I made up a cantrip for one of my games in which no one wanted to play a char with healing magic on their spell list but one had a Wizard with tons of skillpoints.
At first it used to look like this:
Magic Bandage School: Healing; Level: Clr 0; Drd 0; Witch 0; Wiz/Sorc 0;
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 Minute
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature.
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance: Yes
This spell allows the caster to make a Heal check (as per the skill) with all penalties and boni. For every point in excess of DC 15, the target of the spell is healed for one HP. A creature can only be targeted by this spell once per hour. The use of the heal skill depletes one use of a healers kit as normal.
Sadly it turned out to be to weak and nobody bothered using it.
To fix this, I changed it to:
Magic Bandage School: Healing; Level: Clr 0; Drd 0; Witch 0; Wiz/Sorc 0;
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 Minute
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature.
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance: Yes
This spell allows the caster to make a Heal check (as per the skill) with all penalties and boni. For every point in excess of DC 15, the target of the spell is healed for one HP per Chasterlevel. A creature can only be targeted by this spell once per hour. The use of the heal skill depletes one use of a healers kit as normal.
While this worked quite well in my game, in this thread I got shoved face first into the vast possibilities of abuse that this spell offers to a char optimized for it.
What would you do to make it alround-acceptable and more balanced?
I thought about putting in a maximum of 15 or 20 for HP healed with it.
Your thoughts?
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Well for one thing, I'd take it off the Wiz/Sor list. It seems too out of place on their list, and doesn't have a listed spell school either. Plus, Heal is off of Wisdom, so Wisdom-based casters would be the ones who most want it.
I'd also make a healer's kit a material component, forcing the caster to carry one. The one hour limit on being the target of it could also be increased to 24 hours, making it more in line with most other spells that have such a limit. That way once the caster has hit every ally once, he starts to look at that healer's kit and decides to just roll a Heal check.
As for the potential for abuse, by the time your caster level is high enough, you can just cast Heal or Maximized Cure Serious for the same effect. If you're really worried about it, how about "one HP, maximum your caster level"?
Um, the second one seems a bit strong for a cantrip.
"For every point in excess of DC 15, the target of the spell is healed for one HP per Chaster level."
So, as level 1, a result of 17 heals 2 points of damage.
At level 5, that same 17 heals 10 points of damage.
That's a lot of healing for a cantrip. Increasing the casting time to that of what it would normally take to use a Healer's Kit, and having a use of a Healer's Kit be the material component, I think it would be more in line with a cantrip than it is.
I second taking it off of the Sorc/Wiz list, but would like to add this would be a fine addition to the Bard list.
How about the cantrip granting an insight bonus to treat deadly wounds (from the heal skill) or providing one of the two uses from healers kit?
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Honestly, here's the biggest problem:
In 3.5, there was a cantrip called Cure Minor Wounds. It healed 1 hit point. It was only useful when you really needed to stabilize someone and were out of everything else.
When Paizo removed the "per day" limit on cantrips and orisons, they realized that as long as there was no time-sensitive threat, anyone who knew Cure Minor Wounds could completely heal everyone just by repeatedly poking them for +1. As a result, there are currently no healing cantrips or orisons.
If you want to make a cantrip that heals damage, you have to include something that limits it-- something that ensures you can't just spam it until everybody's 100% again.
I like Ciaran's suggestion. A cantrip that gave you, say, a +10 bonus on Heal checks for the next hour would be fine. That way your players are still making Heal checks without invalidating the rest of the Cure spells.
Here's another suggestion-- make the addition HP in the form of temporary HP?
My old take on that matter: magic bandage spell.
I think what could be useful without being too strong is a cantrip that summons a temporary first aid kit with 1 use in it, that allows a heal check as part of casting the spell.
Another approach would be a spell that gives a bonus to the target's HD when calculating how much hp are regained by resting and through long term care via heal skill.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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The biggest thing when it comes to balance is comparisons to already existing spells and abilities.
magic bandage v1 - A weakened version of the Heal skill to treat deadly wounds with a reduced DC in exchange for only healing 1 hit point and 1 heal kit use. Even if the check was an automatic success, the limitation of needing the use of the heal kit balances out. I think this is well balanced for a 0-level spell when compared to others and the skill.
magic bandage v2 - Too strong for reasons from above posters.
As Silent Saturn pointed out, it should not be on the Sorc/Wiz list. Healing at low level, especially a cantrip should remain divine. Bard could be a possible exception, but Heal is not a class skill for them.
How about the cantrip granting an insight bonus to treat deadly wounds (from the heal skill) or providing one of the two uses from healers kit?
Guidance grants a +1 attack, save, or skill bonus, but having a 0-level spell affect only a single predetermined skill for the next check only, a +2 seems balanced. But providing 1 use from a healers kit is the equivalent of 5 gp per casting, overpowered for a 0-level and closer in power to minor creation a 4th level spell.
I like Ciaran's suggestion. A cantrip that gave you, say, a +10 bonus on Heal checks for the next hour would be fine. That way your players are still making Heal checks without invalidating the rest of the Cure spells.
How is that fine? No other 0-level (or 1st or 2nd) spell has that much power. That is a big bonus for a long duration.
My old take on that matter: magic bandage spell.
Overpowered when compared to other 0-levels.
Another approach would be a spell that gives a bonus to the target's HD when calculating how much hp are regained by resting and through long term care via heal skill.
I think that is one of the better ideas presented. As long as the calculated level/HD are only a 1-3 higher higher.
But all of this completely misses the point of the post.
I made up a cantrip for one of my games in which no one wanted to play a char with healing magic on their spell list but one had a Wizard with tons of skillpoints.
Are they too cheap to buy a wand of cure light wounds? Healing should be divine in nature for the default PF game for balance between classes. Magic items (potions, scrolls, wands, etc) exist to let a party bypass the lack of a certain class. That being said, it is your game and do whatever you want.
Healing should be divine in nature for the default PF game for balance between classes.
I'd like to point out the Witch, Bard, and Alchemist...
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The first version above is pretty hot, for a cantrip. The second version is way too good, IMO.
As an old Everquest player, I love the idea of a conjuror being able to 'summon bandages' that act like a use from a healing kit to treat deadly wounds. It was kind of neat how EQ tried to parse out some healing options to the non-healers (lifetaps for necros, summoned bandages for magicians, etc.).
Non-healer healing options should have drawbacks as compared to normal healing. Necromancy healing spells might draw upon the life-force of other creatures, or only be castable within a round or two of another creature dying (stealing the fading life-energy from the orc you just killed to recover from the damage they inflicted). Conjuration spells to create bandages might be limited just like Treat Deadly Wounds, to only once / day. Transmutation spells to knit flesh together might only convert lethal damage to nonlethal damage, requiring the patient to rest for an hour to fully recover after 'healing.'
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I'm thinking something along the lines of
When stabilizing a target using a heal check, the target regains hit points equal to 1/2 your caster level (min 1). This spell cannot raise the targets hit points above 0.
using the same info as cure light wounds with the exception of level (it being 0) and casting time (swift action.
I think I would be better it +1HP per 5 that beat the DC 15. Also the target could not heal more than his hit dice in one day.
Put is on Bard list as 0, inquistor list as 0.