What are the best Cleric cure spells?

[pabelfly]

So I'm after a few recommendations for the best cure spells for a Cleric to have. I'm playing a spontaneous cleric, so I have limited spell slots.

[loky1109]

What level are we talking about?

[pabelfly]

What level are we talking about?

I'm building a caster from scratch and I have up to fifth- level spells to pick, and will probably go to sevenths if not higher.

[Maat Mons]

I'd recommend picking up Resurgence and Panacea, both from Spell Compendium. And, of course, once you've leveled up enough, get Heal.

Edit: Oh, and Lesser Restoration is good too.

[loky1109]

I'd suggest Faith Healing for 1st level.

[pabelfly]

I'd suggest Faith Healing for 1st level.

We won't have matching deities unfortunately.

[Anthrowhale]

Close Wounds is a nice spell since it's an immediate action which prevents death.

If you are starting with 5th level spells, then there is a high-op trick to get Heal as a 5th level spell.

The trick is:
(a) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph you into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(b) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph itself into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(c) Pay a sorcerer 3k gp to swap Dragonblood Spell-pact for some 5th level spell you have (maybe Surge of Fortune). This is allowed as a routine spell service since it costs 3k gp or less.
(d) Redo (a) and (b) except this time you pay 2k gp and cast Dragonblood Spell-pact to swap Polymorph for some 4th level spell you have.
(e) Find a Rune-scarred Berserker with 5th level spells and pay to participate in spells.
(f) Polymorph yourself and the Berserker into a dragon for 11 minutes.
(g) Pay the Rune-scarred Berserker 2.5k gp to swap a 5th level spell you have to get Heal in your spells known at 5th level.

[Crake]

Close Wounds is a nice spell since it's an immediate action which prevents death.

If you are starting with 5th level spells, then there is a high-op trick to get Heal as a 5th level spell.

The trick is:
(a) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph you into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(b) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph itself into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(c) Pay a sorcerer 3k gp to swap Dragonblood Spell-pact for some 5th level spell you have (maybe Surge of Fortune). This is allowed as a routine spell service since it costs 3k gp or less.
(d) Redo (a) and (b) except this time you pay 2k gp and cast Dragonblood Spell-pact to swap Polymorph for some 4th level spell you have.
(e) Find a Rune-scarred Berserker with 5th level spells and pay to participate in spells.
(f) Polymorph yourself and the Berserker into a dragon for 11 minutes.
(g) Pay the Rune-scarred Berserker 2.5k gp to swap a 5th level spell you have to get Heal in your spells known at 5th level.

This doesnt work because clerics dont have “known spells” to trade. You could maybe get away with this on a favoured soul, but for a cleric, it simply does not work

[Anthrowhale]

This doesnt work because clerics dont have “known spells” to trade.
Spontaneous clerics (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm) have known spells.

[pabelfly]

Close Wounds is a nice spell since it's an immediate action which prevents death.

If you are starting with 5th level spells, then there is a high-op trick to get Heal as a 5th level spell.

The trick is:
(a) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph you into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(b) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph itself into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(c) Pay a sorcerer 3k gp to swap Dragonblood Spell-pact for some 5th level spell you have (maybe Surge of Fortune). This is allowed as a routine spell service since it costs 3k gp or less.
(d) Redo (a) and (b) except this time you pay 2k gp and cast Dragonblood Spell-pact to swap Polymorph for some 4th level spell you have.
(e) Find a Rune-scarred Berserker with 5th level spells and pay to participate in spells.
(f) Polymorph yourself and the Berserker into a dragon for 11 minutes.
(g) Pay the Rune-scarred Berserker 2.5k gp to swap a 5th level spell you have to get Heal in your spells known at 5th level.

Close Wounds is great, thanks. Definitely going on the spell list.

Getting sixth-level spells early is probably a bit too cheesy for my group but thanks fir sharing.

[Biggus]

Revivify (SpC) is much cheaper and quicker than the other resurrection spells.

[Crake]

Spontaneous clerics (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm) have known spells.

Sure, but you didnt preface your trick with “only works if your DM allows the spontaneous cleric variant and you use that instead of normal cleric”, which, by omission, implies it works with normal cleric

[Gruftzwerg]

Sure, but you didnt preface your trick with “only works if your DM allows the spontaneous cleric variant and you use that instead of normal cleric”, which, by omission, implies it works with normal cleric

This ain't a thread for "general clerics". The title maybe a bit misleading in that regard. But the OP has made it clear that he is playing a spontaneous cleric.

[Anthrowhale]

...But the OP has made it clear that he is playing a spontaneous cleric.
Right, I was keying off the OP.

[Inevitability]

We won't have matching deities unfortunately.

If that spell is your party's only source of healing, soon you will! It's up to the other characters to decide whether the reason will be pragmatics or natural selection. :smallwink:

[Asmotherion]

Close Wounds is a nice spell since it's an immediate action which prevents death.

If you are starting with 5th level spells, then there is a high-op trick to get Heal as a 5th level spell.

The trick is:
(a) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph you into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(b) Pay 440 gp to a sorcerer to polymorph itself into some form of dragon for 11 minutes.
(c) Pay a sorcerer 3k gp to swap Dragonblood Spell-pact for some 5th level spell you have (maybe Surge of Fortune). This is allowed as a routine spell service since it costs 3k gp or less.
(d) Redo (a) and (b) except this time you pay 2k gp and cast Dragonblood Spell-pact to swap Polymorph for some 4th level spell you have.
(e) Find a Rune-scarred Berserker with 5th level spells and pay to participate in spells.
(f) Polymorph yourself and the Berserker into a dragon for 11 minutes.
(g) Pay the Rune-scarred Berserker 2.5k gp to swap a 5th level spell you have to get Heal in your spells known at 5th level.

Or be a Dragontouched Race like Silverbrow Human?

[Anthrowhale]

If that spell is your party's only source of healing, soon you will! It's up to the other characters to decide whether the reason will be pragmatics or natural selection. :smallwink:
Alas, the opportunity for easy conversions is lost due to starting at ECL10 or so....


Or be a Dragontouched Race like Silverbrow Human?
I was assuming you can't backstory your friendly neighborhood Runescarred Berserker to be Silverbrow, but YMMV.

[Chronos]

To be clear, are you looking for spells to fix HP damage, or for spells to in general fix everything that goes wrong with your party-mates? HP damage is relatively easy to deal with; the other conditions, less so.

Break Enchantment is a good condition-fixing spell. It covers a wide variety of problems, and does some of them better than the spells that are specialized just for that (for instance, it's more reliable and lower level than Flesh to Stone).

For a caster with limited spells known, I would go with only 0-2 spells for HP damage. The 0 spells possibility is to just pick up a wand of Cure Light Wounds or Lesser Vigor, and just cast them repeatedly once you're out of combat. The only spells I would actually pick up as spells known are Close Wounds and/or Heal: Nothing else really does enough to be worthwhile in combat, and Heal also serves as a many-purpose conditions-remover. Though you probably don't need both Panacea and Heal, since they mostly fix the same conditions.

[pabelfly]

Or be a Dragontouched Race like Silverbrow Human?

Actually considered for quite a while with going with the Dragontouched feat, since I'm actually juggling blasting and healing wiht my build. Build is Arcane Disciple Cleric 10/Argent Savant 1, focusing on Orb of Force and Wings of Flurry. Losing Turn Undead sucks but bonus metamagic feats and access to arcane spells is a worthwhile trade. Argent Savant boosts my damage output, but it's not worth it to progress any further since it only progresses arcane spellcasting and I want more arcane spells from Arcane Disciple Cleric.

Previous dragontouch-related feat list (rest of my feats are metamagic, metamagic cost reducers and Improved Initiative):

Dragontouched (which both gives the Dragonblooded subtype and also lets you count as Sorcerer and pick Draconic feats, whereas merely having the Dragonblooded subtype does not)
Draconic Heritage (Amethyst)
Draconic Power, for +1 Caster Level and +1 DC for Force spells.

Overall, would have given +2 CL for Wings of Flurry and +1 DC for the save.

However, I stumbled on an interesting feat, Pious Spellsurge, which inspired me to rework it. Unlike most feats that add 1 DC to specific spell types or others that offer slight bonuses under special circumstances, Pious Spellsurge adds a whole 1D6, but comes with some caveats on roleplay which I was going to do anyway for my character.

The new feats that replace my Dragontouched feat tree:

Pious Spellsurge (which adds 1d6 to spell DC)
Pious Soul, which adds 1d6 to any attack, save or check.
Pious Defense (halve damage if you'd go below zero HP)

If I take a Dragonblooded race, I've only lost 1d6 on Wings of Flurry, and I could sub one of the Pious feats for a Force-boosting Reserve feat and still have a much better DC for Wings of Flurry than before.

[Vaern]

We won't have matching deities unfortunately.

Find some way to get the other person to cast it. If you can brew potions, for example, the person using the potion is considered to be both the caster and the target of the spell. As long as he worships the same deity as himself he gains the full benefit of faith healing.

[pabelfly]

To be clear, are you looking for spells to fix HP damage, or for spells to in general fix everything that goes wrong with your party-mates? HP damage is relatively easy to deal with; the other conditions, less so.

Want to do both heal and deal with conditions.


Break Enchantment is a good condition-fixing spell. It covers a wide variety of problems, and does some of them better than the spells that are specialized just for that (for instance, it's more reliable and lower level than Flesh to Stone).

For a caster with limited spells known, I would go with only 0-2 spells for HP damage. The 0 spells possibility is to just pick up a wand of Cure Light Wounds or Lesser Vigor, and just cast them repeatedly once you're out of combat. The only spells I would actually pick up as spells known are Close Wounds and/or Heal: Nothing else really does enough to be worthwhile in combat, and Heal also serves as a many-purpose conditions-remover. Though you probably don't need both Panacea and Heal, since they mostly fix the same conditions.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[rel]

Most of the good ones have been covered.

Revenance brings an ally back to life at full strength until the end of the fight (after which you can safely cast revivify).

Sheltered Vitality blocks ability damage and drain which shuts down a lot of bad touch monsters.