Could use some advice for healers

[sutasafaia64]

Not looking for exact 1-20 leveling or anything like that, but I would really appreciate some general advice on the best healing classes, prestige classes, feats, and if applicable, races. Any other support they can offer is always nice, of course, but I really want healing to be the big focus. Also plan to go down the Vow feats, poverty, non-violence, peace, etc. Was even tempted to go for Saint later on but not sure it actually benefits a healer very much? Not sure, I don't normally play chars like this and I want to try something outside my comfort zone (I virtually always play control DFA or Warlock).

It seems like a cleric with healing domain is an obvious place to start? Maybe Freedom as well since a few freedom of movements can be life saving. I saw the miniatures handbook had a class simply called Healer but I'm not actually sure it's very good. The obvious goals needs to be 1: Keep myself alive, so the tankier the better. 2: Keep everybody else alive. It seems like keeping myself alive would have to take priority over keeping party members alive since I can't heal if I'm dead but, again, no idea the best ways to go about stuff like this. I'm pretty good at making tanky DFA/Warlocks but (especially in the DFA case) it tends to come from stacking Con to the moon, something that might not really be possible for a healer since they need another stat for healing. Maybe Radiant Pelor would be a place to aim as well? Not sure...

On the plus side (if you're crazy, I guess) I am completely free to focus on healing and support skills since the various vows mean I'm not anything other than undead. I'm certainly no stranger to doing cruddy damage since I tend to play control chars and let other party members deal with DPS, so the idea of having 0 offense doesn't bother me at all.

Anyway, thank you in advance for the ideas. Kinda looking forward to trying something so out of the ordinary for me.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Top of my head;

Combat Medic prestige class
Radiant Servant of Pelor prestige class
Imbued Healing feat
Healer base class

I think there's a healers handbook floating around here or minmaxforum.com too.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First and foremost, focusing on healing the party has never been a viable playstyle in any edition of D&D. This isn't WoW, you have limited spell slots and your opponents have no limit to how many times they can attack. You also won't be able to out-heal the damage the opponents dish out unless you're expending your highest-level spells every round. It just doesn't work.

The best way to do this is with proactive damage mitigation, mostly by preventing opponents from dealing damage. That means crowd control spells, and buffs for your allies to make them able to kill the opponents faster, will be a lot more useful than just spamming heals every round.

The Vow feats you've mentioned are really only viable on a few types of characters. A Druid who can summon animals to fight and whose animal companion can fight for them is one way to do it. A Beguiler gets tons of utility, buffs, debuffs, and can deal nonlethal damage via the Whelm line of spells so it does quite well with those, especially considering the DC increases for their illusion and enchantment spells.

You don't want to take Vow of Peace unless you have a character in the party who's a local authority that can legally give a defeated opponent a trial and execution on the spot. You could even take Leadership for such an individual, sort of a Judge Dredd type figure, probably a Paladin or Crusader or similar. You would basically capture defeated opponents and turn them over to that authority on the spot, and they would be free to judge them guilty (of the attempted murder of himself) and carry out a just execution.

If you really want to make a tanky character that can heal an unlimited amount, don't take those vows, make a Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5/ Crusader 9. Always bind Naberius to get fast ability healing, so when you use heroic sacrifice from Hellreaver you can heal it right back. This way you can spam your Hellreaver heals or smites every turn, use Crusader healing maneuvers that automatically come back, and you'll be absurdly tanky. I'd make the character a Dragonborn of Bahamut in RotD, applied to either a Warforged (which retains its type and subtypes and everything that comes with them and can still take Adamantine Body) or a Water Orc (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater) (which retains its swim speed but loses light sensitivity). Take the Heart aspect with Entangling Exhalation to prevent opponents from just moving past you to attack your allies.

If you really want to take those vows, make a Druid, probably a Killoren from RotW. Take Magic of the Land in that same book, get a Ring of the Beast in CC asap, and use Summon Nature's Ally to summon a unicorn which can do tons more healing than you would have with a cure spell from the spell slot that summoned it. Get Exalted Companion for a Celestial Dire Eagle, and make your animal companion get Vow of Poverty so it gets crazy buffs. Be sure to discuss the above authority figure role with someone else in the group if you're going to take Vow of Peace, otherwise it's more of a hindrance than a benefit. Use spells like Entangle, Kelpstrand, Sleet Storm, etc. to prevent opponents from attacking your allies. Take Ashbound and Greenbound Summoning if possible, have your greenbound summons use Wall of Thorns to trap opponents as well (since you won't be allowed to cast that with your vows).

[Gruftzwerg]

a) Draconic Aura: Vigor (feat)
Requires you to be dragonblooded. Gives fast healing (+1 up to +4 depending on lvl) up to half of max HP and thus saves up a lot of healing.

b) Shadow Sun Ninja 1
A single level of this class gives you the Touch of the Shadow Sun ability. The ability does negative energy on every first use and alters to positive energy on each second use. Normally it is used to damage your enemies in one round and to heal an ally in the next round. Healing a willing target can be done as a free action once per turn. Now you need an undead target (e.g. undead familiar/minion, necropolitain...) so that you can heal each turn as free action and still have all your actions left. My last entry in the Iron Chef competition (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24938996&postcount=113)did make use of this.

[RNightstalker]

As far as PrC's go, Radiant Servant of Pelor has to take the cake.

Thinking outside the box, Spellfire can be an extra source of healing. Also available are arrows of cure x spells from Masters of the Wild for ranged healing.

[Fizban]

Survival means more than just healing- more importantly it's various immunity and resistance buffs that turn many enemies from dangerous into merely Easy if Handled Properly. Death Ward, Magic Circle, Protection from Energy, etc. But those don't require making any choices other than keeping a few scrolls and actually preparing and using them when appropriate.


I searched for posts under my name with "Imbued Healing," here's several iterations of me repeating and augmenting the same advice:


Magic of the Land is too restrictive and Healing Spirit isn't any good without multiple bonuses (there's the 2nd level Estanna's Stew from BoED, and a couple more from Eberron books that are just cheaper than Healing Spirit). The effects that boost healing are also incredibly vague on when and how often they can apply, since they're never written to properly consider that possibility, so it's up to the DM if you can actually multiply it like you want.

Augment Healing and Imbued Healing [Healing domain] are the two big ones, since they apply on all the spells and Imbued Healing [Healing] adds the target's entire level to the effective amount healed (as a temporary hp buff). Applying both to Close Wounds makes it a serious lifesaver until you can cast Delay Death frequently enough to matter, and when applied to Insignia of Healing (Races of Destiny 3rd, Mass Cure Light eat your heart out) you get a similarly massive boost to the whole party. Neither is as good against energy blasts as reading an action to cast Mass Resist Energy, but it's a long ways better for survival than "Prayer."

That's only the two most efficient feats for in-combat healing, and the more you try to add the less efficient things get. If all you want is between-combat healing, take Touch of Healing reserve and call it good. If you want even more in-combat for less than 6th level spells (and remember you've only got so many 6h level spells even once you've got Heal), then you'll want Maximize spell and Mastery of Day and Night (PgtE), which will maximize all your cure spells for free, but not other spells. Except Healing Circle (Complete Champion), which says it works as if you'd cast the relevant Cure spells each time, so it unambiguously includes Augment Healing, Imbued Healing [Healing], and Mastery of Day and Night on each trigger, for a very efficient amount of healing triggered by whoever needs it.

You'll want a ranged healing option. Divine Ward (PHB2) is the easiest, but costs you yet more feats. If you're tanky it's better to just stay close and use Unicorn Horns (Complete Champion) for emergencies, and/or channel Cure Moderates through Greater Status if you have 4th level slots to spare for it. And of course there's the ranged spells, Insignia of Healing and Channeled Divine Health (PHB2), and the usual Darts of Life.

For items, you can carry a scroll of Soul of Light (Dragon Magic), if you're Good, for basically another Augment Healing plus fatigue removal. From MiC, the Amulet of Retributive Healing can help keep you alive/stretch your healing even further, while the Armband of Maximized healing can boost those non-cure spells if you must.

I also brewed an item based on the Deadwalker's Ring from Complete Mage:

Lightwalker's Ring: This ring of purest silver improves your healing spells. You must wear the ring for at least 24 consecutive hours in order for it to function. Once active it adds +2 per spell level to the healing of any conjuration [healing] spell you cast at your option, up to a maximum of three times per day. This benefit does not stack with Soul of Light or similar spells. Prerequisites: Forge Ring, Soul of Light, creator must be Good. Market Price: 6,000gp

All you really need to be a healer is Augment Healing and Imbued Healing [Healing], that's enough to tip the balance against anything that's not significantly optimized. Without the Healing domain to power that feat it gets a lot more expensive.


Make use of Close Wounds (SpC) and Insignia of Healing (Races of Destiny) for immediate and mass healing at reasonable levels, with all the benefits of augment and imbue. An augmented imbued insignia of healing is 1d8+11+5= 20 points at minimum level, or 1d8+16+10= 30 at 10th, keeping up with the damage of a fireball well enough before considering successful saves or energy resistance. Yeah a bunch of that is temporary, which means you don't even care about losing it.

You also need to use the appropriate buffs like any other cleric. Healing is no substitute for having Resist Energy on the whole party vs energy monsters, or Freedom of Movement on the bait frontline against big grabby swallowy things.

*PHB2 has a similar ability for the Favored Soul, but it doesn't get the massive free scaling that IH[H] does for low level spells, and you have to be a Favored Soul. Initiate of Ilmater lets you overheal, so it's more useful if you're really ubermaxing on the heal value, which takes a lot more feats.


The two big feats that boost healing are Augment Healing (Complete Divine), and Imbued Healing [Healing domain] (Complete Champion). These add a bunch of hp and temporary hp to every heal you cast, and while there are other feats that can do the same things possibly a bit better, these are the easiest and most widely applicable. Imbued Healing [Healing] in particular doesn't even care what level the spell is. Touch of Healing (Complete Champion) lets you save on the out of combat healing. The Pool of Healing Alternate Class Feature (Complete Champion yet again) gives you more healing than you would get out of the 4th level slot you trade for it, and you don't waste any.

The second problem is range, because Cure Wounds are touch range, and for some reason people can't fathom the idea of keeping proper formation and positioning in a tactical combat game. What to use for this depends on how often you need it, and can range from feats to spells to consumable items to just picking different spells. There's the complicated Divine Ward feat (PHB2), or the less complicated Reach Spell+Divine Metamagic [Reach Spell] (Complete Divine), both of which cost uses of turn undead. Or you can buy Unicorn Horns (Complete Champion) for 150gp per shot. Or you can cast Greater Status (Book of Exalted Deeds) over most of the party, which will carry 2nd level touch healing spells through it,

However, Cure Wounds is only used for when you need as much as possible right the heck now. Far more useful are a bunch of other spells scattered around various books. Close Wounds (SpC, 2nd) lets you heal people when it's not your turn and possibly prevent them from dying. Stabilize (SpC, 2nd) could also be useful even though it hits everyone, since it's a swift action 50' burst that still delivers Augment and Imbue. Insignia of Healing (Races of Destiny, 3rd) is basically Mass Cure Light but at a lower level, longer range, no need for line of sight, and no limit on number of allied targets. Invest X Protection (PHB2) gives a heal and some DR. Panacea (SpC, 4th) heals a bunch of status effects, but also hp, which triggers those bonuses. At 5th level Complete Champion brings in two major spells: Darts of Life and Healing Circle. Healing Circle just gives a ton of hp because it's four spells in one and Augment Healing applies to each use "as if you had cast it." Darts of Life is just a bunch of ranged healing, but some people's interpretation is that Augment should apply to every dart, making it cure more hp than Heal, at range, and you're able to spread it out- finding out how Augment and Imbue react with Darts of Life before you start using it is pretty important. After that it's basically just Heal at 6th, Mass Heal at 9th, and of course all the various status heals.

But finally and most importantly, is that healing is pointless if you aren't properly buffing. A bunch of idiots running in without AC and energy resistance are going to get killed faster than anyone could ever heal them. Always carry Mass Resist Energy (SpC, 3rd) and Mass Shield of Faith (SpC, 4th) for efficiency, and don't bother trying to heal people that think dumping AC or running into fire before you cast Resist on them is a good idea. Delay Death (SpC, 4th) is the top rescue spell, preventing death from hp damage up to any negative hp total as long as you can heal them up before it ends, Death Ward makes one character virtually immune to scary undead powers, Freedom of Movement makes one character immune to scary grappling monsters, Magic Circle against Alignment makes one person and everyone near them immune to compulsions, etc, etc. Offensively many people with recommend Recitation (SpC, 4th), and it is pretty ridiculous, but it also only lasts for one fight so it's not something to pack all the time at 7th level when your first problem is survival.

The Cleric's primary job is having all those resistance and immunity buffs to shut down monsters, and no amount of cure wounds spam will ever make up for not doing the first part of your job. No, you can't have all of them all the time, but you can take Scribe Scroll (or get a wizard to collaborate on the crafting to use their feat) and keep a copy or two of the buffs around for emergencies if you think you'll want all your main slots for souped up heals. Of course the cleric can't do their job if the rest of the party just charges straight into everything at all times instead of retreating when it's clear they'll need a particular buff, so. . . yeah. Every party needs at least one spellcaster doing all the back-end spellcaster stuff the game absolutely expects, and it looks like no one in the party is doing that right now. So if you're nominating yourself, you're gonna have to do some work and learn how to Cleric. It's pretty much all there in the PHB aside from the convenient Mass versions.


As for classes, I actually don't recommend Cloistered Cleric, because I find it too cheesy myself- and it also makes you more fragile, when your major complaint is dying all the time. Normal clerics just walk around in heavy armor and shield and probably have better AC than the so-called front line, while never missing out on buffs because they're always in range of their own spells. And as for knowledge skills, well there's another thread going right now about how just because you have a bunch of ranks doesn't mean the DM is actually running knowledge where you can just roll and know everything. Never invest in knowledge skills for anything other than prerequisites until you know what your DM will actually give you for them.

For domains, people like to rag on the Healing domain, but once you realize that you have at most 3 spells of your highest level on those odd levels, and one of those spells is a domain spell, and that domain spell can't be spontaneously converted into a cure, means that a healing cleric has a very good reason to be taking it even before the power of Imbued Healing [Healing]- and if you're taking a weird domain, it's also good to just have something reliable for your other domain for the levels where your weird domain has bad spells. But if you really don't want the Healing domain, you ought to be able to get the Renewal domain (SpC) to qualify for the Healing domain feats in Complete Champion, and it comes with an auto-heal, Charm Person, the much cheaper Reincarnate, and the much broken Polymorph Any Object.

Y'all know that the MH Healer has a bunch of healing spells a full level earlier than the Cleric, as well as those 1/day Su status removals (which they can't be prevented from activating say, from paralysis or ability damage, and never have gp or xp components), right?

There's a difference between being a worse class overall, and being a worse healer. Compare a core+MH Cleric to a core+MH Healer on their pure healing merits, and the Healer will win. The Cleric is better because they're already engineered to be the party's fallback for everything, and have splatbook support (direct in spell lists, and indirect on the feats a healer really wants which are all tied to Turn Undead uses).

And even then, the Healer has something the Cleric can't touch: full in-class access to spellcasting underlings. A Cleric has to bargain with the DM via Planar Ally and cash, or use Leadership (which yes, is also explicitly DM controlled). A 12th level Healer has their choice of a Gynosphinx, Lammasu, or Water Naga. Look those up: 7th level sorcerer, 7th level cleric, and for the sphinx a little thing I like to call "every single Symbol spell oh and also Legend Lore (and throw in some See Invis and Cairaudience/voyance)."

Yeah. The Healer's got some borked stuff no one actually considered for table play or various meanings of balance in there too. Just no one notices. Any other character that'd be called huge, but for the Healer it might be just the right amount. Or not. I still buff it a bunch myself (and ought to remove that Gynosphinx while I'm at it).



And as I do every time it comes up, I have to point out that [just making the Healer a fixed list spontaneous caster] is not as great as people think it is. The game does not expect you to be able to remove status effects immediately without preparation- it expects you to remove them tomorrow, or that being able to so today is the result of smart decisions/roleplaying/etc. The Healer has those 1/day abilities, which means they don't have to wait until tomorrow. . . for one use. Fixing the entire party or storming multiple instances requires preparation, just like the cleric. Spontaneous status removal for everything removes the last real choice that has to be made. With spontaneous cure spells, every fight is reduced to X spells worth of hp, but you still have to worry about status effects sticking and forcing you back. With every status spell, that means that everything is reduced to X spells worth of recovery and nothing sticks until you're completely out, and status effects are only as dangerous as the rounds they lose this combat.

My own fix very deliberately keeps the Healer as a prepared caster. What I do instead is give them parity with clerics by duplicating (or lightly exceeding) the basic healing build a cleric would have via class features, fill out and rearrange the 1/day Su list so it makes sense, and massively expand the spell list to include all the splatbook healing of note, the PHB immunity buffs they need to fully fill the "Cleric" role, and a few weak or "it's a trap" offensive effects just for fun.

You know what? I keep on going on about it without something to link to, I should just shove it in a post so I can link to it in the future. X-treme spoiler go!

Healer

Add Ride to skill list.
Add Wis to AC when wearing light non-metal or no armor and no shield.
Spell access, bonus slots, and save DCs are all based on Wisdom.
Gain Spontaneous Cure Spells as Cleric.
Unicorn Companion changed to Celestial Companion, uses Paladin's Special Mount table but replacing Command with Devotion, and Healers use an alternate companion list.
Added and rearranged class features:



Level
Special
Level
Special


1st
Healing Hands, Skill Focus (Heal)
11th
Maximized Cure Spells


2nd
Augment Healing, Cleanse Fear
12th
Ranged Healing 60', New Limb


3rd
Cleanse Paralysis
13th
-


4th
Bolster Healing, Cleanse Disease
14th
Cleanse Death


5th
Celestial Companion, Cleanse Blind
15th
-


6th
Ranged Healing 30', Cleanse Poison
16th
Reverse Death


7th
Effortless Healing, Cleanse Curse
17th
-


8th
Cleanse Conditions
18th
Ranged Healing 120'


9th
Cleanse Petrification
19th
-


10th
Cleanse Spirit
20th
New Life



Augment Healing: at 1st level a healer gains Augment Healing (Complete Divine) as a bonus feat.
Bolster Healing: at 4th level a healer's spells are further augmented. Any Conjuration [Healing] spell she casts also grants the targets 1 temporary hit point per caster level, which last for up to 1 minute.
Celestial Companion: Healer companions are always highly magical, with multiple spell-like abilities or even their own innate casting. The Healer's first companion is usually a Celestial Swiftmane (Ghostwalk WE), with bonuses at her full Healer level. Alternative companions include:
7th: Celestial Unicorn (Level-2)
8th: Celestial Pegasus (Level-3)
11th: Lammasu, Gynosphyinx (recently stricken due to Symbol SLAs), Water Naga, Leskylor (BoED) (Level -6)
15th: Androsphynx, Coutal, Moon Dog (BoED), (level -10)

DMs interested in allowing more aggresive, combat focused, or peculiar companions might also allow:
13th: 9HD large Ravid (MM), Crypt Warden (BoED) (Level -8),
14th: Three-Headed Leskylor (BoED) (Level -9)
Ranged Healing: at 6th level a healer's Conjuration [Healing] spells with a range of touch can instead be cast with a range of 30' on willing targets, or as a 30' ray against unwilling targets. At 11th level the range increases to 60', and at 17th it increases to 120'.
Effortless Healing: as normal.
Cleanse Curse, Cleanse Conditions (Su): as Remove Curse and Panacea (SpC).
Maximized Cure Spells: all Cure spells are Maximized as the feat at no cost.
Cleanse Death (Su): as Revivify (SpC). Upgrades to Ressurection with Reverse Death at 16th, and finally to True Ressurection with New Life at 20th. The healer can use an earlier version if desired, but only has one use per day regardless of the number of options.

Healer Spell List
Note: the Healer's original spell list includes many spells at a lower level than normal, as an effective feature of the Healer, which I've marked for convenience. Additionally, I reduced the level of a few spells from other sources for them. These changes do not affect standard item pricing. (Some spells are also later than normal, but those are not marked).

Original/PHB List:


0th
Create Water
Cure Minor Wounds
Deathwatch*
Detect Poison
Light
Mending
Purify Food and Drink
Read Magic

1st
Bless Water
Cure Light Wounds
Goodberry
Obscuring Mist^^
Protection From Evil
Remove Fear
Remove Paralysis*
Sanctuary
Speak With Animals

2nd
Calm Emotions
Close Wounds^
Cure Moderate Wounds
Delay Poison
Gentle Repose
Gust of Wind^^
Lesser Restoration
Remove Blindness/Deafness
Remove Disease*
Shield Other^^
Status

3rd
Create Food and Water
Cure Serious Wounds
Daylight^^
Magic Circle Against Evil^^
Neutralize Poison*
Remove Curse
Restoration*
Water Breathing^^


4th
Cure Critical Wounds
Control Water^^
Death Ward
Dismissal^^
Freedom of Movement
Mass Cure Light Wounds*
Panacea^

5th
Atonement
Break Enchantment
Dispel Evil^^
Hallow^^
Mass Cure Moderate Wounds*
Raise Dead
Revivify
Stone to Flesh
True Seeing

6th
Banishment^^
Greater Restoration*
Heal
Heroes' Feast
Mass Cure Serious Wounds*
Regenerate*

7th
Mass Cure Critical Wounds*
Repulsion
Resurrection

8th
Antimagic Field^^
Discern Location
Holy Aura
Mass Heal*

9th
Foresight
Gate
True Ressurection

*reduced level
^from original list, use SpC versions.
^^additional PHB spell



New Healer Spells:

Spell Compendium



0th
Dawn
Naturewatch

1st
Delay Disease
Healthful Rest
Lesser Vigor
Resurgence
Summon Elysian Thrush
Wall of Smoke
Wood Wose

2nd
Cloudburst
Golden Barding
Healing Lorecall
Spawn Screen
Stabilize

3rd
Capricious Zephyr
Circle Dance
Lesser Planar Exchange*
Mass Resurgence
Mass Lesser Vigor
Vigor

4th
Delay Death
Favor of the Martyr
Holy Storm
Positive Energy Aura
Revenance
Sheltered Vitality


5th
Mass Sanctuary
Planar Exchange*
Rejuvenation Cocoon
Triadspell
Wall of Water

6th
Greater Vigor
Revive Outsider
Rejection
Vigorous Circle

7th
Fortunate Fate
Greater Planar Exchange*
Holy Star
Renewal Pact

8th
Death Pact
Mass Death Ward

9th
Heavenly Host

*reduced level




Other



0th
Candlelight (Ghostwalk WE)
Detect Disease (OA)

1st
Invest Light Protection (PHB2)
Healer's Vision (CSc)
Ease of Breath (Frost)
Cloak of Shade (Sand)
Locate Water (Sand)
Peacebond (City)

2nd
Ease Pain (BoED)
Estanna's Stew (BoED)
Remove Nausea (BoED)*
Body Ward (CCh)
Soul Ward (CCh)
Freedom of Breath (Sand)
Hydrate (Sand)

3rd
Heart's Ease (BoED)
Refreshment (BoED)
Invest Moderate Protection (PHB2)
Forest Voice (CCh)
Soul of Light (DrMa)
Insignia of Healing (RoDe)
Control Sand (Sand)
Storm Mote (Sand)
Air Breathing (Storm)


4th
Celestial Brilliance (BoED)
Greater Status (BoED)
Sustain (OA/BoED)
Channeled Divine Health (PHB2)
Healing Spirit (PHB2)
Seed of Life (CCh)

5th
Invest Heavy Protection (PHB2)
Magic Convalescence (PHB2)
Renewed Vigor (PHB2)
Darts of Life (CCh)
Healing Circle (CCh)
Hibernate (Frost)

6th


7th
Bastion of Good (BoED)
Rejuvenating Light (CCh)

8th
Spread of Contentment (BoED)
Flashflood (Sand)
Surelife (Sand)
Summon Aspect of Bahamut (RoDr)

9th
Sublime Revelry (BoED)


*reduced level




Notes:
The original Healer spell list is extremely short, with the mass cures and many status removal spells a level early, but hardly anything at high levels and no "offense" to speak of aside from cure/heal against undead, and it was missing a few PHB spells that should have been there in order to properly fill the "Cleric" role.

The expanded healer list gives them access to essentially all of the healing, status removal, and status prevention spells, with only a couple exceptions. Healers now command some of the gentler wind, water, and sand spells, culminating in their most powerful direct attack with Flashflood. Most uniquely they gain early access to the Planar Exchange line, which allows them to call an avatar of good to take their place- however, when using Planar Exchange many of the healer's most important spells (such as Close Wounds, Delay Death, and Revivify) cannot possibly be delivered in time, so it must be used judiciously.

The new healer is closer to a Dragon Quest cleric/Final Fantasy white mage/summoner, focusing on hp and status effects but also with a number of odd, specific, or restricted offensive options and summoning effects.

And, done. Figured out a trick for the tables which made the spell list easy (leave out the header and just make one row with two cells that become nice easy columns). If someone wants a proper thread for discussion on Homebrew I'll move it over there, otherwise consider it just a quick fix suggestion since I don't really have any changes I intend, advice to ask, or even much to explain that isn't already there.

The final result here is intended to be a better healer than a similar cleric build, if for no reason other than not needing to buy the individual feats that make a healing build. However, if one finds it being a bit too effective in some way, then naturally you can just trim it back to match whatever power level you want from healer builds. For example, it may be intended that the Healer's early access to status removal is meant as a replacement to the Cleric's expected preventative measures, and thus having both might make the party too resilient, so striking those added spells would be entirely reasonable.



Honestly, I don't remember buff spells being of much note in Final Fantasy, aside from Haste and Reflect. Haste is pretty firmly an arcane effect in DnD*, as is Spell Turning, which is personal only. You could put Righteous Wrath of the Faithful and Spell Resistance on the Healer's list as approximations though.

*Righteous Wrath of the Faithful is on my naughty list of broken "updates," as SpC reduced it from 7th level and required shared faith for the extra attack and attack+damage buffs (in Complete Divine), to 5th level and everyone gets the whole thing regardless of deity. This is also why the Purification domain has it at a ridiculous 2 levels "late," because the Purifcation domain (also from Complete Divine) had it at the normal level, and they didn't fix the domain when they "fixed" the spell.

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 weird 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.

Short version: Be a Cleric or a buffed version of Healer, don't bother considering limited spells known. Take Augment Healing (Complete Divine) and Imbued Healing (Complete Champion) with the Healing domain, or another domain that your DM will rule gives the Healing domain option for Imbued Healing (say, the Renewal domain). Tell your DM to figure out how Augment Healing interacts with spells that heal multiple times such as Darts of Life (Complete Champion), and if they say it doesn't multiply, deal with it (Warmage Edge doesn't multiply either). Get something that allows ranged healing- either Divine Ward (PHB2) or a set of items and spells, none of the options are great but it's required. Take Touch of Healing if you want to save money on out-of-combat healing wands, but if you're proactively healing in combat it's entirely likely you won't be able to use Touch of Healing, so not a priority. Remember your first job is preventing instant death and crippling. Aside from spontaneous Cures, the spells to look for are Close Wounds and Delay Death (both SpC), Insignia of Healing (Races of Destiny), and Healing Circle (Complete Champion). Panacea (SpC) is very efficient status removal that comes with hit point recovery, but there are so many neccesary 4th level spells you might not cast it for a while.

Don't be surprised if your DM gets annoyed if they've never actually faced a true healing build before, especially if they use normal MM1 enemies, because those enemies are calibrated based on normal healing, not multi-splat boosted healing.

[Khedrac]

First off lots of people claim that focussing on healing is not a viable play style to which my response is "don't assume all tables are the same" - focussing on healing is very frequently a viable style of play at the lower end of the optimization pool, however it can be boring for the player if their character cannot do anything else. One way round this is the MIC item set Raiment of the Four that allows swapping spells/spell slots for some specific other spells.

Second, Radiant Servants of Pelor (RSoP) are good, but not as good as they are often made out to be. The automatic empower/maximise of healing spells only affects those cast from your domain slot - so spontaneously cast a healing spell and nothing special happens.

Third - the feat Augment Healing is a must - 2hp per level of the spell doesn't seem like much but it adds up surprisingly quickly.

Reserve Feats - Touch of Healing is almost as good as the draconic aura: healing if you are dragonblooded but possibly better than iit if you are not (but usually best to see is someone else will take the aura feat).
Mitigate Suffering is one of the best reserve feats in the game - the duration may only be 10 minutes, but it stacks with itself to the limit of the undamaged ability score which means you can get them back to full for the next encounter. (The wording is slightly lacking - so some DMs might rule that they don't stack.)

Combat Medic is just awesome if you can meet the pre-requisites - the Sanctuary effect is likely to have a decent DC (unlike the spell) so chain casting group heals can totally shut-down enemies as their actions get wasted on failed saving throws.

An interesting option for healers (especially those generated at higher levels) is Singer of Concordance (RotD) - a bonus domain is always nice.

As bad as Favored Souls are (and I have played one so I know) they are suprisingly not too awful as healers, yes it takes up spells known, but it does allow them to be able to do other things as well (unlike healers) so they are worth considering if you don't want an actual cleric.

Healers (MH) really need an expanded spell list to be of much use - spells like insignia of healing and close wounds are essential for efficient healing.

Also, the spell healing lorecall should always be worth considering (it's the main use for ranks in the skill heal) for the amount of status effects you can then remove with a cure minor.

[Asmotherion]

The best spell line is (Lesser) Vigor. Your Allies who fall at bellow 0 HP will Automatically Stabilise. Good to have in a wand form, or persist.

Pact spells can also be a good buff to keep on all your party members.

It's also good to have your party partially healing sufficient. So, invest a bit in crafting potions/scrolls of Healing, buy yourself a couple Wands and you're good to go.

Finally, as they say, prevention is the best medicine. Give your party Temporary HP, Damage Reduction, Imunity to All energy types, a bonus to all saves etc.

[Fizban]

As bad as Favored Souls are (and I have played one so I know) they are suprisingly not too awful as healers, yes it takes up spells known, but it does allow them to be able to do other things as well (unlike healers) so they are worth considering if you don't want an actual cleric.
They do have the only properly unlimited alternative to Imbued Healing [Healing] with their PHB2 ACF. Requires giving up Deity's Weapon Specialization later, so you don't get to mock Fighters like a Warblade, and it's still just not at good, but it's something. And healing deities won't have good weapons anyway. The main problem is that where monsters can expect the Cleric to have any of half a dozen different status removal spells at level X, the Favored Soul (or even Archivist) simply cannot match that entirety until multiple levels late, and the FS can't even try until next level.

If the DM isn't using a wide variety, or in particular if they're taking care not to use anything you can't deal with, then naturally Archivist and Favored Soul are back on the table, and FS's natural spontaneous casting beats an Archivist having to pay feats for limited daily uses.

The only other real competition for Imbued Healing [Healing] is Initiate of Ilmater (Player's Guide to Faerun), which doesn't give you a massive pile of extra hit points per heal, but instead lets you overheal people up to +3hp/HD, and lasts for hours. Combat Medic's version caps at +13 and comes from their daily limited pool for Healing Kicker.

Combat Medic. . . they get spontaneous Heal spells, but you spend two feats to get in while Domain Spontaneity only costs one, but it also costs turning uses which could be used for other healing feats (Divine Ward, Sacred Healing, Sacred Purification), but their Evasion references monk so it requires being unarmored (which the writer probably didn't even notice). . . bottom line I would only recommend it if you really like the Sanctuary kicker, since Evasion can be gained cheaper with no restrictions and additional benefits from Divine Oracle, and the entry feats are pretty costly. Unless you're in a high enough level game, where spontaneous Heal spells are necessary many times per day and you're past the feat crunch.


Also, the spell healing lorecall should always be worth considering (it's the main use for ranks in the skill heal) for the amount of status effects you can then remove with a cure minor.
The effective +3 caster level is pretty worth it too, an effective +3 hit points for each spell that doesn't have a low cap, particularly if you don't have the +1 caster level from Healing domain for whatever reason. And Heal skill plus Delay Poison is by far the cheapest method of dealing with poison.

[RNightstalker]

Second, Radiant Servants of Pelor (RSoP) are good, but not as good as they are often made out to be. The automatic empower/maximise of healing spells only affects those cast from your domain slot - so spontaneously cast a healing spell and nothing special happens.


Good pull! I'm going to have to remember that one.

[SangoProduction]

If Pathfinder (or at least Spheres) is on the table, I do have a Life sphere review which is all about healing.
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?628534-Life-of-the-Party-(Spheres-in-Review)&p=24968403


I've also got a nonmagical healer build that focuses on the salve from Spheres of Might
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?622238-The-Doctorate-(SoM-build)

[Darg]

Mitigate Suffering is one of the best reserve feats in the game - the duration may only be 10 minutes, but it stacks with itself to the limit of the undamaged ability score which means you can get them back to full for the next encounter. (The wording is slightly lacking - so some DMs might rule that they don't stack.)

I've never found a rule that said temporary hp doesn't stack either. Google says there is, but I never found it. As far as I can tell, as long as the description of the ability says it can't stack it can't. Otherwise it does. Of course, I never really bother with the FAQ.

[RNightstalker]

I've never found a rule that said temporary hp doesn't stack either. Google says there is, but I never found it. As far as I can tell, as long as the description of the ability says it can't stack it can't. Otherwise it does. Of course, I never really bother with the FAQ.

A couple of weapon enchantments from MIC point that out.

[Bullet06320]

http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=8757.0

here's the healers handbook from minmax

[Nihilarian]

I don't have the build any more but at one point i made a paladin that focused entirely on healing and buffing. Got bardic music from somewhere, and the Divine Spirit acf, and got Lay on Hands as buff as i could. The advantage of LoH is you can heal as much or as little as you need. Probably still better to just have heal available to cast.

Speaking of LoH, Sentinel of Bharrai gets it but its based on your HP. Dunno if that ends up being better or worse than the paladin's, though

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Crusaders are a lot of fun, and have some great healing and tanking abilities. Martial Stance lets you heal yourself or an ally for 2 every time you hit an enemy (great with two-weapon fighting, perhaps with a spiked shield/armor as the off-hand so you can still have a shield), and Crusader's Strike heals for 1d6+initiator level on top of that when it comes up in the rotation. Throw in the feat Draconic Aura (Vigor) and you've made yourself into a competent combat healer, all while fighting as normal.

For race, I'd recommend either Frostblood Orc or Silverbrow Human; both are Dragonblood (qualifying you for Draconic Aura), and the orcs have great stats for a melee tank while humans of course have a bonus feat. Frostblood Orc is also a great pairing with the Dragonborn of Bahamut template/ritual.

[Gruftzwerg]

I've never found a rule that said temporary hp doesn't stack either. Google says there is, but I never found it. As far as I can tell, as long as the description of the ability says it can't stack it can't. Otherwise it does. Of course, I never really bother with the FAQ.

It's the other way around: You have never found a rule that lets you stack it. :smallwink:
Remember that we have stacking rules (The Basics) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm). Temporary HP ain't part of a dice roll and thus is automatically disqualified. Thus the "general" status of temporary hp is they don't stack unless otherwise mentioned (as specific exception to the general rule).

[Fizban]

I've never found a rule that said temporary hp doesn't stack either. Google says there is, but I never found it. As far as I can tell, as long as the description of the ability says it can't stack it can't. Otherwise it does. Of course, I never really bother with the FAQ.


It's the other way around: You have never found a rule that lets you stack it. :smallwink:
Remember that we have stacking rules (The Basics) (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm). Temporary HP ain't part of a dice roll and thus is automatically disqualified. Thus the "general" status of temporary hp is they don't stack unless otherwise mentioned (as specific exception to the general rule).
I was about to throw in that it's almost certainly in the FAQ, but then I checked and it turns out the FAQ says temporary hit points from different sources stack. Rules Compendium has the same ruling in its updated version of the Injury, Healing, and Death section.


Being reminded of this changes things greatly, because now Imbued Healing [Healing] stacks with everything. So the best healer has Combat Medic and Imbued Healing [Healing] and Initiate of Ilmater (add Magic of the Land to taste/environmental availability). And if you can mix setting books, with Initiate of Ilmater making sure there's no overheal waste, Maximize+Mastery of Day and Night is much better.

And with all those potential stacking sources of temporary hit points, it's less problematic to sacrifice some for DR- via Imbued Healing [Good] or the Invest X Protection spells. There are plenty of creatures that will pierce DR/Evil automatically, but for everything else even 3 points can multiply quickly to be worth more than the lost healing or temp hp. Not that there was any reason you couldn't take Healing and Good domains before, but since you might want something else for second domain and the DR doesn't work against magic or Evil, I push the temp hp first and leave the domain open in concept. The Invest spells mean you can always do DR on single targets anyway.

[Gruftzwerg]

I was about to throw in that it's almost certainly in the FAQ, but then I checked and it turns out the FAQ says temporary hit points from different sources stack. Rules Compendium has the same ruling in its updated version of the Injury, Healing, and Death section.


Being reminded of this changes things greatly, because now Imbued Healing [Healing] stacks with everything. So the best healer has Combat Medic and Imbued Healing [Healing] and Initiate of Ilmater (add Magic of the Land to taste/environmental availability). And if you can mix setting books, with Initiate of Ilmater making sure there's no overheal waste, Maximize+Mastery of Day and Night is much better.

And with all those potential stacking sources of temporary hit points, it's less problematic to sacrifice some for DR- via Imbued Healing [Good] or the Invest X Protection spells. There are plenty of creatures that will pierce DR/Evil automatically, but for everything else even 3 points can multiply quickly to be worth more than the lost healing or temp hp. Not that there was any reason you couldn't take Healing and Good domains before, but since you might want something else for second domain and the DR doesn't work against magic or Evil, I push the temp hp first and leave the domain open in concept. The Invest spells mean you can always do DR on single targets anyway.

I wasn't aware of the changes in the Rules Compendium. The PHB has no such wording. Nice catch.
But yeah, that seems to settle it.

Hm a "shielding" build with temporary HP.. seems like an interesting idea.

[Goaty14]

Second, Radiant Servants of Pelor (RSoP) are good, but not as good as they are often made out to be. The automatic empower/maximise of healing spells only affects those cast from your domain slot - so spontaneously cast a healing spell and nothing special happens.

Would it work the way I think it does, if the cleric taking the PrC used the Spontaneous Domain (Healing) ACF from PHB II IIRC? The RSoP text doesn't specify your domain slots so much as it does your domain spells, so it ought to work I think
(Even if not, Spontaneous Domain (Healing) is still worth a shout out because you can spontaneously cast higher level healing, but not just cure, spells - Mass Heal, anyone?)

[Darg]

Would it work the way I think it does, if the cleric taking the PrC used the Spontaneous Domain (Healing) ACF from PHB II IIRC? The RSoP text doesn't specify your domain slots so much as it does your domain spells, so it ought to work I think
(Even if not, Spontaneous Domain (Healing) is still worth a shout out because you can spontaneously cast higher level healing, but not just cure, spells - Mass Heal, anyone?)

Domain Spontaneity feat is another option, but it is more limited.

[Troacctid]

I searched for posts under my name with "Imbued Healing," here's several iterations of me repeating and augmenting the same advice:
This is all great advice, but I notice you didn't mention the Invigorating Spellcaster feat from Dragon Compendium. It gives all your healing spells a condition removal effect similar to healing lorecall (but without the Heal prerequisite), allowing you to remove the dazed, stunned, fatigued, exhausted, and sickened conditions from all targets.

[Fizban]

This is all great advice, but I notice you didn't mention the Invigorating Spellcaster feat from Dragon Compendium. It gives all your healing spells a condition removal effect similar to healing lorecall (but without the Heal prerequisite), allowing you to remove the dazed, stunned, fatigued, exhausted, and sickened conditions from all targets.
That would be because I was not aware of it, since I only reference a few things from Dragon Compendium or magazine. I'd take the spell over the feat anyway since feats are tight and you'll have heal skill ranks from Augment Healing anyway. I'd pin this feat as more useful for less dedicated healer builds/ higher op games, where the status effects are more common and/or they don't want to spend as many build resources or effort tracking healing boosters.

Regarding the PHB2 Spontaneous Domain [Healing]: this is a reliable way to get the Heal spell spontaneously without a feat and turning cost or Combat Medic, but it does come at the cost of spontaneous Mass Cures. Which sounds like a no-brainer trade, until you think about how much mileage all the spell level based bonus hit points, various bonus temporary hit points, free maximization, additional status removal, and other rider effects that you could have had Mass spontaneous versions of. More useful for a game that is going to stop around 6th-7th level spells, but at higher levels a focused healer build would probably be better served with Combat Medic and access to massively overboosted Mass Cures.

Another useful ACF is Dungeonscape's Divine Restoration, which lets you trade a domain granted power for spontaneous casting of the entire Restoration line. As sudden gobs of ability damage, drain, or negative levels are right after hit points on the list of things you probably want to fix right now, this is huge, and is nearly free with all the minor +1 caster level and similar powers you might trade in. Though +1 caster level is worth +10 hit points for Heal, and is useful against cursed wounds and such that require caster level checks, but Healing Lorecall strikes again by already giving you that +3 that doesn't stack.

Of variable worth is the Pool of Healing ACF from Complete Champion. It's worth more than a normal Cure Crit and keep scaling, but doesn't trigger any of the normal bonuses that work with Conjuraton [Healing] spells. It's most useful for topping off someone's last X hit points after a Cure spell restores most of them, without wasting any overheal: Initiate of Ilmater welcomes overheal, while wand charges at ~5.5 hp aren't going to waste much. It's convenient, but reduces your maximum number of critical 4th level immunity and survival spells, leaves a weird notch in your spells per day table, and is a slap in the face to the standard Paladin's Lay on Hands.

[Roninblack]

I'm a fan of master of night and day. It requires maximize spell, and then this feat let's you maximize all of your cures and inflicts for free