Healbots, Roll Out!

[P.F.]

I am looking for suggestions on a build for a main healbot character. I want this guy to be the übercharger of cure, the mailman of condition removal. He doesn't have to be a Tier 1 demigod of D&D. I want him to have one job (keep the party in the fight) and do it as effectively as possible.

The game I intend to use him in is Paizo-only, no 3e allowed. I could maybe sneak in a third-party feat or spell if it's published on d20pfsrd. Something like a whole class from DSP is out of the question, though. Ideally, it would outpace a generalist cleric as early as 4th level.

Yes, I know healing is badwrongfun and a waste of time, party resources, et cetera, et cetera. I know healing doesn't typically scale as well as damage. I know (from personal experience) that divination can prevent more damage than protective magic. I just want to put together for best possible healer. Thank you in advance to everyone!

[Ninjaxenomorph]

I'm currently playing a healbot gnome life oracle, with the Fey Foundling feat and Vivacious alternate racial trait, as well as the Blessed Touch trait. It is working surprisingly well. We are at level 4 and her self-heals (which due to Life Link makes her the party's IV bag, since she can get all the party's melee fighters) with CLW are 1d8+9. She is also dual-cursed, using the Promethean and Possessed curses. You probably don't need to go dual-cursed, but I enjoy it.

The best healbot builds use life oracle as a base, but I've heard of ones that splash into it and go Hospitallier Paladin the rest of the way.

[Arutema]

My experience has been nothing outheals a vivacious, fey foundling gnome Pei Zin (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Oracle%20Pei%20Zin %20Practitioner) archetype life oracle. You have incredible self-healing powers, and life links to transfer other PCs damage to yourself. Positive channeling is also nice, but frequently more healing than a party needs. Just be sure to pick up some buff spells so you have things to do when healing isn't needed.

[grarrrg]

My experience has been nothing outheals a vivacious, fey foundling gnome Pei Zin (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Oracle%20Pei%20Zin %20Practitioner) archetype life oracle. You have incredible self-healing powers, and life links to transfer other PCs damage to yourself. Positive channeling is also nice, but frequently more healing than a party needs. Just be sure to pick up some buff spells so you have things to do when healing isn't needed.

100% suggest Pei Zin Oracle
Alternate option is the 'standard' Oradin for a bit more 'whack things with swords' approach.
Either one should be effective enough that you don't have to actually healbot most of the time.

Go here for other general ideas (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?257365-PF-Oradin-Mini-Guide-Or-How-to-be-a-Healbot-minus-the-bot)

[Eldonauran]

Taking a variant multiclass might help healing, such as Order of the Star Cavalier (increases lay on hands/channel) or, if you take Pei Zin Oracle, snagging Paladin will give you many more Lay on Hands at level 7.

My favorite healer at the moment is the Witchdoctor Shaman. Since it gets a healing pool without needing a Spirit, you can swap to your wandering spirit anytime you need status removal or use the human/half-elf alt Favored class to cherry pick Cleric spells to that effect. And you get hexes... Hexes are good, especially misfortune and/or protective luck. Better to prevent damage than heal it.

[ericgrau]

I've had tremendous success before in PF with a shield other & channel energy spamming on a life oracle. The idea is to distribute the damage and then do multi-target healing. Get channel, combat healer, energy body, then life link to use your standard, swift, move and non-actions for additional healing/damage distribution. Quick channel might be better than energy body for your move action if your fights aren't too long (move action channel). Or quick channel + extra channel. Grace is a really nice spell for moving around the battlefield, though it eats your swift. At high level pick up mass cure light wounds. Since the CL cap is higher than CLW it heals much more than you'd think, plus you can simultaneously hurt undead to give you 2 turns in 1.

For status effects scrolls are the best by far; much better than class features, feats or permanent items. Carry a med kit with every remove X spell you can find. You'll only ever see a given effect once or twice in the entire campaign, if ever, so this way is the best deal. Get only 1-3 scrolls for all or almost all spells. Worst case scenario you can replace as needed. Don't forget things like protection from evil for dominate, and various other save-your-ally spells that don't necessarily have "remove/restore/etc." in their name. Not being able to rest 8 hours and fix anything is a little bit of a bummer. If your DM is stingy with buying gear then you may want a cleric with shield other and above feats.

EDIT: Besides scrolls you should know a limited number of general purpose restoration spells at least 1 level below your max level. Anything frequently used like lesser restoration. But nothing too specific like remove X. And not even that many general purpose spells (and again not at your highest level), because even those don't get used very often.

I already see others mentioning feats, dips, ARFs, traits, etc. which you can likely combine with above. Mix and match from all suggestions. I think there's a free -1 metamagic reducer trait (on only 1 spell) which might be nice to reach spell your shield others for 4x range.

[Eldonauran]

I've had tremendous success before in PF with a shield other & channel energy spamming on a life oracle. The idea is to distribute the damage and then do multi-target healing. Get channel, combat healer, energy body, then life link to use your standard, swift, move and non-actions for additional healing/damage distribution.Funny story about life link... I was responsible for having that particular ability banned at our table. Apparently, I made it extremely difficult for the GM to significantly challenge our group, being unable to instill the possibility of the fear of failure (or some such nonsense).

Sometimes... being too good at your job isn’t beneficial to gameplay. Take care.

[ericgrau]

Funny story about life link... I was responsible for having that particular ability banned at our table. Apparently, I made it extremely difficult for the GM to significantly challenge our group, being unable to instill the possibility of the fear of failure (or some such nonsense).

Sometimes... being too good at your job isn’t beneficial to gameplay. Take care.

It was going pretty well until a vampire dominated our party. It was a weird fantasy-modern setting thingy so I didn't have scrolls. And no clerics either because all magic had to be explained as mutey powers. The vampire (alien virus rationale I think?) was a PC, it was a super hard encounter anyway and I think we were meant to join the dark-ish side. He was our level plus he just got the template, so basically free LA until we caught up. The DM also nerfed my character a little and given the other players I was fine with that.

I think PF bought into the "healers are weak" mantra and provided some good healing abilities when healers were never terrible. So yeah depending on what kind of gaming group you're in you can get overpowered with a healing build. OTOH if your fellow players also optimize well it shouldn't be an issue. It's still not crazy game breaking.

Life link was last on my list because shield other is even better and you can actually over-distribute damage to yourself if you get both. At least until you stock up on massive healing. So also something to keep in mind for keeping your power in check (if necessary): shield other is even crazier.

[Petrukio]

Funny story about life link... I was responsible for having that particular ability banned at our table. Apparently, I made it extremely difficult for the GM to significantly challenge our group, being unable to instill the possibility of the fear of failure (or some such nonsense).

Sometimes... being too good at your job isn’t beneficial to gameplay. Take care.

*blink* How the heck did you do that? Healing 5 points per creature per round is actually not a real lot in a combat encounter, especially as level (and, therefore, sheer amount of damage) increases. Not without other significant healing support.

[grarrrg]

The relative usefulness of Life Link and Shield Other changes greatly depending on character level.
Notes: Life Link is 'at will' and has unlimited duration so long as you stay in Medium range. Shield Other is a 2nd level spell with Hour/Level duration, close range. Any/all Life Links can be ended as an Immediate Action, whereas you can only Dismiss one Shield Other at a time as a Standard.

Level < 3: Before 2nd level spells, Life Link is the only option, so it wins by default (although it might be risky on more than 1 other person).
Level 6-ish: Just after getting 2nd level spells, Shield Other isn't very useful, as the duration won't last all day, and costs one of your highest level spell slots. Again, Life Link pretty much wins by default.
Level 10-ish: Level where you -can- have Shield Others up on everyone all day long, but you probably don't want to, or you risk taking too much damage on an area attack. This is where the 'Dismiss as a Standard' is a big factor, no "emergency out" button. Since you don't quite want to Shield everyone just yet, Life Link is still useful, but it's starting to fall behind.
Level 15-ish+: Should have enough Max HP, and spell slots, and other 'emergency buttons' that you can just Shield everyone with little worry. Life Link is still handy, especially if you have a way to get 'all day fast healing', but is near worthless in combat.



*blink* How the heck did you do that? Healing 5 points per creature per round is actually not a real lot in a combat encounter, especially as level (and, therefore, sheer amount of damage) increases. Not without other significant healing support.
I'd presume that the game was low enough level that Life Link's 5hp was significant, and just high enough that keeping oneself alive was not a problem. And presumably fairly optimized to (ab)use Life Link to it's fullest, see also "Fey Foundling Vivacious Gnome Pei Zin Oracle w/Boots of the Earth".

[Eldariel]

Higher up, summons make for incredible healers in PF. They also grant auras, bodyblocks, etc. Starting from Lantern Archon on SM3 and heading into Vulpinal Agathion on SM5 into Leonal Agathion on SM8, you can basically outsource healing actions while constantly summoning more healers. Particularly Acadamae Graduate Wizards shine in this, doubly so as Sin Magic Specialists for that tasty extra slot per level (object bond becomes a reasonable option too for one more max level slot; 6 SMVs on level 9 is pretty nice). Master Summoner is okay too but lacks the option of summoning more each round.

For SM4, 6, 7 and 9 you simply summon multiples of the lower level option (unless you need a particular aura, resurrection or status removal). Superior Summons makes this extremely efficient, to the point that the summons can outheal level equivalent healing spells at most points while also being able to spread it around and bodyblock hits.

For topping people out, there's always Infernal Healing Wands.

[Eldonauran]

*blink* How the heck did you do that? Healing 5 points per creature per round is actually not a real lot in a combat encounter, especially as level (and, therefore, sheer amount of damage) increases. Not without other significant healing support.
I'd presume that the game was low enough level that Life Link's 5hp was significant, and just high enough that keeping oneself alive was not a problem. And presumably fairly optimized to (ab)use Life Link to it's fullest, see also "Fey Foundling Vivacious Gnome Pei Zin Oracle w/Boots of the Earth".Well, life link was not the ONLY thing that I used to make the situation difficult for the GM to challenge us. You are right that it was early on in the game, though we made it to level 8 or so before the game ended and the GM decided to ban it for future instances.

As for how I made it effective? Potions, spells, drugs, and class abilities that gave (sometimes stackable) temporary HP, abilities to 'over heal' my allies (granting THEM temp HP), and had plans on using higher level spells to grant my allies the ability to cast shield other in order to effectively make the party share one giant pool of HP. It is VERY effective to use life link and channel energy to heal everyone evenly, rather than having to choose between healing one very hurt person or three lightly hurt people.

And I MIGHT have had the Life Link revelation and the Life Link hex active at the same time .... :smallamused:

This game was Hell's Vengeance, by the way.

[ericgrau]

The relative usefulness of Life Link and Shield Other changes greatly depending on character level.
Notes: Life Link is 'at will' and has unlimited duration so long as you stay in Medium range. Shield Other is a 2nd level spell with Hour/Level duration, close range. Any/all Life Links can be ended as an Immediate Action, whereas you can only Dismiss one Shield Other at a time as a Standard.

Level < 3: Before 2nd level spells, Life Link is the only option, so it wins by default (although it might be risky on more than 1 other person).
Level 6-ish: Just after getting 2nd level spells, Shield Other isn't very useful, as the duration won't last all day, and costs one of your highest level spell slots. Again, Life Link pretty much wins by default.
Actually 6ish was when I used shield other to great effect. You use the trait to get free metamagic on one spell, and make that shield other. That expands the range to medium via reach spell. The DM nerfed that out of my character right away and I still did well. So I think I did it on extend instead. Either way you extend it or recast it to keep it going since it's your main spell. It's a matter of HALF damage vs 5 HP. People were taking massive damage and brushing it off. At one point a big beastie would have one round dropped an ally with a bunch of lucky hits and a crit, but instead he was at half health. With life link he'd be dead before you could use it. Even if he wasn't and managed to stay alive in the negatives, he'll be dead soon anyway or be forced to flee when 5 HP plus a 3d6 channel energy just won't cut it. When taking half damage allies can stand and keep fighting instead of fleeing.

Plus it's common for only 1 or 2 allies to get hit, so with life link you just aren't transfering that much damage. Your channel is likely to overheal you. You need multiple targets to double or triple your channel HP healed. Far faster healing combined with far greater damage prevention makes it way more effective. And the faster healing is why you won't need to shut it off. Your allies won't flee; they'll stand their ground and keep pounding away at the enemy who will then have a hard time getting to you (also the spell grace helps). Basically stand in back and make the entire party extremely difficult to hurt.

At level 8 you pick up imbue with spell ability and use it to share shield other with another ally. Now he casts it too and redistributes the damage even further.

Selective channel is also good of course.



And I MIGHT have had the Life Link revelation and the Life Link hex active at the same time .... :smallamused:

Ahhh, there it is. Plus the 10 other abilities you mentioned. If you can pile on lots of ways to transfer damage and ways to mass heal it works very well. Then you don't necessarily need shield other, just as long as one way or another you keep increasing the damage transfer and the mass healing equally.


Vulpinal Agathion on SM5
Archon and leonal seem solid, but how do you keep the calm emotions aura from hitting allies?

[Eldariel]

Archon and leonal seem solid, but how do you keep the calm emotions aura from hitting allies?

Generally it's not much of an issue in combat since one being attacking anything in the area breaks the effect for everybody. So all you need is one party member to be out of range and attack (or someone to make that DC 16 save). But yes, you'll have to keep the aura in mind. If you don't want to deal with that, you can always turn to Bralani Azata (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/azata/bralani), which heals in stronger bursts but less overall. Whether Vulpinal can suppress its aura is an open question.