4.e at-will healing

[Moginheden]

In the 4th ed essentials campaign I just joined we have a cleric, but he can't cast healing more than a few times per encounter, (I'm thinking it's 3 but not sure.) He picked the healing deity so this seems really odd to me.

Is there a way to get him at-will healing of any kind? Grant healing surge usage, temporary HP, actual healing like previous d&d had, transfer hit points from an enemy to a friendly (ie any form of attack-to-heal), or any other method of granting hit points are all acceptable.

[Zaq]

Is he a real cleric, or one of those rather nerfed Warpriests? If he gets to choose his at-wills from the real cleric list, he can take Astral Seal, which is (in my opinion) one of the nastiest at-wills in the game (and which can give at-will surgeless healing).

That said, with decent tactics and a good defender, you shouldn't need much more healing than he can provide by default unless your GM is running a meat grinder. Remember that second wind exists for a reason. A lot of people scoff at it, but it can really come in handy.

[Telasi]

Is he a Warpriest or a core 4e Cleric?

Core cleric can have Astral Seal, which heals allies who hit a targetted enemy. Warpriest, not so much.

Cleric is (arguably) the best healer in 4e, and 2 heals per encounter is stock standard for all healers. You can't really get any better than that plus your utilities and a few heals riding on attacks until Paragon.

[MeeposFire]

Pick up a shaman multiclass and the spirit talker (I think that is it) feat and you will have 3 encounter heals.

If you really like encounter healing you could be a warlord with the same feat. Same at heroic but with another feat in paragon you will be up to 4 heals in paragon and 5 encounter heals in epic.

[WitchSlayer]

You guys COULD just get multiclass feats so you can heal each other

[Glyphic]

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Make sure your strikers are up to snuff, and you won't need more than 2 heals.

[Moginheden]

Is he a real cleric, or one of those rather nerfed Warpriests? If he gets to choose his at-wills from the real cleric list, he can take Astral Seal, which is (in my opinion) one of the nastiest at-wills in the game (and which can give at-will surgeless healing).

That said, with decent tactics and a good defender, you shouldn't need much more healing than he can provide by default unless your GM is running a meat grinder. Remember that second wind exists for a reason. A lot of people scoff at it, but it can really come in handy.

He's whatever comes with the basic essentials package. His only at-will seems to be blessing of battle for 3 DR.

As for a good defender, I'm a knight and I'm the one needing healing. I've got 50 hit points. In our last encounter in one round I got hit by 3 enemies for a total of 47 damage. I used my second wind and a power that gave me 5 temp hp and got brought down it -2 hp before my next turn. I started another thread here about how despite being a defencive class I don't seem to have any better defences than the rest of the party.

[Urpriest]

He's whatever comes with the basic essentials package. His only at-will seems to be blessing of battle for 3 DR.

As for a good defender, I'm a knight and I'm the one needing healing. I've got 50 hit points. In our last encounter in one round I got hit by 3 enemies for a total of 47 damage. I used my second wind and a power that gave me 5 temp hp and got brought down it -2 hp before my next turn. I started another thread here about how despite being a defencive class I don't seem to have any better defences than the rest of the party.

One of the easiest mistakes to make as a defender is to take all the monsters at once. Aside from dedicated AOE defenders your job is generally to shut down a few powerful monsters rather than to take the whole board. Get used to how much you can take and let the rest get to the party. Remember that everybody has healing surges, and it's sometimes better to spread out the damage a little.

[Moginheden]

One of the easiest mistakes to make as a defender is to take all the monsters at once. Aside from dedicated AOE defenders your job is generally to shut down a few powerful monsters rather than to take the whole board. Get used to how much you can take and let the rest get to the party. Remember that everybody has healing surges, and it's sometimes better to spread out the damage a little.

Ugh, tell that to the enemies. They always swarm one person. If I'm not standing in the middle of them they either surround me or ALL go for our rogue.

[Mercenary Pen]

Ugh, tell that to the enemies. They always swarm one person. If I'm not standing in the middle of them they either surround me or ALL go for our rogue.

That suggests the DM wants to focus on one target at a time... You could always ask if the PC's being ignored can get circumstance bonuses to their attacks because the enemy is willfully ignoring them... hopefully your DM would start evening out the attention paid to each character after that sort of suggestion...

[Urpriest]

Ugh, tell that to the enemies. They always swarm one person. If I'm not standing in the middle of them they either surround me or ALL go for our rogue.

Well they can't ALL go for the rogue if you shut down a few. You are a Defender, after all. I'm not too familiar with the kinds of tools knights get, but Fighters have lots of ways to increase their stickiness.

[Moginheden]

Well they can't ALL go for the rogue if you shut down a few. You are a Defender, after all. I'm not too familiar with the kinds of tools knights get, but Fighters have lots of ways to increase their stickiness.

As soon as my aura hits one of them they generally all switch to hitting me. I can easily grab all the agro, but I haven't found a way yet to only grab some of it.

[Mando Knight]

This almost sounds like a killer DM problem. If this is a regular occurrence, then talk to your DM. Better yet, bring him over here or to the WotC forums and we'll discuss his encounter balance. However, if this was a boss fight, or otherwise a one-shot deal, don't worry about it too much.

On the other hand, together with your other thread, it sounds like a killer DM. Talk to him before it gets worse. Nicely is good.

[Urpriest]

As soon as my aura hits one of them they generally all switch to hitting me. I can easily grab all the agro, but I haven't found a way yet to only grab some of it.

In the other thread you mention that your Warpriest has fairly high AC, you could ask his help in getting in the way of a few of the enemies to split their damage.

[MeeposFire]

Except his DM attacks him only if they are in his aura.

Perhaps you need to turn your aura off sometimes.

[tcrudisi]

Except his DM attacks him only if they are in his aura.

Perhaps you need to turn your aura off sometimes.

Or ... find a way to make the DM regret his tactics. The easiest way I can think of is with a little teamwork: the Rogue makes his basic attack potent (for opportunity attacks) and the knight takes Repel Charge. Then, when the monsters leave the Rogue they will either have to shift and charge (taking basic attacks from the knight) or move and attack (taking opportunity attacks from the rogue). The downside is that this requires level 11 for Repel Charge.

Another thing to consider is finding ways to get resist to damage. Warforged are great for this with resist 5 all for a turn. Powers like that are what you want to look into.

[Kurald Galain]

he can't cast healing more than a few times per encounter,

That's the way it's supposed to work in 4E. Leaders that can heal more than 2-3 times per encounter are the exception, not the rule. The easiest way around this is healing potions.

For example, a very viable leader is a warlord that focuses on giving attack bonuses and that only rarely does any healing.

[Kesnit]

What kind of tactics does your party use? If the DM is clumping up enemies, it opens up a lot of possibilities for others to help you.

Everyone attacks you? Perfect for a Rogue with SA.

Enemies clumped? Perfect for a Controller with AoE powers.

Controllers should also be using powers to move enemies around the board so other allies can get to the enemies before the enemies get to you.

I know there is an Artificer daily power that, when cast on an ally, does auto-damage to any enemy who ends their turn adjacent to that ally. Do any of the other PCs have a power like that? If so, it could discourage enemies from hanging around you (or kill them faster).