[PF, Psionics] Vitalist healing - balance issues?

[Darastin]

I'm currently sketching up and comparing a couple of dedicated healer concepts for a PF game I'm playing in and finaly came upon the vitalist.

While the class itself looks solid, I felt that its healing potential goes a bit through the roof upon reaching level 11 and gaining access to heal injuries.

You start at 165 HP for 11 PP (that includes the 50% mender bonus, but since I was looking for a dedicated healer, mender was the obvious method of choice), which seems fine at first, but can basically multiply it by the number of additional PP which you spend for the spirit of many augmentation option. Add overchannel to access that potential even sooner - 495 HP total, distributed among your party members as needed, for a mere 13 PP, 3d8 HP and a standard action. At level 11...

I don't know, this feels somewhat excessive... you can easily do that once or twice per fight on a normal adventuring day; completely nullifying anything that deals HP damage (unless it manages to one-hit-kill somebody) and still have enough juice for a couple of buffs etc.

On the other hand, it's only potential healing. Unless the enemies distribute all their damage output evenly on the party, you'll probably want to start healing a lot sooner. So I'm not really sure how often this will actually happen.

TL;DR:

I'd appreciate some input from players or DMs who have played or witnessed vitalists (especially menders) with heal injuries in actual play.

Thanks in advance;
Darastin

[tyckspoon]

495 HP total, distributed among your party members as needed, for a mere 13 PP, 3d8 HP and a standard action. At level 11...


If you aren't already used to the cheap and efficient ways to handle HP damage that exist, I suppose this might seem like excessive healing. But basically all it says is 'either you're dead or you're at full health'... which was already true, if you knew how healing actually works in 3.5 (this particular element was not changed in Pathfinder.) Basically, the only burst healing that matters, unless your character is specialized in making his healing effects better, is the Heal spell (or Heal Injuries being the weaker psionic version- capable of more HP but doesn't fix the raft of status effects and alternate kinds of damage that Heal does.) For everything else, you burn charges off a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. A Caster Level Wand is good for, on average, 275 HP, and by the time Heal becomes an option they're cheap enough that a party with anything near the assumed wealth can give them out as door prizes.

Basically, after you get past maybe third level (2nd if your party is smart enough to pool some of their cash to get the first wand), if you're still healing HP out of your own spell slots, you're a chump.

Edit: Also, if the Heal Injuries thing *is* a problem, it's one you're going to run into far before you actually hit Heal Injuries; Spirit of Many + Collective + Network means that all of your healing powers basically have an Augment of "Spend 1 PP to manifest this power again", which is hugely more efficient than actually augmenting the powers. If your group isn't ready for efficient and effective healing, they're going to be spooked by Mend Body + Network multiplying quite a few levels prior to Heal Injuries.

[eggs]

I'd just like to point out that Heal Injuries doesn't have the network descriptor.

EDIT: ...Unless the srd is wrong to omit the [healing] descriptor, anyway. That descriptor was definitely in the 3e version, but the 3e Heal Injuries was also a third as potent, so I really don't know if it should be there or not.

And as far as feedback on the ability itself, I haven't played with the Vitalist, but I've run a Worldthought Medic (Dreamscarred Press's 3e model of the class) and have DMed for a couple of WtMs. They do a ton of healing, but that's not usually too overwhelming because D&D characters and monsters hit like wrecking balls: No matter how many HP are recovered for a particular creature, its' never going to be further than two rounds of concentrated fire away from the grave.

The WtMs might trivialize an encounter with lots of damage spread around the party (like a mass combat with sandbagging tactics or a creature based around fireballs or breath weapons), but in more conventional situations, they're at worst a strong HP battery. If their HP-restores seem too cheap, try pushing for more of an endurance focus in dungeon designs or daily encounters - lots of encounters between breaks, and lots of HP-sapping effects (but if you go about this with more monsters, dumb bruisers are probably ideal - anything to justify not focusing fire, which would likely leave a character dead).

Also, in a party reliant on a Worldthought Medic/Vitalist's HP recharge, tagging the WtM with a Stun effect is a good way to make the players **** themselves.

[Psyren]

I agree with the other folks here - Mender Vitalists can heal for a lot, but (a) that's their job and (b) if they didn't, in-combat healing would be as pointless as it is now. They're very good at it, sure, but are still weak offensively and must burn resources to do so.


I'd just like to point out that Heal Injuries doesn't have the network descriptor.

EDIT: ...Unless the srd is wrong to omit the [healing] descriptor, anyway. That descriptor was definitely in the 3e version, but the 3e Heal Injuries was also a third as potent, so I really don't know if it should be there or not.

Please note that the version of the Vitalist on the PFSRD is not the final version of the class - rather, they uploaded the initial release from the Mind Over Body serial rather than the completed Psionics Expanded (or Ultimate Psionics.) In those later releases, Heal Injuries does indeed have the [healing] descriptor and so can be manifest by a Vitalist over their collective using their Medic Powers class feature.