[3.5] How to build a healing based cleric.

[Yael]

One friend of mine wants to play a healing based cleric, I suggested feats like divine metamagic and extra turning for quicken and else, reach spell and some options. He is playing Illuminan, any tip?

[eggynack]

I think that one of the best things for a healing focused guy is radiant servant of pelor from complete divine. At 2nd level, it empowers the healing spells that you prepare from the healing domain, at 6th it maximizes them, and at 10th it does both. It's a pretty sweet prestige class, and not too hard to get into either.

[thethird]

The most fun I had playing a cleric was a radiant servant of the sovereign host.

Dropping free maximized empowered cure spells that also had some minor buffs.

Basically Cloistered Cleric (of the sovereign host 5) / Sovereign speaker 1 / Radiant servant of the Sovereign Host 2 / Sovereign speaker +4 / Combat medic 5 / Radiant servant of the Sovereign Host +3

A lot of uses of domains and good in combat healing capability since it buffs when healing.

[GreenETC]

I think that one of the best things for a healing focused guy is radiant servant of pelor from complete divine. At 2nd level, it empowers the healing spells that you prepare from the healing domain, at 6th it maximizes them, and at 10th it does both. It's a pretty sweet prestige class, and not too hard to get into either.
I would second this, as it's basically Cleric+ for those who want to heal. There's no downside, and it's almost an afterthought to get into. I would also recommend the Touch of Healing reserve feat, so he has limitless healing.

Also, see if you can steer him into damage mitigation instead of just flat healing. Give him heavy armor and a shield. Have him buff the allies and stand and take hits, give flanking bonuses, or just aid another in combat. Trying to heal them from farther away is not really that effective, as just slapping reach on a heal spell lowers the bonus by 2d8 HP. With spontaneous Cures and a decent spell list, he can basically keep his Domain spells as emergency items, since they'll be so strong.

[Humble Master]

Good Cleric with Healing domain then Radiant Servant and Augment Healing for max healing per spell using only core and Complete Divine.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Note that Radiant Servant only empowers/maximizes healing spells you cast from your domain slots, not just spells that appear on the healing domain list. It specifically only applies to your domain spells cast, i.e. that +1 spell per spell level that's reserved for a domain spell.

Healing as a primary focus is one of the most suboptimal paths to take in this game, as preventing damage to your party is exponentially more effective and efficient. However, if he wants to be healing in combat, then he may as well do something useful at the same time:

Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5/ Crusader 9, bind Naberius for Faster Ability Healing. Use Crusader strikes to heal allies while you attack, and spend a swift action every round to heal someone for 20 points of damage on top of that. When your Hellreaver point pool gets used up, you can fully refresh it as a swift action for Con damage, which you fully heal within two rounds. That build gets to keep attacking every round on top of healing every round with absolutely no daily limit to how much healing you can do, and it still gets 9th level maneuvers at 20th level.

[Humble Master]

I also forgot about the Vigor spells which grants fast healing. You just cast em at the beginning of combat and then your allies get healed during combat. You can then spend your turns doing other stuff.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I also forgot about the Vigor spells which grants fast healing. You just cast em at the beginning of combat and then your allies get healed during combat. You can then spend your turns doing other stuff.

Or you could just DMM: Persist Mass Lesser Vigor to give the whole party Fast Healing 1 all day every day, and as long as you prevent enough damage during combat to keep everyone alive the party can spend a few minutes waiting to be back at full health for free.

[Humble Master]

Or you could just DMM: Persist Mass Lesser Vigor to give the whole party Fast Healing 1 all day every day, and as long as you prevent enough damage during combat to keep everyone alive the party can spend a few minutes waiting to be back at full health for free.
Divine Metamagic, what can't it solve? Defiantly an optimal solution. I would like to point out however that Radiant Servant also murders undead. Still cure spells suck compared to vigor.

[eggynack]

Note that Radiant Servant only empowers/maximizes healing spells you cast from your domain slots, not just spells that appear on the healing domain list. It specifically only applies to your domain spells cast, i.e. that +1 spell per spell level that's reserved for a domain spell.

Healing as a primary focus is one of the most suboptimal paths to take in this game, as preventing damage to your party is exponentially more effective and efficient. However, if he wants to be healing in combat, then he may as well do something useful at the same time:

Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5/ Crusader 9, bind Naberius for Faster Ability Healing. Use Crusader strikes to heal allies while you attack, and spend a swift action every round to heal someone for 20 points of damage on top of that. When your Hellreaver point pool gets used up, you can fully refresh it as a swift action for Con damage, which you fully heal within two rounds. That build gets to keep attacking every round on top of healing every round with absolutely no daily limit to how much healing you can do, and it still gets 9th level maneuvers at 20th level.
I don't disagree that healing is lame, but radiant servant of pelor is super cool. It restricts you to healing a little bit, but it's not shoehorning you into anything. If you really want to pump your jujubes into being the party healer, radiant servant is the first step on that path. In fact, only pulling super healing out of domain slots might be a good thing, because it forces the guy to diversify his actions a little. Healing is suboptimal, but that just means that you've gotta optimize it all the more. The prestige class gives you a lot of really cool things, and I don't think it's so bad that one of them is healing.

[angry_bear]

Is the healing domain really all that effective though? With access to spontaneous casting, I'm not sure if I'd take it as a good aligned cleric to be honest.

Radiant Servant of Pelor looks solid, but wouldn't damage prevention be more effective than actual healing? I guess you could probably do both with the PrC though.

[eggynack]

Is the healing domain really all that effective though? With access to spontaneous casting, I'm not sure if I'd take it as a good aligned cleric to be honest.

Radiant Servant of Pelor looks solid, but wouldn't damage prevention be more effective than actual healing? I guess you could probably do both with the PrC though.
Yeah, it kinda forces you into two rather mediocre domains. Sun is OK, but it certainly doesn't top the charts. Still, you pick up a free domain at level five, and the class features are generally pretty good, so it balances out alright. The prestige class isn't topping the charts in terms of power, but it's probably an upgrade of some kind. You wouldn't really take the healing domain in general, though it might be worth the cost for these purposes.

[angry_bear]

Yeah, it kinda forces you into two rather mediocre domains. Sun is OK, but it certainly doesn't top the charts. Still, you pick up a free domain at level five, and the class features are generally pretty good, so it balances out alright. The prestige class isn't topping the charts in terms of power, but it's probably an upgrade of some kind. You wouldn't really take the healing domain in general, though it might be worth the cost for these purposes.

Well, I guess the PrC gives you exactly what you want; which is awesome healing... I wouldn't call it super awesome or anything, but if you want to play a healbot, it'll let you do exactly that... Honestly the main downside to the class itself is you have to be a cleric of Pelor. lol

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you get the Healing domain, then definitely get the spontaneous domain casting ACF in PH2 for it, so you can at least spontaneously cast Heal.

I agree that Radiant Servant is a phenomenal prestige class, but for a healing-based character it's not so great, even though it's probably the best option out there. That says a lot for how good a healing-based character can even be built.

Another thing to note are that the Mass Cure spells have a set number of targets, rather than all designated targets within a certain area/distance (example: Horrid Wilting). That means you can designate targets up to that maximum number, even if you pick the same creature multiple times. For example, say a Cleric 9 casts Mass Cure Light Wounds. He targets one creature twice, one creature three times, and one creature four times. The creature targeted twice is healed for 2d8+18. The creature targeted three times is healed for 3d8+25 (because it can't go above +25). The creature targeted four times is healed for 4d8+25 (again it can't go above +25). This often overlooked use of these spells actually makes them useful, since you're almost never going to have enough individual targets to use its full capacity without targeting someone twice.

[hushblade]

Could one take the spontaneous domain spells feature so all spontaneously cast spells from the healing domain get empowered/maximized?

[killem2]

Could one take the spontaneous domain spells feature so all spontaneously cast spells from the healing domain get empowered/maximized?

I would say it does. It doesn't say you need to have anything prepare, raw says it just has to be from the healing domain, so if you turned all your slots into domain choices, then, I think you are golden.

[gorfnab]

Paladins can make effective healers. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19859750/Paladin_Healing_Optimization&post_num=10#338083454)

[Amoren]

A persisted mass (X) Vigor spell should cover most of the healing you'd need through the day, and if not, will at least save on wasting spell slots to heal in between combats. I do recommend suggesting that he makes his healer capable of something else besides healing, whether it be buffing/debuffing, or going Zilla until someone needs healing.

Reach spell probably isn't needed to much. I think I remember a feat in Complete Champion or Complete Divine that gives all healing touch spells a range of 30ft for free.

One combination I like, actually, is Cleric + Knight of the Raven + Radiant Servant of Pelor. Knight of the Raven (From Expedition to Castle Ravenloft) gives you the sun domain for free at third level, so you still have your choice of two domains before then. You can even take a dip in Prestige Paladin (if its allowed) to make a very thematic anti-undead holy warrior who can also heal like a boss.

[thethird]

If domains are a problem, this guy has 7 extra domains...


The most fun I had playing a cleric was a radiant servant of the sovereign host.

Dropping free maximized empowered cure spells that also had some minor buffs.

Basically Cloistered Cleric (of the sovereign host 5) / Sovereign speaker 1 / Radiant servant of the Sovereign Host 2 / Sovereign speaker +4 / Combat medic 5 / Radiant servant of the Sovereign Host +3

A lot of uses of domains and good in combat healing capability since it buffs when healing.

[Keld Denar]

There is a lot of debate whether or not things like the Domain Spontinaity ACF from Complete Champ or the Spontaneous Domain [Divine] feat from Complete Divine really count for RSoP's Empowered Healing ability. The two main schools of thought are whether it's the SPELL, or the SLOT. If its the SLOT, then no amount of ACF's or feats will fix it. You get 9 domain slots, period. If it's the spell, there is a bit more flexibility, but that kinda opens up the can of worms because if it IS the spell, then why wouldn't any other spell that appears on the domain list not be empowered, spontaneous or otherwise.

Anyway, I think that RSoP 5 is an awesome jumping out point. Empowered is better than Maximized for most healing spells, especially with Augmented Healing, so Maximized is actually a bit of a step back. Then you have to slog through it for 4 levels until you finally get it back, meanwhile you are getting no worthwhile class features. The positive energy nova is pretty crappy, especially compared to the might of your Greater Turnings (which, with a little gear allows you to turn dust Liches by about level 10).

I'd start level 12 off with either Sacred Exorcist (great PrC with some interesting abilities, including permanent Consecrate field which helps with TU checks including Divine Spell Power), Demonwrecker from the Expedition to the Demonweb Pits mod, or if you are less concerned with advancing turning, Contemplative.

Don't forget your Turn Anathema spell from Complete Champion. Why settle for only turning undead when you can turn anything with the [Evil] subtype? Sadly, you can't dust them with a Greater Turning, but still, being able to turn a Balor at level 13 or so is kinda smexy.

[killem2]

I am curious about this build.

I've been deciding between necromancer type cleric, buffer cleric, healer cleric for quite a while.

Using this feat:

Dynamic Priest [General] (Legends of the Twins)

Your self-confidence and force of personality are the foundations of your faith.

Benefit: For the purpose of determining bonus divine spells per day and maximum divine spell level, your primary spellcasting ability is Charisma. If you have more than one divine spellcasting class, the bonus applies to only one of those classes. Your spell save DCs are not affected by this change.

Special: You may only take this feat as a 1st-level character. If you take this feat more than once, it applies to a different divine spellcasting class each time. You may take this feat even if you have no divine spellcasting classes yet.

Save DCs won't matter much since you're not really aiming spells at baddies right?

Would you stay wisdom based or go full charisma based, and what race?


As far as the issue with the Radiant Servant:

Empower Healing (Ex): When a radiant servant of Pelor of at least 2nd level casts a domain spell from the Healing domain, that spell is affected as though by the Empower Spell feat. This spell does not use up a higher-level slot.

That's what it says.

I don't think the Empower Healing cares about how you got your domain spell to go of, only that you are granted access to that spell, from the domain.

One could argue the SLOT usage at the end, but one could also say that is a standard contract of raw used with all meta effects.