Healer, Revived

[The Kool]

I know, I know, this has been done before. I've generally been left unsatisfied though. A while back, a buddy and I rebuilt this class and have come very close to actually using it (just need to get it cleared for use in our campaign and I'll play it myself).

I want to get a few things out of the way first with regards to the philosophy behind this rework. The Healer is supposed to do one thing, and do it well. While it's true that they heal well, it's a sad truth that a dedicated Cleric will outpace a dedicated Healer, the Healer's abilities are almost wholly redundant with their spell list, and they have zero versatility. So, what did I want to improve? Well, firstly they need to be the best at healing. Not just good, but specifically good enough for it to be worth using. That inspired the abilities focused on potency and action economy. Secondly, they still need to be able to hold their own in a fight, but they are not damage dealers. This inspired the abilities that give them some kickback for healing, improved companion, and allow them to swing their club and actually do something with it. They need to be able to adapt to the situation and spontaneous casting is the best for that (I'm fully aware this prevents them from using sanctified spells, regardless of the fact that I dislike sanctifieds to begin with they very much never fit the MO of the class). I've gone through a number of iterations on these abilities and have some ideas floating around for other things to give them or other ways to work the abilities listed below, but I feel like any more might be too much. At the end of the day, the class still does one thing and does it well. It's far from a Tier 1 class like the Cleric, but I know this and was aiming for Tier 3 and not being completely overshadowed by said Cleric. Hopefully you'll find this version to give them a slew of abilities that make being a combat healer actually worthwhile and make them more than just a pincushion while they're not busy being a healbot.

Without further ado, the class. I'm not going to post a table of all the numbers, as it's mostly the same or else very easy to reference a change.


1. Skill Focus: Heal, Healing Hands (+CHA)
2. Battlefield Medic, Devoted Healer
3. Swift Healing 1/day, Merciful Strike (non-lethal)
4. Celestial Companion, Karmic Healing
5. Healing Hands (+1/spell level)
6. Merciful Strike (Merciful weapons)
7. Swift Healing 2/day, Effortless Healing
8. Powerful Healing (Empowered)
9. Cleanse Spirit 1/week
10. Healing Hands (+2/spell level)
11. Swift Healing 3/day
12. New Life (Revivify)
13. Powerful Healing (Maximized)
14. Healer's Reach
15. Swift Healing 4/day, Healing Hands (+3/spell level)
16. New Life (Raise Dead)
17. Cleanse Spirit 1/day
18. Powerful Healing (Maximized and Empowered)
19. Swift Healing 5/day
20. New Life (Resurrection), Healing Hands (+4/spell level)

Skills, BAB, and Saves are untouched.
HP use a d8, not a d4.
Spells per day use the wizard table (capping at 4 of each spell level instead of 6).

Proficiencies: Add Bucklers. Wearing metal armor may go against her oaths, but even the most pacifistic healer understands that a simple buckler can be the difference between life and death on the battlefield. The restriction on shields of other forms still applies.

Spellcasting: A Healer casts Divine spells spontaneously from the Healer spell list. The Healer knows all spells on the list from any level that she can cast. She need not have any particular amount of rest to recover spell slots, but must choose a time of day (such as dawn, or noon) when she must meditate for an hour each day to recover lost spell slots. The number of spells per day that the Healer may cast is shown on the table above. The Healer uses Charisma to determine bonus spells per day and save DCs of her spells.

Skill Focus: Heal is gained as a bonus feat at level 1

Healing Hands: When casting a spell that restores hit points, the healer may add her Charisma modifier to the amount healed by the spell. If the spell heals over multiple rounds (such as the Vigor line of spells) then it only applies this bonus healing on the first round.* If it heals multiple targets, the bonus healing applies to all targets.

At level 5, the bonus healing granted by this ability increases by 1 hp per spell level. At level 5 and every 5th level beyond 5 this amount increases by 1, up to +4 hp per spell level at level 20. Thus for example, a level 7 Healer with 16 Charisma would cure 4d8+14 hp from a CLW (+7 from caster level, +3 from Charisma, and +4 for being a 4th level spell).

Battlefield Medic: The Healer keeps a cool head in the heat of battle, and is sure enough in her craft to provide aid even in the most stressful of situations. Starting at level 2, the Healer may always take 10 on a Heal check, even if threatened or under adverse conditions. In addition, the Heal skill will no longer provoke attacks of opportunity against the Healer.

Devoted Healer: Starting at level 2, the Healer's dedication to her allies makes her more resistant to effects that would turn her against them or disable her. She gains a +4 morale bonus on will saves versus enchantments.

Swift Healing: Once per day starting at level 3, a Healer may cast any of the Cure spells as a swift action as if using the Quicken Spell feat, but without any increase in spell level. For every 4 levels gained beyond level 3, this ability may be used one additional time per day.

Merciful Strike: As the healer is an expert in healing the injured, so are they experienced in subduing a combative foe (or patient) without causing injury. Beginning at level 3, the healer no longer takes the normal -4 penalty to attack rolls for dealing nonlethal damage with a weapon. Upon reaching level 6, any weapon that the Healer wields is treated as if it had the Merciful property.

Celestial Companion: ((The rework of the unicorn mount, this is intended to function more like the Ranger's animal companion than the Paladin's special mount. Options may include things like the celestial wolf at lower levels and the unicorn or even better as levels increase. I apparently never did detail it... work still to be done!))

Karmic Healing: Starting at level 4, the Healer learns how to channel healing magic in such as way as to benefit from it herself during the casting. Whenever the healer casts a spell that heals HP, she may also heal for an amount equal to 1d8 hp per level of the spell. Level 0 spells do not grant any healing in this manner.

Effortless Healing: At level 7, the Healer has become so familiar with the Cure spells that casting them no longer provokes attacks of opportunity.

Powerful Healing: Upon reaching level 8, the Healer begins to channel healing energies with greater effectiveness. Whenever the Healer casts a Cure spell, it is treated as if Empowered. At level 13, they are instead treated as if Maximized. At level 18, they are treated as both Maximized and Empowered. This ability does not increase the level of the spell, and only applies to Cure spells cast as a Healer.

Cleanse Spirit: Even powerful restorative magic comes naturally to the Healer. Once per week starting at level 9, the Healer may restore one creature to health as if casting Greater Restoration. When the Healer reaches level 17, this ability may be used once per day.

Healer's Reach: The truly dedicated Healer can restore health to an ally in need from across the battlefield without putting herself in danger. Starting at level 14, all Cure spells cast as a Healer with a range of Touch now instead have a range of Close (25ft + 5ft / 2 levels).

New Life: At level 12, the Healer has truly reached the pinnacle of her art, and can readily bring fallen allies
back from the dead. Once per week, the Healer may restore someone to life as if having cast
Revivify. When the healer reaches level 16, this ability improves to be equivalent to the
Raise Dead spell, and at level 20 it becomes equivalent to Resurrection.

Edited to remove spontaneous asterisks appearing in the midst of my text

[Maat Mons]

No built-in equivalent of the Touch of Healing reserve feat? It really seems like something every Healer would want.

Additionally, it makes sense for Healers to get an upgraded version of that feat. Eventually being able to go past the halfway point.

Also, assuming Healers use the standard progression for spontaneous casting, they won't be able to get Touch of Healing until 6th level. Compare that to 3rd level for Clerics.


the Healer's abilities are almost wholly redundant with their spell list

To some extent, the spell-like abilities are helpful for dodging xp costs and expensive material components.

However, what I think the class should actually do, is give an ability that helps mitigate the xp/gp costs of conjuration (healing) spells directly, instead of this roundabout method.


firstly they need to be the best at healing

Arguably, the two best healers are War Weaver and Favored Soul.

War Weaver has the potential to cast Heal as a swift action, and have it affect the whole party.

Favored Soul offers the Deities' Favor ACF, which can give a crapton of temporary HP to all allies every round, on top of whatever else you're doing.

Honestly, if Healer's going to be the best healer, you need to give it abilities on par with those two classes.


Proficiencies

I don't see any particular reason why Healers should have oaths about armor. If you want Healers to have a "clothy" feel, maybe you should give benefits that only work when not wearing armor.

It would by no means be out of line for Healers to receive a bonus to AC to representing divine protection offered in exchange for their dedication to protecting life.

In fact, some sort of continuous Sanctuary effect would make sense.


Skill Focus (Heal)

Yeah, I can't see this being useful. I'd ditch it and maybe add abilities that let the Healer do things with the Heal skill that no one else can.


Battlefield Medic

Again, not all that useful unless Healers gain the ability to do things with the heal skill that aren't done better, faster, and more easily by their spells.


Devoted Healer

No bad, per se. But I'd at least make it so Healers can never be forced into attacking allies, no matter how bad they roll on saves. It just runs completely counter to everything they are.

Better than just that though, I'd give then immunity to charms and compulsions, a la Church Inquisitor.


Swift Healing

Still pretty inferior to War Weaver's capacity for swift-action buffing and healing.


Merciful Strike

I like this, but I think the Healer should also eventually get the option to extend the Merciful property to willing allies.


Celestial Companion

I'd remove the whole mount/companion angle altogether.


Effortless Healing

Firstly, I see no reason to limit this to Cure spells. Secondly, by 7th level, always making the checks to cast defensively was already achievable anyway.


Cleanse Spirit

I'd say just flat out remove the cost from Restoration spells cast by the Healers. No need to use a separate resource from his existing spell slots. It doesn't break anything if the Healer can toss out Restorations like candy.


Healer's Reach

Again, far more restricted than War Weaver's equivalent.

[The Kool]

Since you're repeatedly referring to an optimized War Weaver, you'll have to excuse me for not being familiar with it. I'm not a fully-versed optimizer, and I don't design towards late-game 3.5 wherein people are pulling spectacular combos that weren't originally intended. I tend to prefer the balance of early-mid 3.5, where there's expanded content, and the game has smoothed out a bit, but the power level hasn't spiked.


Touch of Healing? Well, I considered some form of healing pool or at-will healing, but eventually decided against it. Without loopholes or combos this was a capability deliberately left out of the system, and ways to get it are a bit of a stretch or limited in some fashion. I don't feel comfortable giving the class something that lets you handwave "everyone is at full now" after every encounter.
I think, let me check... Yes, the spells per day are exactly as the wizard. This means new levels at 3/5/7... instead of 4/6/8/etc. Which means you could grab Touch of Healing at 3 with Versatile Spellcaster. If you want to go that route. I choose not to build that level of optimization into the core class... that's what the feats are for, no?

Mitigating costs, yes, I mostly aimed to eliminate the SLAs that didn't have an associated cost, of where the cost was not significant. Some pool or other means of mitigating costs is actually an interesting idea, I'll have to see how that pans out compared to spells with such costs. I'll look into that.

Well... okay maybe it won't wind up the best. Not for optimizers. But the true heart of my goal was to have a class that could be taken by someone who wanted to play a healer, without feeling like you're hamstringing yourself. Ultimately the Temp HP from the Favored Soul is a different approach to the situation, and FS makes a good buffer and offensive support more than a healer. The temp HP helps that, but doesn't make them a healer. I think the key ability that allows this class to compete with them is Swift Healing, allowing you to drop (level-competent! thanks to the buffs) healing as a swift action. I'd be interested in hearing more about the War Weaver and how it compares though.

AC boost and/or sanctuary continuous... mind reader? These are two things I have in my margin notes. I particularly like the sanctuary effect, though I prefer it to activate when you meditate for spells and last 24 hours (but can be dispelled/broken by attacking). It would encourage a particular style of play that I think the Healer lends itself to regardless, and would reward doing it well.

Anything to do with the Heal skill comes at low levels, when you have so precious few spells. At those levels, the heal skill actually gets used, so these abilities improving it hit at the beginning and don't bother improving once you have more spells to use. Even if it's fluff, it makes sense for the healer to have. I've always run the game such that players can do more than what's listed as options in the skill if they get inventive, so I have a hard time imagining what benefits you'd even give them within the skill. If you have suggestions, I'm all ears.

I'd be more inclined to have some type of effect that prevents the healer from be forced to attack anything at all, or at least grants a backup save or something. I hadn't thought of this before, but I've gone back and forth on the form this ability takes so I'm liking this new idea.

Ooooh, extend Merciful to willing allies... Might be nice. I don't want to overpower the class though and while that's perfectly in theme it might be a bit much. Possibly a class-specific feat? Or is it too much for a feat and should be done a different way? Hmmmm.

If removing the celestial companion, we do definitely have some room to play around with improving other abilities. My issue there is that the companion is one of the more versatile aspects of the class, and versatility is one of the main weak points. I'm very hesitant to exacerbate this issue.

Anything that refers to just the cure spells, I was restrictive in my wording because I didn't want to be blindsided by it working on something that causes a loophole or does something stupidly unintended. One draft had these as 'any spell that restores HP', so the application of them is up for refinement.

Restoration costs would play into the rez costs as well, that mechanic might wind up getting rebuilt. I'll have to see how it plays out. As a DM I don't want restorations to be tossed around like candy. Restoration is designed to allow the party to recover from more impactful, longer-term draining of resources. If the players are going to skip the recovery process with a spell, it's meant to cost. Allowing the Healer to speed this along or shortcut some of it is the goal, but to handwave it all away would seriously crimp my style as a DM. Might just be me, but I do prefer to refrain from handing out abilities that completely nullify entire chunks of my encounter-building tools.

So yeah, I'll look into that, and I'd like to hear more about this War Weaver potential to have more comparison points. Love the feedback.

[Maat Mons]

Since you're repeatedly referring to an optimized War Weaver, you'll have to excuse me for not being familiar with it.

War Weaver (http://dnd.arkalseif.info/classes/war-weaver/index.html) is a prestige class from Heroes of Battle. A Wizard 5 / War Weaver 5 can do all the following.

Cast a spell that normally affects one ally, but instead have it affect all allies.
Cast touch spells on allies without touching them (from Close range).
Pre-cast up to 4 beneficial spells, suspend their effects for up to 24 hours, and later use a move action to have the spells take effect.

And those can all be combined. So on your first round of combat, you can use a single move action to put 4 different buff spells on your party. Those spells affect every single party member, even if they normally could only affect one person. And if those spells are touch spells, you can ignore the usual restriction of having to touch the targets.

When I say "properly built," I'm just referring to the fact that War Weaver is an arcane casting prestige class. And getting the right spell list for healing on an arcane caster is a little tricky. Though I don't see any problem with homebrewing a divine aster that's just as good at protecting allies as War Weaver lets arcane casters be.




FS makes a good buffer and offensive support more than a healer.

Fundamentally, healing is making your allies harder to kill. That's also what temporary hit points do. And, further, what defensive buff spells do. It would be pretty ridiculous if Healers didn't get the full tool-set for keeping allies alive, when they are supposed to be the specialists in keeping allies alive. So, yeah, granting temp HP and casting defensive buffs are definitely things healers should be doing.




I don't feel comfortable giving the class something that lets you handwave "everyone is at full now" after every encounter.

I mean, you can already get everyone to full after each encounter. This is just saving you from buying so many wands.




Might just be me, but I do prefer to refrain from handing out abilities that completely nullify entire chunks of my encounter-building tools.

There's already a lot of stuff that does this. Fly removes the effects of virtually all terrain. Teleport removes the entire chunk of the story centered on getting where you need to go. True Seeing means illusion-using enemies are now useless. Mind Blank means the entire schools of Enchantment and Divination are now useless to enemies. Death Ward and Sheltered vitality basically limit necromancy-using NPCs to being minion masters. Heavy Fortification armor completely screws over Rogue enemies.

I'm going to stop listing things now, because I feel that paragraph is getting long. But the big issue here is that, if some parties can't trivially deal with things that would have been very difficult for other parties, what's even the point of letting players choose how to build their parties? It would be supremely boring if every campaign played the same, no matter how players built.




Ooooh, extend Merciful to willing allies... Might be nice. I don't want to overpower the class though and while that's perfectly in theme it might be a bit much.

I don't know. Merciful is kind of a double-edged sword. You deal more damage yes, but plenty of things are immune to nonlethal damage, and it's a much easier damage type to heal.

Heck the ability to add the Merciful effect to enemy weapons is arguably more powerful than adding it to ally weapons.




If removing the celestial companion, we do definitely have some room to play around with improving other abilities. My issue there is that the companion is one of the more versatile aspects of the class, and versatility is one of the main weak points. I'm very hesitant to exacerbate this issue.

I'd argue for giving the Healer versatility by adding to it's spell list, rather than by giving minions.

[The Kool]

Holy carp that's strong, how was I not aware of that class? However, I think it's fair to compare a class design to other similar-effort classes and straightforward builds. In order to pull off that healing you speak of, that's a high level of optimization and shenaniganery that, if the DM allows it, already declares you in a higher-optimization game than even a fixed up Healer isn't going to fit in (and most likely a game that doesn't want any combat healing at all, because there's so much better stuff to spend your actions on).

Yes, THP are good as a healer, my comment (from my experience) is that overall the FS works better in the frontline support role rather than the healing role. THP is kinda like pre-healing, but then so is tanking and battlefield control, so after a fashion wizards are healers too? There's a lot of ways to avoid and prevent damage. The Healer is there for when all that fails.

Yes, you can get to full after encounters by spending resources. Resources matter, at least in play. Even if you reliably get up to full every time, it's not a handwave. The players feel it, and track it, try to come up with ways around it or ways to avoid it in the first place. Resource expenditure engages players. Free full heals between fights avoids resource expenditure.

See above, about resource expenditure. There's ways to achieve a lot of things that happen after a massive gold investment, a brilliant find adventuring, a few feats or spells, some sunk XP, etc etc. Very little of this comes free. My complaint was not of allowing the class to do it, it was of handing it out for free.

Merciful, yeah having the ability isn't double-edged at all. It's toggle-able, so it's giving players an option. In no way is an optional ability a hindrance, because the players get to freely choose when they want to apply it. It's kind of underrated, honestly.

To expand the spell list and add different role options is to no longer be building a Healer. In order to fit within the niche the class is trying to fill, that's one of the things you have to work with. There may be a few things you can add, but if you want to add anything that adds versatility then you're just beginning to recreate the cleric or the favored soul or some other class like that.

[The Kool]

I've been doing some thinking on the pool of resources that you can push towards spellcasting so you don't need costly components and XP spending. I don't have numbers yet (and probably won't until next week) but I'm picturing a pool that grows as you level, and when you use from it it will refill 10% per day. So, for example, if you have 5,000gp worth of substitute points, and cast Raise Dead, that would take 10 days to recover enough to cast it again. If you only cast Revivify though, you could use it five times and be ready to do another one two days later. Hmm... I'll have to think on that. It's possible that a sweet spot can be found in there.