Playing a heal dispenser lvl 1-20

[AvatarVecna]

For whatever reason you've decided to take it upon yourself to be a dispenser of healing in your party; what percentage of your resources are spent on healing is up to you, as long as the party is kept alive during fights and topped off in between fights. How do you go about accomplishing this task, from lvl 1 onward?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You don't need much healing if you're crowd controlling the opponents and preventing the damage that would be dealt to your party in the first place. So the answer can vary from "all of your daily resources and then some" to "one DMM: Persistent Mass Lesser Vigor per day, maybe spot heals in emergencies" depending on your party's level of competence.

[AvatarVecna]

I'm aware that the game punishes being reactive instead of proactive, and that healing is far from optimal even at the best of times. I'm just in a mood to wonder how good playing reactive healer can get, exactly.

[Telonius]

I become an Artificer and hang out with Team Warforged. Alternately, Dread Necromancer in a party of Necropolitans. :smallbiggrin:

For a more typical party, Cleric will work just fine.

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, one of the things we did a while back was drastically increase the amount of healing the cure spells did, because it was still really a legacy of AD&D, and the amount was so trivial compared to what even a single damage spell could do of equivilent level it's laugahble.

We pushed it up fo 5+D8/lvl (max 3D8), 10+D8/lvl (max 5D8), 15+D8/lvl (max 7D8), 20+D8/lvl (max 10D8) respectively for the single cures, and 25+D8/2levels (max 7D8), 30+D8/2levels (max 10D8), 35+D8/2levels (max 13D8) and 40+D8/2levels (max 15D8) for the masses (5 is basically equivilent to a D8, so CLW at 3rd level is really only about 4D8, for example), which at least made it worth while (a healing spell ought to at LEAST heal as much as a single hit deals) to use in combat.

Out of combat, wands of lesser vigor is still just about the best bet. (A dip into dragon shaman for the healing aura, which takes up to (half hits+1) for increased out-of-combat healing.

(Side benefit - Inflict spells are fracking terrifying, like they should be!)


Failing that, probably stuff like maximise spell, armbands of maximises healing, Augment Healing feat (not much at low level, but by the time you're whacking off CLWM, it's 10 extra hits to everyone. Ur-priest shangians to get to Heal (i.e. the only real unmodified in-combat healing spell worth much of a damn) as fast as possible?



(The REAL game breaker in terms of healing was in one party we had, pairing up a dread necromancer with a shadow sun ninja. The latter? Has that touch that allows them to deal negative energy with a touch, then positive energy with a touch the next round. There is a permenant Undead presence in the party - do the maths...)

[Zaq]

I’ve played in a party with an NPC member of the healer class (Miniatures Handbook) over a relatively wide level range. If you start with the premise that healing is really all you want to do, the healer really is pretty darn good at it (even if they can’t pull the crazy stuff that a cleric can).

Alternatively, you might be able to have some fun with a favored soul. Take the ACF that gives temp HP when you cast a favored soul spell, dip into ruathar for K: Nature and take Magic of the Land, take combat medic (Heroes of Battle) for those goodies, maybe dip into contemplative or another domain-granting PrC so you can take Imbued Healing, and so on.

Third, nontraditional idea: truenamer. Be a halfling with Mark of Healing for the condition-removal stuff and use word of nurturing utterances for actual HP generation. It’s not necessarily “the best healer you can possibly be,” but it’s surprisingly functional. The interesting part on this build compared to the others is that with proper (not even crazy) TS optimization, the Law of Resistance isn’t a huge deal (especially if you spend a bunch of utterances known on multiple word of nurturing options), so you can probably wring out more total HP regen from words of nurturing (and still have a few tricks up your sleeve) per day than someone constrained by spell slots. The downside is that you’re not good at spike healing (and, you know, that you have to put up with all the crap involved with being a truenamer).

[AvatarVecna]

the FS build sounds interesting, even if Healer is probably going to be better out-of-the-box at "just healing". Surprised that Truenamer can make the cut, although then again you're one of the like three people who know how to make it work. :smalltongue:

[Hugh Mann]

Going for a bit of an out of the box build, but I would go for an artificer and save up to make a automatic resetting magical trap. Whenever the trap is activated, the person that activated it would be healed. At high levels, you can just make a magic carpet with a Heal "trap" on it, and whomever steps on it gets Heal cast on them.

The build is absurdly expensive, but if healing is the only thing you want to do it might be affordable

[Gauntlet]

Similar to the Warforged suggestion, another option is to have everyone in the party be a Necropolitan or take the Tomb Tainted Soul feat, then carry around a bucket of Black Sand.

[noob]

Play as an intelligent healing magical item?
I have no clue which one is the best for that task.

[zlefin]

ask to use 3rd party content. Spheres of power has decent in-combat healing options; I forget the details, just that you can get up to the point of mass healing everyone for a lot of their hp every turn, for as long as your spell points hold out.

[Troacctid]

I like cleric because they can use Imbued Healing (the one from CC that cares about what domains you have). Other good feats include Augment Healing, Infused Spellcaster, Touch of Healing, Mastery of Day and Night, and Draconic Aura (Vigor). You also need to be able to contribute offensively, so I would take Fiery Burst, as it only demands a single spell slot each day to have a pretty reliable damage output. Nosomatic chirurgeon for inflict spells would also work well, since they get the bonus from Mastery of Day and Night (maybe toss on the shadow-bound template).

[StSword]

That depends, since there are no tags here, is this 3x or is Pathfinder also an option?

Because if PF is on the table, I'd go with the Medic class from Dreamscarred Press's Path of War subsystem.

Get's healing per encounter, and can spend a full round action to regain a use, so no one will die because the healbot ran out of healing.

And their base healing mechanic is a swift action, so instead of just standing there healing, the character can participate fully in combat and heal at the same time.

[Elricaltovilla]

That depends, since there are no tags here, is this 3x or is Pathfinder also an option?

Because if PF is on the table, I'd go with the Medic class from Dreamscarred Press's Path of War subsystem.

Get's healing per encounter, and can spend a full round action to regain a use, so no one will die because the healbot ran out of healing.

And their base healing mechanic is a swift action, so instead of just standing there healing, the character can participate fully in combat and heal at the same time.

Yup, this is my answer too. Or Vitalist. Vitalists are lots of fun.

[Ruethgar]

A single feat: Sculpt Self for a bio battery staff of all of the sanctum cantrips to afford heals other heals.

[Karl Aegis]

Domain Access Sorceror 6/ War Weaver 5; Take the Healing Domain and cast Mass Cure Light Wounds through your Eldritch Tapestry. With only three allies and a familiar, you heal 5d8+60 (woo healing domain) to each ally and deal half that nearby undead. Share spells with your familiar for an extra 1d8+12 healing to everyone. That's more health than an average sorcerer or cleric has healed in a single action. It's a start.

[Fizban]

Here we have Captain Awesome (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=20448), the healbot (controlled by a player) I provided to fill out the 3 player party in Red Hand of Doom. It's not maximum op of course, because I don't truck with that in the first place, but it's got what I consider the main efficiency- if a player wanted to research and make some improvements, they'd have been free to do so (in hindsight of course it was obvious that having a player control a heal bot actually just meant that the one caster-minded player had to run two characters while the rest of the party ran around with their wacky builds and no sense of resources). Awesome's gear is odd because it's just under-wealth scraps after the rest of the party, which was fine.

Something you have to ask the DM is how Augment Healing and similar effects interact with various [healing] spells that aren't Cure Wounds, because it's as bad or worse than Warmage Edge. Char op likes to assume Augment is always multiplied however they want it so Darts of Life is hueg, but there are as many degrees of possible reading as there are spells (and note that Warmage Edge, the only other similar effect with more definition, does not multiply on multi-missiles). With a maximum permissive reading there are some "healing pool" spells that can also be abused.

Being a heal dispenser does not absolve you of the fact that 3.5 expects a bunch of resistance/immunity buffs. Bring one of each (Delay Poison, Mass Resist Energy, Magic Circle, Mass Shield of Faith, Delay Death, Death Ward, etc) and maybe have a scroll for backup, and also have a scroll of of Remove Disease, Curse, and maybe Paralysis just in case- as there are a few badly designed monsters that won't afford you the time to prep them tomorrow. Anything you aren't going to need can be converted to a Cure, because you're a Cleric.

There are other healing boosting feats, some of which stack a little and others of which have similar non-stacking effects, but Augment Healing and Imbued Healing [Healing] are the most efficient pair you're going to get. You can add on Maximize Spell and Mastery of Day and Night, but getting both before Cure spells start giving way to Heal itself is a crunch, especially if you want Touch of Healing to save on wand costs- but if you're using your buffs and casting heals in combat, you should rarely have anyone actually below half at the end of it to use Touch of Healing on.

The reason you probably don't want to cram both Augment+Imbue and Maximize+Day and Night is because you need a way to heal at range for emergencies, and while there are spells they're not really until 4th level, and Unicorn Horn Slivers are expensive, so you probably want Divine Ward to get full strength spontaneous ranged healing earlier and at no spell or gp cost. At higher levels when you can afford scrolls or slots to edge a few extra hp per spell, Healing Lorecall and Soul of Light are there with usable duration. And of course you might want some sort of offensive option, and Clerics can use Reserve Feats as easily as the next guy- Clap of Thunder in particular lets you attack with almost zero investment, and you can sneak a combo in by holding a touch spell before you bring the thunder if it's aggro time.


Alternatively I'd play my revised version of the Healer, which takes the normal Healer list (which includes a number of spells at reduced levels), adds augment/imbue/ranged stuff to meet the standard so you can use your feats for fun, fills out the list of daily Su status heals, and fills out the spell list to include the splat heals and a couple of Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest-esque "attack" spells that I found interesting.

[StSword]

A single feat: Sculpt Self for a bio battery staff of all of the sanctum cantrips to afford heals other heals.


The only Sculpt Self feat I can recall is based on the third party material from Oathbound, which allows one to enter a prestige race, and has nothing to do with making magic items.

So where does this second Sculpt Self feat and bio battery staff come from?

[grarrrg]

That depends, since there are no tags here, is this 3x or is Pathfinder also an option?

Because if PF is on the table, I'd go with the Medic class from Dreamscarred Press's Path of War subsystem.

Sticking with first party, go Pei Zin Oracle (https://aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Oracle%20Pei%20Zin %20Practitioner) with Life Mystery, and Variant Multiclass Cleric for Healing Domain (https://aonprd.com/DomainDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Healing).

*Oracle gives spontaneous Divine spellcasting.
*Pei Zin gives you Lay on Hands like a Paladin.
*Life Mystery gives you (notably) Channel Energy, Enhanced Cures (keeps Cure Light useful at high levels), Spirit Boost (excess healing becomes Temp HP), and especially Life Link (auto-heals allies for 5 HP/round).
*Variant-Cleric grants a (weaker) Channel Energy, and powers from the Domain of your choice.
*Healing Domain auto-Empowers all Cure spells (eventually...).


Life Link everyone, cast Shield Other as needed, Swift Action Lay on Hands self to heal self.

Add a couple Channeling Feats, and you can non-touch-range auto-heal EVERYONE, fix yourself up as a Swift action, Channel as a Move action to heal the group from range (excluding the bad guys), and you still have your Standard left to cast a spell.
Don't forget the Fey Foundling (https://aonprd.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Fey%20Foundling) for an extra +2 per die when you get healed.

[Bromley20]

I am actually doing this in my current campaign. The rest of my group is relatively new to the game so I decided to be the person to make sure everyone makes it home alive. This may not be the best way to go about it but it has worked for me so far. We haven't made it to 20 yet so things may change for me later on but I focused on maximizing my healing capabilities without relying on spells/day.

Hear me out here, Halfling Healer 20 (Miniature's Handbook) with maxed ranks in heal skill

Main feats I focused on grabbing early:
Stigmata
Mark of Healing
Touch of Healing or Draconic Aura: Vigor (depends on DM)
Invigorating Spellcaster (Dr #311) (depends on DM)


With flaws I was able to get all of them by level 3 by retraining the bonus feat from healer. I wanted to make sure that I was able to keep the party healed everyday with nothing but my feats, skills, and 0 level spells up to around level 5. That allowed me to focus my spell choices on condition removal and close wounds. I am working with an expanded spell list for healer though so that does help a lot.

The heal skill seems to be overlooked often but it has been a literal lifesaver in my experience. At low levels when poison and diseases are still a bit of a threat, the skill allowed me to almost guarantee a successful second save without resorting to magic. Even after we left the lower levels, maxing ranks in heal was useful with the healing lorecall spell.

Stigmata and mark of healing allow me to heal the rest of the party to full without using any spell slots. Invigorating Spellcaster allowed me to use my 0 level spells to cure HP damage and remove a few annoying conditions with cure minor. As was stated earlier, Draconic Aura: Vigor or Touch of healing can be used to get the party back up to 1/2 HP and save spell slots. I was lucky and my DM allowed the vigor aura so I have the AoE version.

When it comes to spell choices, close wounds is one of my most prepared spells. The healing aspect of it may not be great but the possibility to prevent death is too useful for me to pass up. Shield other is also pretty useful for keeping the others alive. They may be low level, but I still find them useful.

When it comes to items, I don't have much dedicated to healing but there are a few worth mentioning. A healing belt gave extra healing and a bonus to the heal skill. To heal myself, I grabbed a magic bedroll and amulet of retributive healing. A rod of bodily restoration is very useful, especially when you use stigmata to heal people.

With stigmata, the rod, and my mark, I am able to pump out quite a lot of healing for the party. Since I currently have 19 Con, I can sacrifice up to 34 Con in a day. It is a nice emergency source of healing when needed but comes with a long recovery time.

[Particle_Man]

Not too good in combat, but for out of combat healing, if you have at least one undead (necropolitan, skeleton of a frog in a cage, etc.) and at least one living person in the party, a Shadow Sun Ninja can do infinite healing out of combat by alternating between the living and the undead for their healing touches. But that is a prestige class so not level 1 - 20.

[Covenant12]

Often overlooked (because healing isn't valued, mostly) is the spell Healing Lorecall. (Spell Compendium, among others).

The party may be underwhelmed by your Cure Critical Wounds. But removing daze or nausea from one or more targets can be a game-changer. (Cure Minor Wounds, Mass Cure Light Wounds and friends)

Also it makes spontaneous curing and the Heal skill actually valuable for something. 10 min/level though, but lesser rod of extend quickly becomes cheap.

[Psyren]

Honorable mention goes to the Channel Energy ability from Pathfinder - primarily available to the Cleric but can be picked up in other ways as well. In particular you want Quick Channel so that you can use your move actions to heal the party and Selective Channel so that you can still heal everyone even if monsters are within range.

[Troacctid]

Oh, more good things for cleric, they have that ACF that allows spontaneous casting of restoration spells. That's pretty nice. Plus Healing Devotion as a bonus feat in place of one of your domains, if you're inclined.


There are other healing boosting feats, some of which stack a little and others of which have similar non-stacking effects, but Augment Healing and Imbued Healing [Healing] are the most efficient pair you're going to get. You can add on Maximize Spell and Mastery of Day and Night, but getting both before Cure spells start giving way to Heal itself is a crunch, especially if you want Touch of Healing to save on wand costs- but if you're using your buffs and casting heals in combat, you should rarely have anyone actually below half at the end of it to use Touch of Healing on.

The reason you probably don't want to cram both Augment+Imbue and Maximize+Day and Night is because you need a way to heal at range for emergencies, and while there are spells they're not really until 4th level, and Unicorn Horn Slivers are expensive, so you probably want Divine Ward to get full strength spontaneous ranged healing earlier and at no spell or gp cost. At higher levels when you can afford scrolls or slots to edge a few extra hp per spell, Healing Lorecall and Soul of Light are there with usable duration. And of course you might want some sort of offensive option, and Clerics can use Reserve Feats as easily as the next guy- Clap of Thunder in particular lets you attack with almost zero investment, and you can sneak a combo in by holding a touch spell before you bring the thunder if it's aggro time.
Close wounds is your ranged healing spell. And just because you have heal doesn't mean you'll always want to burn a 6th level slot on it. The other nice thing about Mastery of Day and Night is it also maximizes inflict spells, which gives you an extra punch for when you need to go on the offensive.


Often overlooked (because healing isn't valued, mostly) is the spell Healing Lorecall. (Spell Compendium, among others).

The party may be underwhelmed by your Cure Critical Wounds. But removing daze or nausea from one or more targets can be a game-changer. (Cure Minor Wounds, Mass Cure Light Wounds and friends)

Also it makes spontaneous curing and the Heal skill actually valuable for something. 10 min/level though, but lesser rod of extend quickly becomes cheap.
The Infused Spellcaster feat has similar benefits, FYI. Both are decent options depending on your build's needs.

[Fizban]

Close wounds is your ranged healing spell.
1d4+5 is a lot less than 2d8+10, and you can't put it in a 1st level slot. You prep a pile of Close Wounds, but that doesn't mean that there won't be times that a ranged Cure Moderate or cheap ranged Cure Light would have been reeaaly good to have. Even with Augment+Imbue, Close Wounds is only so much.

The next ranged healing is Insignia of Healing, also the best mass-"cure", followed by Channeled Divine Health or the enabling of remote 2nds via Greater Status, and of course Darts of Life. But there's no getting around the value of full strength and level on any slot at range, aside from being perfect enough you never need it.

The other nice thing about Mastery of Day and Night is it also maximizes inflict spells, which gives you an extra punch for when you need to go on the offensive.
And if you're taking Mastery of Day and Night you should want ranged Cures even more, because they're they only heals that benefit from it. Maximizing Inflict is a nice side benefit, and if you want more aggro instead of heal focus then day and night is the better route to combo with Clap of Thunder as well as the option of DMM Maximize. But if you want to focus on healing, it's not the first choice.

And just because you have heal doesn't mean you'll always want to burn a 6th level slot on it.
Sure. But if you actually take it that late you're just making your backup heals more efficient, which is pretty lame. And if you take it early, its a tradeoff. You can have it all if you want, but I don't actually expect anyone to go completely all-in on hp recovery.

[Ruethgar]

The only Sculpt Self feat I can recall is based on the third party material from Oathbound, which allows one to enter a prestige race, and has nothing to do with making magic items.

So where does this second Sculpt Self feat and bio battery staff come from?

Dragon Magazine 304 AFB but I’ll edit with the number, the bio battery is from Ravenloft. The rules(not phrased as guidelines) for making custom prestige races with Sculpt Self use the item creation guidelines in their calculation. It is ridiculously OP and easy to abuse, but also opens up some neat abilities like a mana system with few spells or an energy system to give martials some extra versatility and power(a rogue being able to use Weildskill seems rather appropriate, or Knock, or Swift Invisibility).

[Twurps]

I'm going to go for: Cleric and crusader into Ruby Knight Vindicator.
For maximum healiness probably 4 levels of cleric, so just 1 into crusader.

This way I add some sturdiness to the build and I can participate in combat without expending valuable spells in the opening rounds where I'm not yet busy healing my teammates. And of course crusader offers a nice range of healing manuevers. Depending on the build resources I have left after prioritizing all the 'maximum healiness' feats, I might even include a reach weapon and some tripping.

Feats:
-Sacred healing (CD): better than healing devotion IMO, as it can affect your entire party.
-Touch of healing(CC): better out of combat healing than (lesser)vigor. Free healing as long as you have a heal spel >lvl2 available. mass lesser vigor is lvl3. This removes the need to cast it, so you at least break even on spell slots used. And you still have the option to spend it if you really need to.
-combat casting: Because the melee guys might need in combat healing
-Stigmata (and prereq: nimbus of light) (BoeD): Good as a last resort, as the con damage hurts, but still very nice.

That's 5 feats already, and I'm sure I missed a usefull one. So on second thought, best not spend any feats on tripping goodies.

[Zombulian]

I like cleric because they can use Imbued Healing (the one from CC that cares about what domains you have). Other good feats include Augment Healing, Infused Spellcaster, Touch of Healing, Mastery of Day and Night, and Draconic Aura (Vigor). You also need to be able to contribute offensively, so I would take Fiery Burst, as it only demands a single spell slot each day to have a pretty reliable damage output. Nosomatic chirurgeon for inflict spells would also work well, since they get the bonus from Mastery of Day and Night (maybe toss on the shadow-bound template).

Where is Infused Spellcaster from?

[Troacctid]

Where is Infused Spellcaster from?
Dragon Compendium.

[Eldariel]

Honestly, I'd probably just go straight Cleric and DMM: Persist Lesser Vigor (if the DM lets Touch-spells be persisted) from level 1 coupled with Imbued Healing and all sorts of numeric enhancers. Spontaneous Domain Casting: Healing to get Heal and Mass Heal spontaneously instead of useless crap.

You might want to get some Unicorn-themed Domain and Customize Domain to gain the ability to summon Unicorns as those pretty much blow all the Summon Monster creatures out of water with healing efficiency (all the way up to SMVIII Hollyphants at least). Honestly, Summon Nature's Ally is a decent argument for just going Druid instead of Cleric as the base, but easy access to DMM: Persist (or DMM: Chain/Twin) and domains to enhance CL for healing early on probably tips the scales slightly towards the Cleric. SM has at least Bralani Eladrin and Monadic Deva; Manual of the Planes Energons would work but Planar Handbook variants do not have positive energy so no dice there.

Rods of Empower are nice for the basic Cure spells as well as the likes of Light of Venya (which is awesome if you dig up a Familiar/Symbionts/whatever Share Spell guys for yourself).


Honestly though, above level 1 it gets pretty easy so trying to make the first level stuff do something useful is where the key lies. Dread Necro and Artificer as well as Archivist are all obviously pretty good choices there with their given provisos but ultimately I feel like you should be able to produce a Cleric that outperforms the other options here (DMM is just really good).

[Zombulian]

Dragon Compendium.

I can’t find it in the feats section. Did you misremember it being a feat and it’s actually a class acf or something? Or is it one of those weird feats tucker into another chapter?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Infused Spellcaster is a prestige class that only has 1/2 spellcasting advancement, found in Dragon 321, page 16.
http://www.aeolia.net/dragondex/articles-subject.html

[Troacctid]

I can’t find it in the feats section. Did you misremember it being a feat and it’s actually a class acf or something? Or is it one of those weird feats tucker into another chapter?
It's on page 147.

[Zombulian]

It's on page 147.

Ahh so you meant Invigorating Spellcaster I assume. Thanks!

[Anthrowhale]

If you aren't doing DMM, the archivist seems pretty nice for early spell access. At a glance, you can get the following spells one level earlier than a cleric:

Mass {CLW, CMW, CSW, CCW, Heal}, Delay Poison, Heal, Neutralize Poison, Regenerate, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Remove Disease, {Lesser, Greater} Restoration.

Much of this is from the Healer list, but a few are not, and the open nature of the Archivist list allows them to scavenge from many other sources more effectively than a Healer.

I think the biggest drawbacks to the Archivist approach are: 1. DMM is delayed until level 8 (via Sacred Exorcist) 2. You don't get spontaneous access to healing spells (and for reactive situations, you want spontaneous access.)

[Eldariel]

If you aren't doing DMM, the archivist seems pretty nice for early spell access. At a glance, you can get the following spells one level earlier than a cleric:

Mass {CLW, CMW, CSW, CCW, Heal}, Delay Poison, Heal, Neutralize Poison, Regenerate, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Remove Disease, {Lesser, Greater} Restoration.

Much of this is from the Healer list, but a few are not, and the open nature of the Archivist list allows them to scavenge from many other sources more effectively than a Healer.

I think the biggest drawbacks to the Archivist approach are: 1. DMM is delayed until level 8 (via Sacred Exorcist) 2. You don't get spontaneous access to healing spells (and for reactive situations, you want spontaneous access.)

Archivist also gets SNA, which is big. But lacking Domains is another major hurdle compared to Clerics; domain powers can add up to two feats' worth of DMM resources and Spontaneous Domain Casting is really nice. These problems are exacerbated on the hardest level for making healing decent, level 1.

[Quertus]

Whenever healing comes up, I have to encourage people to convince the entire party to equip Amulet of Emergency Healing. Immediate action ranged healing that lets you retroactively say that people didn't die - what's not to love? For a mere 6k, it is almost certainly cheaper than the Scrolls of True Resurrection you would otherwise need. But keep at least one such scroll on hand, just in case.

AFB, but I believe that the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook set the price of a Heal trap at 40k. Install one of those in a Portable Hole (or, better yet, an Enveloping Pit), and you've got out of combat healing covered.

[Pugwampy]

If i am healer well i skip cleric class for a specialist healer option .

[Anthrowhale]

Archivist also gets SNA, which is big. But lacking Domains is another major hurdle compared to Clerics; domain powers can add up to two feats' worth of DMM resources and Spontaneous Domain Casting is really nice. These problems are exacerbated on the hardest level for making healing decent, level 1.

Barring persistent lesser vigor (which is rules shaky and helps only one member of the party), an Archivist has 50% more Lesser Vigor (or Faith Healing) at level 1 than a Cleric.

Then at level 5, a Cleric can be doing persistent mass lesser vigor, an impressive effect.

But at level 9, Archivists have access to a domain (via church inquisitor + substitute domain) and DMM (via Sacred Exorcist) allowing them to pull the same trick with similar ease. In addition they have Heal (which Clerics and Healers do not).

Overall, the comparison seems ambiguous in an environment where characters can seek out particular spells and prestige classes.

[Eldariel]

If i am healer well i skip cleric class for a specialist healer option .

But Cleric is a better healer than any specialised Healer-class...?

[Pugwampy]

But Cleric is a better healer than any specialised Healer-class...?

If we talking pathfinder , the priest class has more spell slots and a D8 channel .

Rules 3 has an obscure extreme prestige class called healing hand .

And of course miniatures handbook Healer .

[Eldariel]

If we talking pathfinder , the priest class has more spell slots and a D8 channel .

Rules 3 has an obscure extreme prestige class called healing hand .

And of course miniatures handbook Healer .

But that doesn't change the fact that even if specialised classes exist, at least in 3.5 Cleric does it better. Indeed, it doesn't take terribly much effort for a Cleric to outheal the Healer every level 1-20, because it gets domains and turning while Healer doesn't.

[Ruethgar]

If we're adding PF, my favorite is the use of Spheres of Power with a dip of Vitalist. A maxed out Wellspring of Life and fast healing with collective healing does wonders for manageable in combat healing.

3.5 for just health healing, I like getting an item of Martial Spirit stance since it can have spell side effects built in for an additional 2d4 healing with every hit. I originally threw that on a Dvati flurry monk, but that was a bit OP in early levels and a bit meh in later ones, still helped though.

[StSword]

Dragon Magazine AFB but I’ll edit with the number, the bio battery is from Ravenloft. The rules(not phrased as guidelines) for making custom prestige races with Sculpt Self use the item creation guidelines in their calculation. It is ridiculously OP and easy to abuse, but also opens up some neat abilities like a mana system with few spells or an energy system to give martials some extra versatility and power(a rogue being able to use Weildskill seems rather appropriate, or Knock, or Swift Invisibility).

Dragon Magazine 304.

So it was the exact same feat I remembered, I just hadn't remembered the freeform "turn yourself into a magic item" bit at the end of the article.

Thank you for explaining.

[RatElemental]

Could go Runecaster and inscribe permanent healing spell runes on all of you party member's armor.

[Malphegor]

I'd also throw in here Draconic Aura: Vigor (PHB2's dragon shaman aura, Dragon magic feat, only squiffiness is you're using a dragon shaman draconic aura with the draconic aura feat which does not specify you can pick draconic auras from other books).

Gives all allies in range effectively Fast Healing 1 up to half their max HP, means you can somewhat lie back and relax when it comes up to day to day knocks, since everyone's healing 1hp every round nearby you.

[Yogibear41]

Touch of Healing feat to give you infinite healing up to half-hp.

If you can use 3rd party. Go Healer (the class) take the feat Lost Tradition for Charisma (makes wisdom a dump stat, all your spells are completely based one charisma now)

If you can take flaws take Augment Healing and Maximize Spell at level 1, if you can't go human and take maximize spell.

Multi-class into binder, use Divine Adaptation of Anima Mage. Always bind Buer and Tenebrous. Take Healing Devotion. Buer gives infinite healing, Tenebrous gives more infinite healing via healing devotion and infinite turn attempts.

Take Mastery of day and night when you can to auto-maximize your healing spells.

(realized healer requires: good, and anima mage requires: not good, so maybe use cleric instead)

[Pugwampy]

But that doesn't change the fact that even if specialised classes exist, at least in 3.5 Cleric does it better. Indeed, it doesn't take terribly much effort for a Cleric to outheal the Healer every level 1-20, because it gets domains and turning while Healer doesn't.

Wow domains ...a whole 1 spells per level . Have you even bothered to count cleric spell slots plus domains vs healer spells slots ? lvl 1 cleric has 5 spells plus one domain spell . lvl 1 healer has 7 spells .

lvl 20 cleric has 6 5+1 5+1 5+1 5+1 5+1 4+1 4+1 4+1 4+1 spells

lvl 20 healer has 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 spells

Not much like 3 spell difference in healers favour but then you add healer healing bonus hp stuff . Assuming your DM allows you to go insane with heal bonus stacking , you can now add a prestige class .
CHA bonus to HP on cure spells
HH level bonus HP on cure spells
My level 0 cure minor wounds gave 17 hp. healer / healing hand
Could toss regen 1 on all players. cleric
Had multiple maximized full heal with no maximize spell feat . Healing hand
Could cast a heal spells as a free action . Healer

The fact is a cleric is the divine castor equivalent of a Bard . Does everything but is Master of nothing . You have paladins who prefer combat to magic and the other extreme point with saints or priests or whatever who skip on combat for extra spells/slots and what not . Clerics slowly close the gap at high levels but never equal and never outshines .

The best walking healing potion i ever made was 1 level cleric , 7 levels healer and 10 levels healing hand . I dipped one level cleric to grab a regen feat which was probably a waste considering a 1 hp per round for everyone does not mean anything if everyone is level 18 . If i skipped on that cleric level and feat i could had a unicorn that could heal while I was healing too . None the less i healed like a demon .

[Eldariel]

Wow domains ...a whole 1 spells per level . Have you even bothered to count cleric spell slots plus domains vs healer spells slots ? lvl 1 cleric has 5 spells plus one domain spell . lvl 1 healer has 7 spells .

lvl 20 cleric has 6 5+1 5+1 5+1 5+1 5+1 4+1 4+1 4+1 4+1 spells

lvl 20 healer has 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 spells

Not much like 3 spell difference in healers favour but then you add healer healing bonus hp stuff . Assuming your DM allows you to go insane with heal bonus stacking , you can now add a prestige class .


The fact is a cleric is the divine castor equivalent of a Bard . Does everything but is Master of nothing . You have paladins who prefer combat to magic and the other extreme point with saints or priests or whatever who skip on combat for extra spells/slots and what not .

The best walking healing potion i ever made was 1 level cleric , 7 levels healer and 10 levels healing hand . I dipped one level cleric to grab a regen feat which was probably a waste considering a 1 hp per round for everyone does not mean anything if everyone is level 18 . If i skipped on that cleric level and feat i could had a unicorn that could heal while I was healing too . None the less i healed like a demon .

Domains give Domain Powers which allow grabbing feats such as Extra Turning to fuel Divine Metamagic (which can double the efficiency of all your healing spells on the base level or do so much more) or give caster level boosts to your heals or whatever. And spontaneous domain casting allows you to spontaneously cast the domain spells.

Cleric is the master of all; that is, Cleric is a better fighter than any Fighter-style class, Cleric is a better healer than any Healer-style class and Cleric is actually a better caster than many caster-style classes. That is, if you build Cleric using all its resources to your intended goal, you're going to outperform the healer you outlined above pretty effortlessly. Indeed, Planar Ally or Binding (accessible through Domains) can easily get you any amount of Unicorns to do healing for you if you feel so inclined for instance, as can your summons (Bralani Eladrin as mentioned above, but also Hollyphant higher up that can cast Heal and Raise Dead as SLAs so no component 1 standard action casting time).

It sounds to me like you aren't actually aware of the true wealth of options available to the class.

[Pugwampy]

It sounds to me like you aren't actually aware of the true wealth of options available to the class.

I probably have not read all 300 plus rule books and semi legal material no . Also i dont see how we can have a penis measuring contest either . We could compare info sheets but we have different house rules / DM styles .

If a cleric works you Awesome buddy . But clerics were never good enough for me .

[RatElemental]

Could also do a Cleric/Bard/Theurge type build of some sort if all you're optimizing for is slots capable of casting cure spells with.

[Eldariel]

I probably have not read all 300 plus rule books and semi legal material no . Also i dont see how we can have a penis measuring contest either . We could compare info sheets but we have different house rules / DM styles .

If a cleric works you Awesome buddy . But clerics were never good enough for me .

My point is that this is probably not the fault of the class but the build. Because Cleric-class does offer everything you need to excel at anything. In this case, e.g. Divine Spell Power and Radiant Servant of Pelor would be a nice start, and add Divine Metamagic of some kind and you should easily outdo the Healer chassis.

[MicHag]

I happened to just build a Paladin for an E6 campaign. Without really focusing on healing, i did get quite some.

Charisma boosted to 20.
Feat: Sacred Healing
ACF: Spirit of Healing

The Spirit can heal 60 hp.
Lay on hands 30 hp.
Sacred Healing heals every party member 18 hp, usable 8 times per day (turn undead attempts).

A nightstick turns to 72 HP for each party member, each day. A party of 5 could gain 360 hp, equivalent of 13 healing belts (used as efficient as possible) or 4 castings of Mass Lesser Vigor at CL 8.
Or a Relinquary Holy Symbol for an easy 2 extra turning attempts as a cheaper option.

[tiercel]

It’s worth remembering rest-based healing specifically as well as downtime healing generally; Zaq’s excellent microguide (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?189716-Boosting-Rest-Based-Healing-A-Microguide-3-5) details a number of cheap and generally stackable options that can get characters a respectable stack of hit points back overnight — not to mention healing up ability damage.

[Vaern]

I've found that rolling up a cleric and going straight charisma is a good way to get some really big numbers for healing.
Sacred Healing gives fast healing 3 for a number of rounds equal to 1 + charisma modified at the cost of one use of turn undead. You get extra uses of turn undead for having a high charisma modifier.
Start with 13 wisdom at level 1. You can get +wis items as you level to progressively bump that up to 19, ensuring that I can cast your highest available spell level despite having a "meh" wisdom score.
Jack your charisma through the roof. Start at 18 if possible, bonus point at 4 and a +1 cloak of charisma for 20. I think you'll need to wait until 6 to actually get sacred healing, so pick up extra turning in the meantime.
That'll give you 12 sacred healings pretty day, restoring 18 hp apiece to anyone in a 60 foot burst over 6 rounds for a grand total of 216 points of healing each.
After that, you still have your full spellcasting progression to fall back on.

[Quertus]

Jack your charisma through the roof. Start at 18 if possible, bonus point at 4 and a +1 cloak of charisma for 20.

A… what now?

[Vaern]

A… what now?
A +1 cloak of charisma. A cloak that gives a +1 enhancement bonus to charisma. The DMG only lists even-numbered bonuses, but they all follow the basic item creation guidelines and I have yet to play with a group that doesn't allow the purchase of items with odd-numbered bonuses derived from the same formula. Cost = enhancement bonus^2 * 1000 gp, which puts a +1 bonus to charisma at 1000 gp.

[Quertus]

A +1 cloak of charisma. A cloak that gives a +1 enhancement bonus to charisma. The DMG only lists even-numbered bonuses, but they all follow the basic item creation guidelines and I have yet to play with a group that doesn't allow the purchase of items with odd-numbered bonuses derived from the same formula. Cost = enhancement bonus^2 * 1000 gp, which puts a +1 bonus to charisma at 1000 gp.

You really meant exactly what you said. Huh. I guess I'd say that I've never been in a group that would allow such things, except… it never came up in most of my groups. So, I've seen it rejected, but never accepted.

But, yeah, I certainly cannot argue with your pricing. Only with the "ask your GM" nature of the item.

[SangoProduction]

Spheres of Power Life sphere.

[Vaern]

You really meant exactly what you said. Huh. I guess I'd say that I've never been in a group that would allow such things, except… it never came up in most of my groups. So, I've seen it rejected, but never accepted.

But, yeah, I certainly cannot argue with your pricing. Only with the "ask your GM" nature of the item.
At any rate, if +1 isn't available to you, you could just set the whole shenanigan back a level or two until a standard +2 cloak for 4k is reasonably within your budget, at which point you'll likely have another ability score point to spend for hitting level 8 which will put you at 22. Another turn per day and another round of fast healing duration.