One-dip Fast Healing

[The_Iron_Lord]

As the title says: is there a one-level dip or feat that can get me actual (not "take a level of cleric and cast lesser vigor") fast healing?

Thanks:smallbiggrin:

[noob]

Just get the troll blooded feat?
You could in theory get a level 1 only feat with a loremaster dip.

[flappeercraft]

Only the Fast Healing epic feat comes to mind

[Inevitability]

A creature with the Divine Minion template can heal any amount of HP as a free action, assuming it heals HP from resting and its DM doesn't arbitrarily restrict the number of free actions they can take in a round.

It's +1 LA, by the way.

[noob]

And thanks to one particular manual you can take template as classes.

[Inevitability]

Also, a one-level dip in Dragon Shaman grants you fast healing 1 that extends to allies as well, but only functions on creatures with less than half their full hit points.

[phlidwsn]

If Dreamscarred Press is available in your game:

Dip any initiating class at 9th that has access to Elemental Flux, and take Elemental Flux stance. Or grab Martial Training I-III to get Elemental Flux Stance.

This grants you fast healing 1, and a side order of maneuvers as a bonus.

[ShurikVch]

Nature's Warrior PrC (Complete Warrior): if you take Nature’s Armament (Su): Wild Growth - you will get fast healing 1 at the very 1st level

If templates are OK, then Feral Creature (Savage Species) give fast healing 2, and Evolved Undead (Libris Mortis) - 3; all for LA: +1

[Zanos]

Also, a one-level dip in Dragon Shaman grants you fast healing 1 that extends to allies as well, but only functions on creatures with less than half their full hit points.
You can also take a draconic aura as a feat, I believe.

[Necroticplague]

Nature's Warrior can get fast healing 1 with a one level dip. Obviously, a druid based class, as the name implies.

[mabriss lethe]

There's also healing devotion: It's both more limited and more flexible than Draconic Aura: Vigor.
Limitations
-Requires an action to activate unless you're at 0 hp or below.
-Only lasts for 1 minute/activation
-limited activations per day

Increased usability because
-It doesn't shut off after crossing the 1/2 HP line.
-It automatically scales with level without other resources (ie, dragonblooded)
-Its benefit can be passed to another creature, allowing the feat to be used to heal other party members using their own actions. (the benefit of the feat isn't Fast healing. The benefit is the ability to burn an immediate action to grant yourself fast healing.) Judicious use of it will let you stockpile several instances of the feat with other party members, and becomes a nice way to take care of some out of combat healing/granting the party some last ditch life saving since it auto activates if the holder drops to 0 or lower HP.

Combined with 5 levels of binder + Tenebrous and you can load up an army with fast healing.

In a related and worse case, there's also Truenamer. there's a level 1 utterance that both grants fast healing and doubles as a weapon when reversed. (Note: this is not a good option at all, but I'm just mentioning it for the sake of completeness)

[Inevitability]

Nature's Warrior can get fast healing 1 with a one level dip. Obviously, a druid based class, as the name implies.

It's also enterable with Abolisher, Wild Shape Ranger, and arguably Divine Minion (though in the latter case, fast healing is kind of redundant).

[ShurikVch]

It's also enterable with Abolisher, Wild Shape Ranger, and arguably Divine MinionAlso, Lion of Talisid (Book of Exalted Deeds), Moonspeaker (Races of Eberron), Shapeshifter (Oriental Adventures), and Wild Monk (Dragon #324)

[The Viscount]

Nature's Warrior PrC (Complete Warrior): if you take Nature’s Armament (Su): Wild Growth - you will get fast healing 1 at the very 1st level

This will only function when wildshaped, which for most druids can be the whole day, but may not depending on entry.


You can also take a draconic aura as a feat, I believe.

You can gain a draconic aura with a feat, but it is limited to a list not including Vigor.

[Foote01]

And thanks to one particular manual you can take template as classes.

OOO...which manual is that? I didn't know that and might have to tell my DM.

[Khedrac]

Also, a one-level dip in Dragon Shaman grants you fast healing 1 that extends to allies as well, but only functions on creatures with less than half their full hit points.
You beat me to this one, but there is a second limitation - it stops functioning if you fall unconsious and requires a standard action to restart.

[Necroticplague]

You beat me to this one, but there is a second limitation - it stops functioning if you fall unconsious and requires a standard action to restart.

All fast healing stops working when you're unconscious.

[Zaq]

You can gain a draconic aura with a feat, but it is limited to a list not including Vigor.

It's a matter of (sometimes rather intense) debate. My gut feeling of how I would rule at the table says that it wouldn't break anything to allow the Vigor aura for a feat (unless you're intentionally trying to go for a "gritty" game of HP attrition and counting arrows and crap like that, which I personally find to be the opposite of fun), and the rules are honestly ambiguous. That said, you are entirely correct that there is a plausible reading of the rules that would indicate that Vigor cannot be had for a feat.

Basically, if anyone reading this actually wants to use this in a game, it's worth having the discussion with your GM.


All fast healing stops working when you're unconscious.

Is there a rules citation for that? The description of Fast Healing on pg. 74 of the Rules Compendium says no such thing, and neither does the description on pg. 309 of the Monster Manual.

You may be thinking of 4e, where regeneration (4e regeneration = 3.5 fast healing, not 3.5 regeneration) only works when you have 1 or more HP.

[zergling.exe]

Is there a rules citation for that? The description of Fast Healing on pg. 74 of the Rules Compendium says no such thing, and neither does the description on pg. 309 of the Monster Manual.

You may be thinking of 4e, where regeneration (4e regeneration = 3.5 fast healing, not 3.5 regeneration) only works when you have 1 or more HP.

Fast healing is accelerated natural healing, which has this clause:

Recovering without Help: A severely wounded character left alone usually dies. He has a small chance, however, of recovering on his own. Even if he seems as though he’s pulling through, he can still finally succumb to his wounds hours or days after originally taking damage.

A character who becomes stable on his own (by making the 10% roll while dying) and who has no one to tend to him still loses hit points, just at a slower rate. He has a 10% chance each hour of becoming conscious. Each time he misses his hourly roll to become conscious, he loses 1 hit point. He also does not recover hit points through natural healing.
Only applies when self stabilized while dying (-1 to -9 HP, which fast healing automatically stabilizes you at since you are dying) but it shuts down natural healing, of which fast healing is a subset.

[Matrota]

Not a 1 level dip, but rather 1 LA. The Feral template gives +6 natural armor, +10 landspeed, gives natural attacks, a boatload of special attacks, and scaling fast healing up to 5 at 12th HD.

[Necroticplague]

Not a 1 level dip, but rather 1 LA. The Feral template gives +6 natural armor, +10 landspeed, gives natural attacks, a boatload of special attacks, and scaling fast healing up to 5 at 12th HD.

Sadly, the Special Attacks are based on RHD (though it calls the monster hit die), not just HD, so you're not likely to get any of those. Fortunately, the Special Qualities (Fast Healing and Darkvision) scale with plain ol' HD.

[Fizban]

My gut feeling of how I would rule at the table says that it wouldn't break anything to allow the Vigor aura for a feat (unless you're intentionally trying to go for a "gritty" game of HP attrition and counting arrows and crap like that, which I personally find to be the opposite of fun),
Though anyone trying to replace all healing with Draconic Aura (Vigor) will find themselves walking around at 1/2 hp, far more suceptible to crits/sneak attacks/maximized spells/whatever than a party counting healing resources in order to stay at full (at least until the resource based party stops paying attention to their resources and over-extends).

I'd say the better comparison in-favor is simply Touch of Healing. Getting the vigor aura as a feat is more convenient, acting on all party members simultaneously without actions and requiring no spellcasting, but it's also a maximum of 1/round while Touch of Healing does a bit more than 1/level/round-vigor aura cannot stand up to taking damage every round, but Touch of Healing does have a range where it can (and it has a caster level boost which matters in a good few places). Both feats are available at 3rd level.

So indeed, unless the DM wants a game so gritty that it doesn't just wear you down, but wears you down 1hp at a time, vigor aura in a feat is probably fine.