spell mechanic. It hasn't been 'officially' graded though AFAIK, some say it's a Tier 1 class. EDIT:JaronK's opinion

Water Shugenja makes for a decent option but they're too squishy for a cohort IMO. No armor and a d6 hit die.

I think that's all of the classes with any reasonable healing except Favoured Soul, Bard, Factotum, Healer & Adept. There's always the 'UMD a wand of cure light wounds' option, too.

[molten_dragon]

Why so you need a NPC? You have a Bard. Maybe your Bard needs some help Optimizing their character.

The player of the bard has made it clear that he doesn't like healing people and doesn't intend to use his spells for healing. I already said that.

[Flickerdart]

The player of the bard has made it clear that he doesn't like healing people and doesn't intend to use his spells for healing. I already said that.
So have him use a wand? No spells necessary.

[BlueEyes]

So have him use a wand? No spells necessary.
That's still healing people. He doesn't like healing people. Although maybe he's talking about healing in combat. That should be avoided. molten_dragon, does he mean healing in combat or healing in general?

[Empedocles]

Domain adept with the healer domain, or if the bard will do some healing you could go dragon shaman. It'll buff everybody, give limited healing, and definitely won't overshadow anyone.