Oracle with ranged healing spells? PF Only.

[Kudaku]

As the thread title reads, is there a way for an Oracle with the Life Mystery to make her healing spells gain some range, preferably without adding on spell level adjustments? At the moment I'm mostly looking for PF specific rules and books.

[NeoSeraphi]

Yes. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rods/metamagic-rods/metamagic-reach) It's actually quite easy.

Either way, you're much better off just channeling energy, since you can do that and it heals the entire group without using up a single spell slot. But the above link is by far the simplest way to do it.

[deuxhero]

Note that healing in battle is a bad idea compared to stoping the threat.

[Kudaku]

Yes. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rods/metamagic-rods/metamagic-reach) It's actually quite easy.

Brilliant, thanks for that :).



Note that healing in battle is a bad idea compared to stoping the threat.

I can't say I agree with that. Building a character specifically and only to heal is a bad idea since those resources can be put to better use stopping the opponent, yes. However there will be situations where your ability to bring someone back up from negatives can and will save that character's life - adding his resources to yours instead of seeing him bleed out while you perform your own independent action creates a net gain.

Now, every once in a while you want to throw in a heal to stop someone from dying and being able to use that healing spell at range could be crucial. For a minor expense you can now be assured that that won't be a problem :smallsmile:

[Blisstake]

And keep in mind that healing is pretty much a guarantee, while you won't always be able to stop an enemy on your turn, due to possibly many factors (SR, energy resistance, DR, too much hp, AC, immunities, etc...)

[Corlindale]

There are a number of ways to do this.

Reach Spell has been covered, highly useful, but has the drawback of level adjustment if a rod is not convenient/runs out.

Sacred Bond (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/sacred-bond) is also very nice for this, if you have the spell slots to keep it up on everyone who might need it.

Shield Other is also a kind of ranged "healing", since you have an easy time healing yourself as a life oracle anyway.

Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) can give you a familiar, which can be used to deliver touch spells. One with a flight speed will be ideal, eventually you can get an improved familiar with 90-100 ft. flight speed. Drawback is that it will have to return to you between "casts".

[NeoSeraphi]

You're welcome. I still say you should just take Selective Channel and heal the entire group. I mean, you're an oracle of life. You have the ability, so use it. You'll find that a fistful of d6 healing plus your powerful Life Link ability will often be much more effective than any cure spell.

[Ravenica]

A much easier and effective way would simply be a few skill points into UMD (and really, this gives so many other options too) and a wand of spectral hand, or an item that grants it a few times per day, or an item that allows it continiously, ect ect

it applies to all touch spells 4th level or lower and can make an oracle a MEAN addition to any party

[ericgrau]

I did a healing oracle a while back and shield other and a high hp total was more useful to save people's lives who would have died before I even had a chance to act. Keep it up 24 hours a day. Also doubles the effectiveness of your channeled heal when your turn does come. From there it was basically finding was to use my move and swift for more heals, plus other passive (non-action) effects for more healing. Or in other words if you do 4d6 of healing +2d6 is more valuable than 5d6. That's just a random example, actual numbers may vary.

On the flipside spectral hand blows an action which costs you a tremendous amount of healing. It works but not without high cost. I'd rather reach as a lost d8 per turn is usually less lost healing than an entire turn's worth. Good for a buffing round or round 1 maybe when everyone's full though even then there's temp hp or bear's endurance or attacking foes. As often pointed out attacking early is better than non-emergency healing to prevent damage. I'm still in favor of emergency healing as being cheaper than a resurrection whether it's worse at winning a fight or not (so what if other healthy allies get hurt more as a result). And mass heals like channels can be more efficient than regular heals and therefore often better than attacking even without an emergency.

There's an APG talent that lets you apply a single metamagic to a single specific spell for free. Reach spell to shield other is a good target, though you could do reach heal too.

[Kudaku]

This is not actually a character I'm playing myself, it's for one of my players. She's planning on using channel energy to power other abilities, hence the need for ranged healing. Thank you all for your suggestions :smallsmile:

[Khosan]

Another alternative is using a Words of Power (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/words-of-power) Oracle. The heals are limited to the Personal and Selected target words, and Selected can affect anything within close range.

Personally, rather than going the whole WoP route, I'd just take the Experimental Spellcaster feat listed in the SRD. You can pick up one of the Cure spells in that case.

If your DM lets you use WoP, ask him if you can combine multiple word spells of the same type, in this case healing, or even multiple uses of the same effect word. It can get kind of weird due to the ability to combine effect words. If you can use multiple instances of the same word, I outlined what you could do in the spoiler below.

Assuming you take Lesser Cure:
1st - 1d6 + CL(max 5)
2nd - N/A
3rd - 1st + 1st, 2d6 + CL (max 10)
4th - 3rd + 1st, 3d6 + CL (max 15)
5th - 3rd + 3rd, 4d6 + CL (max 20)
6th - 4th + 4th, 6d6 + CL (max 30)
7th - 5th + 5th, 8d6 + CL (max 40)
8th - 6th + 6th, 12d6 + CL (max 60)
9th - 6th + 6th + 6th, 18d6 + CL (max 90)

You can, technically, boost any one of these to change the d6s to d8s, but you only get so many meta words per day and the higher up you go the more you'd need to use (18 for a 9th).

As a bonus, you can take Experimental Spellcaster again and pick up Moderate and Greater cure, which will reduce the need to spend as many meta words to boost it. They'll also screw with the scaling a bit more:

1st - Same
2nd - 2d6 + CL (max 10)
3rd - 3d6 + CL (max 15)
4th - 2nd + 2nd, 4d6 + CL (max 20)
5th - 3rd + 3rd, 6d6 + CL (max 30)
6th - 3rd + 3rd + 3rd, 9d6 + CL (max 45)
7th - 5th + 5th, 12d6 + CL (max 60)
8th - 6th + 6th, 18d6 + CL (max 90)
9th - 6th + 6th + 6th, 27d6 (max 135)

Looks vaguely impressive, but past 6th level spells Heal will do far better. But you can still do this at range and, potentially, boost the target word to have it heal everyone (one target per CL) at the cost of increasing the spell level by 3.

Granted, that's really loose on the rules.

[NeoSeraphi]

You're welcome. I still say you should just take Selective Channel and heal the entire group. I mean, you're an oracle of life. You have the ability, so use it. You'll find that a fistful of d6 healing plus your powerful Life Link ability will often be much more effective than any cure spell.

[navar100]

Note that healing in battle is a bad idea compared to stoping the threat.

Not universally true.

Especially as an Oracle, you may not have the I Win The Combat spell you need for that particular encounter.

You, as an Oracle or a Cleric, while competent enough to defeat the bad guy are not required to be the one who actually does so. Maybe the Fighter just needs one more full round power attack. Maybe the Paladin needs one more full round smite attack. Maybe the rogue needs one more full round sneak attack. Maybe the wizard needs one more round to cast his I Win The Combat spell. However, the bad guy goes first. If your ally's current hit points + the amount you heal is greater than the bad guy's damage in his attack, party member goes and wins the day.

Even if it takes more than one more round to defeat the bad guy, if a party member goes down, that's one less party member's worth of actions. You can do your actions against the bad guy, but since it's not one round to defeat him, your party is still down one character. Spending one of your actions to heal could just be trading your actions for your party member or the bad guy will have moved on to someone else because the party member is down. Heal him, and he just might have a few more rounds of actions before the bad guy attacks him again.

Players don't like to lose their characters. Healing a party member or even yourself may just be enough to prevent character death regardless of whether or not the recipient can do anything else that combat to defeat the bad guys.

With channeling now allowing healing many characters at a range, that is good efficiency. You can possibly keep 2 or more party members from dropping for a net gain of party actions against the bad guys instead of having lost them due to PCs dropping.

[grarrrg]

Posting more of your build may be helpful.


I recommend taking the Life Link revelation if you have not already.
The most comparable thing is Shield Other, so that is what I will compare it to.

Life Link:
Automatic/no-action healing (for everyone but you of course).
Does not have a Duration, so it will last all day, or until your friends move out of range (and has no limit on number of uses).
In case of disaster, any/all Life Links can be ended as an Immediate action (Shield Other Dismisses as a Standard Action).
Does not take up spell slots.


My favorite, albeit Non-Standard, "healing" build is an Oracle 4/Paladin X (Hospitaler (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/paladin/archetypes/paizo---paladin-archetypes/hospitaler)).
For Oracle, that Life Mystery, Channel and Life Link Revelations.
Paladin has Lay on Hands and Mercies, and Hospitaler trades some uses of Smite Evil for a dedicated Channel Energy pool.

You have 4+CHAx2 uses of Channel Energy (two pools/different d6's).

At the start of the day (and as needed), establish as many Life Links as desired.
Play the character as you would a "Fighter", most damage will slowly funnel to you.
Lay on Hands can be used on yourself as a Swift Action, so it won't interfere with your normal moving and/or attacking.
If needed in combat you can Channel Energy the group for a quick pick me up (use the 'better' Channel pool).
Out of combat, you can top everyone else off with the 'weaker' Channel pool.
You also have Mercies for removing various status effects from the group.

End result: All of the "healing" the group wants, WITHOUT being a "healbot".