Level 15. How many wands of lesser vigor should I bring to the game?

[Tamorlin]

We have no cleric in the group. I'm a druid and the only capable healer in the group. How many wands of lesser vigor should I bring to the game at this level so I do not have to worry about devoting too many slots to actual healing?

[Andezzar]

What would you need those wands for? You can always substitute a 4th level spell for SNA IV and get a unicorn.

The 15 HP from Lesser Vigor don't do much at level 15.

[Kelb_Panthera]

One per person will do. They're worth 550 HP each unless you waste part of a charge on someone within 11 HP of full.

That should be more than enough to fill you up completely several times over with a reasonable margin for getting back to civization before you're completely empty. With prudent applications of slots to the task of healing in supplement to the wands, they should easily carry you to level 16 unless your DM is putting you in enough of a meat-grinder that an actual, dedicated healer might be worth considering.

[Andezzar]

In case of a meat grinder you might be better served with shutting it off earlier or feeding it excess meat rather than trying to replace the meat.

[Kelb_Panthera]

In case of a meat grinder you might be better served with shutting it off earlier or feeding it excess meat rather than trying to replace the meat.

Summons are good but slow to cast and rather a complicated thing to operate in practice if not in principle. Ending encounters quickly isn't always possible and a handful of highly capable "chunks of meat" can often get more done in the same period than an equivalent number of summoned "chunks of meat." Under the normal paradigm, healing characters are often sub-optimal but they can shine with surprising brilliance in the grinder.

[khadgar567]

lets say 5 more than you thing you need. I was in same situation in first level and its bad

[Mystral]

We have no cleric in the group. I'm a druid and the only capable healer in the group. How many wands of lesser vigor should I bring to the game at this level so I do not have to worry about devoting too many slots to actual healing?

You can propably get away with 2, 3 to be safe. It really depends on the state of the campaign and how far you'll be from civilisation. If you have no access to a magic mart for extended times, you may wish to look into other healing.

Everyone should of coure have a healing belt, that includes you.

Get touch of healing and you can heal up to half of the party's damage for free, as long as you prepare heal (which you should propably do, because there are many things that can destroy people and that can only be countered by heal or wishes).

[John Longarrow]

2nd to the healing belts. Everyone should have one (or more).

For the wands, I'd skip them and have people invest in back up healing potions. If YOU are the one using the wand it should be out of combat. As stated before you can summon up or cast healing yourself in a non-combat situation.

Healing belts allow the party to self heal plus do some limited emergency in combat healing without tying you down. Each person getting a few healing based potions means if you are in trouble they can help you out. More importantly if you are in a combat situation depending on opponent/resources used you may not be in a position to heal them.

If you have someone else in the party who can use UMD decent then THEY should have wands.

[GilesTheCleric]

I've calculated how many you need in the wands link in my sig. Depending on your party's HP, you'll need approximately 3.12-4.81 wands to do all the healing you need for level 15. If you're asking for levels 15-20. then it's 23.86-38.51 total.

[Tamorlin]

Ey Giles, checked your table, but can't find how you did come to that numbers. Could you explain me how to use your table like I'm five?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Ey Giles, checked your table, but can't find how you did come to that numbers. Could you explain me how to use your table like I'm five?

Haven't looked at it but I'd hazard a guess that it cross references* average HP for the level with expending 80% of that a little over 3 times during the 4 encounters per day and ~13 encounters per level with the window, rather than a specific number, representing a range HP clustered near the average rather than sticking strictly to the exact average (likely not a possible result from normal HP rolling).

Is that about right Giles?

*that's not the right phrasing but I'm having a hard time recalling how to phrase the idea.

[Tamorlin]

Yeah, I know where the numbers come from. I'm just unable to came with the same numbers as him reading his table.

I mean, 14 wands to level 10? I'm reading 2,8 per party member, 11 per party of four.

Nevermind, foud it out.

[Vaern]

There are a few options available.

There are Eternal Wands, which can be used twice per day. The description specifically says they contain arcane spells, though there is no reason why you couldn't use the same construction guidelines to have them made for divine spells.

Everyone can have their own Healing Belt, which recharges every day and provide a decent amount of healing.

There is a reserve feat available in Complete Champion, called Touch of Healing. As long as you have a healing spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast, you can use this ability to heal 3 points of damage per level of the highest-level healing spell you have available, up to half of the target's current hit points. This basically means that between encounters you can heal everyone up to half health for free before tapping into your more limited resources.

If you are allowed to design your own magical items, think of creating something like the Eternal Wand, but with infinite charges instead of simply twice per day. Or perhaps everyone can get rings enchanted with a continous Lesser Vigor effect, which would be extremely cheap as a 0-level spell. It will keep you healed to full health between encounters, though you may consider adding in the condition that it only begins healing wounds 10 minutes after they are sustained. This way you don't need to worry about the upkeep of tracking your health regeneration each round during combat.

[GilesTheCleric]

Haven't looked at it but I'd hazard a guess that it cross references* average HP for the level with expending 80% of that a little over 3 times during the 4 encounters per day and ~13 encounters per level with the window, rather than a specific number, representing a range HP clustered near the average rather than sticking strictly to the exact average (likely not a possible result from normal HP rolling).

Is that about right Giles?

*that's not the right phrasing but I'm having a hard time recalling how to phrase the idea.

Yup. It makes the same assumptions as WotC does about number of encounters and resources expended. I made several different approximations of HP-by-level to get the hard numbers.

What I should do is add a graph showing the integrated results, so that it's clearer how many total you need.