Cohort healer

[killingfish]

Im looking to build a Cohort whos main priority is to heal, buffing is welcome. however i am new to D&D and have only really played a fighter.
The cohort can be any class LA +0 +1 apart from the things with wings.
The Cohort will start at lv 5, the party is now lv 9 (i just have bad charisma, but taken leadership to fill in a feat gap)
Please can someone help a noob :)
might be a bit hard but a decent ac would be nice as ik most healing spells are touch not ranged

[carrdrivesyou]

You may wish to look at the Healer from the Miniatures handbook. I think there is a prestige class in there called combat medic that could be uesful.

Other than that, you could try a Cloistered cleric of Pelor and eventually take him up the route of radiant Servant of Pelor in later levels. (see complete divine)


Just my thoughts here,
-Carr

[AvatarVecna]

Cleric, Bard, and Druid from Core can be pretty good. Artificers are good if they can make Wands of Cure Light Wounds/Vigor (I don't recall if they can or not).

[ranagrande]

Adepts, Archivists, Ardents, Artificers, Bards, Clerics, Druids, Favored Souls, Healers, Mystics, Shamans, Shugenjas, and Spirit Shamans all make good healers.

The Artificer is probably the best at everything, but not until level 7 when the get Craft Wand.

The best healer/buffer at level 5 will be the Archivist, but those can be a lot of work, especially if you're not used to casters.

[Quertus]

Being new... yet wanting to take leadership and run 2 characters? One of them almost certainly a spellcaster? I'd recommend the easiest, most focused spellcaster you can get for your cohort. And, since he is going to be 4 levels behind the party, I'd recommend making him easy to keep alive.

Human Cleric 5
Items: Full Plate Mail, Large Steel Shield, Holy Symbol, Wand of Lesser Vigor, Wand of Faith Heal, Amulet of Emergency Healing
Feats: Troll-Blooded, Toughness (pre-req for troll-blooded), Touch of Healing
Spells: Cure Light Wounds, Lesser Vigor, Faith Heal, Cure Moderate Wounds (don't cast it - just keep it for Touch of Healing)

For buffs, add in whatever spells you need... Bull's Strength and Greater Magic Weapon, perhaps?

Not sure the WbL, and it's a little cheesy, but you could always try for several Eternal Wands of Arcane Lesser Vigor / Faith Heal. But, then, even with max ranks in UMD, the Cleric will still usually fail at activating them - probably only good if other party members also have UMD. You could change his class to Spellcaster from Monte Cook's Unearthed Arcana... but as an Arcane caster, he would lose HP and AC, relegating him even further to a "between combats" healer, as you have to wait for him to literally "pull himself together" after he gets hit before he can heal you.

[AvatarVecna]

Being new... yet wanting to take leadership and run 2 characters? One of them almost certainly a spellcaster? I'd recommend the easiest, most focused spellcaster you can get for your cohort. And, since he is going to be 4 levels behind the party, I'd recommend making him easy to keep alive.

Human Cleric 5
Items: Full Plate Mail, Large Steel Shield, Holy Symbol, Wand of Lesser Vigor, Wand of Faith Heal, Amulet of Emergency Healing
Feats: Troll-Blooded, Toughness (pre-req for troll-blooded), Touch of Healing
Spells: Cure Light Wounds, Lesser Vigor, Faith Heal, Cure Moderate Wounds (don't cast it - just keep it for Touch of Healing)

For buffs, add in whatever spells you need... Bull's Strength and Greater Magic Weapon, perhaps?

Not sure the WbL, and it's a little cheesy, but you could always try for several Eternal Wands of Arcane Lesser Vigor / Faith Heal. But, then, even with max ranks in UMD, the Cleric will still usually fail at activating them - probably only good if other party members also have UMD. You could change his class to Spellcaster from Monte Cook's Unearthed Arcana... but as an Arcane caster, he would lose HP and AC, relegating him even further to a "between combats" healer, as you have to wait for him to literally "pull himself together" after he gets hit before he can heal you.

You only need UMD if you can't use it normally; even if the spells in question aren't on the cleric list, he can just take the Magic domain to act as a Wizard of half his cleric level.

I think that's correct at least; if I'm wrong, I'm sure somebody will be along to correct me with quotes, I'm sure.

[Flickerdart]

Don't eternal wands only work on arcane spells?

[Rubik]

Artificer or cleric with a longbow and +1 spell storing dye arrows (from Pathfinder) filled with buffs, and Cure and Lesser Vigor spells? Make the arrows out of aurorum (from the Book of Exalted Deeds) or shapesand (from Sandstorm) so you can collect the pieces afterwards and put the arrows back together again.

That way he can heal from across the battlefield as an attack action, rather than having to run up to his party members and spend a standard action.

Keep regular +1 spell storing arrows (or arrows made from shapesand) to attack enemies with offensive spells, as well. Just make sure they're in a different quiver entirely.

[Quertus]

Don't eternal wands only work on arcane spells?

Correct. This is why I specified eternal wands of arcane lesser vigor. Created via whatever shenanigans (arcane spellcaster from Unearthed Arcana who chose lesser vigor as one of their spells is probably the easiest). And why I said the Cleric would need UMD or need to be changed to an Arcane Spellcaster to be able to use them.

[Troacctid]

You wouldn't need UMD. Only spell completion items, such as scrolls, are divided into arcane and divine. Wands only care if you have the spell on your class spell list.

I don't see why they need to be eternal wands, though. Why not just regular wands? If you really want daily charges, you can get a healing belt.

[Rubik]

Regular wands are better for healing than eternal wands anyway, as the latter quickly lose their value for more than a few hp per day, whereas the latter can be used to top you up even into high levels -- you just need to spend more charges to do so, meaning you need to buy more wands as you level up to keep up with scaling hp. Lesser Vigor is, of course, vastly preferred over Cure Light Wounds for between-battle healing.

[nedz]

Don't eternal wands only work on arcane spells?

And can only be used by arcane casters; but you could just make a 2/day item in the shape of a wand.

[ZamielVanWeber]

And can only be used by arcane casters; but you could just make a 2/day item in the shape of a wand.

Can't you still UMD them? Arcane casters just don't need to.

[nedz]

Can't you still UMD them? Arcane casters just don't need to.

Of course you can UMD them, ..., even if you are a Monk.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Wands of CLW/Lesser Vigor are cheap enough, there's no reason to go through a ton of shenanigans to get them as eternal arcane versions.
After all just because YOU can (theoretically) craft them doesn't mean anyone else can, because those are some pretty specialized requirements. So your DM can quite reasonably tell you that no one sells Eternal Wands of arcane Lesser Vigor.
And then the cleric can't even activate one because you need to be an arcane spellcaster.

All that to save a few thousand gold over the entirety of your campaign? That's a bit too much effort for my taste.


If you want a low-maintenance cohort just make a healer, load him up with Vow of Peace and Vow of Poverty and just keep him out of the way during fights. He can heal at range with Greater Status (the ECS/BoED version, not the HoB one).
It's hardly the strongest cohort you could make, but it does what you want it for, is easy to manage, won't take up anyone's spotlight and your DM is very unlikely to forbid it.

[Rubik]

You could always try for a shadow sun ninja build with Tomb Tainted Soul, but that's probably a bit higher optimization than you want.