Custom Magic Item Granting Feat: Spontaneous Healer

[SethoMarkus]

Alright, as the title says I need help creating and pricing a custom magic item that will allow one of my players to function as though she had taken the Spontaneous Healer feat (Complete Divine).

The Situation:
The player, we'll call her Susie, wants to play a Druid (4) who will act as the party's main healer; she is taking a Hawk familiar and using a Shortbow for support when not healing/casting offensive spells. Susie is taking Touch of Healing and Augment Healing, and does not want to take Spontaneous Rejuvenation (the ACF in PHBII), instead opting to keep Spontaneous Summon Nature's Ally for summoning Unicorns and Coatls at later levels.

She would like to take Spontaneous Healer to top off the healing, and then focus the rest of her attention elsewhere. However, a pre-requisite for Spontaneous Healer is 4 ranks of Knowledge (Religion), which is not a class skill for Druid.

The Solution:
I proposed introducing a magic item (either as loot or available for purchase/trade/reward) that would give the same functionality of Spontaneous Healer. So far, I am considering making a magic Rod that works similar to the Metamagic Rods, except it would convert a spell used into a "Cure" spell of the appropriate level. The item would be usable 3 times per day.

Currently, I'm looking at the following options:


4,600gp = [3,000gp as lesser metamagic rod (enlarge, extend, silent) + (4^2 x 100gp) skill competence] *only works on spells of 3rd level or lower, usable 3/day

4,000gp = [4,000gp as Gloves of Arrow Snatching, (as though having feat, without needing to meet pre-requisites)] *usable 2/day

6,400gp = [8,000gp for feat replication (as Spell Penetration from "Third Eye Penetrate" item or Two-Weapon Fighting from "Gloves of the Balanced Hand" item) + (4^2 x 100gp) skill competence / (5/3) for use 3 times a day] *usable 3/day


Or am I just overthinking the whole thing and should just give her the option to take the feat without meeting the skill requirements/bar the feat/make her take 4 cross-class ranks?

I don't want to put too much focus on crunch, since all of the players prefer having a colorful character rather than an OP character, but I also don't want to bend rules if I don't have to. Making her buy a magic item or finding one and having it count towards her wealth-by-level would be much preferable to me. Also, this is good practice for me to learn custom item creation rules (which we never much paid attention to in the past).

Thanks in advance to anyone that helps!

-Seth

[NoACWarrior]

While you COULD make a magic item which grants a class feature, theres other ways to get the spontaneous healer feat.

She could go with a particular Race / Template / Feat which gives her the knowledge skill as a class skill. She could simply multi-class. Or she could wait 2 more levels to get that feat.

A feat from complete champion (domain, but doesnt list it requires a domain for entry), requires knowledge 5 in another knowledge, and adds any other knowledge to her class skill list (also gives a few more abilities much like the archivist's knowledge ability) for which at 3rd level she could max out her knowledge religion and then pick up the spontaneous healing feat at 3rd level.

[SethoMarkus]

A feat from complete champion (domain, but doesnt list it requires a domain for entry), requires knowledge 5 in another knowledge, and adds any other knowledge to her class skill list

Huh, never noticed that bit in the Knowledge Devotion feat before; I'll run that past her and see if she bites. It really seems like it might be the best solution, rather than forcing a magic item into the mix... Thanks for the suggestion!

[Segev]

Honestly, I'd just go for allowing her a feat or something to take the skill in-class.

[Gabrosin]

She wants to fill the main healer role while being a druid. Taking on that role is something of a sacrifice for a character, because you have to use your character's actions and resources to keep the rest of the party alive. Personally I wouldn't penalize that person further by forcing them to obtain a magic item or take a feat in order to do spontaneous conversion.

Assuming no one in the rest of the party is going to throw a fit over it (and really, why would they), I'd just tell her that she can spontaneous convert in either direction, or give her a free slotless item to accomplish the same. It's not going to affect party balance and only marginally affects party success. She still has the same number of spell slots to use for splitting between healing spells and the spells she actually wants to cast.

Alternately, you can simply make healing items plentiful, or suggest that the party invest in Healing Belts and Wands of Lesser Vigor. Then you don't need a dedicated healer. My current party is a Warblade, a Warmage, a Rogue, a Rogue-like, and a Paladin, and I think we get by just fine with no primary and one secondary healer.

[eggynack]

Why not just skip the knowledge (religion) prerequisite? It seems like a much more elegant alteration to the game than making and pricing an item, or doing some other thing. It's pretty far from the best a druid can do with their feats.