[3.5] Optimized Healer 4 Cohort

[Thurbane]

So, random question: how would you optimise an ECL 4 Healer (base class).

Assume you get this character as a "free" cohort for your 6th level PC, due to plot/DM fiat reasons.

Preferably avoiding crazy templates or other shenanigans.

Some table rules to note: no psionics, no incarnum, and as little FR or Eberron specific material as possible.

Class levels need to be HealerMH 4, thanks.

I'm guessing with 4 levels there's not much room to customise, but I'm still interested in what can be done.

Cheers - T

[liquidformat]

for ability scores Wis>Con=Dex>Cha=Int>Str

Healing hands really isn't worth while past level 4 though if you are going sanctified spell heavy high cha is quite nice.

Race: I would suggest Human, Strongheart Halfling or Lesser Aasimar as the base race.
Feats: Sacred Vow and Vow of Nonviolence are hands down first two feats you should pickup both rp and power wise they are great choices for a healer. Beyond that Magic of the Land, quicken spell, Augment Healing, spontaneous healer, touch of healing, and mitigate suffering are all good choices. If you want to go sideways with the healer graft flesh is an interesting feat choice down the road. You could also take Combat Casting and Dodge and hop into Combat Medic(HoB) around level 9

[Palanan]

Maybe not terribly optimized, but I would go with Cleric 1/Healer 3. This allows access to Imbued Healing, which adds temporary rider effects keyed to your domains whenever you cast a healing spell. It also allows Sacred Boost, which allows you to spend a turn undead to maximize all healing spells cast within a 60’ radius. This is handy if someone else wants to use a wand at the same time you’re casting a cure.

Also, if you’re open to one little thing from Forgotten Realms, there’s a spell that maximizes healing when cast on someone who worships your deity. I’m falling asleep and can’t remember its name, but I’ll try to find it tomorrow if someone else can’t supply the name.

Edit: Found it! This is Faith Healing, p. 93 of Magic of Faerûn. Clr 1, heals 8 points +1 point per caster level, capped at five. This means a fourth-level healer would be curing 12 points with each casting, or 14 if you also have Augment Healing. Not bad for a first-level slot.

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[daremetoidareyo]

Mother cyst feat?


Edit: I know you said little faerun, but spellfire wielder works with it a bit.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Lesser Aasimar (PGtF) is +0 LA and gets everything but the Outsider creature type. The person who wrote it didn't understand how the native subtype works, so the only 'drawback' is completely irrelevant.

Wis is good for bonus spells, and should be their highest stat. Cha bonus is added to the amount healed per spell, and it's used for save DCs if you happen to cast a cure spell to damage an undead creature. Con and Dex are always good. They get four base skill points/level with some decent skills, so maybe put a positive modifier on Int, with Str being the major dump stat.

For feats, Spontaneous Healer and Touch of Healing are obvious choices. You can get Skill Focus: Heal at 1st and then swap the 2nd level bonus feat for something that requires a +1 BAB. I'd actually get Medium Armor Proficiency as well (with a flaw?) and use a dragonhide breastplate. Maybe get the Quick trait, and even consider the Spellgifted trait for Conjuration. If using flaws, consider including Brew Potion and/or Craft Wand, both of which are useful for the role of healing the party. Remember flaws must be taken on character creation, but the character is being created at 4th level, so the feats gained from them just need to be ones they currently qualify for. Obvious flaw choices are Shaky and Love of Nature.

I'm trying to figure out a way to give this character Exotic Shield Proficiency: Gnome Battlecloak (RoS) without spending two feats. The description specifically states that it's not really a shield and it's also not metal so it won't violate their ethos. Plus the crafty cloak-twirling disarm attacks! Maybe just rule-of-cool it onto the character, or even describe the character as using it (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#outsiderType) since NPCs will automatically gain proficiency by virtue of description. In that case, describe the character as wearing heavy armor as well!

[Gruftzwerg]

DWK is the way to go imho^^

Crusader 2 / Cleric 2 if you play with favored class and xp penalty for ignoring it or

Crusader 1 / Cleric 3 if xp penalty is not at the table or xp is irrelevant for the Cohort (in your opinion).

Crusader will provide us with a nice stance called "Martial Spirit". Each successful attack will let him heal an ally (incl. himself) for 2hp. And we get Crusader's Strike which heals for 1d6+1/Initiatorlvl (which is +3).
Cleric will give us a few cure light wounds and if you go for the 3 lvl option we even get cure moderate wounds.

1st lvl Feat: DWK
3rd lvl Feat: Draconic Aura: Vigor - allies in 30ft. under half max. HP heal 1HP/turn.

[eggynack]

As always with healers, it's worth keeping sanctified and maybe corrupt spells in mind. For sanctified spells, that means twilight luck, divine inspiration, vision of punishment, luminous armor, and Ayailla's radiant burst. Luminous armor is the obvious highlight, being one of the best AC boosting spells out there, but vision of punishment shouldn't be overlooked. It's a swift action that gives a save against nauseated for a round/3 levels, and the target is sickened if they make the save. In other words, the healer is able to trade their first level spells for a possibility of turn removal. Which is good. You don't get that many of those at 4th level, but it's not like the class is doing all that much else with those spells. Twilight luck and divine inspiration are low quality buff spells, with the latter in particular not really worth any of the costs involved, but the healer gets nothing comparable on its list at that level, so it's nice to have. Ayailla's radiant burst is a mediocre blast/debuff, but, again, it's an actual blasting/debuff spell on the healer list. Nice to have.

Corrupt spells, meanwhile, are complicated by the fact that they're, y'know, evil. They're technically castable by a good character though, so it's worth keeping in mind. If you wanna go really deep you could make the character a hellbred and thus bypass that whole thing where the good character is getting consumed by evil. Might be worthwhile too, cause corrupt spells are real good. Like, Lahm's finger darts competes directly with shivering touch as a ridiculous combat spell, and seething eyebane is real strong as well. These spells aren't good for a healer. They're just good. Devil's tongue and fangs of the vampire king are at best just good for a healer. Nice to have though. Not sure if there're any lower level corrupt spells from other books. I know that the DrM 300 ones are too high level.

[Gorthawar]

I like draconic aura - vigor as lvl 3 feat for a healer. Fast healing 1 for the whole party up to half health does come in handy between battles and ensures he can use his spells more efficiently. If you have a dragon blood race it will even scale up as you level.

Edit: Oh just realised it was already mentioned. Motion seconded then.

[Piggy Knowles]

When you say "Healer 4," do you mean a healer that will only ever be level 4? Or is this expected to level up throughout the campaign?

At level 4, I think a lot of the typical advice for a healer kind of goes out the window. Wisdom isn't all that essential, considering that a Wis of 14 will give you bonus spells and you basically have two spells at all with a DC, sanctuary and calm emotions. Instead, at level 4 (assuming I wasn't intending on progressing beyond that point) I'd recommend going hard on Charisma, as healing hands will give you greater returns than anything else you can do at that level.

Talk to your DM (or if you're the DM, decide on your own) if close wounds should be 2nd- or 3rd-level. It was a 3rd-level spell in the Miniature's Handbook for clerics and healers. In Spell Compendium, the healing was "reduced" to 1d4+level and it was lowered to a 2nd-level spell for clerics... but didn't address healers. Should it have been lowered there too? I say probably, since that is literally the ONE thing healers are supposed to be good at, but again, it's a DM call. If it is 2nd-level, it's your workhorse spell. Alongside a Charisma of 18 and the Augment Healing feat, it'll heal 1d4+12 HP damage as an immediate action at close range, and with only verbal spell components.

Speaking of the Spell Compendium, page 3 recommends that healers add "spells concerned with healing, removing affliction, providing protections, and providing for needs" to the healer spell list. In particular, I recommend healing lorecall. While it's hard to justify spending 2nd-level spell slots on things that are not close wounds, this one makes it worth it, increasing your caster level (and hence the amount you heal on every spell) and add some extra conditions you can heal for 10 minutes/level.

[Troacctid]

Invigorating Spellcaster (Dragon Compendium) lets all your healing spells also remove the dazed, stunned, fatigued, exhausted, and sickened conditions in exchange for adding an extra verbal component that cannot be removed. Mastery of Day and Night (Player's Guide to Eberron) requires you to have Maximize Spell, but automatically maximizes every cure and inflict spell you cast. Touch of Healing (Complete Champion) is similar to Draconic Aura (Vigor) in that it allows you to heal everyone back to half between combats; however, in exchange for costing a standard action, it can actually heal them to slightly above half, and it gives a +1 bonus to the caster level of all your healing spells. It's also more effective at reviving party members who are unconscious and dying. Spontaneous Healer (Complete Divine) allows spontaneous casting of cure spells. So, lots of good feats to choose from.

While Spell Compendium is annoyingly vague about what spells from it should be added to the healer list, there was an official list of additions that was used for organized play, and I believe you can still find it in the old campaign rules. I think this is the list:

1st: Faith healing; healing lorecall; stabilize; vigor, lesser
2nd: Close wounds; vigor, mass lesser
3rd: Positive energy aura; revenance; vigor
4th: Delay death; rejuvenation cocoon; vigor, greater
5th: Dance of the unicorn; stalwart pact; vigorous circle
6th: Energy immunity; restoration, mass
7th: Fortunate fate; renewal pact

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Healer 1 / Crusader 3. Use your crusader for healing, and keep the healer level because it has to be a healer. Otherwise, kill the level in healer altogether.

[Troacctid]

Healer 1 / Crusader 3. Use your crusader for healing, and keep the healer level because it has to be a healer. Otherwise, kill the level in healer altogether.
I don't know, do you really want the underleveled party member to be a frontliner? Plus, you'd be significantly less effective at healing, since you'd be losing out on lesser restoration and some other healing stuff.

[nedz]

Dread Necromancer 1 / X 3 = infinite healing.
If the PCs aren't undead - just apply some more DM fiat.

Alternatively
Dread Necromancer 1 / Cleric 3
Take Healing Devotion; powered by Rebuke Undead (twice)
Alignment CN, obviously.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I don't know, do you really want the underleveled party member to be a frontliner? Plus, you'd be significantly less effective at healing, since you'd be losing out on lesser restoration and some other healing stuff.Fair points, I suppose. Though crusaders are pretty fantastic tanks and can hit above their weight category compared to a lot of other classes, especially if built around a mix of offense and defense.

Are there any ways I'm unaware of to turn healer into a spontaneous caster and give them a few domains to cast spontaneously? That would make them a lot more useful as a straight class. Add an animal companion prior to the unicorn as a bodyguard and secondary combat support, and it might actually be feasible to make a decent one.

[Telonius]

Dread Necromancer 1 / X 3 = infinite healing.
If the PCs aren't undead - just apply some more DM fiat fire.

:smallbiggrin:

Okay, assuming that 4 levels of Healer are kind of set in stone, it depends a bit on how long the campaign is going to last, and if he'll level along with the party as usual. Also, if future levels are definitely going to be Healer, or if you'll have the choice to multiclass or PRC out. If you're switching out of the class, you'd have to figure out when - ASAP, 8th, or 12th are natural skipping points - and build towards that for prereqs. If you do stay in Healer, having a Lammasu instead of a Unicorn can be really nice for the extra spells, It's essentially an extra 6th-level Cleric, so you'll have access to Clr 1-3 spells.

[Thurbane]

I maybe didn't make it clear in the OP, but by Healer, I mean the base class, not the role. I have edited the OP.


When you say "Healer 4," do you mean a healer that will only ever be level 4? Or is this expected to level up throughout the campaign?

It would level up using the normal cohort rules.

[Palanan]

Thanks for the clarification on that.

Do you want the cohort to have only healer levels, or is multiclassing an option? And if so, is there a limit on the number of non-healer class levels?

[Thurbane]

Thanks for the clarification on that.

Do you want the cohort to have only healer levels, or is multiclassing an option? And if so, is there a limit on the number of non-healer class levels?

Ideally maybe stick with Healer, and possibly a PrC; but I'm willing to look at multiclassing suggestions too.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Since healer casting is so terrible, how about you ask to give your healer cohort the spell point variant, so s/he can cast spontaneously from the list picked each day?

Also, again, is there any way to add a domain's spells to one's class list? Because that would be great, especially with spontaneous casting.

Wild Cohort for a watered-down animal companion. Though it's too bad Obtain Familiar requires an arcane caster level. That plus Improved Familiar would be nice.

[Troacctid]

Since healer casting is so terrible, how about you ask to give your healer cohort the spell point variant, so s/he can cast spontaneously from the list picked each day?

Also, again, is there any way to add a domain's spells to one's class list? Because that would be great, especially with spontaneous casting.

Wild Cohort for a watered-down animal companion. Though it's too bad Obtain Familiar requires an arcane caster level. That plus Improved Familiar would be nice.
Healer casting is fine. Yeah, it's worse than cleric, but cleric is also OP anyway, so, whatever. Plus, it's a cohort, so it doesn't exactly need to spend a lot of time in the spotlight. It has a job, and that job is keeping the party healthy, not herding a crocodile around the place. If you need something for the medic to do in combat if nobody is injured, just hand them an amber amulet of vermin or something. They'll be fine.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Thurbane
Ideally maybe stick with Healer, and possibly a PrC; but I'm willing to look at multiclassing suggestions too.

So, should we be treating the cohort as a PC who is expected to fight and defend herself? Or is the cohort’s only role as a healer, and should we be focused exclusively on optimizing her healing potential?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Healer casting is fine. Yeah, it's worse than cleric, but cleric is also OP anyway, so, whatever. Plus, it's a cohort, so it doesn't exactly need to spend a lot of time in the spotlight. It has a job, and that job is keeping the party healthy, not herding a crocodile around the place. If you need something for the medic to do in combat if nobody is injured, just hand them an amber amulet of vermin or something. They'll be fine.I only suggested the animal companion to keep the healer safe. It's not gonna be a frontline combatant or anything, just a last line of defense to keep mooks off of him (or her). Also, to increase the healer's maneuverability. Something to ride on that gives the healer more mobility would be great, especially flight, which would further help keep the healer safe as well as improve his (or her) ability to reach allies in trouble.

As far as the casting goes, most healing spells (ones that deal with status effects, not basic hp healing) are extremely specific; you need to know exactly what kinds of status effects you'll be dealing with each day, otherwise your spells are useless. There are exceptions such as heal and panacea, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. So unless you're just going to be stocking up on cure spells and nothing else, and using scrolls you make in your copious downtime for remove blindness/deafness etc, you'd better hope you either have access to excellent divinations or you are a great guesser as to what spells to prepare each day.

[Thurbane]

So, should we be treating the cohort as a PC who is expected to fight and defend herself? Or is the cohort’s only role as a healer, and should we be focused exclusively on optimizing her healing potential?

Probably the latter.


Since healer casting is so terrible, how about you ask to give your healer cohort the spell point variant, so s/he can cast spontaneously from the list picked each day?

No variant rules will be in play.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Are flaws being used? What about traits?
Did you have any particular race in mind?
Can the character start out with a +1 LA already having been bought off?
Since this is an NPC, they won't take a share of the experience, they'll just level up whenever the cohort max level increases. Thus XP the character spends shouldn't matter, either.

A small size race with Wild Cohort for a war-trained riding dog would be pretty good. A Venerable Dragonwrought Kobold would be pretty ideal, if a bit cheesy. Draconic Rite of Passage for something like Benign Transposition can really help.
Lesser Aasimar (PGtF) would be ideal for a +0 LA race, if you're not looking for something small size.
Draconic Creature is a decent +1 LA template for this. Another good choice for a +1 LA is Quasilycanthrope due to the DR.

I still say use a Gnome Battlecloak if you can get it without spending two feats.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Thurbane
No variant rules will be in play.

Is there any option to expand the healer’s spell list, as per the suggestion on p. 3 of the Spell Compendium?

And are sanctified spells available?


Originally Posted by Palanan
...Or is the cohort’s only role as a healer, and should we be focused exclusively on optimizing her healing potential?


Originally Posted by Thurbane
Probably the latter.

Given this, I would strongly argue against Wild Cohort. It doesn't sound like it'll be necessary, and it spends a scarce feat slot on something that isn't healing.

[Thurbane]

Are flaws being used? What about traits?
Did you have any particular race in mind?
Can the character start out with a +1 LA already having been bought off?

No flaws, traits or LA buyoff in play.

No particular race in mind, although I usually default to PHB races.


Is there any option to expand the healer’s spell list, as per the suggestion on p. 3 of the Spell Compendium?

And are sanctified spells available?

Probably no to expanding list, and yes to sanctified.

Given this, I would strongly argue against Wild Cohort. It doesn't sound like it'll be necessary, and it spends a scarce feat slot on something that isn't healing.

I would be happy with a role of healer + buffer and/or additional support...

[Palanan]

I would still go with Cleric 1/Healer 3 to take advantage of Sacred Boost, which is a force multiplier for healing. Sacred Boost and Augment Healing at first level, Touch of Healing at third.

If you’re open to one (1) spell from Forgotten Realms, let it be Faith Healing. Keep this in your cleric slots for 12 points of healing per casting, assuming you go with the Healing domain. This also assumes the cohort’s leader worships the same deity, which I hope isn’t a stretch.

Use Sacred Boost to maximize the cure spells cast from your healer slots, and coordinate with anyone else who has a wand or secondary healing (druid, paladin, etc.) to make the most of each boost. A boosted CMW from a healer slot will heal 22 points plus the healer’s Cha bonus. I would argue the Cha bonus also applies to Faith Healing cast from the cleric slots, given the wording of the Healing Hands class feature, but that’s up to you as DM.

And speaking of Healing Hands, that should apply to Touch of Healing as well, so that would be 6 points plus the Cha bonus. Not glorious, but a nice assist in a pinch.