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Woland
2007-10-15, 10:29 AM
Let's say I want to be able to heal myself and others, but I don't want to spend money on potions or use magic of any kind. How do I pump up my healing skill to the point where I'm essentially a crappy priest? Viability as a character aside, of course.

So far I'm using these feats (along with full ranks in heal) - skill focus (heal), skill mastery (heal), talented healer, barber surgeon, self-sufficient, detect poison, expert healing.

Any more feats/synergies/etc I'm missing? Special types of healer's kits?

Help would be appreciated.

Person_Man
2007-10-15, 10:43 AM
You could also dip one level into Marshal (gain your Cha bonus to any type of Skill) and one level into Exemplar (+4 bonus, and the ability to take 10).

Also, masterwork tools are an efficient way to gain +2 to any Skill.

But as you pointed out, why would anyone do this?

boomwolf
2007-10-15, 10:44 AM
i dont think it is going to work too good no matter how hight you put it up.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#heal

this is what you can do with it at best.
time consuming (hour of work) but provides nice replacement healing for the entire party. (if up to 6 people) after all 2-3 hp per level (of patient) is nice. and 14-21 hp per level is pretty darn good.

once a day, but you can provide the "before we go to sleep" healing every day and you would not need a cleric around (but you can have some for the cheesey power)


as for the "why" question-you don't have a cleric/druid in team is a good reason.
a paladin/ranger alone don't cut usually.

Grey Paladin
2007-10-15, 10:45 AM
Perhaps he plays: a character that is opposed to magic / in a no-magic world

Woland
2007-10-15, 10:46 AM
Well, I wasn't actually going to use this, I just wanted to know what the limits of heal were. Apparently the limits are vast :smalltongue:

Anyway, one more quick question - the speak language skill, do you invest one skill point to speak another language when you level up? Or does it work differently?

Chronos
2007-10-15, 10:54 AM
Anyway, one more quick question - the speak language skill, do you invest one skill point to speak another language when you level up? Or does it work differently?More likely you spend two points. Speak Language is cross-class for almost everyone (IIRC, bards and loremasters get it as a class skill).

Kaelik
2007-10-15, 12:05 PM
as for the "why" question-you don't have a cleric/druid in team is a good reason.
a paladin/ranger alone don't cut usually.

Unless they have a Wand of Cure Light. In which case this becomes a giant waste of feats (that are much more important then 750gp.)


More likely you spend two points. Speak Language is cross-class for almost everyone (IIRC, bards and loremasters get it as a class skill).

Not sure about Bards, but definitely Spellthieves.

Miles Invictus
2007-10-15, 12:20 PM
Horizon Walkers also get Speak Language as a bonus skill.

Yuki Akuma
2007-10-15, 12:39 PM
Horizon Walkers also get Speak Language as a bonus skill.

As do Aristrocrats and Experts. But they're NPC classes.

I'm pretty sure the Human Paragon does, too.

goat
2007-10-15, 01:39 PM
I was thinking about this yesterday, with regular healers in D&D society.

Healers can heal slowly, and remove poisons and diseases if they can hit the DC. As most common poisons and diseases have DCs of 20 or less (unless you want to spend the equivalent of a house on poison), you're probably really never going to need more than a +10 bonus, because you're likely to be taking 10 most of the time.

So, level 1 expert healer. "Normal" array of 13,12,11,10,9,8

+4 ranks, +2 kit, +3 skill focus, +1 Wisdom. Bam, you're hitting 20 if you take 10. That should be enough for most situations, and you've got a 80% chance of succeeding in a pressured first aid situation. Be a human and take Self-Sufficient, you're making that roll on anything but a 1 or a 2. If there's two of you, you can't really fail. And if they survive, a level 1 commoner only has 4 or 5 HP, so you should get them back on their feet in a day or two.

So, in a village with a healer, and the local cleric/druid isn't around, someone who's suffering from poisoning, disease or some sort of injury should make a full recovery the majority of the time.

Thinker
2007-10-15, 01:46 PM
As do Aristrocrats and Experts. But they're NPC classes.

I'm pretty sure the Human Paragon does, too.

And Factotums (as they have everything).

Chronos
2007-10-15, 02:05 PM
As do Aristrocrats and Experts. But they're NPC classes.

I'm pretty sure the Human Paragon does, too.Experts and human paragons choose their list of class skills (any ten), so they may or may not have it. Probably not, since there are a lot of skills you'll want to have a lot of points in before Speak Language.

The point, though, still stands that it's pretty uncommon. I'm pretty sure that the bard is the only core base PC class that has it.

Renegade Paladin
2007-10-15, 02:13 PM
There's a skill trick in Complete Scoundrel that lets you heal 1d6 points of damage whenever you use the Heal skill to stabilize someone who's dying. That's about as good as Heal gets.

Draz74
2007-10-15, 02:15 PM
And Factotums (as they have everything).

And Truenamers (because any other language is easier to learn than Truespeech).

Hopeless
2007-10-15, 02:27 PM
Let's say I want to be able to heal myself and others, but I don't want to spend money on potions or use magic of any kind. How do I pump up my healing skill to the point where I'm essentially a crappy priest? Viability as a character aside, of course.

So far I'm using these feats (along with full ranks in heal) - skill focus (heal), skill mastery (heal), talented healer, barber surgeon, self-sufficient, detect poison, expert healing.

Any more feats/synergies/etc I'm missing? Special types of healer's kits?

Help would be appreciated.

Check out alchemists and herbalists from Bastion Games nd pay special attention to synergy bonuses in it.
There's also a feat caused Field Medic I think its in the Ultimate Feats book from Mongoose and it allows the patient to recover 1d4 hp per use of the Heal skill but the difficulty is based on the injury.
The a&h book has a few choice alternatives including feats which might be of interest but any Healer's kit grants a +2 bonus to the Heal check anyway and 5 ranks from Profession/Herbablist did the same but that was back under 3.0 I don't have 3.5 at hand to check if this has changed since then though.

brian c
2007-10-15, 02:59 PM
There's a skill trick in Complete Scoundrel that lets you heal 1d6 points of damage whenever you use the Heal skill to stabilize someone who's dying. That's about as good as Heal gets.

I was going to recommend this also; it's without a doubt the best way to get more out of your Heal checks.

PlatinumJester
2007-10-15, 03:03 PM
And Truenamers (because any other language is easier to learn than Truespeech).

And changelings

Ulzgoroth
2007-10-15, 03:36 PM
I was thinking about this yesterday, with regular healers in D&D society.

Healers can heal slowly, and remove poisons and diseases if they can hit the DC. As most common poisons and diseases have DCs of 20 or less (unless you want to spend the equivalent of a house on poison), you're probably really never going to need more than a +10 bonus, because you're likely to be taking 10 most of the time.

So, level 1 expert healer. "Normal" array of 13,12,11,10,9,8

+4 ranks, +2 kit, +3 skill focus, +1 Wisdom. Bam, you're hitting 20 if you take 10. That should be enough for most situations, and you've got a 80% chance of succeeding in a pressured first aid situation. Be a human and take Self-Sufficient, you're making that roll on anything but a 1 or a 2. If there's two of you, you can't really fail. And if they survive, a level 1 commoner only has 4 or 5 HP, so you should get them back on their feet in a day or two.

So, in a village with a healer, and the local cleric/druid isn't around, someone who's suffering from poisoning, disease or some sort of injury should make a full recovery the majority of the time.
You can't really have the kit. Or at best, you have to save it for really critical situations. It costs 5 gp per use, which is just way too much to spend on a common laborer most of the time. But if you've got a fully trained healer like that available you're in pretty good shape even so.

goat
2007-10-15, 04:17 PM
Well, if you're an expert, you've got plenty of free skill-points to put in craft(healer kits).

If they're a DC10 to make, and you can reliably get a 15, that's 150SP a week, or a new kit every 3.3 weeks or work time (or alternatively, 3 new "charges" for the kit every week). Assuming you're not needing to use the kit every time (simple extended care etc won't need it) you probably won't be using it that often, so it should be simple to make enough to have some in reserve.

If they're DC15 it's faster, but equally you're paying 16G6S7C for each kit, and with a limited income, faster may not be better.

Of course, if you're treating some (relatively low level, the required spells are level 3&4 I think) adventurers to remove a disease or poison they've picked up, nobody ever said you had to treat them at cost...

Ulzgoroth
2007-10-15, 04:26 PM
The cost may be lower, but the value is the same. If you're some kind of charitable organization, being able to produce kits at under cost will let you use them more often. In terms of economic analysis though, that doesn't really make a difference. The 5 gp value is still worth 5 gp if you produce it yourself.

the_tick_rules
2007-10-16, 01:34 AM
the heal skill is one of the more put down feats. but it's saved it's fair share of characters when potions or clerics are unavailable.

Skjaldbakka
2007-10-16, 04:33 AM
I have a houserule that makes heal more useful. You make a heal check along with your cure spell. Your minimum die roll is your heal check, to a maximum of the normal max. This is best described by example:

Cure Serious Wounds comes up 5,7,1 (13). My heal check was a 20. Instead of healing 13+caster level, I heal 20 + caster level. If I had rolled a 30 heal check, I would be healing 24+caster level, as 24 is the maximum possible die roll.

Essentially, if you have a good heal skill with this house rule, your curing spells will often be maximized, because you know how best to channel the healing energy.

A less drastic houserul would be to give a +2 synergy bonus to effective caster level with healing spells per 5 ranks in Heal.

Neither of these benefits would apply with inflict spells or cure spells used against undead, of course.

Roderick_BR
2007-10-16, 06:30 AM
Beguiler also have Speak Language as a class skill.
Tome and Blood (3.0) had Healing Salve. DC 25 with an Alchemy check (+2 synergy bonus if you have profession (herbalist)), and 50 GP. Heals 1d8 points of damage. Basically a non-magical cure potion, that works as an oil instead of a drinkable potion (you pass the salve on the wound). Good to save XP and get lots of healing out of battle at lower levels.

Lord Tataraus
2007-10-16, 10:00 AM
Well, if you're really trying to optimize, in the Dragonlance splatbook War of the Lance you can get a Tool of Legend that grants a +10 bonus to a skill (its a high level of masterwork).

Yvanehtnioj
2007-10-16, 12:01 PM
Let's say I want to be able to heal myself and others, but I don't want to spend money on potions or use magic of any kind. How do I pump up my healing skill to the point where I'm essentially a crappy priest? Viability as a character aside, of course.

So far I'm using these feats (along with full ranks in heal) - skill focus (heal), skill mastery (heal), talented healer, barber surgeon, self-sufficient, detect poison, expert healing.

Any more feats/synergies/etc I'm missing? Special types of healer's kits?

Help would be appreciated.




"Any more feats/synergies/etc I'm missing? Special types of healer's kits?"

---5 ranks in Profession (Herbalist) will net you a +2 syn bonus to Heal skill.
---buy some "Healer's Balm" from an alchemy store. rub it on the person you want to treat and you get a +1 to your Heal skill, for a 1 min duration. [book source: Forgotten Realm Campaign Setting?]