Ranged Cleric Healing Build

[barelylegit]

I'd like to preface this question with... I know on-combat healing sucks and is not optimal, but I want to create a cleric-like character that uses a bow to heal allies. My first thoughts were something like an Arcane Archer Divine variant but I didn't seem to find anything like it. The best I could come up with was a loose cleric build based around the Extra Turning Feat and the Divine Meta Magic Reach feat. Doing this gives me the option to cast some healing spells at range, but only about 3 times a day max. I figured I could couple that with some of the fast healing achievements to help with additional ranged healing options. Any help would be great!

[Anthrowhale]

Healing Lorecall + Close Wounds allows you to heal 4+1d4 damage as well as dazed, dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, nauseated, or sickened all at range and as a swift action. The status removal and swift action use make this fairly handy even into high level.

[Darrin]

Imbue Arrow can be used with either arcane or divine spells. A 1-level dip into Duskblade with Arcane Archer 2 allows you to imbue healing spells into your arrows... unfortunately, there aren't a lot of area-effect healing spells outside of mass cures. I'm not sure imbuing them into an arrow makes them any more effective.

You might have better luck with Ordained Champion 3. Channel Spell is only supposed to work with melee weapons but there's a bit of a loophole... an elvencraft longbow (+300 GP, Races of the Wild) counts as a quarterstaff, which is a melee weapon. The wording on Channel Spell says the spell affects "the next target you successfully attack with that weapon", which happens to be a ranged attack, but by RAW it works (if you squint at it from a certain direction).

Of course, the best way to do ranged healing is Cleric 3/Warlock 1/Eldritch Disciple 10/Something +6. Healing Blasts aren't exactly area effects... but I think you can Healing Blast + Eldritch Chain.

[Rebel7284]

Eldritch Disciple -> Healing Blast

If you can finagle some binder (Divine Anima Mage?) in there, you can also get Tenebrous vestige for using Healing Blast all day.

[mastermisha1]

You might have better luck with Ordained Champion 3. Channel Spell is only supposed to work with melee weapons but there's a bit of a loophole... an elvencraft longbow (+300 GP, Races of the Wild) counts as a quarterstaff, which is a melee weapon. The wording on Channel Spell says the spell affects "the next target you successfully attack with that weapon", which happens to be a ranged attack, but by RAW it works (if you squint at it from a certain direction).


I actually have a player in our current campaign that is doing something similar. Ring the Golden Bell feat (Dragon Compendium I believe) to deliver spells right into enemies, or personal only buffs right into allies. Its only a certain amount of times per day, but Wisdom should be a pretty high stat for you as a cleric anyway.

[barelylegit]

Seems like the Eldritch Disciple is the best way to get ranged healing. I really wish imbue arrows allowed touch spells rather than AoE. It would definitely make AA much more attractive. Another question before I give up on this concept, could a spell-storing, returning arrow work? As in, I could cast all my spells at the beginning of the day into various arrows and use them during battle as needed (granted this would be super expensive but theoretically could allow multiple spells to be use in the same round, right?) or cast a spell into a single arrow and fire it like I would a regular spell?

[Gildedragon]

If you could get your DM to allow for a Divine War Weaver it'd be pretty handy.
Biggest problem I am running into is that it advances arcane spellcasting.

[Buufreak]

Seems like the Eldritch Disciple is the best way to get ranged healing. I really wish imbue arrows allowed touch spells rather than AoE. It would definitely make AA much more attractive. Another question before I give up on this concept, could a spell-storing, returning arrow work? As in, I could cast all my spells at the beginning of the day into various arrows and use them during battle as needed (granted this would be super expensive but theoretically could allow multiple spells to be use in the same round, right?) or cast a spell into a single arrow and fire it like I would a regular spell?

No. All arrows, even magic returning ones, break on a hit, which you will be needing to hit to heal with.

[Gildedragon]

Seems like the Eldritch Disciple is the best way to get ranged healing. I really wish imbue arrows allowed touch spells rather than AoE. It would definitely make AA much more attractive. Another question before I give up on this concept, could a spell-storing, returning arrow work? As in, I could cast all my spells at the beginning of the day into various arrows and use them during battle as needed (granted this would be super expensive but theoretically could allow multiple spells to be use in the same round, right?) or cast a spell into a single arrow and fire it like I would a regular spell?

You could use Raptor Arrows and eat the penalty for subdual or make them out of Blunt arrows (A&EG)
They have less range but deal subdual damage

[Gruftzwerg]

How about a few odd Duskblade - Arcane Channeling builds?

- Arcane Channeling isn't limited to the Duskblade spells, nor to arcane spells, the limit is spells you know/can cast.

build1: Duskblade 3 / YYYY 2 / Urpriest X / Bloodstorm Blade 1)
As soon as you get your Arcane Channeling, get ASAP into Urpriest for fast divine spell progression. A whip is a good starting weapon for Arcane Channeling due to its reach. Later when you have Bloodstorm Blade 1, you can imbue any melee weapon with the throwing&returning enchantments for free and thus throw your Arcane Channeling Heals around. Hint: since you throw your weapon, you use Dex to hit and Str as Dmg mod, abuse it! Have a Str penalty to minimize the dmg to your allies while still have a good aim with Dex.

build2: Duskblade 13 / Wyrm Wizard 2 / Bloodstorm Blade 4
A late game build (19.., healing starts around lvl 15..^^)
Duskblade 13 gives us Full Attack for Arcane Channeling and lets it work now "on each enemy hit in melee this turn". Wyrm Wizard 2 will get us a 4th lvl heal spell (cure critical wounds). Going this time up to Bloodstorm Blade 4 enables ranged Full Attacks with the thrown melee weapon (Lightning Ricochet) and let em count as melee attack again (Martial Throw).
Now you can Cure Critical Wounds with a ranged Full Attack. To further increase your attacks/heals per round go down the TWF feat chain.

As said, odd builds. But maybe the first one will work out. Doesn't look to shabby to me at least, unless you are aiming for a high tier optimization.

edit: the Ur-Priest in build 1 can be exchanged for a regular cleric or other healing class. I just picked it, so the build can get 9th lvl spells, and the faster progression. But this may be unnecessary or not wanted (due to evil alignment requirement).

[animewatcha]

Races of the wild, IIRC, has pricing guidelines for arrows of cure x wounds. Now with those arrows being aurorum ( to put them back together ), a ranger ( preferably mystic ) or archivist ( can access ranger spells ), arrowsplit + splitting enchantment. One arrow of cure light wounds turns into several. Arrows will become destroyed, but that is where aurorum comes into play. If you wish to go further, spell-storing with healing spells for extra oomph.

[Eldariel]

The easy way is just picking Divine Magician and using Spectral Hand to deliver healing. Of course, the listed options are all solid and you can always use Smiting Spell [PHBII] too. Then just pimp out your healing - see here (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=8757.msg139804#msg139804) for instance.

[barelylegit]

These are some solid ideas! Thanks guys! Whats the best route to maximize healing ability? Seemed like Radiant Servant of Pelor had some strong options.

[Vaern]

I'd recommend taking a look at the Touch of Healing feat in Complete Champion for any healing build. It's not going to do much in the way of making your build better in terms of combat healing, it'll certainly make you more sustainable. You can get a lot of free healing between encounters with it. It'll save you a good number of valuable spell slots for when you really need them.

[ranagrande]

The Mystic Wanderer is an easy-entry divine casting class from Magic of Faerun. It grants a Familiar at level 2, which could be used to deliver touch spells as early as level 8.