"Optimizing" life transference

[Skrum]

I'm looking for way to maximize the healing power of life transference. And I mean anything - honestly, crazier the better. Like stacking necrotic weakness with maximized spell damage. That kind of nonsense.

Any ideas?

[Snowbluff]

Hm... well for starters a Divine sorc can use Empower spell/etc on it to buff the damage output a bit.

[Witty Username]

It works with disciple of life as I understand it.

[Unoriginal]

I'm looking for way to maximize the healing power of life transference. And I mean anything - honestly, crazier the better. Like stacking necrotic weakness with maximized spell damage. That kind of nonsense.

Any ideas?

Don't have my books with me right now, but IIRC Grave Cleric can give vulnerability.

[kazaryu]

uhhhh,

-evoker's overchannel lets you maximize the damage you do to yourself, thus guaranteeing that it heals 64+16 per level. this would probably be best paired with some method of pushing your own maxHP like tough, hill dwarf and/or durable.

-someone already mentioned life clerics disciple of life feature

-hexblades curse used on yourself is a kinda cheesy way to give it a bit more damage

-would require some mild homebrew but a draconic sorcerer for like..a shadow dragon could, at level 6, add their cha modifier to the damage. i only mention this homebrew specifically because its just SO CLOSE to being a reflavoring. im not suggesting homebrew in general.

[No brains]

Using a Ring of Spell Storing or similar magic, it is possible to use Life Transference to juice hp out of minions who can stay around long enough to attune to the ring. You can extend a few summon spells over an hour by using Planar Binding or Extend Spell Metamagic.

[Snowbluff]

Don't have my books with me right now, but IIRC Grave Cleric can give vulnerability.

It was my first thought, but it requires a hit. :smallfrown:

[JackPhoenix]

While not direct increase to healing power, look for a source of temporary HP to mitigate the damage you take in return.

[Evaar]

Will probably require some negotiation of the interactions, but it’s a 3rd level necromancy spell that targets one creature. Thus it qualifies for the Death Cleric’s level 17 Improved Reaper feature, which allows it to target a second creature adjacent to the first. By my reading, that doubles the healing but not the damage it deals to you.

[Quietus]

Will probably require some negotiation of the interactions, but it’s a 3rd level necromancy spell that targets one creature. Thus it qualifies for the Death Cleric’s level 17 Improved Reaper feature, which allows it to target a second creature adjacent to the first. By my reading, that doubles the healing but not the damage it deals to you.

This would work, and is a thing available to a character I'm building right now. She was built to try and make good use of vampiric touch, but many of her tricks work here too.

- death ward will show you to survive no matter how much damage you do to yourself
- life cleric would be better at lower levels than death, because of the increased healing applied, both to you and the target. Arguably, this might allow you to pop back up after dropping to zero from damage done to yourself, because the healing takes place after the damage.
- fallen aasimar's necrotic shroud allows you to add your proficiency bonus in necrotic damage, to a spell you cast; you can use this to do extra damage to yourself and heal double that

[Damon_Tor]

At one point I used Illusory Script to disguise a scroll of Life Transference as a scroll of Blindness and "accidentally" dropped it during a fight. The enemy warlock picked it up, laughed as he used the scroll against me, then died as he healed me. Good times.